Got some of the Rosie Ramble done - not even half of it yet though!! And this is just one event!!
Rosie goes to see James at FX Convention, Orlando, Florida – April 2009
Thursday 16th AprilThis was the one James event I wasn’t sure about attending earlier in the year – but as I suspected, once I had seen him for the first time in 5 months at Your Funny Valentine in February, I just had to go – and I’m so glad that I did.
Getting to Orlando from the UK isn’t easy – if you fly direct it costs an arm and a leg so I chose to fly via Charlotte. It meant a 3 hour wait but it was worth it to save over £200!!
I was being met by Kelly with whom I was sharing a room for the convention. She was a James Virgin, this being her first ever event. We had never met before either except online so we weren’t even sure what the other looked like! But in the end I had no trouble finding her as she was with Jean (Grey Sunrise) who I recognised from miles away down the airport concourse! We got on like a house on fire from the word go – I do love this sharing with different people at events! Kelly had a hire car so drove us back to our hotel. Lots of talking, gossiping and generally getting to know each other. We then went on for pizza with Jean and were joined by Charity (marstersgirl) and her son. As usual, I started flagging by about 9pm local time as I had got up at 3.45am UK time and it was now about 24 hours later…
Friday 17th AprilWhen I originally booked the weekend, James was going to be appearing on the Friday as well, but now wasn’t; which at least gave us an unhurried day to get all our passes and check out the lie of the land for the convention. But first, after breakfast in IHOP (International House of Pancakes for those non-Americans – yes, I had to ask too!), we went to collect Amy Sue and Patti from their hotel near the airport as both of them had got in at about midnight and just stayed there for the one night. It was great to see both of them again.
Once we were all settled in at the Red Roof Inn, we all walked to the convention centre together. They said the centre was a five minute walk from the hotel - which I suppose it was if you were in Hall A. FX was in Hall E. The convention centre was simply MASSIVE! Really really HUGE – you could have fitted a town in it no problem – and this was just one wing – there’s 2 others as well! So we went in at Hall A where there was an employment fair on and started walking. And walking. And walking! It got a bit surreal as the looong corridors just seemed to get longer..! But eventually we got to the far end of the building and Hall E and FX. Got our weekend passes and then were allowed in at 11am –1 hour before the day passes..! We checked out the layout – the theatre area was just one corner of the huge hall with open seating where James would be doing Q and A the next day – and found Froggy and got our photo ops sorted (one of Froggy’s helpers recognised me – he said it was because he had stared at my photo often enough!) then Kelly and I went round all the dealers trying to find me a Piccolo figure. Not ONE had any DBE merchandise and we asked them all. Kelly suggested we find the nearest Wal-Mart later and see what they had.
There was a stall selling the most amazing and beautiful corsets and I couldn’t resist trying some on. I was joined by Roxane, a Belgian girl and James fan we had met whilst waiting fro Froggy and Kelly had immediately befriended her. (This was the standard procedure for the rest of the weekend – the core group of about half a dozen grew steadily as we collected more and more people..!) She is tiny and blonde and gorgeous and looked amazing in the corsets! I love the feeling of being in one – makes you feel all elegant but then I saw my back view and I knew where all my fat bits had gone! Talk about muffin top! They also did a corset which was more like a sleeveless top and had a collar. That looked much better on me as it hides a multitude of sins and so yes, I did indulge and buy it! (And yes it is purple!)
We all went to see Juliet Landau (Drusilla) and as it was surprisingly quiet, we were able to talk to her for ages each. She is so sweet – really lovely friendly lady– but so thin! Also befriended Deveril, her manager who is from the UK and we spent a lot of time talking to him over the weekend. I also went to meet Jewel State who played Kayleigh in Firefly – another very pretty girl and she was sweet too. I never got up the nerve to talk to Morena Baccarin (also from Firefly) as she is almost impossibly beautiful!
Having done all we needed at the convention, we all walked back to the hotel (down all those long corridors again. It still proved quicker to walk cos the parking for the centre still involved a long walk and you had to pay!)
