{ It all comes back to me when I turn that horse's key }

Explosive Material (1/1)

2009-01-25T23:32:33Z

Title: Explosive Material
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Dean Winchester/Bela Talbot
Word Count: 2,410
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: The entirety of season 3, up through and including episode 3.15, "Time is on My Side"
Summary:We are odd compounds full of explosive material to which circumstances may at any time apply a spark to create results undreamed of.
Other: Having been fascinated by the possibility of exploring what may have resulted in some bastardized version of a relationship between Dean and Bela, I chose them as my pairing for the 1sentence challenge. 50 prompts, 1 sentence each, all outlining the way that I think they may have eventually come together if given the opportunity. It begins in canon and is woven back into canon at the end, but most of what lies in between is nothing but me taking great liberties with two characters I can't claim as my own. I also can't claim anything particularly linear about what is not so much a story as it is snapshots of a story that was never told.
Author's Note: Supernatural and its characters have been manipulated here without the knowledge or consent of Eric Kripke and Warner Bros. Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.

"We are odd compounds full of explosive material to which circumstances may at any time apply a spark to create results undreamed of." -Joseph Farrell

***

3 - MEMORY

Appropriately, his first memory of Bela isn't of Bela at all, but of an engaging Biggerson's waitress named Kary with beguiling cobalt eyes, a short black bob and even shorter black skirt that swayed just so with the rock of her hips.

23 - FIRE

The rabbit's foot that is responsible for bringing them together in the dark cemetery burns fast, scenting the air with singed fur, crackling and popping with the fury that he can see in Bela's eyes as she shoots daggers at him through the haze of heat and smoke.

25 - MASK

When she shows up on the afternoon of October 31st without announcing her arrival, he hands her a broom that has been leaning against the old bed and breakfast's porch railing and gives her a wily smile, "Here, you don't even need a mask."

12 - TEMPTATION

The dimples that stand like sentinels on either side of her spine peek out from between her shirt's hem and skirt's waistband as she leans forward over the aged newspaper clippings spread on the table in front of her and Sam, and Dean's eyes are drawn there as he stands behind her, tempted by the thought of his tongue dipping into the shallow divots.

34 - FORMAL

Formalwear is as foreign to him as denim and dirt is familiar, but the tux seems somehow less offensive as he descends the staircase and catches the look of unconcealed lust on her face and assembling appreciatively in her eyes.

29 - DANCE

The swell of orchestral music fills the Sea Pines Maritime Museum and the distinguished guests are melded into pairs, swaying blithely to the warble of violins while juggling flutes of champagne, and for just a moment, watching Bela's sleek black dress flutter around hr ankles as she parts the crowd, Dean thinks he might not mind being here without an agenda.

27 - FALL

He watches her teeter across the uneven earth of the cemetery in her impractical pumps, stumbling as she steps into divots in the grass and steadying herself more than once by laying a hand on his arm and he sighs, grasping her by the bend of her elbow, "Maybe if your ass falls six feet down an open grave, you'll stop wearing heels all of the damn time."

6 - HURRICANE

He never thought he could fear for her life, but as a gale of rain and wind batters them and she crumples between the headstones, choking and spewing water, panic rises inside him as swiftly as the spirit storm has swelled around them.

2 - HERO

Bela is certainly no damsel in distress - she's made that perfectly clear time and again - and maybe that's one of the things that he likes best; she doesn't expect him to be a hero, doesn't want him to save her.

5 - RUN

Each time she crosses him, he warns her, telling her to run for her life before he ends it, and each time he knows that his threat is empty or he wouldn't bother with giving her the advantage of foresight.

4 - BOX

Sam had once told him that Bela has style in her deft dealings with those she feels she owes something to and perhaps he was right; Dean finds the pink pastry box waiting on the hotel room table when he returns, sees the brown-crusted apple pie inside and knows it's an apology meant for him.

28 - FORGOTTEN

When their lips crush together, the violent surge of her tongue and her nails hollowing sharp crescents into his back tells him that she hasn't already forgotten that he'd called her a thieving, money-hungry bitch, but her anger is still so fresh that he can almost sense her sizzling with it in his arms and he is unprepared for how alive it makes him feel.

50 -BREATHE

He presses the anterior plane of her body against the wall, holding her wrists captive in his fists as he forces her arms down at her sides; he's in charge, he's calling the shots, but then she fits the curve of her bottom back against his groin and suddenly he forgets how to breathe.

21 - SILENCE

They don't speak that first night, only their ragged breathing an insinuation of mutual post-coital bliss as silence falls heavily between where their bare backs face one another.

15 - SILK

She hadn't lied about the silk sheets, but the sight of her naked body twisted in a swathe of deep sea blue the next morning is more jarring than his vivid imagination could ever have prepared him for.

17 - PROMISE

"Promise," he demands, smiling as he waggles a pinky finger at her specifically because he knows she'll ignore any gesture - especially one as infantile as a pinky swear - that requires integrity, "I want you to promise you'll stay the hell out of our way for once."

43 - SEARCH

When he arrives back at his motel room and finds her rifling through the dresser drawers, he becomes rigid with what feels immediately like familiar betrayal, but before he can ask her what she's looking for, she turns toward him, pupils dilating at the center of a cool blue gaze, "I'm not stupid enough to think you'd stash the Colt with your knickers, Dean; I left my necklace on your nightstand yesterday and it's not there anymore."

32 - FAREWELLS

She never says goodbye when she leaves whatever sleepy town they're in behind, simply disappearing as though she has no stake in anyone's affairs but her own, even though Dean could sometimes swear otherwise.

18 - DREAM

Dean appreciates the female body with enthusiasm and always has, but hers is what dreams are made of; dreams that he wakes from to the thrum of blood rushing in his ears, sweat beading on his hairline and damp sheets ensnaring his legs.

41 - WAIT

"Wait," he presses the phone closer to his ear, listening briefly to the crackle of the line as he summons a casual tone, "Will I--will we be seeing you in Toledo or are you going to make our lives easier and drop off the radar again for a while?"

10 - DRINK

Drinks become their covert ritual when they are together, the wordless pouring of shots becoming deft slugs straight from the bottle, each mouthful burning away her preference of tongue-drying red wine and his resistance to his attraction to her.

49 - LOCK

Even when she knows to expect him she secures her hotel room door and when pounding on it fails to convince her to open up, he jimmies the lock, certain that she's right on the other side, delighting in making life just a little bit harder for him.

8 - COLD

They're hot and cold, a product of inexplicable attraction and Schizophrenic fluctuation between respect and loathing; Dean can never be quite sure which Bela he will get and perhaps that is her appeal in the beginning.

9 - RED

He's never been with a woman who takes lipstick application so seriously, and he finds strange satisfaction in discovering remnants here and there: a crimson half moon below his jaw bone; a cherry red stain at the corners of his mouth; bright crescents on the collar of his white t-shirt.

20 - TALENT

"America's got talent," he murmurs as she produces a knotted cherry stem on her tongue, and she smiles as she plucks it free, her eyes rolling in disdain, "I'm English, you imbecile."

36 - LAUGH

When they realize simultaneously that they are laughing together, full-bodied and emphatic with wide, smiling eyes, it's like turning a corner and they laugh all the more until finally tapering into anxious, reverential silence.

39 - OVERWHELMED

Overwhelmed, overcome, overwrought; there is nothing pleasant about the myriad of things that Bela makes him feel when they're together and yet, like the masochist that he is, Dean finds himself desperately wanting more of her than what she is willing to give him.

24 - STRENGTH

She grasps his hand in hers in a moment of unexpected impulse, reflexively squeezing with a strength that belies her slender fingers and the carefully cultivated impassivity on her face.

45 - ECLIPSE

Every so often, so rarely that he can seldom be sure of what he's glimpsed, he sees the good in her eclipsing the bad for just long enough to make him question his already ambivalent opinion of her, and then it's gone again behind that dark, convincing veneer.

42 - TALK

"Don't talk," she murmurs, pressing one long finger against the part of his lips as she gazes down to where he kneels between her thighs through a heavy veil of eyelashes, "I'm sure you can think of something better to do with your mouth."

31 - SACRED

There is certainly nothing sacred about their wildly sexual relationship and Dean likes it that way, but every now and then she touches his face as though he is immeasurably precious and he's stricken with fear that something's changing--morphing into something he's not prepared to handle.

13 - VIEW

He sometimes wonders how the two of them can lead such different lives, believing in such different things, and still come together as often as they do, finding a million different ways to pretend that being with one another doesn't feel like viewing the world from across enemy lines.

1 - RING

The knot of their clasped hands rests between them on the tabletop, a forgotten weave of tentative fingers until she absently twists the silver ring riding the rise of his knuckle and his palms become instantly clammy.

48 - UNKNOWN

She knows so very little about him and he even less about her, but they never ask each other probing questions or offer soul-bearing answers, both knowing that ignorance is as close to bliss as the two of them can come.

46 - GRAVITY

As soon as her underwear slip from her hips, they briefly ring her knees and then immediately pour down her shapely calves to create a pool of cobalt satin and lace that her feet remain submerged in until he hoists her right off of them and into his arms.

40 - WHISPER

She whispers against the shell of his ear as she stretches above him, the languid rock of her hips pulling him deeper as she proffers praise in the form of his name, sending sharp darts of heat straight to his gut.

16 - COVER

He can't hear her breathing in the night (not like Sam, who has always snored softly in his sleep) and sometimes he can't resist the urge to feel for her presence with one blind hand, searching out the rise and fall of her back, never less surprised to find that she hasn't slipped out in the cover of darkness.

26 - ICE

Her hands are like ice when she comes in from the rain and he tucks them inside of his own, but there is something shyly grateful in the smile that forms on her trembling lips and he feels warmed from the inside out.

37 - LIES

When she begins telling the truth and confiding in him her fears and misgivings, he realizes that he prefers the lies and bravado and the wall it creates between them--the way it's protected him from seeing the real Bela and caring.

30 - BODY

He's fascinated by what is beneath her clothes; not the lithe legs or the supple breasts or the delicately muscled stomach, but what is in the mind that he knows is constantly at work and what she carries in her carefully guarded heart.

44 - HOPE

"There might just be hope for you yet, Dean Winchester," she tells him as he mindlessly props the door open for her, and he smiles faintly, unable to bring himself to see beyond the 259 red x's on his mental calendar that make him think otherwise.

33 - WORLD

Dean can't bring himself to buy into the concept of world peace--let alone inner peace, with a demon army wreaking havoc on the poor bastards he tries so hard to save, but somewhere along the line, he begins to realize that Sam and, unexpectedly, Bela offer him a much-needed sense of equanimity that allows him to carry on when merely living seems insufferable and he begins to wish what's left of his year away in earnest.

47 - HIGHWAY

Sam never questions Dean when Bela begins to accompany them on outings more and more; she sits in the backseat as they drive endless miles of American highway, a silent pink elephant between two brothers who have never been all that good at offering or accepting explanations for their behavior.

14 - MUSIC

He steals dubious glances at her polished nails tapping a companion beat to Watts' drumming on the dashboard from the corner of his eye more than once, hears her enthusiastic hum muffled by Mick trilling "Paint It, Black" and then her pragmatic English lilt, "The Stones are from London, you know."

35 - FEVER

After a long night spent in the pouring rain with Sam and a salt-filled shotgun, the morning sun does little to warm him, but he bats Bela's hand away from his damp forehead, knowing his cheeks are flushed and eyes are glazed even as he protests her concern in a hoarse mumble, "I don't have a frickin' fever...I don't get sick, okay?"

38 - FOREVER

"Kinda funny that women always want men to make them promises and expect us to be honest with them about what we want from the future," he muses out loud, and he can feel her frowning without even looking at her, "but as it stands, I don't have a future and..." he chuckles wryly, "I doubt anyone would wanna spend forever with me where I'm goin'."

19 - CANDLE

By candlelight her face startles him; the flicker of the leaping flames contorting her features and casting unearthly orange pools in her eyes makes him shudder and he wonders if he appears similarly warped--if she's looking back at him and thinking of their shared fate.

22 - JOURNEY

"She travels the fastest who travels alone," she murmurs cooly one evening as she carefully folds her clothes inside of her designer suitcase, hell-bent on leaving even though, for the very first time, he's asked her to stay, please stay.

11 - MIDNIGHT

When the digits on the car radio clock wink 12:00 a.m., Dean feels like they're taunting him and though he rides in silence with his brother at his side, feigning resignation, his heart clenches painfully as he imagines the life draining from Bela's eyes.

7 - WINGS

She slips into his sleeping mind long after he knows she's gone for good, an antithetical vision in faintly luminescent white; pale skin, pale eyes, glowing too softly in angelic radiance with wings that he watches burn with Hellfire, feathers dissolving to ash and smoke.

Creation Salute to Supernatural: Chicago '08

2008-11-30T20:41:49Z

So, I woke up today and realized that it's been exactly two weeks since Chicago and my second succession of con adventures and that I still have said absolutely nothing about it. Fail. Epic fail.

The problem is that I've been putting reports of the weekend off thus far because I really wanted to be as thorough as I was when I did my reports of L.A. Con back in March and...it's dawned on me that I'm simply never going to get a chance to do that. In March I wasn't working, I wasn't in school, I wasn't doing anything and I had a lot of time to sit around and ramble about my fangirl exploits and though I still have a fair amount of time to sit around and do nothing, I'm too lazy to do that in-depth thing. Besides that, the sleep that weekend was minimal at best and all of the days sort of ended up running together. I can barely remember what happened and when!

But, you know, you all don't really care to hear all the little details about what I did in Chicago unless they have to do with the super fun con guests, do you? Naaaah. You want J2 stories! And pictures! At least, that's what I want when I read other con reports, so I'm operating on the assumption that one big, giant pic spam and some key tales will be enough to bring those who are interested up to speed on the amazing time that I had and to quell this weird self-reproach that I have for being so goddamn lazy. Besides that, there are about a hundred other people who have thoroughly detailed all of the Q&A panels and the events of the weekend and who have shared pictures and videos. At least I've had all of my pictures from the Q&A panels uploaded for your viewing pleasure for quite some time. If you missed those, you can find them all here. Enjoy!

