Dragoncon2000 Report

Day 1

I didn't get any sleep, I went to bed at 1am and got up at 4.  My plane took off at 8, and since you have to be there 2 hours ahead, and it takes 1hr to get to Calgary....well you know....

My brother was gracious enough to drive my mom and I to the airport and made some "typical women" comments about the luggage.  Little did he know about all the armor packed in there.

Going through customs was a breeze and the officer was curious "what's in the box?"  LOL  Lets not get started, but he thought that a storm trooper costume was cool, even though he never asked to see it.  Happily enough, no one was worried about my big black suitcase, which had my 6lb solid aircraft aluminum saber in it...hmmm!  I'm glad they didn't see it!

The flight was un-eventful except for the fact I was so excited I couldn't eat! I had never met anyone from the prop board, and I had only met a few people off the internet.  Now I'd be meeting over 20 of them.  I was most excited to meet Richard, Stephane, Bob and Azeem.

Richie immediately grabbed the sacred bag (my maul costume which I REFUSED to let the airline carry) and we walked to a subway.  Ok that freaked me out, HOLY huge airport, has its own damn subway!  Well, they called it a monorail, I call it a subway.  And to make it worse, no driver, only a computer.   But that was cool !

My escorts then proceeded to start embarrassing me in front of everyone by singing the matrix theme,  which over the course of Dragoncon became my OFFICIAL Sithvixen theme.  It now has its own dance too. (I invented that part). But I was ok with the teasing, I thought those two guys were the coolest shit since sliced bread.  And Bob gave me my Vaderpainter "SECURITY" badge! Yay!  He carries an awesome brief case full of goodies, and its cool, it has VADERPAINTER and stickers all over it. 

Continuing on, we walked to the front of the airport where a female Jedi *growl* was in full costume and they all giggled about something I had no clue about.  We then promptly met Azeem (Jeff), TD741 (Stephane), Derek and Brandi by the luggage section and I reminisced about how I should have shown my brother all the luggage Stephane had.  He filled a whole cart just about to my height!  I promptly received my bags too, and made Bob "look bad" (quoting him!) by lifting my own luggage *LAUGH*.  I also got my very AWESOME  Vaderpainter t-shirt and hat, and apparently there was a little tiny maul saber waiting for me but we never did find it. 

After all the greetings, everyone spent a while waiting for Vaderpainter to get the last person (Scott) and thus Richie started to play with the Jedi girl -- he grabbed  her little ewok and we played football with it her to cries of displeasure MUWAHAHAHA.  "Kristen go long!!!  YEAH! "  Poor Jedi Girls.  Eventually Bob returned and everyone was in place with luggage so we waited for him to get his big ass white truck.  We quickly showed our luggage tickets in order to leave AND SUDDENLY DAMN, Bob's truck was  soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo COOL!  Big dodge 4x4, with crew cab, and a big box (lord knows we needed it with all of the luggage) and it had VADERPAINTER written all over it!  *drool*  I want one too, but at this rate, looks like I'll be getting the briefcase first.

On the way back we stopped at a gas station and filled up (with drinks too) and then took off again for the Hyatt.  Richie and Bob freaked out on the highway yelling at cars and sh** and embarrassing me and I freaked out about the speedometer thingy not being in  kilometers.  To make it all even better, Richie had STOLEN the ewok doll!!!!  Oh man was mookie's mom ever gonna be pissed! 

Suddenly it started to rain and we realized all the costumes were in the back.   Bob had to pull over and get the important costumes inside! The crew  finally arrived at the hotel and unfortunately they mad us use valet parking in order to unload all of our crap.  That was a big annoyance for the driver, since they charge 12 bucks a day or something.  We eventually made it upstairs to check in, and then the freaking HOTEL required some dude to bring all of our luggage up to room 607! :) YEAH!  There goes another forkload of money.  Bastards.

DINNER TIME (hell the first day isn't over yet!) We proceeded to Planet Hollywood for some grub.  We got a table quickly and went to the Hollywood bar for some drinks.  At that point I remembered that the drinking age is 21 DOH! 

Well no one ordered alcohol anyway.  Overall it was uneventful, Richie and I looked at the displays and blah blah blah.

Back at the hotel, I think we wandered around following Bob for a bit and got to meet Cathy (the organizer of Matters of the Force track).  She was very nice but I think a bit ditz....disorganized. 

Mookie afterwards told me he had to go drop off the car he was borrowing from his friend Mike so I jumped in -- and voila Vaderpainter followed us.  We drove down the highway, which reminds me of a song by the B52's.........and I chatted with Rich.  Gawd, its like we had known each other for years!  We arrived 40min later to this nice neighborhood with big gates like something out of Hollywood, and I got to meet Mike.  *cough cough* 

Of course, when you're with this kind of company, the ride home was just as interesting.  Bob, who lives in Atlanta I might add, got lost.  We drove around for about 2hrs through good neighborhoods and some really bad ones.  Eventually it started to pour rain so we had to pull Richie's stuff out of the back of the truck.  We really enjoyed the drive though, because we were able to chat and chat and chat.  I laughed at bob for getting lost and he was a bit pissed at himself and the rest of us LOL BUT NOOO, we DID NOT stop and ask for directions (Hey I was cool with that!) I later found out he did that on purpose so he could talk with us. What a goof.

The rest of the evening was a blur, and if anyone remembers what we did, e-mail me!  I was a bit excited.

DAY 2

Grumble Grumble, get out of bed early! Some vacation! Ahhh but its TROOPING TIME!  I immediately ran out of the room to see if anyone was in costume in the lobby yet!  Look over the railing to my great disappointment, I didn't really see anyone.  WELL FINE, then we will show them.  I took a shower, took pictures of everyone getting changed and in their underwear and made sure to prance around the room in my unitard to freak everyone out.  Muwahahahaha, that's SithVixen for ya.

It took us a good while to get organized and make sure that our costumes were just right.  Azeem stuck me up with an FM radio and then suddenly my voice modifier which I thought had broken suddenly was working YAY!  The march down to the lobby kicked ass.  It was the first time I had ever been in public with my trooper suit and I was beside myself finally getting to walk out!

We met a bunch of others in the lobby and I discovered for the first time, what its like to be at a convention fully dressed up.  People won't leave you alone, there is a constant barrage of photos being taken, people pleading for your photo, making short trooper comments, asking you questions, and to top it all off, news and media crew wanting interviews and shots!  It was ASTOUNDING. 

At times we were literally surrounded by a crowd of 20 people or more snapping photos and posing with us.  I was lucky enough to be interviewed by www.gamers.com with Richie and a few others.  They had a really sweet digital movie camera.   The most annoying part of the day were the constant mutterings of "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?"  Yeah I know I'm short, but that really kills me after the 5000000 time  Um like, did you bother to watch the rest of the movie or did you stop the tape there?

We marched all over the Con as a group and got a very positive response.  The escalators I learned would be an interesting challenge! And to top it all off I FINALLY got to see Vaderpainter's AWESOME costume, geez was it sweet!  I have total penis envy over his suit!  I loved his 3 inch lifts too! Out of all the vader's I've seen, his was the best, and I'm not saying that to kiss his ass.

We marched over to the dealers market as a group, and that was very cool.  Traffic literally stopped.  Lots of honking, screeching of breaks, screaming and heck! A paparazzi of people were on the other side of the street taking photos! It was too cool, and there wasn't that many of us yet! 

I learned 2 new things.  One, that cables and cords from microphones and fm thingers can be VERY annoying and that my trooper boots and HORRIBLY uncomfortable. 

After meeting the stars, getting Paul Moses to take professional pictures and walking around the dealers market, we headed back and got mobbed for photos again.  A few of us got out of costume and headed for some grub in the mini-mall attached to the hotel.  Duh us, we took the long way to get there too and by the time I got seated and eating, my feet suddenly started to COMPLAIN.  HOLY!  It felt like they were on fire!  I ordered a hotdog and Julius and was entertained by Richie and the nun chucks, but my feet were screaming.  I walked, no, hobbled over to Naturalizer and begged them for insoles :) Ha! They gave me 4 for free! Wow what a world of difference. Thank you ladies!

Lets see, what else did we do, hmm I bought 2 pairs of sunglasses, we walked back to the hotel.  Got back in costume and went parading around some more! (One pair of sunglasses were promptly stolen, but that was my own fault)

The Jedi girls showed up eventually,  looking for "mookie"  the ewok.  Poor girls.....*snicker*  There were some plans to take photos of him parading around dragon con with our cameras, with different people, and so the guys started on their Great Mookie Quest. 

Later, we went carefully down the 3 sets of escalators to the Dunwoody room.  It was a bit crowded, and they wanted us to walk through the room as a surprise for the costuming session.  We kind of stood around for a bit and I was having trouble with the FM radio making my voice box squeal.  They FINALLY got us organized and started to blare the imperial march.  Everyone seemed to love this but it was over and done with in 2 min.   A few of our group stayed behind to give a seminar about costuming with the fans.

Then it was back up the escalators (ufff, that is tough when you can't see!) and back to the main lobby.  Ok, another round of photographs as usual but this time we were on a mission.  We were gonna walk to HardRock and the Planet.  This was going to be coooooooooool!  I had always heard stories of the march, but this was my first. 

We hit the HardRock first.  Walking down the street was great with about 30 of us.  People totally freaked out and the paparazzi on the other side of the street kept flashing cameras all the way there!  The HardRock loved us too, we all walked around the restaurant and visited with patrons.  I had a few pictures taken and people laughed or tried very hard to pretend we didn't exist.  

When that got old, we hit the Planet.  Walked right in and those poor employees.  And what a coincidence that I walk right into all the starwars actors!!!  Jerome Blake stood up, looked at me and said "Aren't you a little short to be a stormtrooper!"  I lunged at him  and he jumped back and laughed.  That was a blast!  When I took my helmet off Jeremy said "HEY its you!"  Ha! 

Vaderpainter started the trip up the stairs so everyone could hit a table and get a few pictures.  People upstairs were freakin out too.  They had a big long table for us but just for poses more or less.  None of us stayed to eat, we just continued back to the hotel for more picture sessions.  When ever we left and then showed up again in great numbers, another photo session always seemed to ensue, like we had never been there before.  What a blast!

It was finally time to strip of gear though, and get something to eat.  Man I was hungry about this time.  Vaderpainter and a few of us hauled ass over to Hard Rock.  Turns out a few others from our group were also hangin there.  We sat at 2 separate tables because there were just too many of us.  I was sitting beside Bob and everyone was hyper.  Then suddenly this big huge woman comes out and delivers our food.  In a deep booming voice, oh my god, I realized, she was a HE.  Man I just about crapped my pants.  They all laughed at me, apparently this type of thing is normal (?) Good grief!  Well at least he *ahem* she wasn't hitting on Bob or Stephane *laugh*  Both of those two seem to have the worst luck with gay people hitting on them.  After eating my cheeseburger, I bought a cute souvenir thing from the HardRock and then we all headed out. 

Back at the Hyatt things weren't quite winding down for all the partiers but the costuming thing had died a bit.  There wasn't a heck of a lot more to do but wander around and shoot the shit.  We got pamphlets that told us "Good Morning Atlanta" wanted everyone to appear in costume in the morning at like 7am for a news broadcast.  I really wanted to show up but I knew my makeup was going to take a while to put on.   I for sure had to be ready at 9 for escort duties.

 I went to bed that night and kept everyone up with my giggling.  But they wouldn't quit bugging me! SHUuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUT UUUuuuUUUP you guys! *laughs*   Man I didn't get to sleep until late, this was not going to go over well tomorrow. They teased me about that too, and I kept giggling!

Day 3

Man, 6am, I could barely wake up, especially from jet lag.  It was more like 4am to me.   Mookie helped me for a bit in the bathroom with my bald cap and then I worked my magic until 8:30.  I don't know why it took me so long but it did !

When I got out of the bathroom to put my costume on,  I walked downstairs, and boy did it feel weird.  I stood in the lobby for a bit, just amazed at the amount of people requesting photos all morning!  I got a lot of positive feedback on my makeup job, and the fact the bald cap was so well hidden and stuff.  One guy came up to me yelling "OH MY GOD, CAN I HAVE MY PICTURE WITH THE SECOND BEST DARTH MAUL EVER,"  well I was flattered. 

I also got some inside information that Good Morning Atlanta didn't show and then later someone told me they did.  Well I took too long anyway, so sucks to be THEM.  It was too bad I phoned my mom the night before and told her to watch.  Ohhhh well.

A few of us made the march down to the dealers room and I got my pictures taken with the stars wooo hooo!  They all loved my makeup too, and Richard LeParmentier said he knew of a very good dentist that could help me with my teeth (Maul's teeth LOL)

However, we had to rush back for the escort duties rehearsal.  Vaderpainter wasn't gonna dress up unfortunately, but he was taking charge of the situation and planning.  We marched up and down the escalators and did a formation in the main ballroom.  Everyone did a practice run to the dealers room.  Then all was set.  We met the actors in the dealer room (Vaderpainter was thinking he might have to drive David Prowse because of his hip).  and started our escort. 

First they were escorted across the dealers room to a TV interview.  Man I was dying of the heat already.  I also noticed a girl with "SithLords kick ass" t-shirt was following us.  Interesting.

When they finished the interview, we got all lined up again (Vaderpainter was good at taking charge of us) and started to march.  We lead them out the door and up a set of escalators.  Duh Bob freaked out when someone lead us RIGHT through the middle of a busy BANK, with our blasters and all!  The actors were dying laughing.  I turned around and made sure David Prowse was ok.  He said yep.

We walked to the hotel and escorted them down the escalators for their big entrance.  Everyone ended up waiting outside the door for quite some time.  I had a few people as me for poses and pictures.  I was walking with the emperor so both of us were a real hit and  I had fun talking to him all the way there.  FINALLY they opened the door and turned the music on.  We all marched in and got up on the podium, our group then lined up and everyone cheered.  I noticed that Azeem wasn't marching but instead filming it all!  I hoped he'd eventually send me a copy, since this was cool.   Richard LaParmentier made a cute joke and we all left.  Applause applause! :)

On the outside while the show went on, our group had to stand and wait until they were done the speeches.  We basically hung around on the second level, posing for photos and talking to fans.  This is where I met the SithLords kick ass girls from the DVEB on the internet.  They were very nice and wanted to check out my costume.  Very happy I was a girl too hehehehe.  I loved their t-shirts and I posed for pictures with them!  It was very very cool!  I gave them all a card and they went on their merry way.    I wandered around some more, and finally had to sit down since I was so exhausted.  One of my horns started to come off and I didn't have time to go fix it arg!  It would take to long to go up those horrid elevators to my room or I would have.  One fellow offered to glue it back on for me but he didn't have any spirit gum.  Well thanks but that's useless LOL   I followed the emperor around some more and watched as a radio station got him to do his evil emperor voice hehehe it was hilarious.

All of us had to pose for a huge group shot of course and I was happy to oblige!  The group lined up and the cameras started going!  We had some beautiful pictures turn out from this shoot. (See far right)

Escort duties again!

We retrieved the stars and started the big march back to the dealers room.  This time, it was funny.  As we got to the parking lot, we could not go further!  A big huge parade of salvation army officers from around the world was flowing down the street.  There were thousands of spectators and here was a silly group of storm troopers, sith lords and rebels, right out of place LOL  We had to wait almost 15min before anyone could cross the street and man did we get some strange damn looks.  Once again, the actors thought this was hysterical.  Luckly, Vaderpainter got to drive David back to the dealers room.  Man that must have been his dream come true.  Like me getting to drive Ray Park around or something.  Right on. 

