Shore Leave

To continue making 2010 the year of the con, I attended my third con this year, this being Shore Leave 32 up in Hunt Valley, MD.  I had a very good reason to go this year, especially for a first time.  Back in February when the Shore Leave folks were doing pre-registration at Far Point, I read the flyer and discovered that Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff (Adm. Adama and Starbuck) of the new Battlestar Galactica were going to be there.  On top of that, one could have a photo taken with them.  Since BSG was one of my favorite series, I made sure to sign up that weekend.


So Thursday night I picked up DB and we drove up to his and RB's house in Baltimore, where I would spend the evening.  Friday morning RB had to work so DB and I got things packed up and had the car loaded for when RB came home.  Besides packing, it was a chance to figure out costumes for that weekend.  We decided with my blue uniform that we would turn it into a Stargate uniform by buying a few patches when we got to the con.

Evening came and we drove up to Hunt Valley, got checked into the hotel and then headed over to the con to get our drink on with our friends, AKA the "circle of awesome."

If you read my Far Point entry, I told you about the Kobal.  Well, she was back of course in all form, but this time, she has evolved.  She is now known as the Komentor because she has has powers like the Dementors in Harry Potter.  Case in point, a bunch of us are at the bar and we're chatting about various stuff going on. Komentor walks by, and while none of us actually saw her approach, the minute she came within proximity, the conversation just stopped dead, and this feeling of dread set over all of us. *shudder*

So after a late night at the bar, it was off to bed.  Saturday morning we got up and DB and RB dressed in their Yamato costumes.  For the rest of the day, they would field people asking what their costumes were, which was fine, or others who recognized them as Yamato (or Starblazers if you saw the American translation) uniforms.  Unfortunately the ones who recognized it juts had to make sure to ask if DB and RB were aware that there was a live action Yamato movie coming out.  Noooooooo, really? I thought DB just liked dressing up like this for kicks. 

After some time in the dealers room, it was time to head up to get my combo pic with Olmos and Sackhoff.  Of course the line was long but we got in early enough that the wait wasn't too bad.  I finally arrived and got to say hello to the stars and get my pic with them.  They were very nice and oh man Katee is cute.  I managed to hold my composure though.

We all hung out around the hotel until it came time for some Q&A sessions.  I saw the ones with Edward first, who is a very intelligent guy and he's done some great work over the years.  I really enjoyed hearing him speak.  Then there's Katee.  If you think she's Starbuck all the time, you'd be dead wrong.  She was so full of energy and pleasant while up on stage, almost girly girl.  Of course, then you find out that her and Tricia Helfer (Six on BSG) are planning to ride their motorcycles (Katee rides a Harley) along the route taken in Easy Rider to raise money for charity.  Also, before they go on TV. they do shots of Patron.  Those two are after my heart I swear ;-)  Seriously though, I would love to see Katee come back with Tricia as well, I bet they could tell some more hilarious stories.

After the Q&A's and after I had picked up my pic, I got in line to get Edward James Olmos to sign my picture.  All I can say is thank god GB joined me in line because I was going to cut a bitch.  There was this very nasty couple in front of me.  They're standing there and they're openly fighting because apparently the husband had disappeared for a bit and the wife couldn't find him and she had freaked out, and then they're fighting because he had gone looking for a computer before so he could check Facebook and she was bitching because he couldn't go a day it seemed without having to check Facebook.  Then later on, someone brought through the hall a functioning R2-D2 that they had built, which made the sounds, played music and all of that.  Then Mr. and Mrs. Sourpuss start bitching that they want to take a shotgun and blast the thing.

To top it off, there's kids there, and kids are going to be kids, ya know, they're excited, especially when they're running around in costumes and they're in a fun place.  Well Mr. and Mrs. Sourpuss were having none of that.  Mr. Sourpuss wanted to take it upon himself to go yell at the kids and make them be quiet.   Mrs. Sourpuss actually stopped him, shockingly enough.  Now GB and I had been laughing about the kids because it reminded her of her kids and her remark to me was "He (one of the boys) is acting like such a boy."  Mr. Sourpuss decides to chime into our conversation with "Well I never acted like that as a kid."  I ended up saying under my breath "Then you led a very sad life."  Ugh, it took everything not to tell those two to shut the fuck up.

So I got my autographs, and then joined RB and DB again for dinner before we went and changed costumes and then headed back to the bar for a night of drinking and then making our way down to the dance.  I met up with a friend of SW, known as Capsgirl44 on Twitter and we ended up chatting for a while about the Caps, how awesome it was to see Olmos and Sackhoff here, and why Twilight sucks, among other things.


It was about 2 AM by the time we got back to the hotel and passed out.

Sunday was spent at the dealers room picking up last minute things.  DB decided to get vampire fangs made for him, which they turned out great.  We went and saw some more Q&A's, including Tori Higginson as well.  She was very nice and I found myself interested in what she had to say, even though I had never really watched much Stargate.

After all the talks and everything, it was time to head back to Baltimore and recover from what was a very productive weekend.  I am glad I got to go and I can't wait for next year.