Kelly and I went off to find Wal-Mart, which we did and cleaned them out of all their Piccolo figures! 2 big and one small – I had one of each and sold the other to Patti when we got back. Mrylyn had arrived by now as well – I hadn’t seen her since DragonCon. So now it was mostly the group from the JMF yahoo group as we had been joined by Stephanie and Kath as well. So all of us went out for dinner at Friendly’s – Patti brought along the James standees and we had Piccolo too and we made poor Phillip who was serving us wonder at the sanity of this bunch of crazy middle-aged women !! It was great – loads of fun - we were very noisy and took silly photos of Piccolo defending a cheeseburger!
(I had brought Kelly some rocks from home as she is interested in earth sciences – and her Piccolo spent a lot of the weekend standing on one, defending it from all comers!)
We didn’t want to be late to bed (though I never sleep much on James weekends!) as it was going to be a busy day with all Jamesy-ness. So got all my stuff ready and had a bit of a squee before sleep…
Saturday 18th AprilI was awake at some ridiculous time as usual as my body clock was still on UK time – and because I was squeeing like mad of course! Kelly and I met with Lynne for breakfast at Denny’s and I had to ask the stupid foreigner question – what the hell are grits?? Since Lynne was having them, I was able to have a taste (I’ll try anything once!) and I would say they are edible, but they look really unattractive, kind of like tapioca or semolina. I stuck to bacon and eggs! Then back to the hotel to get changed (if I wear my convention clothes to breakfast you can bet I’ll chuck food down my front!)
We were going to walk up to the centre again, but I went on ahead as my normal walking pace was far faster than the others, even when I was trying to go slow. I tried not to get too hot and sweaty on the way there as it was sunny and warm but not really hot by Florida standards – it was better once I was in the air conditioned building. Like the day before, 3 day pass people were allowed in earlier so I got in fairly pronto as James’s first photo op was scheduled for 10am. His Q & A wasn’t until 3pm, but I found that Stephanie and Kath were bagging seats at the front right then – so I joined them and got the others to come over as soon as they got there too. We then spent the rest of the day all taking turns to hold onto the seats until James’s turn on stage. It worked out very well – we got to sit through some very informative panels that we normally wouldn’t have and some that I could have well done without! All day, they kept doing announcements over the public address and it would interrupt whoever was on stage – very annoying for everyone, but produced some great jokes from the panellists (one of the guys on the first GI Joe panel remarked dryly – “I feel like I’m about to be told I've missed my flight…” and another was doing “Would the owner of a white Cadillac please come to the main desk – you’ve left your lights on!” mock announcements)
We went in shifts for the first photo ops. I stopped to beautify myself in the restroom and it was a good thing I did as I had bits of bread stuck in my teeth from breakfast! Eek! And then it was over to Froggy’s photo corner to queue up and get ready for our first sight of James.
The queue moved fast as usual and then finally I was able to get my first view of our gorgeous boy. He was wearing a navy polo shirt and grey trousers with grey trainers and was looking as lovely as ever and he seemed bouncy and cheerful. Smiling that gorgeous smile and as usual my heart gave that little lurch it always does on the first sight of James – when you realise he really is there in front of you!
Kelly was in front of me in the queue and this was her first ever meeting with James. I had warned her about James Fog, but I don’t think she is ever going to suffer from it! She doesn’t care who it is – she will talk to anyone. Walked straight up to James, and when he was going to go for the arm-round-the-shoulder shot, said “No, I want a cuddle please!” and she got it! She has such a quiet, shy and retiring personality – just like me - LOL!!
And then it was me. I walked towards James, grinning and unashamedly held my arms out for a hug – which I got. Ah- bliss! A James hug, the best kind – full on squeeze. Though there was nothing of the man – he’s so thin at the moment, but it is all muscle. I was as normal burbling something about how good it was to see him and James asked me how I was liking Florida (even more now he was here!)