Well to their happiness, the actors got back to their autograph tables and began making money again.  They loved the escort I'm sure.  I went back to the hotel and made sure to fix my horn and makeup.   Then I went downstairs to walk around once again.  It was a real hoot being asked for pictures.  The best one I remember was this african american lady and several of her guy friends.  Well she freaked out and said "OH MY GOD A GIRL DARTH MAUL THAT IS SO COOOOOOL" and insisted that her friends or brothers get down on the floor and be bowing to me like a sultan while she snapped photos.  Damn.

The costume contest was on next and I didn't want to miss it!  I was late actually.  By the time I got finished fixing all my makeup, they had already started doing the show.  Luckily, Mookie sweet talked me in with Cathy and I managed to get a late entry.  I was number 35.  We stood in line for what seem like forever.  Basically the routine was everyone went in individually, walked down the isle and bowed to the judges, then turned around, did a cute little routine, bowed and walked out.  We all had to wait our turns.  There were several beautiful Amidala costumes, a yarn wookie, some bikerscouts on bikes, Leias, Solos, Bounty hunters, everything you can imagine.  I was the only Maul.  We all stood and talked.  The only thing I didn't like was having to go out in front of 200 people all by myself and not even have a planned routine! Damn, no time to plan it!  So I started thinking in my head.  I was a bit nervous, not competitive but more like I didn't get any preparation for this!  Then to top it off, we had to go out a second time and do some sort of skit.  I talked with a few people in the corner and complimented their costumes.  Man there was some cool stuff!

Then suddenly it was my turn! Oh my god.....

Everyone turned to face the back of the room at little old me.  I had my hood up and scowled. 

I marched out and Tom Ott put on cool bad ass music real loud. I would have preferred some Star Wars music like Dual of the Fates but Mookie didn't get it in time DOH!  Suddenly to my right 5 girls stood up!  The girls with "Sith Lords Kick Ass"  t-shirts!! OH man what where they DOING?   They put their right fists to their chests and all bowed at the same time. Everyone in the crowd ROARED!   I didn't know what the hell to do so I saluted them *laughs*  and walked on.  I marched like a bad ass to the front of the room and my hood eventually fell off.   Cameras were flashing like MAD and blinding me and to top it off, little did I know this was also being filmed by Gamers.com and if you watch the video you can see me march! 

To make things even more amusing, at the front of the walk, just before I bowed, the African American lady and her guys were standing to my right and they ALL started to bow.  More laughs and cheers from the crowd.  At the front I bowed, and removed my cape.  Then I twirled the saber like a bad ass and bowed, grabbed my cape and walked off.   Vaderpainter went out a bit after me but he unfortunately did not get to enter the contest because he too was late.  They kicked ass though!  He wasn't too happy about Cathy refusing to let him enter.

I finally walked out of there and everyone clapped.  Then we stood in line for a bit and suddenly I was informed that we all had to go out one more time and do a skit.  Oooo great.  No time to prepare anything worth watching and our skit was gonna be chheeeeesy as hell.  I found this really cool guy,  and he looked quite a bit like Qui Gon.  Then I got with the tall Amidala in the black travel gown and the southern accent.   We decided that I had captured Amidala finally and Qui Gon was gonna fight me for her LOL. 

We walked out there and I was marching like hell with her in tow.  I had grabbed her by the arm and the whole crowd went OOOOooooooo.   Suddenly Dr. Damien yelled STOP RIGHT THERE YOU JERK.  That was great.  I turned around and grabbed my saber out and it was a bit goofy because he had a glass blade and I had no blade at all so we feigned fighting.  Yay.

Then he ran me through and I fell down and died.  Everyone Boooed LMAO. 

We got up and bowed and left.  That was it. 

After all the groups had gone and done their thing, we all had to go back into the hall for judging.  Oh my God.  Little did I know that the actors from star wars were actually the JUDGES! OOOPS, I did not realize this till later on in the con and then I was totally embarrassed!  However, they seemed to like it! They even made up some of the categories so that pretty much everyone had their own.  Best Amidala, Best Villain, Best makeup, best skit.  I lucked out and won a glow in the dark maul T-shirt and jar jar statue for best makeup.  YAY! :)

Everyone did a wonderful job and I LOVED the costumes.  The Amidalas had beautiful dresses, the Jedi ROCKED, the troopers kicked butt, Vaderpainter looked awesome, the biker scouts were cool, the bounty hunters were original, the Han solos looked just like Han solo (even the face!) and the Wookie was hilarious!   You couldn't have asked for a more fun group!

I ended up leaving a little soon because our 501st group was going to go on a march and dinner.  My makeup was already starting to chip around my chin but I did not really realize this.  It looked nastier than I thought!!

I lined up with vaderpainter and the group and we did a huge march to the Planet.  Man there was 54 strong of troopers, scouts, rebels, jedi, pilots, royal guards and sith in tow.  It was the most spectacular march of the con.  Cars were literally pulling OVER and honking horns!  At the planet, we were spectacular!

Everyone lined up and it was hilarious to see 50 stormtroopers lining up outside the door to get in and be seated.  People flashed cameras and both Bob and I had a photo shoot done.  Then these 6 girls came up and wanted their photo with darth vader.  What a blast!

When it was time to go inside, the hosts happily lead us upstairs to a room for the entire group.  We all picked seats (I went out of my way to sit with Bob he he he) and started gabbing.  The helmets were lined up on the wall like an explosion of storm troopers and that was quite a novelty for a while!  We also visited tables outside of our room and talked to children who were very interested in us.  Man my paint looked NASTY!  I was so mad after I saw the pictures later.  Wings and snacks and drinks were ordered but I didn't wanna screw with my paint further. 

Also, before I came up in the elevator, this girl approached me and asked if I could scare her friends at her table before I left.  Suuuure I said he he he.  She would show me later where to go.  I sat and gabbed with Bob for most of the stay and helped him with water and stuff since he couldn't sit down comfortably.  I think I was just kissing his ass royally.  I know you liked it Bob.  When he got up to chat, I had a photo session with the Qui Gon Dr Damien and that was cool.  His saber rocked!  I also got up on a chair and started dancing to the Ghostbusters theme which was playing loudly through the restaurant.  I didn't realize I was really going at it till everyone started snapping pictures and the planet Hollywood staff came out and insisted on a goofy planethollywoodized Polaroid shot of me and mookie sticking a dollar bill in my belt. 

About this time, I went downstairs to go to the bathroom and saw where the girls were sitting.  I also felt really bad that I couldn't give the girl in the bathroom a tip for handing me stuff.  Man I hope I didn't seem like a cheap ass to her.  I ran back upstairs to get a dollar but mookie was too busy to get my money for me.  He was paying the bill.  Finally everyone got organized and we went to leave.  When I stepped out of the elevator, I scared the CRAP outta the girls at the table LOL they all screamed.  The one that organized it all grabbed her wallet and was going to pay me but I wouldn't have it.  This was too much fun!

Dinner was great and I will never forget it.  But geez, the night wasn't over YET!

Back at the Hyatt, everyone kept asking for poses of me and the qui-gon look alike.  He did a very good qui-gon. So we basically stood in the lobby and did TONNES of poses for the crowd.  Killing blows, kicks, cool back to back shots.  We must have had at least 50-100 people surrounding us in a circle snapping photos.  My eyes started to go numb from all the flashing.  It was sure a boost to the ego to have that many people taking photos though!  Bob and a few storm troopers and I also did small photoshoots as well.  Some dude was there with a video camera and us two sithlords hammed it up....(just check out the crowd around us to the left, that's me and qui-gon!)

The worst part of the night was the fact that right before heading to planet Hollywood, my paint on my chin started to flake.  I was told it was phenomenal that the paint even last 2 hrs instead of the 8 I had already worn it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't make it back up to the room to fix it until just right before the qui-gon maul thing.  Luckily those shots turned out ok, but a lot of other pictures I was NOT impressed to see later on.  It just looked NASTY!  I have since bought tiny bottles of touch up paint I can keep in my sleeve.  And thank you mookie for holding my cloak at various times during the day. 

