(I have time to kill before check-out time.)

Things of note related to Comic-Con:

1. I have entirely forgotten everything that was supposed to be an announcement made during panels I attended. Ex. Alexis Denisof (Wesley from Buffy) will be joining Dollhouse in season 2. Totally forgot that until I read it somewhere else. I’m a terrible reporter. Also, Aug. 21 will be known as “Avatar Day” (by whom? James Cameron?) and theatres will be screening 25min of the movie for free. Stuff like that.

2. Everything people said in guides and tip lists for the con were true. Showering during the four days is hard. People always ask stupid questions. You really do have to line up super early and stick to a single room if you want to see big panels. Now I know.

3. Seeing celebrities on stage is disappointingly similar to seeing them on a screen.

4. Meeting someone you adore is never as satisfying as you’d like it to be. You will not become best friends. They will give you an autograph, smile, crack a joke, perhaps, and then it’ll be someone else’s turn.

5. Comic-Con is a better experience if you’re a comic book fan. (Go figure.) Those people are more likely to get up close and personal with the writers and artists they admire.

6. If you like reading funny t-shirts, go to Comic-Con. I have never seen so many in one place.

7. You can tell when a celebrity really gets off on the crowd cheering for them. Most extreme case of this: Joshua Jackson. Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought so, either.

I’ll leave it at 7. I’m sure I’ll think of more later, though. All in all, the con was absolutely a worthwhile experience and I’m glad I went. Will I go again? I’m not sure about that. Considering the kinds of things I tend to like (with large fanbases and a bit mainstream), it may never be a very satisfying experience. I don’t really care for the fan-celebrity relationship that goes on here. You won’t see me screaming and cheering for a free t-shirt or a hug from Nathan Fillion.

Uh… but on a high note, I still do love the culture! I love that in almost every panel I went to, there was someone from the Jossverse (a.k.a. Whedonverse) and that mentioning Joss in any context anywhere at the con got huge cheers. And I love the geeky conversations you can hear while waiting in line (“I left for two weeks and when I got back my entire guild had disbanded!”). I love how downtown San Diego becomes a hotbed of geek activity during the con (one restaurant turned itself into the cafe, Cafe Diem, from the show Eureka, complete with life-size cardboard characters). All awesome. 🙂

Ah, the last day of Comic-Con. *tear* Thankfully, this was the one and only day I did NOT wake up before dawn to join a massive line-up. This time, I very casually strolled down to the exhibition hall a little after 10am for some shopping and autograph hunting (thankfully, I was not to be disappointed! *suspense*)

I actually didn’t end up buying anything else; I was still pretty satisfied with my Serenity Zippo lighter and grocery bag. I did, however, go down to the Comic-Con Fulfillment Room (doesn’t that sound like something from an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?) to redeem some of the tickets I’d picked up from random panels for swag. I ended up with a bunch of buttons from Family Guy, Simpsons etc. and a clock from 24 (how appropriate). The best swag was for True Blood, which gave out a bag with a t-shirt, a notebook and the second Sookie Stackhouse novel. Sweet.

I tried to find someone interesting who was signing autographs in the official autograph area, but it was slim pickings – it was the last day, after all. Down in the exhibition hall, though, I saw Edward James Olmos and Terry Carter (Adam and Colonel Tigh from BSG) signing stuff but they were expensive. Screw that.

Then I headed to the California Browncoats Fan Meeting since I had time to kill, not expecting much to happen there. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the guest speaker was Shawna Trpcic (yes, that’s spelled right), she’s the costume designer who worked on Firefly, Dr. Horrible and now Dollhouse. She had lots of fun stories, including one about how Joss always get credit for her ideas. *lol* She also explained the origins of the Jayne hat, which was inspired by a pair of slippers her grandmother made for her.

Then all of a sudden she was smiling and waving at someone in the back of the room and everyone looked around to see who? Who??? It was Nathan Fillion, who had just wandered into the room and proceeded to say, “no, please, don’t let me interrupt.” It was awesome. Everyone was very excited. And it was a really small room!

Nathan then regailed us with stories and obliged our Q&A, and even took group pictures with every two rows (these will be posted on the Calfornia Browncoats site, eventually). Following the meeting, he went to their booth in the exhibition hall, where we all got autographs as well. Thankfully, I had my Dr. Horrible DVD and he signed that for me. Score!

To end the day, and the con, I went to the Once More With Feeling screening, which had plenty of extra room (it does fit over 4,000 people after all…) and had a joyous last couple of hours. They handed out little finger monters (Grr… Argh…), fake Sunnydale parking tickets (scene from the musical) and commemorative buttons. Yay! People laughed at the right times, cheered racously for Spike, booed Dawn, rose their lit-up cellphones for Giles and Tara’s duet, and just generally were awesome Buffy fans, and it certainly ended the con on a high note for me.

Of course, all this was a couple days ago now, and I’m not home yet. I’ve been doin’ some other stuff, took a day trip to Tijuana and saw an old friend, but I’ll post about all that later. Tonight, I fly home!