Fan Days Dallas

Today I went to my first convention. Along with it being my first convention, it was also my first time to road trip without my family. I went across the ocean before I drove two hours south alone. I went to Dallas with Mickey and Patricia to meet John Barrowman at Fan Days. A family from the theatre went too, and I regret not getting a picture because their baby was dressed at 11.

The main reason we went was for John Barrowman. We bought pictures with him that were at noon, so we had to be there before that. We decided to leave at 9. Everything went swell until we got to the DFW area. All the construction got us lost twice AND we got pulled over. There was a faulty brake light.

We ended up pulling into the Irving Convention Center garage at 11:30ish. Then, there was the walk of shame. That was the half mile trek from the garage to the center alongside the cars in line to get into the garage. We laughed at the cosplayers we passed and I'm sure they laughed at us.

The best part was the following exchange:
"Oh look! A Star Trek family!" -Mickey
"Aww, oooh, that kid just ran into traffic. Those parents need to watch him." -Me
"He's a red shirt." -Mickey

The Walk of Shame. Those cars went the whole way to the center.

Once we got in, we got our bands, programs, and schedules. Barrowman photos were almost up, so we rushed to the location. We ended up getting pretty good spots in line, so that was exciting. We weren't in the first group inside, but we were second.

Our sweet programs!

WE MADE IT!

On an escalator

We were last in line for a while, so I got to hold the sign. At least, that is, until someone else became last in line.

While we were in line for John Barrowman, this awesome family was posing for pictures!  They're unfortunately the only cosplayers I took a picture of. My phone was on it's death bed all day. I was the GPS and I didn't have a charger. At 1:00 I was on 40%. I sparingly used it and ended up plugging it in at home at a whopping 12%.

IT'S HIM. OMG I CAN'T EVEN.

We waited in line for about a half hour until it was our turn. It was over before I knew what was happening. He said "Let's cuddle," hugged me, and it was over. BUT STILL OMG.

After taking the pictures, we headed to the Q&A that was a floor above us. When we got there, we ran into our friends Craig and Rachel and got in line with them. I was afraid we wouldn't get seats because it was full, but we did! We got pretty good seats.

It's almost time!

 There he is!

A lot of people asked him about his musical theatre career, so that was exciting. He's a Sondheim guy, so I like that. He also has a lot of funny stories and now I have to watch Torchwood.

This was his reply to being asked to sing Springtime for Hitler.

We were going to get his autograph after, but the line was out the door. Instead, we headed down to the exhibit hall where all the comic book artists had set up shop. I figured I was at my first comic convention, so I had to get a book. It was $1. I thought it was a comic book, but it's just an index of a series. I just picked based on the cover.

My new comic book

After looking around downstairs, we headed back upstairs to get our pictures signed. We picked them up and went and got in line. It was terrible. It was a Disney World moment. You're about to meet the princess and then they say "Sorry, you guys. The princess has to leave so we're stopping the line right here." It happened. John Barrowman had a flight to catch so his line was capped the people right in front of us. It was devastating.

Another goal of mine there was to get my sister Steven Yeun's autograph. I looked. Then I looked again. And again. He was seriously nowhere to be found. I asked people and no one knew where he was. Sorry sis. I tried.

Here's a sign of him.

We decided we'd done enough, so around 3ish, we headed to food. We settled on Cheesecake Factory, so out we went.

I really liked the convention center. Minus the missing Welsh, it reminded me of Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff.

Dinner was good. I had chicken and ice cream. The sweet potato fries had gluten in them. I really need to stop letting them tempt me. The gluten is worse than the fries are good...

On the way back, we tried to play some road trip games, but it just didn't happen.

I'm sure by now you all are dying to see the picture of John Barrowman and I. It's a terrible angle, but here it is.

Now, for those of you who read all the way through and still don't know who John Barrowman is, here are some videos.

This is a clip from The Producers (2006)

He told us this story in his panel.

He told us this story as well.

Life After London

Well, in just a few weeks, I'll have my final grades from London. I turned in my research paper last week after having to force myself to finish. If you follow me on Twitter, you saw how terrible it was having to write that thing. I also sent off my book review for the class.

Once those grades come in, London is officially done. It's sad. Every time my mind is empty, I go back to London. People keep asking if I'm going back next year and while I'd love to, it wouldn't be the same. I'd go expecting the exact same people, situations, events, and it wouldn't be that way. I'd want it to be the same people just a second time.

My London MixBook came in, so I look through that quite often. It's like a digital scrapbook. It's 50 pages long and gorgeous.

 Every single thing reminds me of London. I had a game on my phone where I had to guess brands.

Three of the brands I had to identify. I miss all of those. 

Speaking of Milka, the local Market Street sells it! I got my dad hooked on it. It's so amazing. It's just a tiny piece of London back home.

Mostly, all I've been doing is school and theatre. I have three tests this week, but one allows a full printer sheet full of notes and the other is History. Botany is the only scary test. West Side Story is about to end, and after that, I'll get a bit of a break. I haven't gone anywhere fun, so that's been boring. Luckily, the next few weeks have some cool things! I have this app that counts down to different events, so I've been watching closely as some numbers go down.

In less than a week, I'm going to my first convention in Dallas. It's called Fan Days and JOHN BARROWMAN will be there. I'm getting a picture with him. I am so excited. Tom Felton will also be there as well as the Glenn from Walking Dead and Ron Perlman from Hellboy. #nerdstatus

I've also got some family trips coming up that'll be fun. We've got our annual cruise and our annual spring break trip coming up soon, so that's all getting planned. This year, we're cruising out of LA. It'll be the first time we go there, so I think we'll leave early and spent a day hanging out there. We'll go to Puerto Vallarta on the cruise! There's an island I want to visit called Las Marietas. It has a hidden portion that's beautiful.

I'm also so lucky to be able to go to Passion Houston this February! Passion is usually only in Atlanta. It's Louie Giglio's church and this year, it's coming to Houston as well and I'm going to the conference! I saw Louie in London at Hillsong Conf alongside Chris Tomlin. Well, guess what? Chris Tomlin will be at Passion and so will Judah Smith. I wonder how many other college kids can say "I saw you in London and in Houston within the course of one year!" Houston is about 8 hours away, so it's isn't bad at all. My oldest (not age, but length of friendship) is going with me, so that's exciting. We haven't spent time together since the middle of high school when we stopped having classes together. It'll be a great weekend! 

Europe in 600 days isn't 100% confirmed yet, but it's happening. I just need to sign up. I went to Costa Rica on an EF tour when I was a sophomore and this is with the same company. My former newspaper teacher is leading the group. It's a two week tour to Berlin, Prague, and Paris. It'll also go to Dresden, which I'm most excited about because I learned a lot about that city in my WWII classes.

Anyways, I just wanted to post something so that there wasn't over a month between updates. Another will come next week after Fan Days and possibly after the Halloween party. Also after trips, of course. And whenever something fun happens or I cook something neat. Or just when I feel like typing something up.