It ended up being quite late before everyone started dispersing.  Personally, after getting up at 6am (4am MY internal clock time)  to do paint, I wasn't going to wash it off YET.  Bob got out of costume and came wandering back with Barrett.  He was kind and bootlegged me an alcoholic drink that was sure to put me to sleep.  I sat on the edge of a huge plant stand and drank.  This one lady freaked out and insisted on a picture of Darth maul downing alcohol.  Um ok, I made an evil face, she snapped a picture and BARRETT witnessing all of this now makes fun of my in-character/out-of-character faces.  I even have a video of him mocking me the next day......Sorry, but when I'm in the paint, I just do that stuff! LMAO  Windu also came up to me and started talking, it was nice to see him in person and chat it up, though I was tired as hell! 

I also got up and walked around the con a few times because I was in paint and didn't want to waste any opportunity to be in costume by just sitting at the bar.
However, sitting at the bar got me noticed by Geek unique who asked if I wanted to be on TV.  The host did a little skit with me at the cantina beside the bar, and we had a saber fight with straws while he hocked bread at me.  It was pretty funny and I later saw that it was used on the show and in a television commercial teaser.  Right on!

Bob and crew had to leave eventually and I was just exhausted.  I sat on the floor for a few minutes since there were no chairs and Steve Hamedl asked me if I was cool and all.  Yep just exhausted and its time for bed.  Or a 2hr paint removal session AAAAAA.

Day 4

Gotta get up early so you don't miss a thing.  I was not going to do Darth Maul again, it would just take too long and I only had one bald cap anyway.  Today would be SithVixen -- Maul costume and no paint.  Of course there were just a handful of photograph requests today but that's because only internet Star Wars fans know who the hell SV is anyway.  My turn to take photographs.

Breakfast at the mini mall was nice.  Stephane was sweet and bought me some toast and juice.  I wasn't going to eat but he insisted.  SithVixen gets excited and looses her appetite.

I spent the better part of my day walking between the Hyatt and the dealers market, filming with my crap video camera, taking pictures and getting autographs.  I was way behind on the picture quota too -- thank you Mookie once again for taking pictures of me and other people.

In the evening we all gathered near the bar -- Geek unique asked us if they could use our group in their television show and everyone was quite happy to volunteer.  Wooohoo, I got to be on the show twice!  Basically we just had to do a few takes of us chasing the host down the hallway for not paying for his hotel room.  Oliver got to be choked by vader and I just followed everyone around like Darth Maul without showing my face hehe!

After the little performance, the group lined up by the bar and hummed the imperial march together.  Photo opportunities ensued of course and those imperial baddies picked me up and held me in one of the panorama photos LOL

Dinner time!  Vaderpainter's group changed into some nice clothes and headed over to a chinese restaurant across the street.  It was quite the adventure and Bob waited most of the night to get his coke.  He was even nice and bought me dinner.  

You know, I don't think I paid for but TWO or THREE meals the whole time I attended Dragoncon, thanks to some lovely men like Mookie and Vaderpainter and Stephane.  It totally wasn't necessary of them, I could have easily afforded my own food but thank you for your kindess.

After dinner a funny event happened on the stairs of a sky rise across from the Hyatt (Vaderpainter was asking people for "alms?" and cracking people up.  Then it was time for drinks at the hotel.  I ended up speaking with Paul Moses (Vaders Photographer) for a good portion of the night, who is a sweetie. 

Then Bob barged in and stole me away -- and Paul Moses kept making comments that we were a cute couple?? Bob and I died laughing later because we were not a couple. (yet) LOL  Thank you to all those who bootlegged for me at the bar woohoo!

Scott Hawkins came up to me a while later and asked if I wanted to hang with him at the Rave? What ? A rave???