And now? On to the pictures that (almost) chronologically tell the story of the weekend of November 14th-16th 2008. Sigh. So tiring but so much fun.

ETA: If this appears on your flist twice, I apologize! When I posted it originally I somehow put it on a filter and now that I've taken it off, I don't know how that will effect its placement on my friends' friend pages!

As stated in this post, my journey started at the Pittsburgh International Airport with Rachel (notyourstarx0) after half a day of class and driving for just about 3 1/2 hours on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It was no walk in the park and it was almost 8:00 p.m. before we caught our flight but we were both in understandably good spirits and took pictures to entertain ourselves:

My BFF, the completely platonic love of my life, The Rach!

After finally arriving at the Wyndham O'Hare and meeting up with Lizzy and Sarah (herowlness and sarah_p) in our BAMF suite, there was drinking. Naturally. Since it was incredibly late and we knew we'd have a jam-packed weekend ahead of us and sleep was obviously inconsequential. That nonsense was documented the next morning in this post should you care to hear the details. Again, there were pictures:

Lizzy, having been the only one to travel by train, supplied the alcohol. And was then dubbed bartender-elect, sportin' her PRESIDENT-ELECT t-shirt :)

I've said it before but I'll say it again. Never drink Hawaiian Punch and vodka unless there are no other options. Whew. That particular cocktail is not one I will voluntarily drink in the future.

Here's one of the girls (minus me!) gathered around the makeshift card table (yes, it's a couch cushion), just for fun. For the record, sobriety was at its peak and it all went downhill from there.

So, I do believe that Friday passed without incident and without anything particularly worthy of talking about. I know that we all woke up at an hour that felt ungodly at the time and that we enjoyed a much-needed early lunch at one of the hotel's restaurants before finally registering and heading to the ballroom in which the con events were underway by noon. Q&A panels with Gabe Tigerman and Richard Speight were a wonderful way to kick off the weekend and they were both delightful and hilarious and engaging and Rachel and I very much enjoyed them from our row B seats ;D And then again up close and personal during the first of our many photo ops:

Sarah calls this our "family photo." I love how this one turned out and Gabe is seriously too adorable and I want a mini him to put in my pocket. I have a friend that went to college with him and I was considering name-dropping for the sake of conversation but I chose not to because I thought it might be a little weird. Instead Gabe shook our hands and asked us what are names were and we cuddled on in to him for not one, but two pictures because, as Gabe put it, he was "making a doofy face." This is the second of the two pictures but they were both very similar.

I actually like this picture quite a bit, too. This guy was the shit, forreal. He was wonderfully gracious and, as an added bonus, we had a nice little exchange with him about Purple Nurples. After having discovered the previous night that Maxie's (the hotel bar) was serving Purple Nurples and then learning during Richard's panel that he'd never even had one, I couldn't help but ask...

Me: You know the bar here is serving Purple Nurples, right? Are you going to have one?
Richard: No! No, I don't know, actually. What's even in a Purple Nurple?
Me: I think it depends on the who's making it, but I think there's grape juice, Blue Curacao, coconut rum--
Richard: Ehh, I'm not a fan of coconut rum.
Me: I don't think there's much even when it's used. You should try it anyway!
Richard: Well, I'll try anything once! I'll have to have one.

Fun fact that I garnered from this? Richard Speight does not like coconut rum. How did I live for as long as I have without knowing that, right?

Oh, and there were autographs:

Gabe laments Andy's death.

And, thank GOD, Richard acknowledges that I'm a girl. This personalization was borne of this exchange:

Richard: Erin with an 'E?'
Me: Yep. The 'A' spelling is traditionally reserved for...boys.
Richard: Oh, right, like Elvis Aaron Presley?
Me: Yes! Like that. And I'm a girl.
Richard: [Laughing] I see that!

I also have to share Rachel's autograph from Richard, because it will forever make us both laugh:

I didn't actually hear the conversation that they had, but I do know that Richard made a point of telling Rachel that he, too, would be a Rachel if he'd been born a girl. Fun fact #2!

Anyway, the only other really noteworthy thing about the day was the Chicago deep dish pizza that we ordered for dinner and how I've been quietly lusting after it for two weeks now and how no other pizza will ever again be adequate!

Mmm, diggin' in.

Sarah approves. As did all of our bellies.

Of course, stuffing ourselves silly directly before Steve's concert was probably a bad idea. It made us all groggy and even though Rachel and I had a blast (we were in row A for the concert and Lizzy and Sarah were...elsewehre, so we didn't get to sit with them D:) watching Steve tear it up and laughing uproariously at Steve's drunken aunt in the little VIP section near the stage, I was pretty tired by the time we left. Still, it didn't stop us from swinging by Maxie's for a little while to watch the hilariously bad karaoke that was happening. None of us sang, but I may have had I had the chance to drink away my inhibitions. Maybe next year!

So, on to Saturday. Day two in bullets?

● We ordered room service for breakfast and it distracted me from getting a shower as quickly as I should have. I just barely managed to get ready in time and I was unable to blow my hair dry and instead had to throw it up in some kind of messy 'do that is fine for mornings when I go to school but not for photo ops. I hate my hair in every picture taken that day!

● I felt (and still feel) like this whole day was spent standing in autograph and photo op lines. Holy crap.

● Rachel and I managed to miss our photo op with Steve and our photo op with Chad Lindberg. By long shots. That's $80 I'll never get back but I blame Creation and the crappy schedule of events that lists all the photo op times in one place rather than inserting them in the line-up where they belong. I'm cyber shaking my fist at them as I type this.

● We did manage to make our photo ops with Samantha Smith, Charles Malik Whitfield and Jason Manns, though. So we weren't too heartbroken!

This woman? Is gorgeous. Way, way too pretty and way too young to play a mom of boys over twenty! It just goes to show the careful work put into aging her for her role as Mary when, in real life, she's the mom of a 4-month-old.

The best thing about this guy, other than the fact that he's delectable, is the fact that he looks you in the eye when he speaks to you and has a nice, firm handshake and a way of making you feel like he has all the time in the world. Every photo op was so short, but for some reason I felt like I was tucked under his arm for longer than necessary and I liked it, okay? ;)

Sooo...where do I get a Jason for myself? This is one big, adorable teddy bear that I want in my life! Bonus that he can sing his ass off.

● We didn't miss a single autograph, either!

This is an awesome CD, by the way. I've listened to it almost daily in the time that I've had it and it was so worth the $10.

Identical to the autograph of Chad's that I have from L.A. but...personalized!

He sends me all his love. See that? :D

● The highlight of the day? May very well have been having the pleasure of consorting with the famed Plastic!Sam, Plastic!Dean, Plastic!Bobby and Plastic!Castiel of Plastic!Winchester Theatre. Who knew little dolls could be so bitchin'?

Here is Sarah, enjoying the suppositional angelic and demonic Winchester boys sitting on her shoulders.

Lizzy is woman enough for all of the men at once.

Not like Rachel and I weren't going to get in on the action.

I can't look at this picture and not laugh.

Or this one. What an endorsement.

● Lizzy won 3rd place in the Supernatural Costume Contest as "Dean's douched-up Impala." Along with that incredible honor came (I think) a mug, a shot glass and a $50 Creation gift certificate and recognition for the rest of the night. Hilarious and awesome:

Yes, she did make the license plates and yes, that is my trusty iPod!

● Because we missed dinner, we headed to Maxie's for drinks and some grubbage before Jason's concert. While we were there, we shared a Purple Nurple toast and then, because he was at the bar with Gabe, sent Richard a shot. He actually stopped us on our way out and thanked us for the shot and mentioned that "if there's coconut rum, he couldn't taste it" and that was truly awesome of him since it was all in good fun. What's also truly is awesome is that if you look closely, you can see him in the background of our picture. It's appropriate, right, given that Purple Nurples rose to fame in "Tall Tales?"

Also, here are a couple of pictures of the hilarious Supernatural-themed menu items:

● I shouldn't have had that Winchester Mai Thai, as I was again groggy the whole way through Jason's concert (and I had to pee like nobody's business) and even groggier by the time we made our way to the dessert party. Little did I know that I'd have to be awake for several more hours and run on almost no sleep the next day. Which brings me to...

Can we PAUSE HERE for me to gloat about being the very first person in line for Sunday breakfast? :D :D :D There'd been a lot of questions floating around during the day about whether or not the hotel would be allowing the fans to camp out over night for tables for breakfast with the boys like last year in Chicago or whether it'd work on a first come, first serve basis after a certain hour of the morning like it did in L.A. and by the time that it was after 11:00 p.m. and I still had no answer, I decided to go prod an answer out of someone. As I've said before, breakfast in L.A., short-lived as it was, was my absolute favorite part of the weekend and sitting at some table in a back corner was not going to fly with me. No sir.

And because the dessert party was not exactly hoppin', I abandoned the goings on and tracked Adam and Gary down. I asked them the burning question and got the answer I wasn't hoping for. Yes, they'd be allowing us to camp out. This was then incentive for me to ask where the official line would be forming because I had to know. How'd that go?

Me: I just need to know so that I line up in the right place and don't spend all night sitting in a hallway for no reason whatsoever.
Gary: Well, I guess we'll decide where the line starts when there's someone who actually wants to get in line.
Me: What if I want to get in line?
Gary: Now?
Me: Can I do that?
Gary: If you want to! You realize it's not even midnight, though...
Me: I know. But if you're offering to let me be first in line, I'm game. Let's do it.

And that is how it came to pass that I marched back in to the table where my crew was seated, collected my purse and told them I'd be in line. Which felt great. In spite of the fact that I ended up being up sitting in line with Sarah until 4:00 in the morning while Lizzy and Rachel slept and then switching places. I managed to sleep from around 4:30-6:30 before getting up and showering and getting dressed and I was dead tired but it was so worth it at 8:45 when I was at the front of that gimongous line and got to shuffle on into the room and take the very front seat at the very front table. And for the second time in a row, breakfast is still my favorite thing ever. EVER. It meant Jared and Jensen being so close that I could have reached out and touched them. Not that I did. I didn't need to piss off the bodyguards surrounding the stage. Besides, we got our face time with the boys a bit later for the photo ops. Which, OMG, I love even more than the ones from L.A.

Jared, oh, Jared. Still as sweet as can be and way too chatty for the liking of the volunteers who were trying to keep the photo op lines moving. Rachel actually told him that she liked his hat and he was about to expound at length about why he was wearing it ("Oh, thanks! I woke up this morning and my hair was all [wild hand gestures that pertain to the poofiness of his hair]...and I thought that if I didn't wear a hat--") if it weren't for us getting snapped at to move along by one of his bodyguards :( And then Jared apologized for holding us up, lol. "Sorry! Sorry, ladies, thanks so much for coming!"

Mmm, what a sandwich. The good news is that we don't look quite as short between these two beasts as we did in our last picture because we were wearing heels. The other good news is that...they are...hot. NEWSFLASH! :D Also, the conversation that happened (if you can call something so short a conversation) was so similar to the one we had in L.A.:

Rachel: [As we approach the boys] Hope there's room for two of us.
Jared: [Making room between Jensen and himself] Always!
Jensen: [Sliding his arm around me] Always!
Jared: It's a twofer!

Jared really loves the term "twofer" to describe taking a photo with two people at once and he cracks me up. It also cracks me up that Jensen's nipples were on alert in, like, every single picture. Whoa, boy.

And speaking of Jensen, our picture with him totally trumps every other picture taken over the weekend because would you just look at the boy's smile?

It could cure diseases! And it really is all in thanks to Rachel. I still can't talk to him without tripping over my own tongue so she took it upon herself to prompt him to actually smile for our photo by asking, "Are you tired of smiling yet?" To which he responded with a laugh that made my ovaries squirm and, "No, I think I've got a few more left in me." Oh, GOD. &hearts

I guess I might as well go ahead and throw my autographs in here since I'm coming to the end of my incredibly long, disjointed, spastic tale:

Actually, this is Rachel's autograph but it's too good not to share. She actually told Jensen, "Feel free to deface Jared," whether or not she thought that he would...and he did. He held the damn autograph line up for a good two minutes while he scribbled all over Rachel's picture with a great deal of concentration and the occasional explanation ("Jared wears those cuff bracelets now.") and Rachel had to stand there in front of Jared and tell him that he couldn't sign her picture yet because Jensen was too busy drawing all over him. Naturally, Jared did retaliate and when Jensen finally moved on to signing my picture, I told him that I was sorry he had no one to deface, but he conceded to that being just fine. "I'm definitely not going to deface myself!"

So, my pictures aren't as hilarious as Rachel's, but the guys look hot as hell, and that's what matters:

And...that is about it. I could ramble on for a while more about going to dinner at Harry Carey's later that evening and the sheer volume of food I ordered after not eating all day (too nervous at breakfast, too busy afterwards!) or about Sarah eating her leftover spaghetti with her fingers at some odd hour of the night or the snow that started coming down that night and continued into the next day but...my brain is fried and my fingers kind of hurt. So I am simply going to bid you all adieu, thank you for looking, and commend you if you made it all the way to the end!

ETA because I was told to: Sarah. Jensen. Rolling in a vat of bacon grease. Tab A, slot B.

Chicago Con '08 Photos

2008-11-22T17:48:28Z

I know, I know, I suck! I've been home from Chicago since very late Monday night, but didn't get back from Rachel's house in Pittsburgh until Tuesday morning and had to go straight to school. Since then I've had class every day (not to mention that in those classes, I had baking proficiencies, a mid-term and a written unit final exam) and in the evenings I've had homework or have just been too damn tired to be efficient. I've been weeding through the few hundred photos I took at the con for days now, rotating and resizing as I go, and I'm finally done! A lot of them could probably use some color adjustment since the light in the hotel is really horrible, but they came out nice and clear (taken from Row B in the ballroom and the very first table at breakfast) and that's what I wanted!

