Geek Girl Glee

*The pictures aren't uploading so I'll add them when I get home.*

So I probably didn't approach my La-La-Land getaway in the most sensible fashion. Instead of having all my luggage packed and ready to go early on Thursday night and getting a good night's rest, I went to my knitting cast-on party (I'll write something on the other, badly-neglected blog about that), then came home and packed and prepared until about 3am. I catnapped until 4:30am and then called a taxi to take me to the airport for the surprisingly crowded check-in. 0630hrs saw my flight take off and we landed at LAX some three hours later, me being unconscious for most of that (the snack cart left a cookie for me on my fold-down table). There was a long wait for the shuttle to the hotel and more time spent by the driver circling the airport, hoping to pick up more passengers. I fell asleep again en route to the hotel. When we arrived, there were plenty of obvious Browncoats hanging around, checking in, and making their way to the registration and event venue so I knew I was in the right place.
Registration took place in the front room of the Element Night Club. Slight typo on my Browncoat pass (they left out the "i" in my name) so not only am I skiving off from school this weekend, I'm all incognito as well. I had my picture taken with Ron Glass and then managed to take over 70 photos of him, Jonathan Woodward and Nectar Rose during their respective Q&As. Having played Mr. Universe's Lovebot, Lenore, in Serenity, I naturally assumed that her name was assumed for career purposes. Nope, really and truly, she was born and named Nectar Rose. And she's a very funny and genuinely sweet speaker who recently filmed a movie with Christopher Walken and is currently working on a Fellini-esque project where she gets painted gold and which she freely admits she does not understand. Ron was more a no-nonsense sort of a speaker and Jonathan had difficulty distinguishing his whisky glass from his microphone.
Managed to connect with Jen, the Travelling Aussie Browncoat, who had left some stuff in Vancouver when she moved home. I packed most of it down here with me and we made the luggage transfer once we got back to the hotel. As it was dinner-time, a group of us headed to the Italian restaurant next to the Element and had a nice meal in truly amazing surroundings while being serenaded by various members of the wait staff. The restaurant, Miceli's, is a family-run place in its original building from 1949. Heavy wooden beams, parquay floor and hundreds of Italian wine jugs strung everywhere give it's multi-floor set-up a very unique vibe. Especially with the piano-man playing accompaniament to the auditioned waiters (we didn't hear any woman sing but there were a couple women serving tables). www.micelisrestaurant.com The food was simple, flavourful fare and they don't skimp on the cheese.
Following dinner, we headed to La Cantina for the Meet 'n' Greet. Several cast members had been contracted to come out for a few drinks (Jonathan's always looking for a topper) and I had some very nice discussions with Christina Hendricks (it's a travesty that they don't have Mad Men photos for autographing), Mark Sheppard (who likes Vancouver very much, thank you) and Yan Feldman (raised in Toronto, it turns out). Jewel, her husband Matt, Morena (with short, short hair), Jonathan and Ron were there as well, extremely gracious and welcoming to all the eager but tongue-tied masses.
Tomorrow, Adam joins the throng (he was busy filming Chuck today) and the big Browncoat autograph session is in the afternoon. Squee! Adam's autograph will be the second last on my matte-framed nine-shot of the cast. Gina (and Joss, of course) remains the glaring hole in my collection. Now if I can just convince Sean Harry to host a convention in Vancouver.