5:15 am. We have been watching people arrive in waves and almost all of them are Twilighters. Finally, a few fully dressed Stormtroopers clomp by and even through their helmets they look a mite intimidated. News vans have been arriving intermittently, setting up for morning show segments and around 5:30am the lights over the sidewalk snap on, waking up most of the people napping. We only get a few more minutes of sitting where we are when suddenly people start bolting up and running. We've been told to move *again!* Instead of being guided in thr order we were all lined up in, people were allowed to run and shove, pushing people who had been waiting since the night before further back in the newly formed "line." Obviously this is untenable for obvious reasons.
The Twilight Moms assert themselves and ask to speak with the Events Coordinator. Needless to say, this situation drags on and we are ignored by quite a few people but I need to mention a gentleman named Russian and the female Elite employee they sent to help resolve the situation. They listen patiently and help get the long suffering Twilight Moms and the others with them back in the front of the line. Luckily, pictures I had taken helped figure out what order we all go in.
At 6:30 four of us get interviewed for CBS Channel 7 news. Very exciting. We head back to the line and take our places, no one sitting down now as we wait to be told we can go. The wait is spent nervously, people milling around waiting for the command and then it comes. Right after we get the go ahead, chaos ensues. Even though people have been told not to run or shove, it's happening all around us. So most Twilighters cling to the person in front of them as we walk as fast as we can. As they promised, once we are inside and up the escalators, getting our badges is almost painless.
Discovering that we still have over an hour to wait for the ticket drawing for autographs is mildly disheartening but it gives us time to freshen up. There is a bit of reunion in the woman's restroom as we fluff our hair, cool down and get liberally spritzed with cotton candy body spray. We chat about theories for Bella in "Breaking Dawn" and eventually wander back out into the Sails Pavilion, not knowing where they will have the drawing. The closer it gets to 9:30, the clumpier the crowd gets. It's hard not to panic a little as I lose sight of my group. Eventually I see a hand with red ribbon at the wrist but it's too late to try to catch up because at that moment we all hear "TWILIGHT!" And I am forced to take back what I thought about the stampede to get in to the pavilion. That was normal. This? This is pure insanity.
Hundreds of people surge forward like a human tsunami and I get told later by my slender best friend she was actually so smooshed she was almost a foot off the floor as the crowd carried her along. The wait is excruciating because we all know that there is no WAY the Con officials planned for this kind of response. Hysterical shrieks erupt from the front of the line every time someone gets a ticket. I chat with a woman who says she has met and gotten Stephenie's autograph. Even though we are in the same position in line I let her go ahead of me. Have I mentioned I hate irony?? She gets a ticket and I don't. I try not to cry because I know there are lot of other people who are disappointed like I am and if we all cried, we would flood the convention center. The last ticket is pulled in under twenty minutes and my group wanders down to the Convention floor to go to the Summit booth. After we find it and get our Twilight freebies we look at each other with a bit of dread. It's time to go stand in line for Hall H.
Once we get outside and see how long the line is, I become the "bag lady" for our group and sit down with our things while they go to stand in line. In under 15 minutes I see them walking up, my sister limping a little. I hand the bags back to Laura and Athena as my sister look at me sheepishly. "I pulled a Bella" she admits. When I probe Laura says they were in line and suddenly Stephanie dropped a little and fell forward on her hands. Turns out she had stepped into a hole where a light should have been. I ask Steph if she's ok and she nods but I am thinking we need to get her ice. She tells me the Elite event staff covered the hole but didn't offer her help so I tell her we'll get help when we get inside.
Once inside Hall H we get seats about 3/4 of the way back and Steph and Laura say they are off to the bathroom. While they are gone Athena and I hear screaming and look behind us to where the black curtain all along the back wall is slowly falling down, making "ping" sounds as the metal bars bend away from the wall and snap. It falls all the way down, Con attendees and Elite officials holding it up as best as they can to make sure no one else gets hurt. This delays the first panel but it eventually starts and is for "The Day the Earth Stood Still" Athena and I are getting wiggly as we both wonder where my sister went! I text her but get no response. Laura finally shows up and whispers that Stephanie got her ankle wrapped and because of Elite's poor treatment of her they were going to comp us all four day passes. Athena and I have the same response. That'd be great if we had planned a four day trip. But she has work and Laura and I have nowhere to stay. Athena suggests that instead, we all get a chance to see Stephenie. Laura leaves and comes back with my sister about the time the "Max Payne" panel starts. Laura and Stephanie sit down and before I can ask how she is my sister bursts into tears and starts apologizing. Through her tears she explains that only she can meet Stephenie. I kiss her head and cry too but only because she looks so sad. I smooth her hair down and tell her to get whatever she wants signed to her but to tell Stephenie how much I love her books. My sister shakes her head but stops protesting because about that time the announcer tells us there has been a change of plans. A ripple goes through the crowd as we all try to guess what that means and then we scream, the entire hall screams... Hugh Jackman walks onto stage and six thousand fangirls lose it. Somehow, Hugh isn't phased one bit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment