Meeting Kate Mulgrew
Yes, that's right folks. Your favourite wee bespectacled Kate Mulgrew fan finally met her object of adoration after, well, years of waiting and believing it would never come to pass.
But on Monday, I set off with my wonderful friends Chloe and Katie to my first convention, the Collectormania 9 convention in Milton Keynes on Monday. Those two Collectormania veterans were going along for Anthony Stewart Head and Robert Pattison (Cedric from GoF), oh and to provide much needed moral support and hand-holding during all the fangirling I was about to do. I was of course was going purely to meet Kate.
And meet her I did. When we first walked into the Collectormania part of the place and saw the first row of guests where Kate was sat already signing, I nearly died. The reason? Not only did Kate look fantastic, she was wearing her extremely sexy teacher specs. Most of you will know I have a total thing about these (exhibit A: this post’s icon) and therefore there was much grinning, little jumps of joy, attempts not to squee aloud and mad hugging of poor accompanying friends.
After quite a few straight hours of wandering around stalls and waiting with my virtual queue ticket clutched in my sweaty shaky little hand, getting infinitely more petrified by the minute, my friends decided my nerves should go on no longer. They steered me towards the queue for Kate then Chloe took hold of my hand and practically pulled me into the line. I paid my money, chose a suitably purty photo that’s one of my favourite Janeway shots, and patiently waited my turn. Heart in mouth? Check. Eyes wide? Check. I slowly edged my way to the front of the queue, put my photo on the table at a crewperson's request and waited for the person in front of me to move away which they did after a few minutes. I stepped forward and a flawless face with the most gorgeous beaming smile and big sparkly blue eyes looked up at me. Dear God, this woman is stunning in real life. Seriously, stunning is the word. I had to fight hard not just to gawp and stare hopelessly into those blue eyes. Her now blonde hair was long and loose, and she was wearing a black v-neck sweater, cream trousers and pointy black high heels with a very thin heel. It was unreal, and I remember I kept thinking 'what the heck are you doing among all these mortals, in Milton Keynes of all places?!' She smiled, slid the photo to be signed along and greeted me warmly. I had almost forgotten how much I adore this woman's voice. It is so very delicious and smoky. Had it been possible for her to simply talk at me for the rest of the day, I would have been so damn deliriously happy.
Now, this following bit is the part in the dream where I'd usually wake up, so I hope I remember most of it. While Kate signed my photo, I managed to rein in my nerves and say things that were in full sentences and did not include the following sounds: *wibble*, *meep* and *guh* (after what happened with Isabelle, I'm very proud of this coherence). I remember saying "Oh, I'm so happy now", which earned me a lovely smile, and I wished her a happy birthday for the Saturday, which got me another flash of that smile and some very kind words, and then I shyly said "Um, I've made you a present actually *blushes* ". This gift was the reason I was so tired that day because I had been awake until nearly 2am the night before using gold fabric paint to hand-paint an elegant Art Nouveau style pattern onto a red chiffon scarf I'd made that Sunday morning.
"Oh, you didn't" came the reply with its familiar dramatic intonation.
I nodded, answering while handing my neatly wrapped gift over "Yes, I did, I was up really late last night making it."
Kate's face lights up. "Aww, thank you! Ohhh, now we have to get a picture."
[picture is taken by Chloe, and I didn't realise at the time butt Kate HAD HER ARM AROUND MY SHOULDERS!! *swoons*]
*Kate reaches out to shake my hand, which I do in a daze, but fortunately not in enough of a daze to forget to let go eventually*
"Thank you so much" says an ecstatic me, and then off I go to a spot behind the crowds to explode with squee, jump up and down and grin.
And there we have it, I have met Kate Mulgrew and although I forgot to say a few things I would have loved to have said, I got to say a big thank-you to her and did not make a total prat of myself.
