October 5th-6th, 2007
See more pics on our photo gallery
ANGIE'S CON REPORT!
My Chicago Report- 10/6-10/7
2007
SATURDAY:
It was a dark and stormy night... well no not really...LOL! Actually James,
Jason, T and I decided to road trip it to Chicago from Minneapolis, while
the rest of the XOMbies flew. It’s only about a 7-hour drive and when you
leave Minneapolis about 3:30 am there is no traffic to contend with at all
so the trip was a breeze! We got in to Chicago about 10:30 am. And were met
by Karen, Kathy, Deb G, T. Fehn and Jacquie. We were able to get checked in
a bit early. We were debating on weather to attend the Xena con that
afternoon but decided to save a little money and just hang out at the hotel.
It’s amazing who you see walking by in the lobby. We saw both Lucy and Renee
a few times, as a matter of fact when we first got there and we were
checking into our hotel Renee walked by and we said Hi to her and she said
Hi and that she would see us later. meaning see ya at the convention. (Even
though we ended up not going to the con.oh well. LOL!) Later on, as we were
coming out of the hotel lounge we saw both Lucy and Renee, we dang near
almost bumped into them, really I didn’t see them right away I just noticed
Brian from Creation walking toward us and guiding a couple of ladies to the
downstairs area. I looked again and sure enough it was them. I said hi and
Lucy smiled and just kept on walking...I thought that was pretty cool. They
had the Xena convention downstairs of the hotel because they were having a
Sci fi con upstairs (which was really neat too, lots of Star Wars costumes
walking around) I was on a mission to get Jeremy Bulloch's autograph for my
eight year old nephew Tom who is a huge Star Wars fan (Jeremy Bulloch played
Boba Fett in the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) I got that
autograph the next day. He loved it too. I swear I’m the coolest Aunt on the
planet (at least that’s what Tom and Casey say…LOL)
The photo op with Lucy: The photo op with Lucy was at 3:30pm so we went up
stairs got freshened up and then went to get in line. I had never met Lucy
before so I was really nervous and was worried I would say something goofy
or worse yet cry or something silly which would be totally embarrassing so I
excused myself and snuck into the bar and had a shot of peppermint schnapps,
now normally im not like that at all. I can count on one hand how many
drinks I have in a year but let me tell ya..that did the trick...I felt a
lot better, more relaxed and when the time came time for my sweetie T and I
to pose for that picture I was calm and cool as can be. Lucy was so neat,
she commented on the nice color of our shirts she graciously put her arm
around us, the pic was taken and boom it was over. What a doll (but hey I
know I don’t have to tell you guys that!) James had bought an extra photo op
ticket for the Xenaversity to get a shot with Lucy so we got back in line
and did it all over again with the group! What a GREAT experience! Ahhh I
love Lucy!
LUCY'S concert Saturday: A bunch of us decided to take the train into the
city for the concert instead of drive or take the bus. T opted not to go to
the concert but to stay at the hotel and chill. It was a long train ride and
there was a bit of walking involved but in the end it was worth it! It only
cost 4.00 round trip. It was pretty neat to take the train too; I had never
been on a train before.We got there about an hour before the place opened.
There were already about 10 or 15 people in line in front of us. The line
ended up way down the block so I think we had a great place in line:) After
about a half hour delay they finally opened up the doors. Kathy and Karen
and Jane had been to the concert the night before so they knew the best
place to stand. I had heard that Renee was on stage with Lucy the night
before. That would have been neat to see. James and Jason and I finally
settled on a place to stand across the room from the rest of the group cuz
well I couldn’t see that great cuz I’m kinda short...LOL! It was so HOT in
that place I could barley stand it but once the concert started it got a
different kind of HOT in there if ya know what im sayin'.... LOL! Lucy comes
out in her black chaps and jeans looking stunning as ever. From what I
understand Lucy sang a lot of different songs than she sang from the night
before. A few of the songs that she sang that come to mind right now are
"You're so Vein", "True Colors", "I'll Stand by you" and of coarse
everyone’s favorite "Come to Mama". along with many more! The crowd went
ape. I was trying to take a bunch of mini video clips with my camera to
bring back to the hotel to show T. I got a few good ones until my memory
card ran out so needless to say I didn’t get any good pictures just little
clips. I know Kathy took some great shots so I’m not too worried:) Lucy's
daughter Daisy was one of her back up singer as well. WOW she looks a lot
like Lucy! Its amazing.