Anyway, here are links to all of the individual albums. Feel free to share any of these pictures and/or use them in any way you see fit, as long as you credit me, preferably by LJ username. Because I certainly wasn't going to tag or watermark all of these! So...enjoy! And please excuse the slapdash quality of these little preview pictures. It was just so that you could garner an idea about what the pictures look like without clicking the links :)

Do you want unimportant details? Sure you do!

2008-11-14T16:03:07Z

Morning from Chicago, flist! It's not even 9:30 in the morning here and we didn't go to bed until 5:00 in the morning (YEAH, I KNOW, RIGHT?) but somehow...we are all awake. "We" being my wonderful band of crazies, notyourstarx0, herowlness and sarah_p! After the four of us having converged here at the Wyndham O'Hare from three different states entirely, you would think that we would have all sacked out early and slept late, but...OH NO. We're currently in the process of showering and getting dressed and that leaves time to finally update you all and say hey!

Last night, Sarah and Lizzy got in to our hotel at a respectable 7:00 or so p.m. but Rachel and I didn't taxi into O'Hare until quarter of midnight. Luckily, we were able to catch a shuttle with relative ease and in spite of tromping through the rain, we made it here intact at around 12:30 (or perhaps later, says Sarah, "No, it was around 1!") and were able to come straight up to our suite (bedroom with two beds and a bathroom, adjoined to a living room with an unstocked bar and another bathroom!) and and skip the check-in process entirely. Naturally, Lizzy was asleep and Sarah was reading...some book for school that she's never going to touch again this weekend now that we're all here.

Though we were vastly unproductive and loud for well over an hour, we did settle down eventually for a rousing round of Circle of Death. Which sounds a lot more ominous than it is. Quell your fast-rising mental images of anything that involves sharp weapons or bloodshed and instead picture us sitting in a circle on the floor and playing a card game (the cards are fanned in a circle, each person draws a card and each card has its own mini-game or set of rules) drinking cocktails of Hawaiian Punch & vodka, Sierra Mist & Strawberry Schnapps-something-something and Pepsi & Captain Morgan. More craziness definitely ensued. Such as the repeated use of the word "pa-whore" and phrase, "tab A, slot B," having to divulge a Jared and/or Jensen sexual fantasy before every drink and a slightly drunken reenactment of a certain dances to a certain Survivor song. We were supposed to be watching last night's episode of SPN after all of this (Lizzy got right on downloading it for Rachel and I since we missed it and she and Sarah were lucky enough to see it while here D:) but the boozin' interfered and we eventually called it a very, very late night in favor of passing out straight away.

There is the abridged version of what I've been doing up until right now. And now that you know everything you never needed to know, I can get to the point and say, yeah, I'm here, I'm GREAT, I love these girls and I'm so excited for the rest of the weekend! And with that note, I'm going to leave you so that I can take my shower and we can go register and FINALLY get something to eat! More from me later, hope you're all having a lovely Friday, wherever you are!

ETA: This is sarah_p, hijacking Erin's journal while she's brushing her teeth...BECAUSE I CAN. I would like to clarify that while the other girls might have spent the ENTIRE EVENING mocking my choice of Jensen and Jared sexual fantasies, that SARAN WRAP is a totally valid form of sexy expression, and THEY JUST WISH THEY HAD THOUGHT OF IT FIRST.

This ends this special interruption--please return to doing whatever you were doing in Erin's journal.

Choosing You (1/1)

2008-06-06T00:16:37Z

Title: Choosing You
Fandom: RPF
Characters: Jared Padalecki/Sandra McCoy
Word Count: 376
Rating: G
Summary: Like any happy couple, Jared and Sandy make the choice to expand their family - by four legs.
Other: A short and sweet little fic written based on a prompt by earthquakedream at ohnokripkedidnt. If you're looking for something profound and fluff-free, don't look here!
Author's Note: Jared and Sandy belong to themselves and, as I see it, to one another. As much as I wish that they could belong to me, they don't! They sure are fun to play with, though!

"This one," Sandy proclaims, scooping a small red tabby up in both hands. "This is the one."

"Why that one?" Jared chances a glance at the mewling kitten squirming in his fiancée's slender fingers and almost misses the little buff-colored troublemaker hanging precariously from the side of the cardboard box that the rest of the litter is contained in. He manages to scoop the fat-bellied baby up before he falls and gently deposits him back among his brothers and sisters.

"Just...because." Sandy manages to sound confident in her reply, in spite of the fact that it's not the valid response that Jared was looking for. "Because I'm a good judge of character, that's why."

Jared smiles as he watches Sandy cradle the fuzzy creature against her chest, her hair creating sable drapes as it spills forward on either side of her face. He can't see the smile that she's wearing, but he can hear it in the whimsical, high-pitched murmurs that she makes to the kitten.

He loves to see her so happy. And it's the smallest things that seem to make her happiest. A rainy day that clears unexpectedly and heralds sunshine. Freshly brewed coffee in bed. Sun-ripened produce from the farmer's market in Brentwood. And, apparently, the runt of the litter.

"Jared?" Sandy asks, lifting her head as she deftly untangles the delicate set of claws from the front of her t-shirt, "Is this one okay?" She gently runs the kitten's swaying tail between her thumb and forefinger, "Can we get this one?"

It's hard for Jared not to immediately crumble under the warm weight that her child-like expectation conjures in his chest, but he somehow manages to keep his grin at bay. It tugs doggedly at his lips as he reaches for the fuzzy chosen one and holds her up in front of his face. The kitten's pink, heart-shaped nose twitches and she sneezes. Jared wipes his own nose dry on his shoulder.

"Sure, baby. You're a good judge of character, right? You obviously know just who to choose." He smiles at Sandy from across the top of the kitten's head and she smiles back, something in her dark eyes softening.

"I made a good decision in choosing you, didn't I?"

She Smiles (1/1)

2008-05-26T02:47:14Z

Title: She Smiles
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Bela Talbot (mentions of Sam and Dean Winchester, Lilith)
Word Count: 2,241
Rating: PG for some language and sensitive themes
Spoilers: Up through and including episode 3.15, "Time is on My Side"
Summary: Sometimes a simple smile is all a woman has to conceal much darker shades of her existence.
Other: I woke up one morning with this story in my head. I just wish that writing it had been as easy for me as coming up with it in the first place! Who knew that something so short and straightforward would eat my brain and consume so much time!
Author's Note: Supernatural and its characters have been manipulated here without the knowledge or consent of Eric Kripke and Warner Bros. Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.

The evening that her father first comes to her with malevolent intent, she cries. She cries because she's not sure when this happened. When did the compulsory paternal heed she's known him to have become something else? Something eerily like a covetous interest that she isn't able to put her finger on until it's too late.

There is something odd and foreboding about his demeanor from the moment he sets foot in her bedroom. In the way that he takes great care to press the door securely into its frame. In the way that he studies her as she perches uncomfortably at the edge of her bed, a smile on his face and a scowl in the knit of his eyebrows.

She can smell his favorite single malt Scotch on his breath as he crouches down in front of her, chucks her on the chin, caresses her cheek with the pad of his thumb. At not quite fourteen years old she hasn't tasted the whiskey that he keeps in a crystal decanter that she knows once belonged to Grandfather Bishop, but she recognizes the smell. Her father drinks it neat, nursing it from a brandy snifter every evening like clockwork. And tonight the smoky-sweet tang of the alcohol has erased the scent of dinner's curried prawns entirely.

She wonders how much he has had to drink as his long fingers burrow into her hair, trying her very hardest not to flinch. He asks her if she's finished her homework, if she's been a good girl, and the thick quality of his words is as unsettling as the hand that clamps down on the nape of her neck. For a moment she can barely breathe, but she finds it in herself to answer him, saying yes, calling him "sir."

"No, no, no, Abby. Sir?" He presses his forehead against hers and she shuts her eyes, "I've never liked it when you call me that."

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I'm sorry, Father."

"Call me...Daddy."

His palm is on the fair skin of her thigh then, unwelcome but sliding below the hem of her tartan skirt and she knows once and for all that something has gone terribly wrong. This is so terribly wrong.

"Love, I want to hear you say it." He's slurring now and his fingertips are like hot pokers as they dig into her flesh. "Say it, Abigail."

She stammers, hot tears rising unbidden behind her tightly closed eyelids and he fists her thick hair in warning. His voice is as sharp as a knife and every bit as dangerous, "Say it."

She whimpers, compliant and pleading all at once. "Daddy."

***

Eight months after the automobile accident responsible for claiming her parents' lives, she begins to go by a different name. She smiles with a pride she is unaccustomed to the first time she is addressed as Bela. Miss Talbot, she hears herself being called.

"Miss Talbot?" The aproned grocer inquires as he appears at the front of the store where she is waiting for him and the impromptu interview that he promised her over the telephone. "Bela Talbot?"

"That's me," she tells him, squaring her shoulders and straightening away from the wall she's been propped against. "I'm Bela. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Mr. Ellis."

It feels like thumbing her nose up at bound and broken Abby Bishop. At her meekly compliant mother and immoral father. They're all dead to her. Bela Talbot is stronger, smarter and at the mercy of no one, she has decided. She makes her own rules.

She is not quite sixteen years of age and is unable to petition for a deed poll that declares her legal change of name, but she doesn't need a piece of paper.

This is who she is now. Bela Talbot.

Abby would still have extended family to turn to had she not severed those blood ties by fleeing London for Ipswich without any warning. Abby would have stood to inherit her dead parents' fortune at eighteen years old had she stayed. Abby would have gone on living a rich and simultaneously unfulfilling life, but not Bela.

Bela would rather be all alone in the world and learn to stand on her own. Bela would rather make her own money in whatever lucrative way possible and earn everything she knows she deserves. Bela would rather sell her soul all over again than go back to life before meeting the pale child with the unearthly red eyes.

She knows that the past will always be there, nipping at her heels like a vicious creature with dripping jowls and a hunger to tear her apart. And she knows that forgetting it will never be a possibility. But she is determined to forge ahead and fill the next ten years with whatever happiness she can make for herself.

She doesn't think that she believes in God but if He exists, she hopes that He realizes He owes her absolution. She understands that making a deal with a demon is quite unseemly but all of the time she spent in prayer didn't help her.

She didn't have any other choice.

Certainly a truly merciful God should be able to understand that?

***

Bela feels no self-reproach when she first sells a piece of Islamic occult history to the so-called highest bidder. She smiles as she she trades the Gembolo whip for nearly thirteen thousand pounds. The price has been agreed upon for weeks now but words cannot begin to describe how greatly she prefers the weight of crisp bills in her hand to the carved Stigi wood of the talisman.

Without the recently acquired whip, she may not be invulnerable to malignant spirits, but Bela knows that this is the start of a different life. A better one. A life where she, at nineteen years old, can finally afford to live.

No more stocking fruits and vegetables at a local grocery store for minimum wage. No more living on canned soup and saltine crackers when money gets particularly tight and a piece of fresh meat from the butcher is a luxury she can't spare the price of. No more struggling to sleep in her one-room flat; shivering cold in the winter even beneath a stack of blankets because she is unwilling to turn up the heat or sweating below the desperately churning ceiling fan in the summer until she strips to her knickers and opens yet another window.

As it stands, Bela has a mere five years left until her bill comes due and until now she's earned nothing for herself but a one-way ticket to Hell.

That's simply not good enough.

She wants to believe that Lilith will someday make good on her mysterious offering of a bona fide way out--a way to buy back her soul, she'd called it. But believing in a demon is no easy feat and Bela refuses to go down in flames without making the most of what's left of her life. The life that she, ironically enough, saved and sold at the same time.

And that's why she's already making plans for her money as she begins to count it. Plans for herself, too. Plans to drown herself in everything she's been forced to deny herself until now.

She'll have a silk Hermés pointu scarf, Jimmy Choo on her feet and the choice to swathe herself in Versace or Dior. She wants Tiffany's diamonds to drip from her earlobes and dangle from a neck scented with Chanel. She'll carry a Burberry bag, hide La Perla lace below her clothes and sleep on silk sheets in a bed big enough for three of her.

No desire seems too extravagant for a woman with an expiration date and by damn, if she's going to die, the hounds are going to have to haul her into Hell by her perfectly highlighted hair.

***

On that final morning, Bela has tea. She smiles at the Harlequin deco cup, running the neatly manicured nail of her index finger in an absent circular motion around the gilded edge of the saucer below it. The sunlight from the elegant bay windows at her back glints off of the floral pattern on the china, making it gleam in delicate shades of rosé and iridescent white. It's shaping up to be a lovely day, her impending death put aside, and Bela revels in the calm before the storm.

The familiarity of the black English Breakfast warms the cold hollow of her stomach and mutes the sound of her guilty inner voice. The colorful array of bite-sized canapés and sandwiches stacked in pyramids on golden trays help her forget the dirty deed Lilith expects of her. The almond-sweet scent of authentic Bakewell tart dulls her contrition in knowing that she will do it.

Sam Winchester may not deserve to die but he's the long-awaited answer and self-preservation is a strong motivator. And so is the desire to see another morning and taste another blend of Pekoe as satisfying to her palette as the one she is currently sipping.

When the waitress approaches the linen-draped corner table and refills her half-empty glass of iced water, Bela can barely pull herself from the intoxicating tea to thank her.

She is reluctant to part with the porcelain cup, as if it is a lover's lips below hers, but she does and courteously nods her gratitude, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The girl's disposition is as sunny as the blonde hair that obscures her face as she leans over to test the warmth of the tea cozy with her bare palms, "Is there anything else I can get you while I'm here?"

"No, I..." Bela is briefly stunned into silence as she watches the expectant pair of blue eyes go black as they turn her way.

The ugly way in which the waitress's head contorts spasmodically is like a nightmare warped by a bad acid trip. It's unlike anything she's ever seen and yet somehow she knows just what it means.

Her time is almost up.

