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So, I had this whole big long blog post written about ECCC, but upon re-reading, it bored even me.  But now I've got a few glasses of wine in me, so I think I can do better.
WITH BULLETS!

Up at 6:45am on Saturday, stop for a big ass latte and breakfast, on to the convention center!

Arrive at the Minion room, check in, get my bright green shirt and wait.

Quick tour (or power walk) around the event with a Black Shirt (staff member), quick burst of information and instruction, back to the Minion room and wait.

The head chick says "I need 10 Minions for Media!" and I pop up and run out the door to be included.

I am stationed at the front of Clair Kramer's autograph line.  Who, you ask?  Glory on Buffy.  She was wicked bad.

Awesome Steve, Clair's ECCC wrangler, is a sweetheart and gives me tips on line management.  Which I don't need because, at our busiest, we have five people in line.  As opposed to William Shatner and James Marsters, who are on either side of us and have to have lines that weave because there's so many people.

Clair is very nice and chats with me and Awesome Steve during the downtime.

Meanwhile, a bazillion people are milling around in costumes.  Some I know.  Some I don't.  I'm happy to be stationed away from the crowd.

I take an afternoon break while Clair is at lunch and doing photo ops, and go visit my hubby is who hanging out on Artist Alley.  While there, a good artist friend of his, Kris, comes over to say hi and mentions that the artists behind him has a line of people that is wrapping around Kris' table and it's blocking his business.  I ask him if he wants me to put my Minion shirt back on and take care of bidness.  He says, "If you're offering..."

I put on my Minion shirt and head to Kris' table.  He's right - there's a line of about 30 people wrapped around hit table, waiting to talk to another artist.  This will no do.

I break up the line and instruct the group to line up against the wall, across the aisle.  When there's room at the artist's table, I call a few more fans over to line up right at his table.

Kris is very appreciative.  The Staff head of the department pats me on the back.

The afternoon is winding down, the big sought after artist's line has finally dissipated, so I go back down to Media and find Clair and Awesome Steve.  There's no one in her line and they're chit chatting with someone.  I answer questions from attendees.

It's still fun to look at the famous people.

Suddenly, it's 7pm and it's time to check out for the day and freshen up for the concert.

Todd and I walk down to The Hard Rock Cafe and are dumbfounded by the line that winds around the block.  Uh.  For James Marsters?  Uh.  Maybe not.

But wait!  Trish is the fourth person in line at the front door!  We swoop in (which I still feel bad about) and are upstairs at the bar in 15 minutes.

And we are, again, dumbfounded to find that you cannot get food in the upstairs area of The Hard Rock Cafe.  We have lived on trail mix and power bars all day and just want some REAL FOOD.  Ain't happenin'.

James goes on.  Woohoo.  Trish and I belly up as close to the front as we can get.  He's cute.  But I'm tired and hungry, so I leave Trish to drool and rejoin my husband until James is done.

Actually, we don't even wait until James is done.  We've heard enough.  GIVE US FOOD.

We wait 30 minutes for a table, even though we see numerous tables that are empty.  I wait in line for the bathroom because there are only two unisex bathrooms.  And once I get in there, it is freakin' disgusting.  No urinals, only a toilet.  For a unisex bathroom.  What the hell?


We wait 20 minutes for our drinks and another 15 minutes for our food.  The waitstaff tries hard to be "cool" and "hip" but end up just being rude, immature and disrespectful.

The Hard Rock Cafe?  Not ever again, even if you paid me.

Finally, dinner is over and we return to the upstairs to see KrackleFest.  Which will begin after the two rappers.  Which is two rappers too long.

We say goodbye to Kyle and wish him a good performance, then go home and crash.

Sunday!  Up at 7am, stop for a big ass latte and breakfast, and on to the convention center!

I check in at the Minion Room, then immediately head to that hot shot artist's table from Saturday.  There will be no line problem this morning!

There is no line problem because the artist isn't due in until noon.  Great.  I head down to Media to assist Clair and Awesome Steve again.

But I am quickly reassigned to Jonathan Frakkes' line.  He was on Star Trek and he's freakin' hysterical.  He and Brent Spiner are having a ball.  Jonathan's line is pretty hefty.  I manage the back and make sure people weave.  It keeps me busy.

After a while, I am reassigned to Bruce Boxleitner's line.  And not for line management, but table management.  Which means I am between the first person in line and the table where Bruce is sitting.  I take pictures of guests with him and chat a bit.  Like asking what that round thing was that he was signing.  It is an identity disk from Tron Legacy.  I didn't see it.  Didn't really care for the first Tron.  I don't tell Bruce that.

When the line gets slow, Bruce, John (his ECCC wrangler) and I chat about the pictures that are laid out.  Fun stuff.

Finally, Bruce needs to leave for his plane, so we start packing up his photos and taking down the booth items.  Bruce is frantically looking for something to put his wad of money in and John and I are having no luck finding anything.  Bruce says he could put it on his carry on, but I remind him that the carry on will still need to go through the xray scanner and be out of his hands for a minute.  He pauses and says, "Right.  That won't work."

Then Bruce remembers a little teddy bear that one of his fans gave him.  "Where's that bag with the bear?" he asks John.  John gets the bag, and Bruce takes out the bear, looks at me and says, "Here."  The bear has black sparkly wings and little antennas with hearts on top.  A bumble bee bear.  I come home with Bruce Boxleitner's bumble bee bear.  It's a nice ECCC keepsake.

Bruce leaves, and I head back upstairs to check out Mr. Popular Artists' line.  Everything seems to be okay.

It's almost 5pm, so I take off my Minion shirt and hang out with Todd and the gang for the remaining time.  I still minion though; I help them clean up the area and pack up their stuff.  I turn in my badge as we head to the car and we wave goodbye to ECCC.

Update:
Todd visited with Brian this week, one of the owners of ECCC.  Brian said I went above and beyond what any girlfriend or wife would usually do for their geeky man.  And I had a fantastic time, to boot. So my wonderful husband got me a promotion - next year, Black Shirt.  Staff member!

BWHAHAHAHA.