He was going to go for the arm round shoulder shot of course, but I asked if he would do the one where he leans on my shoulder but this time to look at each other. So James leans his right elbow on me and I crossed my arms and we looked at each other and we were both grinning. As Froggy counted down, James was smirking and my grin was getting bigger and we were both trying not to laugh. After Froggy took the shot, James laughed and said “that was a really smirky one!”
I’ve never had a Spike and Dru picture so I asked for one but for the first shot to be when we were still looking at each other with our foreheads touching. So James put his arms round me, and I put mine round him and we went to touch heads in the middle when Froggy called that we were off the marks. So we both looked down and both keeping our arms round each other, we shuffled back into position – James going backwards! Didn’t seem to occur to either of us to let go!
We repositioned, and then James’s forehead was touching mine and I found myself looking into those eyes again - from about 4 inches away! Oh wow! It is always slightly (Ok – VERY!) surreal when you have pictures taken with James – because there he is, in front of you, the real James – the moving, talking, laughing version of my many pictures come to life (I have pictures all over the house so I see him every day!) Surreal, but totally wonderful! And those eyes! Oh my God. I have no words!
Froggy counted down for the picture and again, both of us were trying not to laugh. (Well, I was trying not to grin from ear to ear like I want to all the time in James’s presence!) I really like that picture – I look a little bit reticent and James’s stare is very intense!
I was all prepared to stay right there and go straight into the head roll for Spike and Dru – “I’m quite happy to stay here” I said which made James laugh. But we took up positions again and I asked if he would do the Spike smirk for this one “I can do the smirk” he said and then it was heads together and roll round to look at Froggy. (My expression is a little bit on the sarky side for this one, but James is smirking lovely!)
And that was it for the first session. I said “Thank you” grinning like mad as ever and James kind of slid his hands down both my arms to catch hold of both my hands and squeeze them as I was saying “I’ll see you again in a bit” I squeezed back and I got that lovely smile and then he let go and I had to walk away. It was far too quick, as ever – but just lovely!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Back to my seat to take a turn at minding so that Steph could go and get her picture. Started listening to the next guests but since it was about Disney Star Wars, I decided to slope off and go and see James again for an autograph instead!!
The queue for James’s autograph was never long and he was spending a lot of time talking to each person which was fine by me! I don’t mind waiting – there are always people to talk to. When I got up to Steve, I gave him his present which was a bar of dark chocolate (after Magie had bribed him at Valentines with the same, I thought I should keep on his good side, now I know his weakness!) He was very pleased and mimed giving it a huge wet lick!! Then he asked me about how was it coming from the UK and we ended up talking about how difficult it was to get a direct flights to Orlando. And then it was my turn to talk to James
We shook hands and I got the long look and “good to see you sweetheart” which made me start grinning again… I had 2 pictures for James to sign – both ones I had taken at Your Funny Valentine - one was of him playing at the concert. As usual, he started to sign without really noticing what it was and then saw it was him with Chow, the guitar. He said” Oh – its Chow. I’m playing him tonight at the concert.” So I told him about Squirl and how stunned she had been that night to see him playing the guitar she had given him – and James said I had to tell her that Chow was a great touring guitar as he was reliable and the all wood ones tend to get damaged in the travelling whereas Chow has a plastic back (and I did email her with the message later!)
I gave him the book ‘Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Secret Side of Everything’ which he hadn’t read but liked the look of it – he read the back blurb then and there and laughed at the bit about “Why do drug dealers live at home with their mothers?” I told him I had read it before I gave it to him (and hoped he didn’t mind!) and thought it was his kind of book, me being a librarian and all!
Amazon - FreakonomicsThen, as there was no hurry, we talked about YouTube – James said Sullivan persuaded him into it, so we talked about how good Sullivan’s playing was and how he wanted James to tell everyone that the melody was slow, but he can play much faster than that. I said how some people thought it might have been put up without James’s permission, but no, James had done it himself.
