Comic Con: Recap and Picspam
Instead of unpacking, I've been working to bring you guys this. I want you to FEEL LIKE YOU WERE THERE!
Okay.
Okay.
Here it goes.
wednesday:
woke up at 3am. I had tried going to bed at 9 the night before, but in total I got about three ours of sleep because my brain was just to busy with did I pack this? and oh crap I need to print this in the morning and oh my god Trina you really should be sleeping and not just telling yourself to sleep!
Packed everything of mine up and was over to Nick's by 3:45. From there we went and got Mayette and were officially on the road by 4.
We had a videocamera, so we recorded an hourly update on the road.
Stopped at a starbucks around 5:30 for some breakfast. The sun was making a valiant effort at this point to show itself.
Oh, and look at this truck. we passed it about 3 times and this creepy kid on the back tried to convince me on the joys of eating but I was not buying it.
About a half hour later, the sun rose!
I drove the first half of the trip, just past Bakersfield, I think. Nick took over after that and before we knew it we were already in LA (partially because I don't think speed limits apply at 5am, so I am not about to obey them)
We hit traffic in LA (...because duh) but after that we stopped at Target in Irvine to eat some lunch around 11 and buy a couple things. Then it was nothing but road until SAN DIEGO!
^ Coast along I-5 and downtown SD.
Let me just say, the weather the ENTIRE weekend was perfect. I could go get tea at 6:30 in the morning in shorts and a tank top and it wasn't cold. That is officially awesome.
Got to our humble abode (the lesbian bed and breakfast) around 1:30-ish..? I'm guesstimating.
^ picture of our place. The whole neighborhood was really cool. Down the street there were lots of little coffee shops and places to eat. The only bummer was that parking on the street sucked and was really hard to find. BUT. I PARALLEL PARKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY WHOLE DRIVING CAREER. AND I DIDN'T HIT THE OTHER CARS. IT WAS FANTASTIC.
After dumping our bags and freshening up, we headed to the convention center for PREVIEW NIGHT. It was downtown, and only about a 10 minute drive. We parked in the lot right across from the convention center. This of course led us to believe parking would always be this easy to find. BOY WERE WE NAIVE (but I'll get to that later).
^ the convention center. It's gigantic.
The only thing going on preview night that we were interested in was the exhibit hall (where all the networks/sellers set up their booths to buy from). But we had to wait in line for 2 hours before it opened up. We ran into an Office fan though! We discussed pranks.
Once the exhibit hall opened, we made a beeline for the NBC booth. Think it was easy? Here's just a couple pictures of the hall:
...yeah. And keep in mind, this was before the crowd REALLY picked up. ...YEAH.
We got our stuff really easy, though! I bought a Free Ryan shirt, the Michael Comic Con shirt, and the BBB bobblehead. The Michael shirt:
Oh, and NBC totally had the coolest display booth thing. Each side was a different show (30 Rock, Heroes, and The Office)
Mayette, the real-life Kelly.
"I don't wanna speak for Jim but, it's like, pretty official."
Look at that display! That is awesome, people.
^ not part of the NBC booth, but still.
The guy in line who worked at the booth told me about meeting Rainn Wilson and how he was cool and I was like, "hey KEWL STORY HANSEL" while the guy who rang up Mayette totally tried to hit on her. OMG YAY.
We walked around the exhibit hall a little more, and I bought a Dr. Horrible shirt. But after that we were hungry and tired and wanted to get out of the madness!
We ate some dinner back near our room at a place called Rudford's. It was good and Mayette wanted to do the host. Also, we had a fruit and cheese plate and it was really tasty.
Finally went back to our place and had to park on another street (this is when I PARALLEL PARKED), and got ready to sleep. Keep in mind we had been up for 19 hours at this point, all of which was spent either driving/standing/walking, and tomorrow was the first official COMIC CON day.
thursday:
We were all over the map today. Literally. Let me explain.
Got up and ready and went to the convention center. And PARKING. WAS. THE DEVIL. First off, pedestrians everywhere! And all the close parking, like we had taken for granted on wednesday, was full. AND everything jacked up their prices! One garage we drove by that was $5 on wednesday was $30 on thursday. OH HI RIPOFF. We found another place for $20, though. It was a little bit of a walk but not too bad.
That morning, we sat through this one panel called Masters of the Web (AKA guys from things like aintitcoolnews.com and other crap like that). The directors of Crank were the moderators and I couldn't have cared less. The really reason we were there was because we wanted to see the DISNEY STORYBOARD PANEL.
Basically, it was a bunch of the storyboard artists from Bolt and The Princess and the Frog. They were really cool and made jokes about pulling the race card and showed a story boarded scene from Bolt that made me even more excited to see it. OH AND.