Somehow Bela manages to regroup, swallowing the trill of horror before it escapes the confines of her mouth, but it's all she can do to smile feebly at the pretty face of the tea room attendant named Eden.

Eden. Bela almost wants to laugh. What a place to catch a first glimpse of Hell.

"No, thank you." Her voice is brittle but nonetheless polite. "I'm fine."

I'm fine, she repeats, this time to herself, watching the girl walk away. Everything's going to be fine.

***

Two minutes before midnight, she cries. She cries because for the first time in ten long years, she feels like Abby. Scared and alone and not sure of who to turn to for help. Not sure of who would think her deserving of help. But it doesn't stop her from asking for it, too afraid for her own life to risk being cavalier about the ability to stand on her own two feet. The situation is out of her hands and she is woman enough to concede to the fact that she is in over her head. Even if it's too little, too late.

She cradles the receiver of the phone to her ear , choking on her own sincerity, "Dean, listen, I need help."

"Sweetheart, we are weeks past help."

She is unsurprised by his lack of sympathy but maybe there is at least one innate part of him left to appeal to. His conscience.

Bela's attitude has gotten her nowhere in the past with Dean Winchester and in spite of the way that they tend to bring out the worst in one another, she knows that he has a conscience. That he has a heart. It may not be open to her, not even in her darkest hour, but he's a hunter. She's come across a handful in her line of work, each unlike the last, but they all have in common the indwelling compulsion to save lives.

"I know I don't deserve it," she admits through an onslaught of eleventh-hour tears. What she doesn't admit is that she desperately wants to hear him tell her that she's wrong. That no one deserves what Hell has in store for her.

But why should he? Dean must feel the hellfire on the back of his neck as much as she does. They've both been damned for the bargains they've made and after all that she's put him through, she doesn't really expect him to feel sympathy for her. And apparently he doesn't.

"You know what, you're right. You don't. But you know what the bitch of the bunch is? If you would've just come to us sooner and asked for our help, we probably could have taken the Colt and saved you."

Even in her despair Bela can taste her usual venom at the back of her throat. She wants to wail at the man on the other end of the line and call him a bastard for dangling the regret that she already feels in front of her. But bridges have already been burned and humility won't deliver her from the fate that she chose for herself. Having the final word means nothing as the clock on the hotel nightstand tells her that the day has come to its final minute, just like her life.

"I know," Bela confesses, finally resigned, not looking for redemption. "And saved yourself."

SPN L.A. Convention Icons

2008-04-06T23:50:49Z

♥ 12 text icons
♥ Quotes from Creation's Salute to Supernatural in L.A.
♥ {01-04} Jensen Ackles
♥ {05-07} Jared Padalecki
♥ {08} Sandra McCoy
♥ {09-11} Eric Kripke
♥ {12} Jared & Jensen
♥ Comments are lovely, credit is a must!

01	02	03	04

05	06	07	08

09	10	11	12

The third and final installment!

2008-04-06T16:29:19Z

So. Because it was at about this time (PST - not EST, though that works, too) last week that I was in the presence of Jared and Jensen after months and months of anticipatory waiting, I feel as though I should really finish up with my reviews from the weekend in Los Angeles for the convention. I mean, I don't want to drag this over into week two so I'm just going to cut to the chase, mmkay?

I'll try not to be terribly, painfully long-winded because I really just want to get the details out before they start getting blurry D: Oh, the horror! There are already a few things here and there that aren't standing out as vividly (there was just so much to take in and it was such a whirlwind!) and that makes me sad. So very sad. But, right, onward.

Okay. Where, oh where, was I? I think I'd just finished up talking about the autograph sessions with the boys and how ravenously hungry I was by that point. Is that right?

...I'm just gonna go with it and say that, yes, that's right. So, anyway, I could have chosen to be really, really sad at that point since it meant that we were no longer going to get to see Jared and Jensen (owwww, my heart!) but instead I just chose to be hungry. So Rachel and I took the trek up to our room to drop off all of our autographed pictures and whatnot (the funny part is that for the entire weekend we kept all of our pictures and fangirly accouterments in the safe, as if someone was going to steal them!) and then went back down to Champion's to have a late lunch with afrocurl and sarah_p.

Rachel and I decided that it would be best to split the giant-ass appetizer that they offer since we were all still planning on an unofficial fangirl dinner later that evening so that's what we did. Though I think I ended up eating way more of it than she did because it was around that time that we both started feeling like crap. Let's just say (not to be too TMI) that our uteruses were making us their bitches and it was just the start of our collective misery. But Sarah and Roz kept us entertained for the duration of our meal and we managed to fill the voids in our stomach and then we parted ways. I'm not sure what our lovely dinner companions did then but Rachel and I decided to head over to the room where the photo ops all took place to get in line to meet Sandra C. McCoy, Fiancée Extraordinaire.

Guys! Oh my God, guys! Could I love her any more? We kind of already loved her before we met her since we bought the photo ops ticket the moment we knew she'd been added by Creation as a guest but it took us approximately one minute in her presence to decide that we're jealous of Jared because, hi, she makes straight females want to date her. No lie.

But, right, we got in line (there really wasn't much of one, which was sad!) pretty early but since Rachel and I were feeling like absolute shit we sat down on one of the sofas along the wall and just let everyone getting in line go in front of us, lol. We figured it didn't matter where we were in line since it really wasn't turning out to be a long one and we thought that if we stood up there might be a good chance we'd both pass out. It was weird that the mounting exhaustion from the weekend really hit us then and we were both pretty much just sitting there like zombies, staring into space and wishing we could go back to our room and lie down. So it's a good thing that Sandy came along when she did and distracted us from our physical woes. We looked up and saw her coming down the hallway and right after she went into the photo op room I think our initial response was, "OH MY GOD, COULD SHE BE ANY SMALLER?" We already knew she was small but I guess we just didn't expect her to be quite as teeny as she is in person. If only because earlier in the day we'd been subjected on a personal level to how giant Jared is and it's just kind of funny.

So we actually stood up then to take active place in the line and it really took no time whatsoever to get into the photo op room. And even before we made it to the front of the line to take our picture, we were having a blast watching Sandy's interaction with the fans. She was so freakin' adorable, people. She was fidgeting around in such a way that she reminded me of this gangly, awkwardly precious little filly with knobby knees trying to stand up for the first time and I just...oh, I couldn't even handle it. And how she kept tugging at her dress and smoothing her hair (she later put it up in a ponytail but she had it down for the photo ops)?! GAH. She's even cute when she does her nervous primping!

And she really could not have been any sweeter to every single person she met. I just got such a kick out of the way that she introduced herself to every. single. person. Including us! When we got up to the front of the line she gave us this beaming smile and was already reaching out to shake our hands before we even approached her. And this is how our little conversation went:

Sandy: *Shaking Rachel's hand* Hi! I'm Sandy, what's your name?
Rachel: Rachel. *Who then gets enveloped in a hug by Sandy*
Sandy: Hi, Rachel, nice to meet you! *Turning to me to shake my hand*
Me: I'm Erin. *Receiving my own Sandy hug which was, um, as cute as everything else about her* It's so great to meet you, Sandy!
Sandy: Oh, it's great to meet you girls, too. How are you doing?
Me: We're great, we're so excited that you're here!
Rachel: Yeah, we were just talking to Jared about how thrilled we are to get to see you.
Sandy: Awww, I'm glad you came! And I'm glad to be here, it's awesome!

We then get into a nice little cluster to take our picture and the once we're sure that the picture has been taken, we return to the conversation that we've stopped in the middle of, regardless of the people waiting in line behind us.

Rachel: Congratulations on your engagement, by the way!
Me: We were so excited to hear about that!
Sandy: *Doing her nervous giggling-until-she's-breathless and trying to talk all at the same time thing* I was excited, too!
Me: I bet! Can we just see your ring? Is that weird?
Sandy: Oh, no! Sure! *Putting her left hand out in front of us so we can take a little peek*
Me & Rachel: *Unintelligible oohing and ahhing*
Me: Oh, it's gorgeous.
Sandy: Yeah, Jared did a great job! *More delighted lovestruck giggling that you can't help but smile at*
Me: Yeah, he did! Well, thank you so much!
Rachel: Thanks for coming out!
Sandy: Thank you!

And then we walked away from our photo op and bounced the whole way across the room in throes of delight because we've fallen in love with an engaged woman :D

And here is our picture, which, if not for the adorable Jared huggy bear picture, we would probably consider the pièce de résistance of the entire weekend and photo op experience:

And it's around this time that the order of things becomes a little...blurry around the edges. I think that we left the photo op room and then remembered that we wanted to ask Chris about the CDs with the .jpg files and so we got back in the other smile line that had formed for that purpose. I think.

There weren't a lot of people left in line to take pictures with Sandy at that point (as in, those people who were left were already all actually in the room) and the line for the .jpg CDs was really short, too, but Sandy finished up her photo ops before we got to speak to Chris. And even though we saw Sandy leave the room and head down the hallway in the direction of the ballroom where the Q&A panels were all held, I don't think it even occurred to us that she'd be heading straight in to do her own Q&A session. We were just too busy worrying about getting our pictures put on a CD so we'd be able to show them to OMG, EVERYONE.

So I'm really not sure how long we were standing around there outside the photo op room before Chris came out to let us know that all of the actual printed photos, including the ones with Jensen and Jared, were already back. He told us that if we wanted to wait long enough for him (and the few people helping him) to unpack the photos and spread them out on the tables in the room, we could claim them and then he'd just go ahead and put our .jpgs on a CD for us at the same time. Sounded good to us! So we waited.

And it's a good thing we did wait because who other than Danneel Harris came wandering down the hallway in our direction?

Let me just pause here to say...YAY!

We knew that Danneel was there with Jensen (and that alone was exciting for us) but we didn't think we'd get to meet her. And I'm glad that Rachel was paying attention because I was so busy watching Chris and the volunteers unpack our photo op pictures that she probably would have walked right on by without me noticing. And then I would have been sad.

But even when Rachel alerted me to her presence and I noted that it was definitely her, I wasn't going to say anything. She looked like she was probably on a mission of some sort or had somewhere to be since the boys were already gone for the day and I'm just not forward enough to call someone out. But Rachel definitely is and that's what she did. Hee. We already knew it was her but as she slowed by the door to the photo op room and the small cluster of people there (who seemed to take no notice of her) Rachel said, "Hey, you're Danneel, right?" And Danneel looked a little bit taken aback at first but then said, "Yeah!" She got this dazed sort of smile on her face when everyone standing around us turned to look at her but then she lowered the bag (it was some kind of shopping bag) she was carrying to the ground and gave this little wave and, uh, she's so cute.

And then it was like everyone else suddenly knew who she was simply by name association (although there was this guy who kept looking to everyone else with utter confusion, saying, "She's from that One Tree...what's the show? One Tree Hill? Right?" Like he had no idea why she would be there and someone told him that she's Jensen's girlfriend and he still looked confused!) and started bombarding her for pictures. And Rachel just gave me this major "OMG WTF" expression since she was the one who started talking to her in the first place. I wish I could say that a cat fight for Danneel's attention then ensued, but it didn't. Ha.

There were maybe six or seven of us standing there around her and kind of all talking at once and she was trying to pose for pictures with everyone and she looked all kinds of flustered the whole time but she was really very sweet and obliging and she won major points (as if I didn't already love her!) for taking the time for us when she totally didn't have to. I'm not even really sure what everyone was saying since it was like she was having four conversations at once but what I do distinctly remember was this (and it made me laugh):

Random girl #1: Wow, you look a lot taller in person than you do on TV!
Random girl #2: Yeah, you do look tall!
Danneel: Oh, no, I'm really not this tall. *Pointing to the pants she's wearing* These jeans are just way too long so I have to wear heels with them. *She then lifts one pant leg so we can see the heels that she speaks of, which are probably about two or three inches high*
Me: My pants are always too long. They look cute, though!
Danneel: I should really just have them tailored!
Random girl #1: So how tall are you?
Me: *Giving Rachel another OMG WTF expression because I would like to know why we're talking about her height*
Danneel: Oh, um, I'm...about this tall. *She rolls one foot the whole way to the side so that she's standing much closer to her normal height--and then giggles at herself for it*

Anyway, there were plenty of other words exchanged between everyone but I don't really know what all was said because, again, people were talking over one another. And somehow Rachel and I ended up being the last people to get our picture taken with her. She'd actually started to pick the bag she was carrying up again when Rachel was like, "Can we get a picture, too, please?" And I felt so bad that we were holding her up but OMG I WANTED A PICTURE so I jumped in with, "I'm sorry! We'll be fast!" And she put the bag back down and opened her arms for us and said, "Oh, sure!"

So we scurried our excited selves over and cozied up to her (she was tall, because of her shoes or not, and she had to sort of crouch down for us shorties) and someone took a picture for us. Wee!

So then we (everyone who had gotten pictures with her) all thanked her profusely over and over again and she thanked us and finally collected her belongings and wandered off and Rachel and I did an internal dance of joy because we got to not only meet J2, but their awesome significant others. SCORE!

What did I make note of about Danneel? She is stunningly pretty. She is very well put-together. Her outfit was adorable. Her hair is gorgeous. She has the smallest little waist ever. EVER. Rachel mentioned later that when we took our picture and she put her arm around Danneel's waist that she thought she might break her in half. Hee! But, yeah. SHE RULES. That's all. DON'T TRY AND TELL ME OTHERWISE OR I'LL FLAME YOU!!!

Here, have a picture! Click on it to enlarge it.

So it was around the time that Danneel left that Chris came out to let us know that they still weren't done with sorting the pictures but that he'd be there passing them out until 9 or 10 that night and I think it was then that he mentioned something about Sandy's panel going on and Rachel and I were all OMG SANDY'S PANEL! We asked someone what time it was and we found that she'd probably been on stage for five or so minutes and we didn't want to miss any more of her Q&A so we decided we'd come back for our photos and made a mad dash for the ballroom to take our seats.

