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Friday
7:40am
Well, I'm loaded and the engine's running. Hubby said goodbye, and wished me fun. I have the vests, the beer, the scarvies, the art, clothes, and paperwork. Fortunately, I also remembered to pack a length of rope. You never know when that might come in handy! Got my road-trip T-shirt on (the trike one with the red sleeves, my fave). Let's go into town and fill up on gas. Take a sip of tea and we're off!
8:30
Ack! Stuck in traffic. I'm listening to my pagan music before Gonzai and Dij get in my car and we switch to more Billy-oriented fare. Going over things in my head, trying to think of what I may have forgotten. On the other hand, if I think of anything it's too late!
8:50
10 minutes early, I arrive at Gonzai's house. Woot woot!!
9:10
Loaded up! Fanbook assembled, stuff in the trunk, and we're headed off to find ice and coffee!
10:22
Still in Maryland. We've stopped for a fluids out/fluids in break at the Chesapeake House (a rest area. Like a transport cafe for those of you over there.) Suddenly, Gonzai felt an irresistible urge, and was drawn against her will towards the Galaga machine, which is still holding her captive. (from Gonzai) 190,910, a personal best but the machine wouldn't record my initials. We left Chesapeake House at 10:34. Listened to John Mayer's No Such Thing and thought of evil guidance counselors. Introduced Jennie and Dij to Christine Lavin, and the song "Harrison Ford."
2-ish
I'm grateful Gonzai is navigating, with a great road atlas. Yaaay!
3:00 on Long Island
My cell [mobile] phone is too quiet. We didn't hear it ring at all when Shelagh tried to ring us from the hotel. Tried to have my phone call her back & got "Above Average Towing". Arrived at the hotel and took a picture of me with the rope we remembered to pack. (You never know when you'll need a length of rope!) Adventures at check-in: Phone was ringing, and I fumbled for it and dropped my wallet. Everything spilled out all over the place, but we hooked up with Shelagh. The room they originally gave us had only one bed in it. For four of us! Gaaaah! We went back to the desk and they said "Well, there's only one room left in the entire hotel that has two double beds, but it's a smoking room. Is that okay?" I said, "Well, if we sleep there are we actually required to smoke?" She gave me a blank look for a second and said, "Uh, well, no." "Good. That'll be fine then." We were supposed to drive Carlita to the Viggo signing in Manhattan, but she was nowhere to be found and we didn't know her last name, so we left a message at the front desk for her and left the bag of "Wee Scarvies" (minus enough to hand out at the signing) for StefBaggins with a note. Alison phoned (turned up the silly ringer so I could actually hear it) and said she was going straight to the signing rather than go to the hotel first, and that the signing was going to be limited to 200 people, so we'd better hustle. So we headed out, but we haven't had anything to eat all day, so I stopped at a deli and we got lunch. The employees of the deli were very intrigued by Gonzai's and Dij's T-shirts. At least, I hope it was the shirts!
4:30-ish
Driving into Manhattan was okay, but suddenly we found the road ahead of us blocked by a very inconveniently placed Grand Central Station. Grumble! Had to drive around the blasted thing.
5:05
Power-walked down Avenue of the Americas after finding a parking garage. ShelaghC found Emma in the line. Somebody's handing out little green pins which say ICP. There are apparently only 200 of them, so you only get in if you have one. There are fewer than 200 people here at the moment though, so we're just waiting for the pin lady to make a reappearance. Shelagh went up to stand with Emma, holding my parking receipt hostage so we can't abandon her in Manhattan. Yaaay! The ICP lady came and gave us green pins!
Met the Michigan crew and distributed scarvies. Lizontheattack says Hi! Some guy is walking up and down inside the display window on the side of the ICP building and waving to us, and people are taking pics of him. He's hilarious!
Good news! The Michigan gang tells us that Carlita rented [hired] a car, and driving in on her own! So we didn't abandon her!
Hmm. Still waiting in line and it's clouding over. Hope it doesn't rain on our Signlanguage books!
A bunch of other fans are looking admiringly at Gonzai's portfolio. Cassie Claire's friend Ashwise stopped to chat. Cassie's in Costa Rica, it seems, though she wanted to be at the convention. Shame. Would've been nice to meet the Original Pervy Hobbit Fancier.
Aaaaaack! It's starting to rain!
Stood in the pouring rain for about half an hour, but bless Alison's heart, she went across the street and bought us three umbrellas! We were only moderately drenched. There are people here who are totally soaked, with wet T-shirts. Go Viggo! The kind lady running the signing let lots of us into the lobby to get out of the rain. It's made it a bit noisy inside, but we're very grateful. When I walked in the door, I shook the water off with a flick of my head and then realized that it was a little Pippin-in-the-Pony shake. I pointed this out and everybody laughed and started flicking their heads. It looks like Viggo's signing at least 3 or 4 things for people, and spending several minutes with each person. It's making it take a while, but nobody minds because they know that eventually they'll get their own several minutes.
Met Caralyn and Nessie (from Australia) in the line. We've been taking pictures (which the ICP encouraged, btw). Three people took pics of me holding a big printout of Stewart's smiley. I'll be soooo embarrassed if he sees them! ::blush::
Several people have reported that Viggo seemed unaware that Billy was even in town, so I guess they hadn't any plans to get together. But a number of us have been given instructions to kiss Billy for Viggo. Well, when the King of Gondor give you an order, you can't disobey! Someone was actually instructed to use red lipstick and kiss him all over the place, but . . . well, I'm not sure this will be happening. Heh heh!
AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!! Viggo is sooooo nice!!! The first thing I did was give him one of the "Wee Scarvies". I said, "This is really silly, but this is how Billy's fans are recognizing each other at the Convention. We're calling them 'Wee Scarvies'." He said, "Oh, yeah?" And took it and . . . TIED IT AROUND HIS PENDANT!!!! The greenstone pounamu from New Zealand! THAT one!!! ::dies:: He had my copy of Signlanguage at that point, and asked my name, and I rather fuzzily answered, "Jennie", but was so busy staring at the scarvie hanging around his neck, that I wasn't looking down at what he was writing. He said, "Oh, I hope it's with a Y, because..." I looked down and said, "Oh! Well, actually it's an "IE", but that's okay." He looked up at me and frowned and said, "No it's not!" (His brow really does have that little ripple effect when he frowns!) So he scratched out "Jenny" and wrote !!! over it, and then under it wrote my name again with great flair. Unfortunately, he spelled it with a Y again. So I actually laughed at Viggo Mortensen, and said, "You spelled it with a Y again!" He shook his head and crossed it out again, and then wrote in big block letters, "J E N N I E", with a spiral over the "I". And a heart, and his cool "Viggo". So then I dragged out my Movie Guide and flipped it open to his page, and he said, "I'd better spell it right this time!" (He did.) Then I gave him a copy of the Medieval manuscript-style artwork I'd done for Billy (a copy of which was in Gonzai's fanbook for Billy, and a copy of which I had for Billy to sign). Viggo was about to sign it, and I said, "No no. That's for you." He looked it over admiringly and thanked me before putting it on his stack-o-gifts on the shelf under his table. Wow! So Gonzai and Dij took pictures of me standing next to Viggo with his arm around me and my "Wee Scarvie" on his pendant. Aaah! He reminded me to take a postcard (he had stacks of postcards of several of his paintings on the table). I selected Entierro, 2001. Very cool.
Well, it looks like it's stopped raining, so we'd better head back to Long Island. Went outside and called Information [Directory Enquiries] and got the number for John Harvard's Brew House, and called them and got directions from Manhattan. The poor man thought I was a local and referred to the Long Island Expressway as the LIE for a second before I had to say, "Honey, I'm from Maryland. You're going to have to spell it out for me." He laughed and apologized and explained what in heck he was talkin' about. Heh.
9:00
Hubby called while we were driving back to Long Island, as it was Tibby's bedtime, and I had to sing her the Choo-Choo-Train song (our nightly ritual). Gonzai, Dij, and Shelagh were treated to the serenade, as well. I hope they're not in therapy for too long. ;-)
9:45
StefBaggins & Co. (the North Carolina Contingent) phoned me and got directions to John Harvard's. Unfortunately, they say they sent someone to the hotel to get the Wee Scarvies, and the dummy at the desk said, "I don't know what you're talking about! I don't see any package here." Sigh. Never mind. We have a few left over in Dij's bag.
We arrived and met about 18 people already there, including Sterlin who was hovering around nervously. Cheese and Julio arrived, and Sterlin gave her a gift containing a huge Green Bay Packers Cheese hat. [Wisconsin is a state known for its dairy industry. They make lots of cheese. The city of Green Bay has an American Football team known as the "Green Bay Packers" after cheese packers, the big local industry. Fans of the team wear huge foam wedges of cheese on their heads. Don't ask me why. Some British football fans drink Bovril. Go figure.] She and Julio sat with Dij and me, but didn't eat any dinner because they had had a fine French dinner at Le Burgeur King. Stef & Co. turned up and a new table was assembled for them. Stef passed around "Fellowship of the Wee Scarvies" nametags, and I reminded people who had screen pics (avatars) to leave room next to their name for them (as they're in the blasted bag back at the hotel desk). Jade Hawke says the trip from West Virginia should have taken 8 hours but took 11. Dij and I chatted for a long time with Julio about the weather in Anaheim vs. Maryland. (He is also at USNA).
11:00
Cheese has given Carlita directions to John Harvards.
(from Cheese)
11:07
JennY gets drunk. (She deliberately spelled this with a big Y after hearing of the Viggo incident.)
Jade gave me the most adorable little teddy bear with a kilt! The tag says, "This pint sized Billy Boyd bear was made for Jennie for the Wee Scarvies, I-Con '02". So cute! Unfortunately, he's not anatomically correct. ;-)
(from Alison)
11:15 Jennie and Alison plot ways to get the "Fellowship of the Wee Scarvies" to a real bar on Saturday.
Dij asks Cheese how to get to the bathroom, and Cheese (being Cheese) says "Just go where you are!"
Good thing Billy and Stewart aren't here. The beer glasses are much smaller than the soda glasses (about half a pint size). My cider, however, was in a big glass. ::grin:: I had two!
Sterlin's collecting a list of messages to those who couldn't come. [Oops! Hobbit Kitty informs me that it was she collecting the messages. Sorry HK!] Rayvah is collecting memories in a journal.
11:55
Packing it up. They're kicking us out. They've put all the tables back and they'll probably turn the lights out on us soon. Byeeeee!
1:45
Stayed up until quarter to two reading Gonzai's fanbook in the hotel room. I promise not to accidentally spoon up against Gonzai in my sleep, and she threatens to kick me if I do.
Okay, to access Saturday's diary, click on I-Con Day 2 on the sidebar to the left.
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