The guy who does the voice of the hamster in Bolt was sitting a couple seats over from us! We went up to him after and were like, "Hey the hamster is the best character ever take a picture with me please" and he was so happy and surprised that someone even wanted a picture with him! UM, DUH. HE WAS AWESOME. That's me and him above, and if you've seen the trailer for the movie, we're making the "I have a ball" pose.
After that there was nothing we wanted to see there until later that night, and since it was about noon we left and got some lunch at this little cafe called Bread on Market (...on market street) that we passed in the morning. It was tasty! Then we decided to go to...
LA! ...well, Burbank, technically, is where NBC studios is located. But yeah! I sped as much as I could to try and get there in time to take a tour but it was not to be :( we did get to go inside and look around the lobby, though!
Oh, NBC. I bought the Office talking keychain and some NBC pins. They were really cute! Oh, and a neat NBC frosted glass mug because I am a hardcore collector of cool looking drinkware. Seriously, it's a problem.
Look how cool it isssssssssss!
One thing we wanted to do was get a picture of the Hollywood sign. SO. We navigated it on Mayette's phone and I did whatever it told me to do. And guys, I ended up in the freaking Hollywood Hills where THE STREETS ARE ALL UPHILL, YOU CAN'T SEE IF ANOTHER CAR IS COMING ANOUND THE CORNER BEFORE YOU TURN, THE STREETS ARE ABOUT 10 FT ACROSS AND THERE ARE CARS PARKED ALONG THE CURB TAKING UP SPACE. Honestly, I thought I was going to die per some idiot coming around a corner downhill at 30mph.
BUT I DID IT, YOU GUYS. I drove until the road ended. But then we ran into these gates, and the sign on them said "NO HIKING TO THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN/NO TRESPASSING" and we were totally bummed because there was a house blocking the view we had of the sign.
WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN. This dude comes out of the house with a really cute puppy and is all, "come on in you can take a picture from my balcony" and lures us inside with said really cute puppy. Apparently this was what was going through Nick and Mayette's minds at that moment:
"Oh my god this is how every horror movie starts -- he's going to kill us."
What was running through my head at the same moment:
"This is going to make for the best. story. ever!"
...I am going to get mugged at some point in my life. I guarantee it.
But we didn't get mugged here! Nope! Instead we got an incredibly close view of the sign and got to hang out on some stranger's balcony.
Haha, oh yeah, and then as were we walking out the puppy kept following us and the guy tried to pass him off to us. NOPE WE ARE HERE ON VACATION BUDDY SMELL YA LATER.
It took us about FOREVER to get out of LA because we hit the freeway at rush hour. We left at 5 and by the time we were back to San Diego is was about 8-ish. We headed back to the convention center for a panel on Repo! The Genetic Opera. I didn't know anything about it but Mayette and Nick both wanted to check it out so we went and it definitely surprised us. Anthony Steward Head is like one of the stars and he sings and so I say yay. It's directed by the guy who does the Saw movies which I think are awful but at least he seemed nice.
The blonde girl in the middle is Alexa Vega. You might know her from SPY KIDS and SLEEPOVER. ...yeah, Repo! is not going to be anything like that, apparently.
Oh, and Paris Hilton is in it? And she was there.
She definitely talked like a baby the whole time and had nothing original to say -- "I love it here. It's comic con. How awesome is this I'M PARIS AND I'M RECORDING A NEW ALBUM". And she definitely pulled out her phone/mirror under the table and occupied herself with it.
After, we went back to Rudford's and had a late dinner (actually, I had french toast, so...) and went to bed.
friday:
We started the day off by splitting up. Nick went to a panel he wanted to see, while Mayette and I went to look around the exhibit hall some more.
We were looking at drawings by this guy named Sam Brown called Exploding Dog. I'd seen his drawings before but I didn't know anything about him. But anyways Mayette has been following his stuff for a long time and he was totally there! And he was really nice, too. I bought an ipod skin of his that was cool and he signed it:
^ like so.
My panel of the day: GHOST HUNTERS! You guys, I was so excited for this. Jay and Grant were supposed to be there but I guess something came up and they couldn't :( I wept. BUT. Donna came instead! And she brought Jay and Grant bobbleheads.
They seemed totally shy and overwhelmed at the attention. Oh, but there was a guy sitting next to us that smelled REALLY BAD. I mean, BAD, people. It wasn't cool.
But then we ran into this dude decked out Hot Fuzz style. He was cool.
After, we ate at a place called the Cheese Shop before going back to get in line for Dr. Horrible. It was only 7 something (over 3 hours before the show) but the line was ALREADY so long that they closed it down. Ultimately, we thought it would just be best to go home and get as much sleep as we could because tomorrow was the BIG DAY.
Actually, before going home, we went to Target and bought poster board to make TWSS signs to hold up in case such an occasion called for it at the panel. Then we made the signs and went to bed.
saturday:
AKA THE DAY THAT BEAT ALL OTHER DAYS WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND IT'S BACK.