Sandy was, indeed, already on stage at the time and when we came it she was in the midst of telling the story about how Jared was so nervous on the night that he proposed to her that he kept pacing back and forth across the room and rubbing his chest and how he was really starting to concern her and he gave her some lame excuse about how he was sore from working out. LOVE IT. I was so engaged by her within twenty seconds of sitting down that I just ended up gawking at her and giggling for the rest of her panel, all the while wishing she could stay and talk to us forever.

I'm pretty sure it was during that Q&A that everyone in the room (even the previously tentative and uncertain people) all fell in love with her. I don't know how it's humanly possible not to. She is. FREAKING. AMAZING. Do you all realize this? Because you should.

There are lots of great detailed reports on the questions she was asked and the answers she gave that you can track down and read if you haven't already so I'm not going to go into that, but I will simply say that I want a miniature Sandy (as if she needs to be more miniature than she already is) to put in my pocket and carry everywhere. I also took some pictures and while they're not fantastic, they're pretty decent so I'll link you to an album so that you can check them out if you want. Just click on the preview below!

Sandy says, "I'm cuter than you!"

So then directly after her panel it was on to the last autograph session of the day! D: SO SAD. But we were excited to get to talk to Sandy again. HOWEVER, we (along with almost everyone else) were under the impression that the Gold Weekend patrons got a free autograph from Sandy like we did with all the other guests and, um, that was not the case. So when we found that crap out we made a beeline for the registration area where they were still selling the autograph tickets. Luckily they were only $20 but I would have dropped more money than that because I had my heart set on having her signature to go along with everyone else's.

So we bought our tickets and then hopped in the line which was about a million times longer than the photo op line had been. Hmmm. Did people suddenly start noticing the awesomeness that is the future Mrs. Jared Padalecki? I think so.

Again it was a fast-moving line so that was something to be thankful for. I was surprised by that, though, because I think there were tons of people getting illicit photos with Sandy right there at the table she was sitting at, even though they weren't supposed to, lol. BUT WHATEVER. sarah_p got one and that makes her awesome since she didn't get to have a real photo op.

I think this time I was actually in line ahead of Rachel but she was right behind me so we sort of ended up at the table at the same time and we struck up yet another adoring conversation with Sandy:

Me: Hi again, Sandy!
Rachel: We're back!
Sandy: Hey! Hey, how's it going? *Taking my photo from her handler so that she can sign it*
Rachel: Great! You did a really good job up there!
Sandy: *The now-famous breathless, I'm-about-to-pass-out giggling* I was so nervous, oh my gosh!
Me: Well, you were awesome! Jared would be proud.
Sandy: Oh, he knew I was really, really nervous. I'm kind of glad he wasn't here! *She obviously becomes a bit distracted by signing my picture when she realizes that she's started to make a mistake in what she was trying to write and has to rectify it*
Rachel: Jared told us earlier that we had to be nice to you or he'd hunt us down!
Me: Yeah, he just kept saying how great you are and called you a "doll."
Sandy: *Handing me my picture and now moving on to signing Rachel's* Did he?! *She has another giggle fit* He's never that nice to me!
Me: Aww! Well, at least he couldn't say enough good things about you to us!
Sandy: Yeah, that's something, I guess!

I think maybe Rachel and Sandy exchanged some other pleasantries then but by the time I'd walked away from the table a bit so that it wouldn't seem like I was crowding or trying to hold the line up. And then Rachel joined me (again) and we another fangirly squee (again) and admired our pictures. Which we loved like whoa because she was taking the time to write little messages on every single photo she signed. AW, SANDY!

The picture of a picture thing never really works so it came out dark and there's a weird red camera flare, but you get the idea.

And...yeah! That was pretty much it! Oh, though we did see Sandy again before we left. We didn't get to talk to her but it was cute, anyway. So I'll share.

Rachel and I went back to the photo op room after getting our pictures signed and it was around that time that they were finally letting people in to claim their photos. I think Chris and the volunteers were having people come in ten at a time and Rachel and I were in the second batch of ten but there were probably only twenty or so people waiting around at that point, anyway. So, yes, we went in and it was like the most awesome Easter egg hunt ever! The pictures were all spread out on tables so we had to dart around the room looking for our pictures and every time we found one, we could barely contain our delight because they all came out so well!

And then once we'd collected them all we clustered over by the computer where Chris was doing the writing of the .jpg CDs to wait for him and while we were waiting, Sandy showed up. She came in the room and was perusing all the pictures (she was with the young woman who was her "handler" for the day) and was being so cute, pointing silly pictures of Jared out and giggling. And at one point I heard her say, "Oh my gosh! She's standing way too close to him!" And I couldn't help but crack up. I don't know what picture Sandy was talking about and I'm pretty sure she wasn't being entirely serious but it was really cute. She went all jealous!fiancée and it was made of win.

But then she left again (with Danneel, maybe? Because I saw them walk by the doorway together and they were chatting :D ) and Rachel and I got our pictures put on the CD and, um...I THINK THAT'S ACTUALLY FINALLY IT.

We went back to our room to drop off our loot and revel in the glory of the day for a few minutes and then headed next door to the Hilton for dinner with afrocurl and sarah_p and eternaldawn and devidarkwolf, who we had just met for the first time. It was fun! We had some really varied food combos going on (some of us ate dessert - myself included - for dinner and one of us had nothing but soup and a couple actually had meals and one had...nothing but leftovers!) and there was a lot of awesomely fangirly talk and we probably made the wait staff hate us because we sat there forever but it was a great way to cap off the night. Even though by the time Rachel and I finally got back to our hotel room we were sooooo tired it wasn't even funny. But at least we got to go to bed knowing that we could sleep in a couple of hours before even having to worry about packing up and getting the shuttle to LAX to catch our flight back to Pittsburgh.

I think...did I just reach the end of the tale? I THINK I DID. I'll accept congratulations in any form you deem worthy :D

Thanks for all the great comments over the duration of my fangirl recollections and I hope you've all enjoyed my ramblings!

Looks like there'll be a part three!

2008-04-04T16:47:56Z

Okay, how truly horrible is it that, five days later, I'm still lusting over that damn bed at the LAX Marriott?! I think that it's becoming quickly obvious that no bed will ever compare. Sigh. It's just the cold, harsh truth.

But who am I to continue flooding my journal with complaints about how my bed is now perfectly inadequate? I'm really here to type up part two of my review of Sunday at the convention. Who knows how long-winded this one will be but, um, I'm gonna dive in! This one isn't nearly as image-heavy (external links are in use) so you don't have to worry about your computer having a meltdown if you click on the cut :D

So, when I left off, I think I had just finished talking about the photo ops with the boys individually and as a pair and fangirling hardcore so that would mean that it's on to the Q&A panel with Jensen and Jared. During which I also did some hardcore fangirling, so nothing changed in that respect.

By this point I'm 100% positive that anyone who cares to know about the panel in detail has read just about every detailed report that exists so far and has probably seen most of the completely illicit videos as well. So is it really necessary for me to go into detail about everything the guys talked about? I mean, I could. I really could. But this would become the longest post ever and I'm trying to keep it to something that resembles a minimum.

But in case you're looking for some really fantastic videos, I'm going to go ahead and pimp babybluesteel at her YouTube account. They're probably some of the best that I've seen! Not only in that they're from the front (most videos taken seem to be from one side or the other) but they have pretty great clarity and the sound on them is devoid of a lot of that extra crowd noise so you can actually hear what the guys are saying. Love them all! In fact, now that I take a peek, she has a awesome playlist of all her videos from last weekend. Go to town, my friends! And leave her some pretty comments for her great work in documenting the events!

Right, so. The Q&A panel. OH MY. I could have honestly sat there and listened to the boys talk for hours. More than hours. They are both so witty and charming and winsome and I still wouldn't be able to say enough about how fabulous they are if I went on for the next several paragraphs.

Jared really set the tone during his individual part of the panel, being the big goofball that he is and I was just so pleased to find that Jensen didn't allow any of his anxieties to get in the way once he was on the stage by himself. I know that being nervous can really make your personality fall flat but Jensen was definitely in rare form. He had me laughing even more than Jared did and that actually surprised me. Between all of the silly stories and impersonations I found myself giggling almost the whole way through his entire panel (the Jared/Sam impression didn't come about until Jared was back on stage but that had me laughing so hard that I was holding my stomach and my eyes were watering) and the only thing that could have made it better was the two boys being up there together. So of course once Jared rejoined Jensen, I was in my glory. But weren't we all, really?

I cannot stress more than I already have how damn funny those two guys are when they're together. I don't think they'd even need the fans to provide them with subject matter for them to be able to keep us all in hysterics with their banter and knack for busting on one another. They really do act like a pair of brothers and that was so incredibly heartwarming and endearing because while we've all seen it in DVD special features and interviews and whatnot, it's so different (and thrilling!) to see it in person. I will always have the best memories of just the tiniest little things--like the knowing sort of smiles they send one another and the pats on the shoulder or knee and their shared laughter on various occasions. Some of that sticks out for me more vividly than any of the actual answers they gave to the questions they were asked. And by the time their panel was over I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone in attendance when I say that they left us wanting more! The time flew by and I was so bummed to see them leaving the stage, particularly knowing that aside from our time for autographs, we wouldn't be seeing them anymore. IT WAS SO SAD, GUYS.

As for pictures that I took of the Q&A session...well, they weren't bad but they weren't nearly as good as the ones I got during the breakfast. The light in the room definitely had a profound impact on the quality of the pictures themselves and then there was the fact that I wasn't as close, nor was I able to get many shots where there weren't heads in the way. For some reason, Jared didn't read as well on the photos (maybe because he was wearing black?) and a lot of Jensen came out kind of blurry from movement for some reason unbeknownst to me. But a lot of the pictures of the two of them together are pretty decent and there are the few here and there that were surprisingly good, so instead of spamming this post I've uploaded them all (or the passable ones, at least) to a LiveJournal album that you can peruse at your leisure if you so desire!

Just click on the preview photo below and it'll take you to the entire album.

Jensen says, "YAY FOR PICTURES!"

So, yes, then it was time for the autograph signings. HOLY LINES, BATMAN. Once again I was incredibly pleased to be in the fifth row so that I wouldn't have to wait nearly as long as a lot of the other people did. Because I was completely jonesing for something to eat (after those whole four pieces of fruit for breakfast, I was starving) and I was hoping I'd have time for that before having to get in line for the photo op with Sandy. And fortunately luck was on my side and as with the rest of the lines during the day, the autograph line was moving at a more than steady pace and before I knew it we'd passed into the curtained-off area where the boys were set up at tables for the signings.

Jensen was positioned ahead of Jared so for second or third or maybe even fourth time that day I had to try and quickly compose myself so that I wouldn't have some sort of attack in his presence. But when I got up to the table he was sitting at, I was actually feeling surprisingly calm. His "handler" took the photo I wanted him to sign while he was still working on signing for the person in line ahead of me (actually, that person would have been Rachel) and so he ended up having my picture before I ever even got to the spot in front of him. He was already hunched over the photo (he has a really adorable way of looking completely concentrated on something as simple as signing his name--I half expected his tongue to be poking out) by the time I stopped on the other side of the table and so I took this precious time to gawk at him. I'm sure I was a little wide-eyed but it would've been hard not to be. It was perhaps five or six seconds of silent ogling but it was long enough for me to notice that his lips are incredibly pink (and oh, so kissable...am I right?!) and that the freckles on the bridge of his nose are particularly pronounced. And I probably would have gone on staring at him happily for minutes or, hell, hours but he finished signing my picture and looked up and the eye contact...GUUUUH!

It wasn't the first time that we'd made eye contact that day but it was just different. I don't know how to properly describe that sort of magnetism so I'm going to be a huge nerd in recalling "Tall Tales" here to say that it is, in fact, like staring into the sun. HEE.

There we were, looking at one another for a few long, completely dead quiet seconds and I was watching this little grin (let's just go ahead and call it a smirk because it had a decidedly self-satisfied air about it) forming on his terribly attractive mouth and he finally slaps his palm down on the picture he's signed for me and slooooowly slides it across the table to me and then just leaves his hand there on top of it as he grins at me.

Me: *Reaching for the picture while still gazing at him unblinkingly like I'm completely starstruck*
Jensen: There ya go.
Me: Thank you so much.
Jensen: *RAISING HIS EYEBROWS IN THIS DISGUSTINGLY SMUG AND SEXY WAY* No, thank you. Really!
Me: You're welcome...I mean, thanks!
Jensen: *Laughing now, because it's obvious he knows that he's fried my brain cells* You're very welcome--pleasure's all mine.
Me: *Smiling like an idiot as I wave my picture like it's some kind of prize* Thanks!

And it's then that I finally walked away from the table toward the table where Jared was sitting and as soon as my back was turned, seriously, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. WHAT KIND OF CONVERSATION WAS THAT. Jensen literally made it impossible for me to be even remotely eloquent and it's like he knew how flustered I was and was totally enjoying it. EEEK. I mean, we really just thanked each other over and over and it was pretty much ridiculous but it was the best like, twelve seconds ever.

So by the time I walked away from Jensen's table and up to Jared's, Rachel was already there having him sign her photo so I joined her and gave my picture to Jared's handler and Rachel and I engaged him in a little double conversation while he was signing for us that went something like this:

Rachel: I just wanted to say that we are so excited to meet your fiancée!
Me: Oh my gosh, yes! When we heard she'd been added we bought our photo op ticket that same day and we totally can't wait.
Jared: *Grinning absolutely from ear-to-ear while trying to concentrate on his signature* Aw, that's so great! I'm so glad to hear that, she's just a doll. And she's really nervous so you'd better be nice to her! *Insert a Jared giggle here* Or I'll hunt you down!
Rachel: Of course we're going to be nice to her! We think she is just the cutest thing ever!
Me: Yeah, you two make the most adorable couple and we are so happy for you.
Jared: *Is done signing by this point and has handed me my picture, but is still giving Rachel and I the most sincere, adorable expression of gratitude I've ever seen* Thank you so much, she's really wonderful.
Me: Oh, totally! Congratulations to the both of you!
Jared: Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for your support and for coming out. We really appreciate it!