Bob, Barrett, Scott (a different Scott) and I headed downstairs.  Right on!!! A rave!!!  It was really bizzare, with lots of wierd 70's and 80's music and glowing lights and jugglers of glowing objects.  Certainly it was the Goth scene of the night.  And I had to wear high heeled sandals.  How stupid! !

I have since then bought an appropriate pair of shoes for next year!  

After the Rave, Scott really wanted to go home so Bob and Barrett and all the guys decided to head off and ditch me!  Thanks guys! hehehehe j/k and I decided to call it a night too.

Day 5

OHhhh noooooo! Last day of the con.  I woke up a little bit late with the sun just glaring in my eyes thanks to the building across the street and their reflective windows.

I didn't even dress up today.  I just went around in jeans and a tank top, with cameras in hand for more photographs.  Stephane and I headed over to the dealers market -- and I think he was following me because I had the room key.  We hung out there and eventually Vaderpainter surprised me from behind and we stuck with that group.  

I also looked around for more souvenirs which included my first autograph from Ray Park! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Everyone talked a little more with the Starwars Actors and settled down on a set of stairs in the corner of the market.  The guys all grabbed my camera and started filming weird things on it!

Eventually 4:00pm rolled around and it was time for a lot of people to start catching their plane's back home.  Bob was driving a few of them so he had to head out!  We walked back to the hotel, grabbed everyone's things armor and baggage and loaded his truck.  Then I hugged everyone (including Bob) and said my goodbyes.  I filmed them driving away.  It would be the last time I saw most of them till next Dragoncon.  

It wasn't over yet though!  I had reserved my room an extra day so that I wouldn't have to leave in the middle of the con!  Back at the room, except for Azeem who had left that day, there were still 3 of us including Oliver! We were all hungry and headed over to the Hardrock to grab take out before it closed!  Acting like a bunch of goofballs waiting, we danced around and then headed back to the hotel with food in hand.  

At the bar and the little store next door, we bought sodas and said hello to Richard LeParmentier -- who kissed me goodbye! WOOHOO!  Then back to the room we headed.

Mookie kept making me laugh all through dinner so that I could not finish.  I'm sorry but HIS laugh is after all infectious.

There was still a lot of time left and after dinner, we all wanted to do SOMETHING.  ANYTHING.  So the guys thought hitting a movie would be cool.  We found out the address and headed for the MARTA.  Lucky me my sandals started coming apart at this point!  I was a slow treader.  

At the MARTA station and on the train, the guys were goofing off! I started picking fleas from Ken's head and he returned the favor.  The people on the train thought we were weird idiots.  And the guys tried to get me in trouble with a police officer for having water on board.  Of course he didn't even look at me. 

We switched trains and then finally got to our destination in downtown Buckhead.  We walked past the Lenox mall (man these guys were hilarious the whole way!!!!!)  and down the street to the snob mall of Atlanta. 

We decided to see Titan A.E. which turned out to be a good movie.  

When our group got back to the hotel, we FINALLY all started packing our stuff.  After of course we had a huge dogpile and picture session with Mookie's Moose.  Anything to distract us that home time was really coming.

Day 6

Home time.  Everyone paid and left at different times.  Bob phoned us all in the morning to say finally good byes and check that everyone was ok. 

Ken and I were left until about 1:00pm for my plane and his was even later.  There was an idea to go visit the coke museum but we didn't want to risk being late.

Everyone got hugs good bye, even me, and I boarded my airport shuttle. 

Later I got to see Jerome Blake in the airport woohoo! But that was the highlight of my trip back.

For about a month after the con, I suffered what we all call "Con depression".  (SithVixen wasn't the only one) I slept for about 5 days straight catching up on sleep and kept dreaming people were calling me from the Con.  I went online a lot to chat with everyone, wrote lots of emails, posted pictures, made a photo album and the worst part of all -- going back to work was extremely depressing. 

I have since then got over it, but not quite.  I ended up moving to Atlanta!!! Just couldn't get away from it.  Until next year, and the year after.....

DRAGON RULES!!!!!!!!!!