Got up at 5am to make sure we got ready in time to be at the convention center by 7am to get in line for The Office. See, here's the thing about panels: If you get into a room to see a panel, they don't clear the rooms our after them. Basically, you can get into a room and sit there through the entire day. This was our plan. It meant we had to sit through two panels before The Office, but it also gave us a better chance of getting the best seats we could.
"Hey guys, it's 7am, how are you feeling waiting here in line?":
They let us in around 9 (the first panel started at 10:15. And, you guys, we got THE. BEST. SEATS. ... IMMEDIATELY. I'm not even kidding. The very first row was marked as "reserved" for press so we obviously couldn't sit there, but we got the row behind them AKA THE FIRST ROW REGULAR PEOPLE COULD ACTUALLY SIT IN. And on top of THAT, we were right in the middle, not pushed off to one side or another. I can't stress how amazing these seats were.
First panel: for Cartoon Network's Ben 10 Alien Force or something. SNOOZEFEST. There were two amusing things:
The girl who does a voice in the cartoon was also Gretchen on Recess!
The blonde dude? In the crocheted shirt? TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY HANSEL FROM ZOOLANDER. Case in point:
HANSEL HANSEL HANSEL.
ANYWAYS. Boring. Over. Next: Sarah Conner Chronicles. Now, I don't watch this show, but I do like Summer Glau and she sat right in the middle of the panel where I could get really good pictures.
Ah, she's so pretty.
OKAY. HERE WE ARE. UP NEXT: THE OFFICE! Are you ready for this? You're about to see a crapload of picspam.
Before it started, they handed out free Support the Rabid bracelets and mini Dwight posters. Freebies! And we had made friends with Office people around us and we were excited together.
It was so crazy! All of them came out and sat down and Rainn (who was moderating) said something like, "the fans need a photo op! Stand up, writers! Take a look at their beautiful writer bodies." So they stood up and B.J. and Mindy were RIGHT in front of us and it did I mention we had THE BEST SEATS POSSIBLE??! 'Cause we did.
In case you weren't aware, B.J. Novak is a fox.
They opened the panel immediately up for questions, so I ran to get in line while Mayette took pictures and Nick filmed (note: yes, we got the entire panel on tape, and we're going to try and figure out how to put it online. That will (hopefully) happen, and NBC posted it, too. BUT NBC WAS NOT AS CLOSE AS WE WERE OKAY? Here's a little video Mayette took with her camera of them introducing themselves, though:
Lee and Gene!
'Dwight's Speech', anyone?
I don't care that this picture is blurry, I love it.
Surprise surprise, they were all witty and cool and awesome. We weren't allowed to videotape the intro they played on the giant screen, but basically it was a re-cut intro with the title music, and it introduced everyone with some kind of video of them (ex: it was obviously B.J. as Ryan, Mindy and Kelly, Michael Schur as Mose, etc.)
Some people took up SO MUCH TIME asking their question that the panel ended before I got to ask mine. It was depressing. BUT:
Rainn Wilson announced that people at the exit were handing out vip passes to see a screening of The Rocker that night and he was going to be doing a Q&A there afterwards. However, the passes were at the other side of the room, and there was no way I could try and get an autograph AND a pass at the same time. So I looked at Nick and we did some sort of silent communication where it was agreed that him and Mayette would try and get autographs while I got passes. So the panel ended and I got two passes and then ran back to Nick and Mayette who had gotten my TWSS sign signed by B.J. AND MINDY!! And they were really nice and Mayette told B.J. that I didn't get to ask a question and he said he was sorry and then she told him that we saw his standup in SF in March and he was all, "Thanks so much for coming to that". To which I say hi no problem you're welcome and you're awesome.
OKAY UM SO. I was totally on a rush after we got out and I even made a voice post to proclaim my joy. Um, but it turns out I ended up accidentally posting it privately in my Office-induced joy and so no one could listen to it and now it's just dumb so it's still private. How lame am I? VERY. Actually I kept checking my email that weekend to see if it got any responses and I saw that no one had commented and I was like, "uh oh I pissed my friends list off by talking about comic con too much I am so dumb", so when I got home and actually saw that it was private I felt better. Again, how lame am I? VERY.
But also very happy!
Mayette stayed in the room to see the Pushing Daisies panel while Nick and I went to see Disney Pixar's panel in which they showed over 20 minutes of clips from Bolt and Up! (next year's pixar movie). And who was in line behind us? HAMSTER VOICE MAN FROM BOLT. If I was him, I would not be waiting in line to see a movie I was in! I woud be like, "Hi, I AM IN THIS MOVIE, so I'm gonna go ahead on in thank you very much"
After, Nick went to wait for the Sarah Silverman panel that he was gonna see instead of The Rocker with Mayette and I. And I was all by myself, walking to where Mayette was going to get out of the Pushing Daisies panel when --
This guy walking beside me noticed my Dwight poster and was all, "oh, is Rainn Wilson here today?" and I told him about The Office panel and he was all, "Oh, that's awesome" and then he paused and was like, "soo, are you here by yourself or did you come with some friends?" At this moment I'm wondering if he's trying to hit on me but a) he wasn't bad looking and b) um, he liked The Office so I told him about being there with friends and it was my first Comic Con. He said it was his first one, too. But then he had to go down the escalators and I was like, "oh I have to go meet my friend" and he said, "Oh. Okay, well, bye then" and then as soon as he left I realized I didn't have to meet Mayette for another 30 minutes and felt a little dumb.