And then I think Rachel and I gave him a few more jumbled thank-yous of our own and stumbled all over ourselves while trying to walk away from the table and beam at him at the same time because, guys, he is so smiley and it's incredibly infectious. I also remember noting that he has seriously pretty eyes! They always look relatively dark on TV but they looked almost blue-green while he was doing his signings for us and I don't know if it was because of the shirt he was wearing or what but...GUH! Jared Padalecki's striking prettiness is so underestimated, ya'll.

And you would think that it really can't get much better than meeting and speaking to Jared and Jensen multiple times in one day...but there is still plenty of greatness for me to speak of. So I'm going to cut this post off right about here and promise that the third and final part of the review will be coming either later tonight or sometime tomorrow. In which we meet Sandy (and totally fangirl her) and Danneel and decide that we need to go to another convention STAT :D

Breakfast, anyone?

2008-04-02T22:39:04Z

So, did I mention that on Sunday I met Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki? Did I?!

Oh, right! YES. I guess I did mention that. Maybe once or twice. And I think some of you are probably waiting for some pictures of the pretty that is J2 so I'm just going to get right down to business with that. I do plan on giving a review for the whole day but since it's going to be super image heavy, I'm doing it in two parts. Maybe three, if it becomes necessary. But here we go with the first part!

Does it go without saying that come Sunday morning I was freaking out? I think it probably should. The moment that I woke up I had a serious case of broad-winged butterflies in my stomach and it just got worse and worse as the time for the breakfast neared. Obviously I was really, really excited to see the boys but I was so nervous. Still, Rachel and I managed to do our primping in a timely fashion, getting up at 4:30 and being ready to go downstairs to get in line for breakfast by 6:30. A little before, actually, and it was probably a good thing because by the time we showed up a line was already starting to form.

The people from Creation made a point of telling us all the previous day that the Marriott wouldn't be allowing people to camp out outside of the room where the breakfast was being held over night like they apparently did at the convention in Chicago and said that we weren't allowed to line up until 7:00. But like Rachel and I, plenty of people had the idea to be there before 7, just to be safe. I think when we got in line we had thirteen (I tried to count as best I could) people in front of us and thank God we got there when we did! By 6:45 the line started accumulating more people and by 7:00 the line was the whole way down the hall. As it turned out, we were more than fine having the position in line that we did because there really wasn't a bad seat in the whole room as far as I could tell but I was super pleased to be at one of the front three tables so that there was nothing between us and the little stage where the guys were when they got there. Which, by the way, didn't happen until almost 9:00, regardless of the fact that the breakfast technically started at 8:00.

Because of that I probably should have been able to calmly enjoy a nice meal but...hell no. I was a wreck, guys! I'm almost embarrassed to admit how anxious I was about being in the same room with Jared and Jensen, let alone meeting them and taking pictures with them, etc. So while everyone else indulged in the yummy buffet spread (eggs, potatoes, bacon, danishes and muffins, fruit, and all kinds of other things that looked really fabulous) I ate a few pieces of fruit from Rachel's plate. That is, I had two pieces of pineapple, two strawberries and a piece of watermelon and it's a wonder I could even stomach that. I just kept looking at the clock on my phone and fidgeting around in my chair and checking and re-checking the settings on my camera and...ugh, I could have really used a Valium or something. I was anticipating the guys' arrival so much that when they actually got there it totally took me off guard. We were waiting and waiting and waiting some more and then suddenly there they were, coming through the little door behind the stage and I swear to God, I cannot describe the impact of seeing them in person in a way more accurate than saying that it's a little bit like being punched in the stomach. I literally lost my breath for a moment or two and my hands were shaking so badly that it's a wonder my pictures didn't turn out all blurry *headdesk*

No lie, my friends, those boys are even more amazing in real life than they are on TV or in pictures. You would almost expect it to be the other way around since there was no carefully aimed lights or airbrushing or make-up to make them look perfect but...they still did. I think when I texted sarah_p to report not long after the guys arrived, I said that Jensen looks like a Greek god but OMG, HE DOES. I'm not exaggerating! How freaking amazingly gorgeous he is doesn't even begin to translate to pictures and I'm now convinced that you have to see him in person to even remotely grasp how profoundly attractive he is.

Of course, Jared was incredibly good looking in person, too, but I think he looked a lot more like I expected him to. If that...makes sense. The first thing I registered about him was, obviously, how goddamn tall he is. HE IS JUST SO BIG. So big and so smiley and just...guh with the hair. He was wearing a beanie but I could tell that he'd cut his hair a bit and I was totally geeking out over the little wings that stuck out by his ears and I probably would have paid good money to touch his hair. Forreal.

Oddly enough, while I first noticed how tall Jared is, the first thing that I noticed about Jensen other than how fucking beautiful he is was that he was wearing that t-shirt under his oxford that he wore under the blue plaid western-style shirt that he wore for his photoshoot in Sydney. How bad is it that I noticed that?! Especially when there were more pressing issues when it comes to his appearance (like how perfectly coifed his hair was and how tan his white shirt made him look and how he was all stubbly and delicious) for me to hone in on! But, yeah, I did. And I checked when I got home to make sure I wasn't imagining it and I was right :D Also, I know it's been mentioned before that Jared said he stole the shirt he was wearing from wardrobe, but I just still think that's the coolest thing ever simply because it's the shirt that he was wearing in the photo that Rachel had him sign later. Heee.

PICTURES! I didn't resize them all that much (I made them a little smaller) so if you click on the oversized thumbnails you'll find that they're MASSIVE. Also, if you'd like to use them for any reason, feel free. I have no problem with you doing with them as you please as long as you credit me for the photography, per favore. I was really glad they came out well for the most part since my Q&A panel pictures aren't nearly as good.

The boys right after arriving. Who else has a total kink of Jared in that long black coat? I thought Jensen looked super great in the brown leather, too ;)

You will find that I have quite a few pictures where at least one of them has their eyes closed or is making a goofy face.

Hee, I call this Jensen's bird face.

Almost all of the vertical pictures came out a bit too dark because it means I turned my whole camera and the flash was pointing in the wrong direction. Whoops.

Does it or does it not look like Jensen is serenading Jared?

Whoever says that Jensen never smiles is OMG SO WRONG.

Jensen tells it like it is.

And this looks suspiciously like a karate chop.

They were talking about snowmen and snowballs, lol.

Jared iz shocked.

Jensen being all...freakin' adorable.

J.Pad says "BRING IT!" As he stands safely between the bodyguards. Hee. Jensen retaliated by brandishing the mic stand but I missed it.

Bye bye for now, boys.

Honestly, though, they were just so amazing. THEY WERE. And as horribly nervous as I was before they arrived and just after, I calmed down considerably after a couple of minutes. I think it was just the nerves that had me going crazy with anxiety but the boys totally put me (and everyone else, I'd venture to guess) entirely at ease. They were there with us for about a half an hour or maybe a little longer but in that amount of time it became so incredibly obvious that no one is exaggerating when they talk about how wonderful they are. They're both so entertaining individually and when you put them together it's like stand-up comedy. They're effortlessly funny and so incredibly engaging even while speaking to a room full of people. They managed to make it seem so personal right over top of all the crowd noise and the constant flashing of cameras and I really admire them for that ease. Particularly Jensen, considering that we all know him as being a lot less naturally outgoing than Jared. And, guys, he's hilarious. The impressions and goofy voices he does just make me love him even more. And Jared is 100% as dorkily fantastic as you'd expect ;D

I really wish the breakfast could have lasted longer because it was hands-down the best part of the day for me. A lot more intimate than the Q&A panel and not nearly as rushed or nerve-racking than the photo ops and autograph signings. It was thirty-something minutes of J2 bliss and if you get to see any of the tons of videos popping up all over the place of them during that part of the day...well, their awesomeness just isn't even adequately rendered that way. I love them so much, ya'll. It's not even right.

So, um, then the breakfast was over and the nerves were baaaaack. Because it was straight to the MILE-LONG LINE for the photo op with Jensen. I was kind of flipping out again but I don't think anyone but Rachel really was aware of that. My palms were all sweaty and cold and all I could think the entire time we were inching our way up the line was that I really hoped Jensen didn't want to shake my hand. It would have been a nice gesture and all but I didn't need to sweat all over him. And once we were finally in the part of the line that was actually in the room where the photo ops were happening and we could see him I apparently took my nerves out on Rachel. Hee. She told me that at one point I smacked her and told her that she had to let me stand on the left (why, I'm not even entirely sure) and she had to yell at me to calm down. Which I did. SOMEHOW. Which is a good thing since by the time we were at the front of the line and we were standing approximately four feet away from where Jensen was sitting on a stool, I could have seriously lost my shit.

When the girl in line in front of us walked away from the backdrop that was set up for the photos and Jensen looked up at us and smiled and told us to "come on over, ladies" my heart was pretty much beating a mile a minute but I think I was on autopilot because I somehow ended up standing beside him and smiling at the camera and I don't even really remember it. What I do remember was that it was my personal goal to see if he smelled as good as he looked like he smelled (at breakfast I was very cognizant of the fact that he looked as though he should smell AMAZING) so, standing at his side, I managed to lean in just enough to take a little whiff and, uh, yeah. I was right. Whatever it was that he was wearing - cologne or aftershave - was fantastic. This really light, masculine, musky scent that made me just want to be entirely inappropriate and rub myself all over him. HEH. I refrained, of course. And it wasn't even until after the picture was over and we thanked him and he thanked us back and we were walking away that I was like, "WHAT THE FUCK, JENSEN. WHY DIDN'T YOU PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND US!!!"

I was kind of disappointed. Because, swear to God, he put his arm around like, everyone and then in our picture he ended up sitting there with his hands hanging between his legs like dead fish. -_- Nice going, Ackles. It's a good thing he's so damn hot that I can't be pissed. Well, it's a good thing that he's hot and that he also totally made up for it during our J2 sandwich shot. But, really, I don't think he made the conscious decision not to put his arms around us but instead that it sort of just happened that way since we flanked him in the photo and they pictures are so hurried. He was still really nice and pleasant so it's not like he was being all stand-offish. I hear he was even giving out hugs upon request. I know, right? sarah_p got one. I would have been too freaked out to ask.

So, here we are. We've deduced that Jensen looks like he's a 5-year-old boy who is nervous around girls but it's not a bad picture. I can deal because his little boyish smirk is so cute. Even if we didn't get one of his giant smiles of the day.

So, from Jensen's photo op line, we moved directly into the J2 photo op line and that was the one we waited in for the longest because we had to wait for Jensen to finish up his solo shots and then they gave him a little break before he and Jared came in again for their combo shots. And, really, I was perfectly at ease then. I wasn't as horribly nervous to meet Jared as I was to meet Jensen and since we'd already gotten through Jensen's photo, I was just really excited! I really enjoyed it when we were in the room and got to see the boys taking pictures with other fans because they were so willing to be campy and silly and totally mug for the camera. They posed with feather boas and a model Impala and other various props and even did some muscle-flexing bodybuilder poses with a few girls and they looked like they were having a genuinely good time. Of course, Rachel and I were just happy to stand between the two of them and try to smile pretty while we were both dying inside. Trust. Standing between those two is fantastic and intimidating. They are soooo tall. Or we're really short. Hence this being the conversation that we had during our photo op:

Jensen: Ladies!
Jared: Come on down. *Gesturing* It's a sandwich!
Jensen: It's a twofer!
Me: *Walking up between Rachel and Jensen--who promptly puts his arm around me and tugs me up against his side* Wow, we're so short.
Jensen: *Putting his giant palm between my shoulderblades and looking down at me so I can't even concentrate* You really are short!

And then we all smiled for the picture and I don't know what happened on Rachel's end with Jared, but Jensen rubbed my back (it was not a pat, guys, it was a rub that lasted for several seconds while I was still standing beside him) and smiled down at me when I thanked him profusely. Actually, I said "Thank you so much, guys" so I really directed it at the both of them but I was too busy staring up into Jensen's alarmingly gorgeous Huge Green Eyes so it kind of ended up being directed at him and he gave me this big smile as I went to walk away and said, "No, thank you for coming out--we really appreciate it."

And it's a wonder I didn't trip over anything on my way back out of the room because I was in a happy daze. To say the least. And every time I look at the picture that we got back it makes me squeal like the fangirl that I am.

Then it was our third photo up with Jared. Which I was like, really super excited about because I didn't get to really interact with him during the combo shot since Rachel stood beside him. And, seriously, he just wins all. No one has ever lied when they make comments about how he's just a huge teddy bear. He was sitting down on a stool like Jensen had been for his individual shots so his size wasn't as intimidating as I'm sure it would have been had he still been standing but, yeah, Rachel pretty much took control of that situation. She walked up to him ahead of me and I think she told him something along the lines of, "I've been waiting for this all day" in true fangirl fashion and he said, "Well, then, get in here!" And then he promptly threw his arms around both of us and pulled us so solidly against his sides that we were actually leaning across his lap.

For the whole five seconds that it took to take the photo, I have to say that I noted that 1) Jared smells incredibly good, too. But he had a much more spicy sort of fragrance than Jensen did and 2) I could have died happy after having his arm around me. He makes you feel so secure and...I don't know, loved. That sounds so silly since he didn't even know us but that's just the truth. It's like he's so happy to just cozy up to you and let you bask in his amazingness and he truly warmed my heart then and multiple times thereafter.

Yes. The Jared photo is our undisputed favorite of the weekend!

So after that the photo ops were over and it was Q&A time! Which was so freakin' much fun and highly photographed so I'll get to that and hopefully the autograph signings and other such events in the second half of my review of Sunday. Yay!

sarah_p says this post will be epic.

2008-04-02T16:49:27Z

Okay, so, I love my bed but it is absolutely nothing in comparison to the amazing beds at the LAX Marriott. Seriously, when I crawled into bed last night I was severely unimpressed by my level of mediocre comfort. UGH. Can we just go back to L.A. already?