I then said about how Sullivan looked exactly like James – OK, not the hair, but his face – eyes, nose, mouth. James said that he was going to be far better looking than him – he has inherited his grandfather’s jaw. I said “do you think he will grow into the cheek bones?” and James laughed “yes –I did”
And then we shook hands again and James held on for a second as we were smiling at each other and having said “see you later” I just added without thinking much – “ Love you” and his grin just got a bit bigger and he said “Love you too” as he held my eye. It was very hard to walk away without staring over my shoulder!!
(Normally I video when I talk to James so I can remember it afterwards, only this time I failed to press the record button… James Fog!! So having realised, I mentally gave myself a good kicking and then went back to my seat and made as many notes as I could about what we talked about…!)
It was the Women of the Whedonverse panel next – Juliet Landau, Julie Benz, Claire Kramer, Jewel Staite and Morena Baccarin. They talked about Buffy and Firefly (and got interrupted by the public address again and had to wait to speak – even when the announcement was that they were on stage at the moment….!!) I can’t remember a lot of what was talked about, but they finished off showing a film tribute to Andy Hallett which was lovely – quite a few tears shed after that one!
The next panel was the one before James was due on for his Q and A so I decide to just stick to my seat for this – lunch could come later! It was going to be “a popular vinyl artist painting a living canvas in front of fans” whilst other artists answered questions. Oh dear. Basically he was painting on a bikini-clad, surgically-endowed Asian model. The painting wasn’t very amazing anyway - pink blobs was all it looked like! – not that anyone cared. Sitting in the front meant I was in the perfect place to see all these guys, young and old, try and get as close as they could to take photos – and I could see the screens of their phones and it wasn’t the painting they were photographing!
They went off soon enough thank goodness – and then it was the man we were waiting for! James came walking up the hall from the autograph end and as soon as we saw him, we started cheering and whooping. He grinned and then held up a finger and called “One minute!” as he disappeared behind the curtains at the back of the stage. He probably only was about a minute and then he was bouncing onto the stage with a fresh cup of coffee and saying the usual, that he preferred to be asked questions. They had a microphone set up on one side, but after a couple of questions James asked for it to be put in the centre as he was always turned the one way and had his back to people (which got him a round of applause!) As usual he spent a lot of time perched on the corner of the table, but also got up and walked about - never still for a moment except when he was listening to the questions.
I can’t remember everything he was asked about, but there was some interesting stuff. There were as many guys asking questions as women, if not more. Quite a lot of Spike/Buffy questions, John Barrowman and some DBE - James immediately leapt up and was roaring “YEAH” down the mic – I love it when he goes into Piccolo mode! The guy who wanted him to say “ You’re a bloody puppet” which he obliged with (James – “I only did about 2 hours work on set for that episode, then I had a week off and I got a puppet out of it!!) He was asked about all of his songs that were girl’s names – were they real or made up? “All real”
And he was asked about what
programme did he want to be in growing up? Star Trek of course - and he was saying that he was trying not to hit on Leonard Nimoy who was there as another guest - he thought that Leonard was thinking that he was some sad celebrity stalker..! There was a bit about High Plains Invaders (James thinks Alien Western was a much better title!) and he seems to have changed his mind back to cavemen on the cavemen vs astronauts question.(it was astronauts after he had played Buzz!)
Of course, James was also interrupted by the public address system – he looked really pissed off and then started doing the “Would the owner of the white Chevrolet…?” type announcement. Then he whispered conspiratorly down the mic “What message can we get them to put out – something really naughty??” and then someone called out from the audience and James laughed and then did with a perfectly straight face and rather English accent “ The red zone is for loading and unloading only…!”
When he was asked about the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, he said he had seen a lot of amazing and beautiful things but it was definitely the birth of his son. It really comes across how much he loves Sullivan and is so proud of him.
The hour went quickly as ever – never a shortage of questioners. We cheered him and called for more as he went off the stage - we could keep him talking for hours I reckon! At least now it meant we could give up our seats!