BUT THEN this other guy came up to me and was all, "hey, let me take a picture with you!" and I was like, "what?" and he was all, "yeah, come here! You're gorgeous, gorgeous!" and he was funny so I said "you got it", took a picture with him, and then I kept walking. It was strange.
Sexy, Y/N?
Some pictures of the TAME costumes people were wearing. You guys, there was a girl dressed as Princess Leia who essentially was wearing a g-string, loincloth, and ill-fitting bra. It was awful. I mean, COME ON.
When Mayette got out from the panel we went and got a piece of pizza and then headed to the theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter (I think it's the old part of downtown). We were second in line behind some guys who won passes on the radio. But I felt bad for them because even though they were there for 2 hours, waiting, they didn't get to go in first! The people who had VIP passes (the comic con ones like mine) got in first. Poor guys :( They were nice, too.
SCREENING: THE ROCKER
First off, they totally took away our cameras AND phones! HOW JERKY. But Mayette didn't wanna give up her camera (it's not like we were even gonna use it!) so she kept it in her purse. But when we got to the room the screening was in there were people with metal detectors! Magically the guy didn't scan us -- he just asked us if we had anything. But he scanned the people before us and after us so clearly we got lucky.
NO ONE WHO GOT IN BEFORE US SAT IN THE FRONT ROW. I mean, c'mon, I hate to watch movies in the front row, buy GUYS. The chair Rainn Wilson is doing the Q&A in afterwards it sitting RIGHT THERE. So Mayette and I sat front row center. Yes, our necks hurt to watch the movie, but seriously? I'd rather say I had a crappy view of the movie but was right in front for Rainn rather than, "yeah Rainn was all the way up front and I couldn't get an autograph but BOY DID I SEE THE MOVIE CLEARLY". People are stupid.
Rainn Wilson came out before the movie and introduced it. And then he did some random lunge thing and gave a deadpanned version of Stewie's "look what I can do" from MadTV and then left. Awesome.
Obviously I won't spoil the movie since it hasn't come out yet, but Rainn came back out afterwards for the Q&A and it was so worth it to sit where we did because I could literally stick my leg out and I would have hit him. THAT IS CLOSE, PEOPLE. I even got to ask him a question! And he actually looked at me when he answered instead of just talking to the crowd and I was like, "saturday=bestdayever?".
I won't say what people asked since they're related to the movie, but one kid phrased a question really weird and Rainn was all, "...you would make a good Schrute." And someone asked his opinions on the bobbleheads and he said he thought it was awesome that his bobblehead is the #1 selling NBC thing ever and that he's on people's desks.
OH! This older guy sitting in the middle of the theatre fell asleep, and Rainn noticed and was all, "Shh! Nobody wake him! Everyone, leave the theatre and don't wake him up."
When the Q&A was over, Mayette and I were totally ready with pens and our signs and he signed our stuff and then said he could only do a few more but it didn't matter because he signed our stuff and it was fantastic. We got out cameras/phones back and then waited for Nick to pick us up so we could go back to our place.
It was. Completely. The craziest. Coolest. Funnest day. EVER.
sunday:
After Saturday was over, it was like all the hype we had been running off of was GONE and we were completely dead. So tired. We had one panel we wanted to see, but by then we were so over it and didn't wanna pay for/find parking and decided to leave early for home.
We were gonna stop in LA for Sprinkles cupcakes, but my phone found a location in Newport Beach instead so we went there.
I got 2 dark chocolate, 1 peanut butter chocolate, 1 vanilla, 1 chocolate marshmallow, and 1 lemon. I am trying to pace myself but they are so freaking delicious
Re: Newport: UM, HELLO RICHVILLE. We were gonna get fast food but it didn't seem to even exist there, so instead we went to this classy cafe inside some classy market and -- are you ready for this? -- I FOUND A SALAD I ACTUALLY LIKED.
It was red leaf lettuce, radicchio, and something else with vinaigrette. The scribbled part is the iceberg lettuce that was on my burger that I DIDN'T LIKE. But it made me so happy, you have no idea.
After that, we were on the road the whole way home, except to stop at starbucks and be Oscar and Gil.
Mayette was Sprinkles.
We got home at around 9pm and I essentially ate, took my crap out of the car, bragged a little big, and then crashed.