That being said, I'm already in Jared & Jensen withdrawal and I miss having everything being all about Supernatural, all day. Damn that convention for getting under my skin and whatnot. Since notyourstarx0 and I are already basically trying to plot a way to go to another. Maybe Chicago? L.A. next year?

Um, before I go off on that tangent, I'm just going to dive into recapping day two of the convention. Last night I uploaded all my pictures and did some resizing and cropping and it took forever so I thought I'd get a fresh start today and pick up where I left off while still in L.A. I already wrote about our adventures on Friday night, so on to Saturday! I'm just going to put it under a cut so that I can add pictures where I see fit and I don't completely flood my friends list.

So, right. On Friday night we were so freakin' dead tired but obviously while Rachel crashed directly after Jason's concert was over, I updated my journal and then joined her in the...crashing. I think I eventually turned off the lights around 1:30 and I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow. Luckily we'd already registered that night so we got to kind of sleep in on Saturday morning! I think we got up around 9:30 and I took the bathroom first so that Rachel could lie in bed for a little while longer (at which point she discovered that we didn't have many very good television channels) and then we switched off. We were both finally showered and dressed a little before 11:30 (we were aiming to be downstairs by noon) so we left a little early so we could partake in the full-service Starbucks in the lobby.

We briefly enjoyed our drinks and respective pastries and then decided to waste a few more minutes before the start of the program of events by going into the room where all the vendors were. BAD IDEA. I don't think either of us were really planning to buy anything but, um, that didn't happen. The first thing we both went for, of course, were the semi-large banners for $25 that neither of us really have a place or use for. I think we were originally going to have those signed by the boys at the autograph sessions but then we ended up buying several of the glossy photographs to have them sign instead. Rachel got one of Jensen, one of Jared and one of Sandy and I got one of each of the three of them, too, plus pictures of Chad and Fred. I also purchased the individual photo sleeves for each picture, a big sleeve for the "poster" of the Impala that the Gold Weekend patrons received as their gift that I was planning on having Kripke sign, a shot glass for myself and a mug for my mom since, you know, she collects mugs and I really knew of nothing else worth bringing her as a souvenir. Unless I found a way to put Jensen in my checked luggage :D

By the time we were done at the vendors tables, we didn't have time to take our purchases up to our room so we decided we'd do it later and went and found our seats in the ballroom in time to watch the awesome fan videos that were being played for us, particularly the one about how everyone wants to kick Dean's ass, which was hilariously perfect and the awesome Tenacious D knock-off that I understand was originally made for Chicago last year.

Before we knew it, Fredric Lane was on the stage as the first official Q&A panelist, regaling us with his version of "Sympathy for the Devil" with a few key changes, as I understand he did back in November in Chicago. He apologized for making repeat con-goers sit through his song but I don't think any of them actually minded ;D He also said that he'd have to have a new "equally ridiculous" way to kick off his panel for upcoming conventions but the response to his chosen way of starting off with a bang was pretty great.

But...Fred, Fred, Fred. What can I say? He was really a constant source of entertainment the entire day. He really turned out to be a very charming, very charismatic man, which I wasn't entirely expecting. I also told Rachel that I think he could be Hugh Laurie's bastard twin. I don't think he's quite as attractive (or as British!) as Hugh but he really was good looking and we couldn't help but notice that.

I think what I was most impressed with was the fact that even when the questions weren't coming for him one after another, he didn't let the dead silence infiltrate and become awkward for everyone in the audience, which is what happened several times later, particularly in Chad and Jason's panels. God love them. But Fred was full of anecdotes and silly comments and stories, even though I think he talked more about his work on previous shows and movies than he did about his work on Supernatural. Which was okay, though, because he kept things enlightening and entertaining all at once, no matter what the topic was.

I'm going to pause here to say: I'm not really going to even attempt to cover what each of the guests actually talked about in their panels. I was too busy just enjoying them to take notes and I know there are plenty of reviews from guests at the convention out there where you can get that information if you're so inclined. Along with videos! YouTube has been predictably invaded. So, yeah, I'm just going to skim the surface. ONWARD!

So, a few pictures of Fredric during his panel. I'll say ahead of time that though I was in the fifth row and my view of the stage was really good, my pictures are not all that fantastic from the Q&A sessions. The lighting was bad (pretty much in the whole hotel) and therefore they came out a bit dark and grainy and because I'm short there are always heads in the way.

Right after Fred's panel was over Rachel and I took a leave of absence during a rousing Supernatural fan trivia session to go to our photo op with him. The line was a decent size but we got through it quickly and were having our picture taken before we knew it. Fredric decided it'd be awesome as we flanked him for the photo to grab our sides and squeeze our love handles, which prompted the both of us screeching and jumping so Chris (the photographer) had to re-take it. Funnily enough, that first picture ended up being better than the re-take because in the re-take Rachel's eyes are half-closed. Plus, in the original, Fred is making a delightfully crazy face with his eyes all bugged out and his tongue sticking out. Also, he mentioned something after asking us our names about how he had two ladies from "the Old Testament" and Rachel and I didn't have the heart to tell him that while he was right about her name, there was definitely no Erin in the Bible.

And here is our phenomenal picture with Fredric:

So then it was back to the ballroom because next up was the incomparable Jason Manns. Honestly, I really love the guy and there's not a hint of sarcasm in that but one can't help but be amused that he's getting all these con gigs because he has the good fortune of being friends with Jensen. And for that reason I wasn't all surprised (who was?) that the very first question he got during his Q&A panel was about how he knows Jensen. Poor Jason probably should have expanded upon his answer, but at least he did give us a response to that burning question about how he was invited to a party at Jensen's place not long after moving to L.A. and they sort of ~bonded~ over their mutual love of music when he picked up Jensen's guitar and began tinkering around on it. It was a short explanation (he's not really a very long-winded man, as opposed to, say, Kripke, who I think likes the sound of his own voice) but it seemed to satisfy the masses.

I think the most enjoyable thing about listening to him talk is that he seems so focused on his music and he really appeared to like being able to discuss it with the fans. He talked at length about the fact that he's started hundreds of songs and finished so very few because he has no real tried and true song writing process and that lyrics in particular come to him at odd times (like while driving in his car or sitting in an airport terminal, etc.). He also mentioned that it's the fan response to his music that inspires him to keep working at his art so that we aren't all someday listening to music by some "accountant in West Virginia."

He just seemed like a very genuine person - like everyone else who appeared at the convention as a guest. Very laid-back and down-to-earth and I just loved how willing he was at the end of his panel to just unpack his guitar from its case and sing us a song upon request of the audience. I want to say that he sang "Dance, Dance, Dance" by the Steve Miller band, but I could be imagining that. Either way, I thought it was a particularly nice way for him to close his session and it appeared as though he was pleased by the opportunity to perform for a few minutes, too, since he mentioned how "naked" he felt at the mic without his guitar while he was answering questions.

And then there was Chad Lindberg. His panel was so incredibly awkward for the vast majority of the time. He was just so uncomfortable, bless his cotton socks. But I think we all sort of saw it coming. Ash's character wasn't really on the show for all that long and, hello, he's dead now. Rachel and I mused over whether every question would end up being about his mullet ahead of time and while it didn't come to that, it seemed as though the crowd wasn't having an easy go of coming up with questions for him. Thank God he took the painful silences in stride. Even though he asked us all about "what's up" more times than I could count on both hands. He pretty much did it every time there wasn't someone in line to ask him a question and it just made me cringe.

But luckily everyone had the same impression about Chad being a little uneasy and went out of their way to come up with things for him to talk about so that he wouldn't have to talk about a "typical day on the set" for more than five minutes after being prompted by one of the people from Creation. I mean, I think crafts services came up at one point and that was really when I just wanted his panel to be over. For his sake and ours. Even though he was really endearing in the way that he continuously cracked himself up. He would just start giggling at his own comments and, in turn, everyone in the audience would start laughing, too. The most notable thing about his Q&A is about how obvious it was that he really wishes Ash would come back to the show because he really never got a chance to go "on the road." He's kind of hoping that Ash will show up and save Sam and Dean's asses by popping out of the abyss unexpectedly with a bow and arrow--which he demonstrated. He was really entertaining when he actually got the chance to talk about something that didn't require a one-word answer and he seemed like a really good-natured, happy guy...if not for obviously being a bit shy.

And then...and then, Eric Kripke! He is SO THE MAN and I'm not even entirely sure that he realizes it. He seemed to be legitimately surprised that everyone was so excited to see him and have him there at the convention as a guest and even made a comment upon taking the stage that he made a bet with his wife about how many people would actually be there to sit through his panel and how flattered he was by our support of him and the show.

Guys, he was seriously ridiculously entertaining. Even more so than I could have garnered from written or recorded interviews. Especially after the collective audience gave him the go-ahead to curse and then he couldn't seem to stop. "Fucking shit," "clusterfuck," "motherfucker," and any other combination that includes the word "fuck" seem to be among his favorite expletives and he really enjoyed expressing his enthusiasm in that fashion. He was really adamant about how much the fandom drives him crazy but also that he loves us for being a real pain in his ass and giving him the constant incentive to strive to continuously improve upon the show.

He was really generous about answering a lot of questions for us - the lines were outstandingly long - and went about it in a really candid way instead of one that was over-rehearsed and boring, which would have really made him lose his luster for me. Oh! And Rachel even got to ask him a question! She made note of how great Colin Ford and Ridge Canipe were as young Sam and Dean in "A Very Supernatural Christmas" and how nuanced and spot-on their performances were and wanted to know about the casting process and what they were looking for in actors for those roles and you can see the answer that Eric gave courtesy of some wonderful soul that uploaded it to YouTube. I took a video on my point-and-shoot camera but for some reason none of my computers want to recognize the videos that are on the memory card. BAH. I'll have to post all my videos later when I find a way to rectify the problem.

There was so much greatness in Eric's panel that I wouldn't even be able to begin recapping it all so...right, pictures of The Krip!

Aaaand Rachel while in line to ask Eric her question.

So then it was time for autographs! Yay! I really thought that it would take forever and a day but the lines moved surprisingly fast (which ended up being the trend with lines for the weekend) and it helped that Rachel and I were in the fifth row so were in and out pretty fast. We started in Eric's line and though I loved the cheesetastic headshots he was signing, I had him sign the Impala picture that we got at registration since I plan to hang it and...I don't know, it's more...aesthetically pleasing? And I got to ask him my burning question about whether or not they'd ever though about setting an episode in my hometown (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - America's most haunted, bitches!) and he told me that they had thought about doing a Civil War ghost episode more than once with a battlefield being a "dark spot" of supernatural activity. He ended up reassuring me that they definitely haven't ruled the possibility out, so that's cool. Not that it would be shot on location but, still.

I should mention for posterity that this whole time that we were in line for Eric's autograph, Fred Lane was mysteriously missing so we automatically moved over to get in line for Jason and Chad for the time being and when Fred did turn up it was pretty much deduced that he'd been off getting sloshed since for the rest of the evening he continued to become increasingly punch happy and uncoordinated.

As I was saying, though, we got in line to get autographs from Chad and Jason while waiting for Fred to show up. I bought my own copy of the Jason/Jensen single to have signed by Jason and while he was mostly noncommittal during the actual signing, he was very smiley and gracious when he thanked me for my support and told me to enjoy the CD...as if I hadn't already done that! And I didn't get to talk to Chad for long, either, but I did tell him that I loved the picture of him that I had him sign because it's so "intense" and he thought that was particularly hilarious and was giggling his way through the autographing process, right up until the time that I thanked him and even as I was walking away.

And by then Mr. Lane had been located and was set up at a table for his own autograph session and so Rachel and I hopped in that line and got through it pretty quickly. As I put my picture of him down for him to sign (you'll see what it looks like) I started to say that I hoped he could find some free space to sign and he pretty much cut me off by saying that he really had no choice but to sign over his own face but that I wouldn't be "missing anything." And then he wiggled his eyebrows at me and called me "sweetie" and that was pretty much reaffirmation of him being an awesomely dirty old man (since he did pinch our sides). Who was drunk. It's just a fact!

Have some autograph photos!

Eric Kripke.

Jason Manns.

Chad Lindberg.

Fredric Lane (with the reflection of my arms and camera...)

So with the bulk of the day's events out of the way, Rachel and I decided it was time to take our stuff back to our room and assuage our hunger. We went to Champion's (the sports bar in the hotel) and had dinner (I had some bangin' barbecue chicken quesadillas, for the record) and then headed up to our room to relax for, oh, all of an hour or so. We were both so tired again that we were briefly contemplating not even going back downstairs on time for Steve Carlson's concert but we eventually did and the band wasn't even on stage yet so it ended up not being a problem.

The concert turned out to be really good and while it started out almost disturbingly low-key (which was weird because it was about as quiet as Jason's concert the previous night...where it was just Jason and his acoustic guitar as opposed to Steve and his entire band) things eventually got a lot more upbeat. I guess. I'm used to my concert experiences being deafeningly loud with a lot of drunks and crazy dancing so this wasn't quite of that magnitude but eventually there was dancing and bobbing along at Steve's prompting. Who knows whether it was because the fangirls started getting a little bit tipsy from trips to the bar or whether they just didn't want Steve and the band to be playing to a bunch of corpses sitting dead still in their chairs, but I was glad that things loosened up. Even if some of the grooving I saw was really questionable and reason for concern.

The highlight of the concert, though, was probably finally finding sarah_p. We met on the spn_con_squee community prior to L.A. and planned to meet up for dinner on Sunday with a few other people but up until the concert that night we hadn't managed to cross paths. At least not when we were aware of it. Who knows whether or not we saw each other before without realizing. But Rachel and I were just being our normal geektastic selves in party-boying one another and slow-dancing like sixth grades when afrocurl came up behind us and questioned us about whether we were Rachel and Erin. Color me confused! But it turned out that Roz had managed to track us down for Sarah and she got pretty lucky in identifying us. I'm glad she did, though! Because then the three of us waved to Sarah from across the room and she and Roz came to join us from row M for the rest of the concert. Where we did more varied horrible dance moves and talked more than we actually listened to the music. I should be shamefaced about that but Sarah was cracking us up by regaling us with her encounters with some of the awesome crazies at the convention and we actually ended up talking long after the concert was over.