MY BRUSH WITH GREATNESS:
Ok so after the concert we were all so pumped we decided to kind of hang out
by the back stage entrance and maybe get a glimpse of our girl. It was
pretty funny cuz someone said she came out the front door the night before
so we had one person on the corner watching the front door to signal us if
she came out and the rest of us waiting by the back. James and I had to
laugh about this because in retrospect we felt a little foolish (were not
stalkers really I swear officer…LOL) but hey what the heck right? <What
happens in Chicago stays in Chicago...right?...unless you write a report
about it... LOL> Kathy and I decided we had to go to the bathroom. I’m
thinking we have to make it quick cuz we might miss Lucy when she leaves. So
Kathy and I go back into the bar and ask if we can quick use the bathroom.
They were getting ready for a different show and they were already charging
a separate cover charge for this but they were nice enough to let us slip
through to use the bathroom. Kathy and I are in the bathroom chatting away.
Kathy proceeds to read me the trivia questions that were written on the back
of the bathroom stall... I’m thinking to myself "Hurry up Kathy we might
miss her"...LOL! We finally leave the bathroom and were making a b-line
towards the front door. All of a sudden some one taps me on the shoulder and
says "Hey" I turn around and it was Lucy. Can you imagine I walked right by
her and didn’t see her<geez> anyway I turn around to look at the person who
just tapped me on the shoulder and I said in my total surprise "Look Kathy
Its Lucy"! Kathy turns around we were both so surprised. Lucy asked if we
had anything for her to sign. I didn’t have anything handy but Kathy had the
event poster that she had her sign. I’m sure Lucy recognized Kathy from
other Lucy related events Kathy has attended (which is EVERYTHING Lucy has
done in the past 10 years ...Kathy is the biggest Lucy fan I know and
believe me I know a few!!...LOL) Lucy gave Kathy a hug and said to her
"You'll always be my baby" Isn’t that sweet? I had asked Lucy If I could get
a picture with her and she said "yea sure get over here”, she waved me over,
she said "and I wont even charge you $75.00 for this one"(75.00 was the cost
of the photo op earlier that day) I thought that was pretty sweet. Kathy got
her pic taken with her as well. We thanked her and just like that it was
over. We left the bar. It turned out that Karen and a few others were
looking in the window and witnessed the whole thing otherwise I don’t think
other people would have believed us. Good thing I have the picture to prove
it. Well actually the pic is still on Kathy's camera and I’m not sure if she
has those developed yet. I will defiantly post that pic of Lucy and I in the
bar as soon as I get it:) I went from having never met Lucy to seeing her up
close and personal twice in one day (photo op and photo op#2 at the bar) WOW
Now I can retire from the Xena con circuit a happy woman. “Hummm… I wonder
who will be at the Burbank 08 con…LOL!?” Retire from the con circuit …not
100% Never NO WAY, no how …LOL!
SUNDAY:
We got up pretty early Sunday am and met everyone for breakfast over at the
I hop which was right next to the hotel. On the way down to the lobby we saw
Tahmoh Penikett (Helo from Battlestar) as we were waiting for the elevator,
turns out his room was right down the hall from us. We had a chance to chat
with him for a few minutes as we rode the elevator down to the lobby. What a
nice guy!
As we gathered at the restaurant we regaled each other with our con/concert
stories from the day before. T and I decided since we had been to so many
Xena cons over the years that we would love to see the Battlestar Galactica
convention that they had going on at the same time as the Xena con. We are
HUGE Battlestar fans so we knew this was going to be fun. We stayed and saw
both Tahmoh (Helo) and Katee Sackoff (Starbuck) on stage and I bought
autograph tickets for both of them and had them sigh a Battlestar crew
picture. What a great day!!! As we were getting ready for our drive back to
Minneapolis who do we run into? Adrienne Wilkinson of coarse (Eve/Livia from
XWP)J James had emailed her and she had agreed to do a little video shout
out to the Xenaversity for their 10th anniversary! It was totally impromptu
as we weren’t sure we were going to run into her. It was VERY nice of her to
do that.
It was about 5pm when we finally left Chicago. We slept most of the way back
except James who did most of the driving (thanks JamesJ) I needed Monday off
from work just to recoup…LOL! FIN~ AngieNJ
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