Okay.
Okay.
Here it goes.
wednesday:
woke up at 3am. I had tried going to bed at 9 the night before, but in total I got about three ours of sleep because my brain was just to busy with did I pack this? and oh crap I need to print this in the morning and oh my god Trina you really should be sleeping and not just telling yourself to sleep!
Packed everything of mine up and was over to Nick's by 3:45. From there we went and got Mayette and were officially on the road by 4.
We had a videocamera, so we recorded an hourly update on the road.
Stopped at a starbucks around 5:30 for some breakfast. The sun was making a valiant effort at this point to show itself.
Oh, and look at this truck. we passed it about 3 times and this creepy kid on the back tried to convince me on the joys of eating but I was not buying it.
About a half hour later, the sun rose!
I drove the first half of the trip, just past Bakersfield, I think. Nick took over after that and before we knew it we were already in LA (partially because I don't think speed limits apply at 5am, so I am not about to obey them)
We hit traffic in LA (...because duh) but after that we stopped at Target in Irvine to eat some lunch around 11 and buy a couple things. Then it was nothing but road until SAN DIEGO!
^ Coast along I-5 and downtown SD.
Let me just say, the weather the ENTIRE weekend was perfect. I could go get tea at 6:30 in the morning in shorts and a tank top and it wasn't cold. That is officially awesome.
Got to our humble abode (the lesbian bed and breakfast) around 1:30-ish..? I'm guesstimating.
^ picture of our place. The whole neighborhood was really cool. Down the street there were lots of little coffee shops and places to eat. The only bummer was that parking on the street sucked and was really hard to find. BUT. I PARALLEL PARKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY WHOLE DRIVING CAREER. AND I DIDN'T HIT THE OTHER CARS. IT WAS FANTASTIC.
After dumping our bags and freshening up, we headed to the convention center for PREVIEW NIGHT. It was downtown, and only about a 10 minute drive. We parked in the lot right across from the convention center. This of course led us to believe parking would always be this easy to find. BOY WERE WE NAIVE (but I'll get to that later).
^ the convention center. It's gigantic.
The only thing going on preview night that we were interested in was the exhibit hall (where all the networks/sellers set up their booths to buy from). But we had to wait in line for 2 hours before it opened up. We ran into an Office fan though! We discussed pranks.
Once the exhibit hall opened, we made a beeline for the NBC booth. Think it was easy? Here's just a couple pictures of the hall:
...yeah. And keep in mind, this was before the crowd REALLY picked up. ...YEAH.
We got our stuff really easy, though! I bought a Free Ryan shirt, the Michael Comic Con shirt, and the BBB bobblehead. The Michael shirt:
Oh, and NBC totally had the coolest display booth thing. Each side was a different show (30 Rock, Heroes, and The Office)
Mayette, the real-life Kelly.
"I don't wanna speak for Jim but, it's like, pretty official."
Look at that display! That is awesome, people.
^ not part of the NBC booth, but still.
The guy in line who worked at the booth told me about meeting Rainn Wilson and how he was cool and I was like, "hey KEWL STORY HANSEL" while the guy who rang up Mayette totally tried to hit on her. OMG YAY.
We walked around the exhibit hall a little more, and I bought a Dr. Horrible shirt. But after that we were hungry and tired and wanted to get out of the madness!
We ate some dinner back near our room at a place called Rudford's. It was good and Mayette wanted to do the host. Also, we had a fruit and cheese plate and it was really tasty.
Finally went back to our place and had to park on another street (this is when I PARALLEL PARKED), and got ready to sleep. Keep in mind we had been up for 19 hours at this point, all of which was spent either driving/standing/walking, and tomorrow was the first official COMIC CON day.
thursday:
We were all over the map today. Literally. Let me explain.
Got up and ready and went to the convention center. And PARKING. WAS. THE DEVIL. First off, pedestrians everywhere! And all the close parking, like we had taken for granted on wednesday, was full. AND everything jacked up their prices! One garage we drove by that was $5 on wednesday was $30 on thursday. OH HI RIPOFF. We found another place for $20, though. It was a little bit of a walk but not too bad.
That morning, we sat through this one panel called Masters of the Web (AKA guys from things like aintitcoolnews.com and other crap like that). The directors of Crank were the moderators and I couldn't have cared less. The really reason we were there was because we wanted to see the DISNEY STORYBOARD PANEL.
Basically, it was a bunch of the storyboard artists from Bolt and The Princess and the Frog. They were really cool and made jokes about pulling the race card and showed a story boarded scene from Bolt that made me even more excited to see it. OH AND.
The guy who does the voice of the hamster in Bolt was sitting a couple seats over from us! We went up to him after and were like, "Hey the hamster is the best character ever take a picture with me please" and he was so happy and surprised that someone even wanted a picture with him! UM, DUH. HE WAS AWESOME. That's me and him above, and if you've seen the trailer for the movie, we're making the "I have a ball" pose.
