Stranger Than Life

Well, we left early, but due to the horrendous construction in downtown Atlanta, I had to take an alternate route. It took us two hours to get there. I was standing in front of the hotel unloading when I realized that about a foot away and looking expectantly at me was Lance Hendrickson (Bishop from Aliens). A DragonCON staffer asked me, "Are You Christine?" Only having eyes for one of my favorite actors of all time, I said, "Hi, Lance. How are you?" I think he answered, "Just fine." The staffer then asked me if I was Christine again and I had to answer no. Apparently they were looking for the person who was supposed to drive Lance. If I didn't have the kids with me, I would have said, "No, but do you need a ride?"

I met him later at the Walk of Fame. We actually know someone in common. Chris Ellis who played the Coroner in Millenium is an old family friend. Lance is a fan of Memphis. He gave me a free autograph. He seemed so calm and pleasant. I really don't see how they do it, being shuffled around constantly and having to sign autographs for hours on end.

So, I dropped my luggage off and then dropped my kids off in the computer gaming area. My husband is Don Stauffer, Director of Computer Gaming for the con. Then I had to hustle over to the Hyatt to get my badge. It was hot and I'm on the South Beach Diet which seems to have upped my metabolism, so I was sweating horribly. My panel was at 2:30 and I made it with five minutes to swear, but I looked awful. My face was red and my hair was wet.

The panel was Vampires, Ghosts, & Other Supernatural Beings. I shared the panel with Christina Barber, but I can't recall who else at this time. They made a major change in the way they categorized everything and now I'm on the Dark Fantasy: Horror track. I'm not sure I like the changes. It seems there are way too many sub categories within the tracks. Why can't we just have a Horror track. What is this Dark Fantasy?

After my panel, I went and picked up my luggage from the bell captain and dropped it off in the room and I did something with the kids until later, but I can't remember what. They were bored the entire time apparently. I gave them the schedule and told them to pick out things to do and they couldn't find anything.

My room was in the Hilton, but all the writing stuff is in the Hyatt, two hotels away. Needs to say my legs and feet were killing me. I have fibromyalgia, so what makes someone else very sore, cripples me. I'm going to work hard this year to try to regain muscle strength and lose weight. I don't want to be in a wheelchair next year.

Michelle met up with me and we went to dinner and then on the way back to the room, we met Dana Snyder, aka Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Once of nicest and funniest guys on the planet. He and Michelle clowned around. We also met some of the Game Stop Entertainment Staff, several who'd come all the way from Ireland (Brian and Aaron). These were really nice guys who made us feel very welcome. We had a great time, although someone called security on us because Brian's deep voice carries too easily even when he speaks normally.

I guess you can say the party was successful if Security shows up. We ended up going to bed around 4am, but I couldn't sleep because of my legs hurting. I took a hot bath and took a muscle relaxer and a hydrocodone and finally fell asleep around 6am. All and all it was a great day, except for the fact that I missed Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog because I didn't feel up to walking to the Sheraton.