Here are the photos I promised (with my absolute favourite, for incredibly obvious reasons, first):
And finally here's the Kate part of a photo taken from another fan who went, I just thought it was too damn adorable not to snag:
xxx
But on Monday, I set off with my wonderful friends Chloe and Katie to my first convention, the Collectormania 9 convention in Milton Keynes on Monday. Those two Collectormania veterans were going along for Anthony Stewart Head and Robert Pattison (Cedric from GoF), oh and to provide much needed moral support and hand-holding during all the fangirling I was about to do. I was of course was going purely to meet Kate.
And meet her I did. When we first walked into the Collectormania part of the place and saw the first row of guests where Kate was sat already signing, I nearly died. The reason? Not only did Kate look fantastic, she was wearing her extremely sexy teacher specs. Most of you will know I have a total thing about these (exhibit A: this post’s icon) and therefore there was much grinning, little jumps of joy, attempts not to squee aloud and mad hugging of poor accompanying friends.
After quite a few straight hours of wandering around stalls and waiting with my virtual queue ticket clutched in my sweaty shaky little hand, getting infinitely more petrified by the minute, my friends decided my nerves should go on no longer. They steered me towards the queue for Kate then Chloe took hold of my hand and practically pulled me into the line. I paid my money, chose a suitably purty photo that’s one of my favourite Janeway shots, and patiently waited my turn. Heart in mouth? Check. Eyes wide? Check. I slowly edged my way to the front of the queue, put my photo on the table at a crewperson's request and waited for the person in front of me to move away which they did after a few minutes. I stepped forward and a flawless face with the most gorgeous beaming smile and big sparkly blue eyes looked up at me. Dear God, this woman is stunning in real life. Seriously, stunning is the word. I had to fight hard not just to gawp and stare hopelessly into those blue eyes. Her now blonde hair was long and loose, and she was wearing a black v-neck sweater, cream trousers and pointy black high heels with a very thin heel. It was unreal, and I remember I kept thinking 'what the heck are you doing among all these mortals, in Milton Keynes of all places?!' She smiled, slid the photo to be signed along and greeted me warmly. I had almost forgotten how much I adore this woman's voice. It is so very delicious and smoky. Had it been possible for her to simply talk at me for the rest of the day, I would have been so damn deliriously happy.
Now, this following bit is the part in the dream where I'd usually wake up, so I hope I remember most of it. While Kate signed my photo, I managed to rein in my nerves and say things that were in full sentences and did not include the following sounds: *wibble*, *meep* and *guh* (after what happened with Isabelle, I'm very proud of this coherence). I remember saying "Oh, I'm so happy now", which earned me a lovely smile, and I wished her a happy birthday for the Saturday, which got me another flash of that smile and some very kind words, and then I shyly said "Um, I've made you a present actually *blushes* ". This gift was the reason I was so tired that day because I had been awake until nearly 2am the night before using gold fabric paint to hand-paint an elegant Art Nouveau style pattern onto a red chiffon scarf I'd made that Sunday morning.
"Oh, you didn't" came the reply with its familiar dramatic intonation.
I nodded, answering while handing my neatly wrapped gift over "Yes, I did, I was up really late last night making it."
Kate's face lights up. "Aww, thank you! Ohhh, now we have to get a picture."
[picture is taken by Chloe, and I didn't realise at the time butt Kate HAD HER ARM AROUND MY SHOULDERS!! *swoons*]
*Kate reaches out to shake my hand, which I do in a daze, but fortunately not in enough of a daze to forget to let go eventually*
"Thank you so much" says an ecstatic me, and then off I go to a spot behind the crowds to explode with squee, jump up and down and grin.
And there we have it, I have met Kate Mulgrew and although I forgot to say a few things I would have loved to have said, I got to say a big thank-you to her and did not make a total prat of myself.
Here are the photos I promised (with my absolute favourite, for incredibly obvious reasons, first):
And finally here's the Kate part of a photo taken from another fan who went, I just thought it was too damn adorable not to snag:
xxx