FedCon 2012

It's hard to sum up an entire convention, it's highs and lows and nuances in a short blog post, yet at the same time I don't really want to bore people to death with minutia.

We drove to Düsseldorf on Thursday and it was a surprisingly easy drive down, most of the usual death-race 2000 drivers must have stayed at home. We arrived, missed the turn to the hotel parking so we ended up going around in a HUGE circle and finally made it.

Last year we stayed off campus and it sucked. If you want to do the costume thing you need to have a hotel room pretty well on site. So this year we booked with the Sheraton almost a year in advance and got a decent rate. It's a 4 star hotel that is pretty damned nice.

We got sort of checked in but we arrived early so the room wasn't ready. So we headed over to the con to get lined up and heck in there too.  The first people we bump into are our SCA friends Marie and Ove ( YAY) much girl squeeing ensued much to the amusement of the men folk.

The line up was quick and painless. We got our con passes and bags ( very nice this year)  and then we went back to our hotel to check in and unpack.

We had multiple costumes this year - our 501st crew and my tusken, doctor who (the 10th doctor and a clockwork droid from The Girl in the Fireplace) and the ever reliable StarGate cammo BDUs.

Thursday we attended Tery Rothery's panel which was very sweet, she's very funny and hella cute, opening ceremonies which once again Joe Flanagan missed. ( this is a running gag now I think) and then we left to find the bar. I couldn't sit any more since we'd had the long car drive and the Maritim seats are not SOOO comfy. Plus due to the fact that a certain husband of mine waited so long to book fedcon we had shitty seats anyway. Being short in Germany sucks since there is ALWAYS someone tall sitting in front of me and all I see is someone's head.

We found the bar, some friends and the DJ played awfully good music so we danced. It was my friend Sonja's birthday and the atmosphere was awesome. I did something I don't usually do and that was actually have a couple of the watery pre made cocktails - not so smart. Then I went mad dancing all bounce and energy all over the place which sent my low blood pressure up suddenly and then when I went to bed it dropped to the point of making me sick with a massive headache.

The next morning at the crack of dawn I found myself sick as a dog, shivery, dizzy and with a migraine the size of Manhattan. I took a pain killer then 15 minutes later I threw it up and that was that for the day. Not hung over just ill. This has happened before, my blood pressure drops and I'm dead on the bathroom floor wondering why it is every time I stand up I'm ill. I could understand it better if I was drinking my face off but I don't do that any more. It was just the over excitement more than anything else. The end result was I have no recollection of Friday beyond weird fever dreams and staying in bed and Marcus being loving popping in and out to check up on me and bringing me a Flüchwege T-shirt. I lost a whole day. But damned the DJ played great tunes and between Man o War and Rammstein  a girl just has to dance, you know.

Saturday:
Morning was autograph session so we costumed it. Star wars first, then because we had to be at a photoshoot the official 501ststuff, which for me this year was my tusken. There's nothing anyone can say to convince me that there is a better organised costume club than the 501st. man even with a smaller number of people this year we look sharp.

After the parade and photos we went back to the hotel and changed into the doctor who stuff. This was awesome. Marcus makes a darned good 10th Doctor and people loved the clockwork droid costume. So all around a bit success and made me happy to use a costume I had made years and years ago.

The afternoon we changed into easy to wear stargate BDUs and saw William Shatner followed by Richard Dean Anderson. Both a lot of fun. William Shatner was a treat but he's William Shatner and we got exactly what I expected we would. He was funny, rambily and on the whole delightful. I was especially delighted when he went to see the people in the second room, the ones who did not have weekend tickets and would be watching him on a screen instead, he was kind to do that, pop in say hi and be seen for real.  RDA was also fun but this time I think a little sad due to Paul Watson's arrest.

In the afternoon we also went to see Mattew Bennett though we got there a little late and missed the beginning it was absolutely worth it and then Casper Van Dien who Marcus had told me about earlier. I had missed him on the Friday due to being dead to the world. Both men were gracious and funny, and above all very, very kind to their fans. I was VERY happy not to have missed their last panels. Oddly enough I completely missed Jonathan Frakes, but maybe next time he comes. 

My butt hurt from sitting so we skipped the costume contest this year and went to have a drink and be social. I discovered I was pretty wiped out so we mostly took it easy and left early to crash. So we missed the big rockabilly band which was okay by me, they were good but it's not really what I want to hear.

Sunday was an easy day, we wandered around in our Star war crew in the morning during the autograph sessions, taking in the costumes and the sights, we bought some very cool hallmark star wars ornaments ( Darth Vaders) and chatted with the dealer guys who were cool and kind.We had a very nice lunch courtesy of Marie and Ove, thanks guys you will never know the world of pain you saved us.

Then we saw Felicia Day who is a delight, every bit as vivacious and fun in real life as she is one the social networks. It's nice, no it's awesome to see a geek gamer girl who is gorgeous represent all of us women in the scifi world of geeky girl goddesses. After that was Garrett Wang and Walter Koenig who were also very funny, and then once again William Shatner whose panel was marred for us by two absolute fucktards sitting behind us that did not shut up. I don't understand why people come into a panel to just sit there and yap all the way through it.


We watched closing ceremonies and it was really touching and a little sad. this is the first time we've sat through them usually we're driving home then. This time we had booked an extra night on the back of the con not the front so we had the time to relax.

After the closing we hung about a bit took some more photos and then went into the small smoke free bar to eat. The service was oddly terrible but the food was great. After this we wandered aimlessly for a bit then went back to our hotel room and proceeded to watch the DVD of The Captain's Table. I had brought my laptop and speakers to set up so we kinda hung out and maintained that con feeling by watching this one on DVD.

There were many highlights but it's hard to transcribe those into words and while I can write books I can't seem to do this very well. For me Fedcon, any con actually is more of an emotional experience than anything else. I go to hangout with like minded people and have fun. I get to small glimpse into the lives of the stars as they answer questions and I'm transported to another word for a few days.

I will say this Garrett Wang has to be one of the BEST MoCs I've ever seen. 

I will post pictures later on and try to be more succinct.

a very special thank you to Matthew Bennett who did exactly as he promised and answered the email and sent a BSG final day call sheet. How cool is that?

Klingoff!