After that there was nothing we wanted to see there until later that night, and since it was about noon we left and got some lunch at this little cafe called Bread on Market (...on market street) that we passed in the morning. It was tasty! Then we decided to go to...
LA! ...well, Burbank, technically, is where NBC studios is located. But yeah! I sped as much as I could to try and get there in time to take a tour but it was not to be :( we did get to go inside and look around the lobby, though!
Oh, NBC. I bought the Office talking keychain and some NBC pins. They were really cute! Oh, and a neat NBC frosted glass mug because I am a hardcore collector of cool looking drinkware. Seriously, it's a problem.
Look how cool it isssssssssss!
One thing we wanted to do was get a picture of the Hollywood sign. SO. We navigated it on Mayette's phone and I did whatever it told me to do. And guys, I ended up in the freaking Hollywood Hills where THE STREETS ARE ALL UPHILL, YOU CAN'T SEE IF ANOTHER CAR IS COMING ANOUND THE CORNER BEFORE YOU TURN, THE STREETS ARE ABOUT 10 FT ACROSS AND THERE ARE CARS PARKED ALONG THE CURB TAKING UP SPACE. Honestly, I thought I was going to die per some idiot coming around a corner downhill at 30mph.
BUT I DID IT, YOU GUYS. I drove until the road ended. But then we ran into these gates, and the sign on them said "NO HIKING TO THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN/NO TRESPASSING" and we were totally bummed because there was a house blocking the view we had of the sign.
WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN. This dude comes out of the house with a really cute puppy and is all, "come on in you can take a picture from my balcony" and lures us inside with said really cute puppy. Apparently this was what was going through Nick and Mayette's minds at that moment:
"Oh my god this is how every horror movie starts -- he's going to kill us."
What was running through my head at the same moment:
"This is going to make for the best. story. ever!"
...I am going to get mugged at some point in my life. I guarantee it.
But we didn't get mugged here! Nope! Instead we got an incredibly close view of the sign and got to hang out on some stranger's balcony.
Haha, oh yeah, and then as were we walking out the puppy kept following us and the guy tried to pass him off to us. NOPE WE ARE HERE ON VACATION BUDDY SMELL YA LATER.
It took us about FOREVER to get out of LA because we hit the freeway at rush hour. We left at 5 and by the time we were back to San Diego is was about 8-ish. We headed back to the convention center for a panel on Repo! The Genetic Opera. I didn't know anything about it but Mayette and Nick both wanted to check it out so we went and it definitely surprised us. Anthony Steward Head is like one of the stars and he sings and so I say yay. It's directed by the guy who does the Saw movies which I think are awful but at least he seemed nice.
The blonde girl in the middle is Alexa Vega. You might know her from SPY KIDS and SLEEPOVER. ...yeah, Repo! is not going to be anything like that, apparently.
Oh, and Paris Hilton is in it? And she was there.
She definitely talked like a baby the whole time and had nothing original to say -- "I love it here. It's comic con. How awesome is this I'M PARIS AND I'M RECORDING A NEW ALBUM". And she definitely pulled out her phone/mirror under the table and occupied herself with it.
After, we went back to Rudford's and had a late dinner (actually, I had french toast, so...) and went to bed.
friday:
We started the day off by splitting up. Nick went to a panel he wanted to see, while Mayette and I went to look around the exhibit hall some more.
We were looking at drawings by this guy named Sam Brown called Exploding Dog. I'd seen his drawings before but I didn't know anything about him. But anyways Mayette has been following his stuff for a long time and he was totally there! And he was really nice, too. I bought an ipod skin of his that was cool and he signed it:
^ like so.
My panel of the day: GHOST HUNTERS! You guys, I was so excited for this. Jay and Grant were supposed to be there but I guess something came up and they couldn't :( I wept. BUT. Donna came instead! And she brought Jay and Grant bobbleheads.
They seemed totally shy and overwhelmed at the attention. Oh, but there was a guy sitting next to us that smelled REALLY BAD. I mean, BAD, people. It wasn't cool.
But then we ran into this dude decked out Hot Fuzz style. He was cool.
After, we ate at a place called the Cheese Shop before going back to get in line for Dr. Horrible. It was only 7 something (over 3 hours before the show) but the line was ALREADY so long that they closed it down. Ultimately, we thought it would just be best to go home and get as much sleep as we could because tomorrow was the BIG DAY.
Actually, before going home, we went to Target and bought poster board to make TWSS signs to hold up in case such an occasion called for it at the panel. Then we made the signs and went to bed.
saturday:
AKA THE DAY THAT BEAT ALL OTHER DAYS WITH ONE HAND TIED BEHIND IT'S BACK.
Got up at 5am to make sure we got ready in time to be at the convention center by 7am to get in line for The Office. See, here's the thing about panels: If you get into a room to see a panel, they don't clear the rooms our after them. Basically, you can get into a room and sit there through the entire day. This was our plan. It meant we had to sit through two panels before The Office, but it also gave us a better chance of getting the best seats we could.
"Hey guys, it's 7am, how are you feeling waiting here in line?":
They let us in around 9 (the first panel started at 10:15. And, you guys, we got THE. BEST. SEATS. ... IMMEDIATELY. I'm not even kidding. The very first row was marked as "reserved" for press so we obviously couldn't sit there, but we got the row behind them AKA THE FIRST ROW REGULAR PEOPLE COULD ACTUALLY SIT IN. And on top of THAT, we were right in the middle, not pushed off to one side or another. I can't stress how amazing these seats were.
First panel: for Cartoon Network's Ben 10 Alien Force or something. SNOOZEFEST. There were two amusing things:
The girl who does a voice in the cartoon was also Gretchen on Recess!
The blonde dude? In the crocheted shirt? TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY HANSEL FROM ZOOLANDER. Case in point:
Click to view HANSEL HANSEL HANSEL.
ANYWAYS. Boring. Over. Next: Sarah Conner Chronicles. Now, I don't watch this show, but I do like Summer Glau and she sat right in the middle of the panel where I could get really good pictures.
Ah, she's so pretty.
OKAY. HERE WE ARE. UP NEXT: THE OFFICE! Are you ready for this? You're about to see a crapload of picspam.
Before it started, they handed out free Support the Rabid bracelets and mini Dwight posters. Freebies! And we had made friends with Office people around us and we were excited together.
It was so crazy! All of them came out and sat down and Rainn (who was moderating) said something like, "the fans need a photo op! Stand up, writers! Take a look at their beautiful writer bodies." So they stood up and B.J. and Mindy were RIGHT in front of us and it did I mention we had THE BEST SEATS POSSIBLE??! 'Cause we did.
In case you weren't aware, B.J. Novak is a fox.
They opened the panel immediately up for questions, so I ran to get in line while Mayette took pictures and Nick filmed (note: yes, we got the entire panel on tape, and we're going to try and figure out how to put it online. That will (hopefully) happen, and NBC posted it, too. BUT NBC WAS NOT AS CLOSE AS WE WERE OKAY? Here's a little video Mayette took with her camera of them introducing themselves, though:
Lee and Gene!
'Dwight's Speech', anyone?
I don't care that this picture is blurry, I love it.
Surprise surprise, they were all witty and cool and awesome. We weren't allowed to videotape the intro they played on the giant screen, but basically it was a re-cut intro with the title music, and it introduced everyone with some kind of video of them (ex: it was obviously B.J. as Ryan, Mindy and Kelly, Michael Schur as Mose, etc.)
Some people took up SO MUCH TIME asking their question that the panel ended before I got to ask mine. It was depressing. BUT:
Rainn Wilson announced that people at the exit were handing out vip passes to see a screening of The Rocker that night and he was going to be doing a Q&A there afterwards. However, the passes were at the other side of the room, and there was no way I could try and get an autograph AND a pass at the same time. So I looked at Nick and we did some sort of silent communication where it was agreed that him and Mayette would try and get autographs while I got passes. So the panel ended and I got two passes and then ran back to Nick and Mayette who had gotten my TWSS sign signed by B.J. AND MINDY!! And they were really nice and Mayette told B.J. that I didn't get to ask a question and he said he was sorry and then she told him that we saw his standup in SF in March and he was all, "Thanks so much for coming to that". To which I say hi no problem you're welcome and you're awesome.
OKAY UM SO. I was totally on a rush after we got out and I even made a voice post to proclaim my joy. Um, but it turns out I ended up accidentally posting it privately in my Office-induced joy and so no one could listen to it and now it's just dumb so it's still private. How lame am I? VERY. Actually I kept checking my email that weekend to see if it got any responses and I saw that no one had commented and I was like, "uh oh I pissed my friends list off by talking about comic con too much I am so dumb", so when I got home and actually saw that it was private I felt better. Again, how lame am I? VERY.
But also very happy!
Mayette stayed in the room to see the Pushing Daisies panel while Nick and I went to see Disney Pixar's panel in which they showed over 20 minutes of clips from Bolt and Up! (next year's pixar movie). And who was in line behind us? HAMSTER VOICE MAN FROM BOLT. If I was him, I would not be waiting in line to see a movie I was in! I woud be like, "Hi, I AM IN THIS MOVIE, so I'm gonna go ahead on in thank you very much"
After, Nick went to wait for the Sarah Silverman panel that he was gonna see instead of The Rocker with Mayette and I. And I was all by myself, walking to where Mayette was going to get out of the Pushing Daisies panel when --
This guy walking beside me noticed my Dwight poster and was all, "oh, is Rainn Wilson here today?" and I told him about The Office panel and he was all, "Oh, that's awesome" and then he paused and was like, "soo, are you here by yourself or did you come with some friends?" At this moment I'm wondering if he's trying to hit on me but a) he wasn't bad looking and b) um, he liked The Office so I told him about being there with friends and it was my first Comic Con. He said it was his first one, too. But then he had to go down the escalators and I was like, "oh I have to go meet my friend" and he said, "Oh. Okay, well, bye then" and then as soon as he left I realized I didn't have to meet Mayette for another 30 minutes and felt a little dumb.
BUT THEN this other guy came up to me and was all, "hey, let me take a picture with you!" and I was like, "what?" and he was all, "yeah, come here! You're gorgeous, gorgeous!" and he was funny so I said "you got it", took a picture with him, and then I kept walking. It was strange.
Sexy, Y/N?
Some pictures of the TAME costumes people were wearing. You guys, there was a girl dressed as Princess Leia who essentially was wearing a g-string, loincloth, and ill-fitting bra. It was awful. I mean, COME ON.
When Mayette got out from the panel we went and got a piece of pizza and then headed to the theatre in the Gaslamp Quarter (I think it's the old part of downtown). We were second in line behind some guys who won passes on the radio. But I felt bad for them because even though they were there for 2 hours, waiting, they didn't get to go in first! The people who had VIP passes (the comic con ones like mine) got in first. Poor guys :( They were nice, too.
SCREENING: THE ROCKER
First off, they totally took away our cameras AND phones! HOW JERKY. But Mayette didn't wanna give up her camera (it's not like we were even gonna use it!) so she kept it in her purse. But when we got to the room the screening was in there were people with metal detectors! Magically the guy didn't scan us -- he just asked us if we had anything. But he scanned the people before us and after us so clearly we got lucky.
NO ONE WHO GOT IN BEFORE US SAT IN THE FRONT ROW. I mean, c'mon, I hate to watch movies in the front row, buy GUYS. The chair Rainn Wilson is doing the Q&A in afterwards it sitting RIGHT THERE. So Mayette and I sat front row center. Yes, our necks hurt to watch the movie, but seriously? I'd rather say I had a crappy view of the movie but was right in front for Rainn rather than, "yeah Rainn was all the way up front and I couldn't get an autograph but BOY DID I SEE THE MOVIE CLEARLY". People are stupid.
Rainn Wilson came out before the movie and introduced it. And then he did some random lunge thing and gave a deadpanned version of Stewie's "look what I can do" from MadTV and then left. Awesome.
Obviously I won't spoil the movie since it hasn't come out yet, but Rainn came back out afterwards for the Q&A and it was so worth it to sit where we did because I could literally stick my leg out and I would have hit him. THAT IS CLOSE, PEOPLE. I even got to ask him a question! And he actually looked at me when he answered instead of just talking to the crowd and I was like, "saturday=bestdayever?".
I won't say what people asked since they're related to the movie, but one kid phrased a question really weird and Rainn was all, "...you would make a good Schrute." And someone asked his opinions on the bobbleheads and he said he thought it was awesome that his bobblehead is the #1 selling NBC thing ever and that he's on people's desks.
OH! This older guy sitting in the middle of the theatre fell asleep, and Rainn noticed and was all, "Shh! Nobody wake him! Everyone, leave the theatre and don't wake him up."
When the Q&A was over, Mayette and I were totally ready with pens and our signs and he signed our stuff and then said he could only do a few more but it didn't matter because he signed our stuff and it was fantastic. We got out cameras/phones back and then waited for Nick to pick us up so we could go back to our place.
It was. Completely. The craziest. Coolest. Funnest day. EVER.
sunday:
After Saturday was over, it was like all the hype we had been running off of was GONE and we were completely dead. So tired. We had one panel we wanted to see, but by then we were so over it and didn't wanna pay for/find parking and decided to leave early for home.
We were gonna stop in LA for Sprinkles cupcakes, but my phone found a location in Newport Beach instead so we went there.
I got 2 dark chocolate, 1 peanut butter chocolate, 1 vanilla, 1 chocolate marshmallow, and 1 lemon. I am trying to pace myself but they are so freaking delicious
Re: Newport: UM, HELLO RICHVILLE. We were gonna get fast food but it didn't seem to even exist there, so instead we went to this classy cafe inside some classy market and -- are you ready for this? -- I FOUND A SALAD I ACTUALLY LIKED.
It was red leaf lettuce, radicchio, and something else with vinaigrette. The scribbled part is the iceberg lettuce that was on my burger that I DIDN'T LIKE. But it made me so happy, you have no idea.
After that, we were on the road the whole way home, except to stop at starbucks and be Oscar and Gil.
Mayette was Sprinkles.
We got home at around 9pm and I essentially ate, took my crap out of the car, bragged a little big, and then crashed.