By that time Rachel and I were supposed to be headed to a different room for the dessert party but, um, yeah. We were late. Because we were really in no hurry for that particular event and unanimously agreed that talking to Sarah was better. Plus, when we finally did leave her, we were at the dessert for approximately five minutes. Just long enough to see that it wasn't quite a raging party and that Fred was so plastered that he was sloshing coffee everywhere while he walked and probably wasn't really going to be all that coherent for the rest of the night. Chad wasn't even there and it wasn't until we left the party that we saw him coming out of the bathroom. MEH. We weren't too concerned.

So we went back to our room and I texted Sarah and told her that if she wanted to come down to our room and hang out for a while, that'd be cool. And she did! We spent probably the next hour or so flailing about the upcoming events for the next day and making pillow porn (I'd post a few pictures but Rachel would filet me!) with the suspiciously shaped decorative pillows from our beds before we finally parted ways for the night. Sarah went back up to the sixth floor to sneak into her room in an attempt not to wake Roz and Rachel and I hit the sack, knowing we were planning on being up at 4:30 in the morning (it was already after midnight) so that we would be able to shower and get dressed for the day and make it downstairs by 6:30 or 7-ish to get in line for the breakfast with the boys.

This only took me like, you know, four hours. So I'll continue on with Sunday's events later!

I'm so very, very tired...

2008-03-31T06:42:12Z

Wonderful things to come!

I've spent so much time already this evening resizing and cleaning up pictures. I've taken probably about three hundred-ish over the weekend and they require attention to detail, as do my reviews of...um...every single little thing. So I just wanted to post and say that today was the best day ever and that the boys and a few other unexpectedly fantastic people were the highlight of my life and I love them all something crazy.

You can look forward to tons and tons of pictures and me squealing about the most minute of details in the near future. Likely on Tuesday when I'm back home in boring ol' Pennsylvania. Without J2 D:

Day one down!

2008-03-29T07:25:55Z

Ya'll, I haven't slept in something like 40 hours (Rachel is sacked out on her tremendously comfy bed as I type this) and yet I can't go to bed until I update. That's just sad. But I know that if I don't update as the weekend unfurls, I'll lose the details and I won't be able to review with the attention the whole event deserves! So here I am.

As stated in my previous post, Rachel and I did managed to get a cab earlier in the afternoon and we rode the few miles to Manhattan Beach but we didn't actually go to the beach itself yet. We went to Manhattan City Mall instead in search of bathing suits because we were stupid and didn't pack any and we wanted to be able to take advantage of the gorgeous pool and jacuzzi at our hotel. The cab transport was without a hitch if not for the fact that we only went a few miles and ended up paying over $18 because we got stuck sitting in traffic O_O But then we both bought new bathing suits at Macy's and dropped way more than that so it isn't quite significant in the grand scheme of things.

From Macy's we decided it was finally time for that long overdue meal so we had dinner at Islands Fine Burgers & Salads. We shared some deliciiiious cheddar fries and Rachel had some spicy chicken soft tacos that were apparently as good as my Maui burger (swiss cheese and guacamole!) and our long lasting hunger was cured and it must have given us our second wind because we ended up walking away from the mall and down onto residential streets in Manhattan Beach. We were basically enthralled by the houses on these streets. OMG, were they gorgeous! We promptly decided (after seeing one too many beautiful, manicured lawns and stone driveways and stucco houses with etchings on the glass windows and flowers and citrus trees growing out front) that we need to move here to Los Angeles even if it's only so we can live in one of those houses! They were just so pretty and storybook perfect and we probably spent a good half an hour or more walking up and down the sidewalks looking at them. Each one seemed to be nicer than the next!

Eventually we did decide it was time to get back to the hotel, though, so we went back to the mall that we started at to get concierage to call us a cab (though not before I stopped at Babystyle to get my niece or nephew the cutest stuffed turtle toy). It showed up pretty quickly and we made it back to the Marriott on only $13 this time instead over $20 with tip included. Whew.

By then it was time for registration for the convention! We have the gold passes for the weekend so we went down around 7 to sign in :D And the hardcore geekiness set in right about them. We got our awesome tickets put in lanyards and had our bracelets for the weekend put on our wrists and traded in our photo op ticket print-outs for actual photo cards. And it really didn't even take long, which was great. The small amount of time we did spend in line lead to our marveling over how we are...uh, basically fetuses in comparison to most everyone else attending the convention. There are a few younger people here and there but we probably have to be some of the youngest and we were both pretty surprised by the major demographic seeming to be people in their late twenties and older. I guess we weren't expecting it but it was cool to see that the show has fans of all ages and walks of life.

But, right...after registration we went back to our room with the intentions of getting in the jacuzzi for a while before Jason's concert at 9:15. So we changed into our bathing suits and went outside only to find that there were already to guys in the jacuzzi, both talking on cell phones. It was really fucking awkward so we just kind of decided to skip the jacuzzi for then. So we sat outside for a little while and talked before going back in, changing and heading down for Jason's show. Which was excellent!

Our seats for the weekend are D25 and 26 so we're in the fifth row respectively, on the right hand side, in the middle of the row. Not as great as those lucky bastards with front row seats but still really great! We had a perfectly nice view of Jason through the duration of his concert (which lasted for approximately an hour and a half or a little more) and were definitely close enough for it to feel like a very personal experience, which might not have been the case sitting in East Bumfuck.

So, yes, Jason was great! He doesn't look anything like himself because he's putting on weight and growing out his hair and a beard for a movie he's working on but he definitely sounded like himself and I really enjoyed hearing him sing. It was low-key and he had fun talking with us and joking around in between songs and I was most impressed by how at ease he was up there by himself; just Jason and a guitar. He can carry a crowd for sure and he sang a lot of great songs of his that I know and a few that I don't know. The highlights for me were definitely hearing "Without You" (this is my favorite song!) and his cover of "Crazy Love." Which of course lead him to mention how he got bombarded with so many requests for a recorded version of him singing the song with Jensen doing accompaniment that he actually got Jensen to record a studio version of the song with him recently! They were actually selling the one-song single and we definitely snapped that right up and listened to immediately. Of course Jensen and Jason sound lovely harmonizing together but Jensen actually sings the whole second verse and, my God, I think the temperature in the room went up! He's just fantastic and....guh. This .mp3 is going to get so damn overplayed.

Anyway, after purchasing the CD after the concert, we retired back to our room to get comfy and here we are. Rachel is still sleeping and I'm still typing this and all I want to do is go to bed! So I leave you with pictures from the day and a promise of more from me sometime tomorrow!

ETA: I apologize to anyone reading this who isn't on my flist and ends up having to skim through all of my rambling for the stuff about the convention itself. Hee. Sorry!

Rachel while still at Pittsburgh International Airport at the ass crack of dawn, before we boarded our flight.

Giant LAX letters are hard to take a picture of while speeding by in a moving vehicle.

Our hotel!

View from our room's balcony.

Rachel peeking out of our room onto the balcony...while making a weird face.

Our room!

Bathroom.

LOOK! Bath & Body Works products instead of generic crap!

Rach looooves her bed.

Finally out and about!

In the cab.

Islands, the place where we ate dinner. Cuuute!

She was so hungry she was all but eating her hair.

Dude, unflattering.

Random giant potted plants that I liked outside of Macy's.

Suuunshiney California!

Entrance to the mall.

Pretty palm trees.

Lemons growing in someone's front yard!

<--LOSERS!

Before Jason's concert. I seriously have no good pictures of myself today. I look like I have a double chin D:

Mr. Jason Manns.

Hee. Sign in the registration area.

More signs.

Precious Continuity (1/1)

2008-03-06T07:26:23Z

Title: Precious Continuity
Fandom: One Tree Hill
Characters: Nathan Scott, Haley James Scott, Jamie Scott
Word Count: 1,050
Rating: G
Spoilers: None, though the story is meant to take place sometime during episode 4.21, "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone."
Summary: Nathan's first introspection about how immeasurably precious the bond of his small family is comes only after they are asleep.
Other: Be gone, writer's block! Who knew that the first thing to come out of my brain would be my first (and maybe only?) One Tree Hill fic? It turned out to be a low-key story to necessitate actually being able to finish it instead of tossing it aside and I guess I succeeded! Nothing outstanding of earth-shattering to be found behind the cut, but the words weren't originally easy to come by so be gentle!
Author's Note: One Tree Hill and its characters have been manipulated here without the knowledge or consent of Mark Schwahn and Warner Bros. Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.

Their first night home from the hospital with baby James, Nathan is sure that he won't be able to sleep a wink. He is too wound by the reality that he is a new father; that this new journey he and Haley have embarked upon is parenthood.

The lampposts that line the street outside don't come on until early June twilight makes the sky ashen without sunshine and the last light a subdued lavender. It's then that Haley retires to their room, a bleary-eyed Jamie clutched to her breast. Even in their shared fatigue, new mother and son make a quiet ruckus.

Nathan is still sitting in his favorite well-worn recliner, tucked into one corner of the small living room, but he can hear them clearly. Dozy and contented coos from the drowsy infant, palliative murmurs from his wife that he can make out but is unable to decipher. And then when Haley makes that first vain attempt at lowering Jamie into his waiting bassinet, there is the crescendo of bleating wails from the previously serene baby that makes Nathan think that perhaps Haley's anticipation of peaceful sleep was not long for this world.

But even as the newborn exalts his perfect little lungs with lusty cries, Haley soothes him in earnest. James screams louder in protest of his mother's attempt to put him down but she simply raises her voice, murmuring to him patiently over the sound of his own indignant fury.

Nathan revels in the way the pair have an innate means of communication all their own. A simple, fluent language and a connection that began with shared blood and a shared body. He knows why James never cries for long when he's in Haley's arms; why somehow he, so new to the world and ignorant to most everything, knows where he is safe and sound and most susceptible to slumber.

But when Haley begins to sing, he knows that their strong-willed son is a goner.

Nathan can hear the weariness in his wife's hushed voice but its beauty would still put a songbird to shame and he is lulled by her melodious humming himself until his eyes flicker shut. The tune is sweet but arbitrary, Nathan can tell. It's not a song that exists anywhere but on Haley's lips and it's without lyrics but it seems to speak volumes to Jamie, who whimpers faintly a few more times before falling silent.

Nathan smiles in unspoken celebration of Haley's small victory and remains optimistic that her lullaby has done the trick when only the tranquility of an early summer evening meets his ears over the next half an hour.

When Nathan finally crawls into bed beside Haley at just after nine o'clock, it hasn't been dark long enough for him to have taken conscious notice of the arrival of night. Even when he outstretches an arm to flick off the small nightlight plugged into the wall between the bed and the nightstand, the room isn't entirely consumed by darkness; it is merely veiled.

Weak yellow streaks of light stretch across the wall opposite their bed, tossed there haphazardly through the slats in the blinds that cover the windows, and when Nathan eases onto his side, he can still see Haley clearly. She is facing away from him, resting on her hip, and he can see the way her legs are drawn up partially below the covers that drape her only from the waist-down. Her pale shoulder and the bare curve of her neck coax him closer and he doesn't resist the temptation to lie beside her and feel her presence rather than taking it for granted.

Nathan crosses the small distance between them in tediously small sliding motions, not wanting to intrude on Haley's slumber by by disturbing the mattress below her. When he settles just behind her, his body hugging the gentle contours of her own, and she doesn't stir, he heaves a soft sigh of relief.

The air as it rushes from his lips stirs the fine flyaway strands of her hair that tickle his nose and he resists the urge rub his knuckles over it to absolve the delicate itch. Instead he slips his arm around Haley's waist, the length of his forearm curving her hip so that he can lay a tentative hand on her stomach. Through the thin cotton of her well-loved camisole he can feel the faint swell of her belly under his flattened palm. No longer is it familiarly rounded by the baby that was not so long ago growing inside but, Nathan's cautiously wandering fingertips quickly discover, the baby has not gone far.

As the pads of his fingers brush over a warm stretch of skin and a downy fuzz of hair, Nathan knows without looking that soundly sleeping James never did make it to his bassinet and in spite of himself, he chuckles quietly.

When he carefully lifts his head to peer over the rise of Haley's shoulder, Nathan is greeted by the sight of their son nestled against her chest. His small body is stretched in a supine position, resting in a nest made of a fleece receiving blanket. His tiny hands and fingers are fisted by his face, little feet curled into commas, head fitted like the piece of a puzzle into the crook of Haley's elbow. Nathan cannot see the rise and fall of Jamie's chest, but as he rests his palm over top of it, he can feel it.

Nathan can feel the natural shudder that each breath in and out makes and he can tell by the weighted pause between each one that the James is deeply asleep--pacified by his proximity to his mother.

And Nathan understands. He understands why the nearness of Haley is all that James needs to feel at home. To feel safe and loved. He understands because the nearness of Haley is something that he counts on, too. Something that he can't sleep without, can't breathe without, can't live without.

Nathan knows in that moment that he and his new baby boy have more than blood in common. Haley is the beautiful and natural thread binding the three of them now and always. Mother and son, husband and wife. She is the precious continuity that will hold them together forever.

Something to Lose (1/1)

2008-02-08T06:45:15Z

Title: Something to Lose
Fandom: Supernatural
Characters: Dean Winchester, Bela Talbot
Word Count: 584
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Up through and including episode 3.03, "Bad Day at Black Rock"
Summary: In the pursuit of the rabbit's foot that is vital to his brother's well-being, Dean may just be looking for something more. Like a reminder that, for now, he's alive and has something to lose.
Other: I've written a lot of fan fiction in my day but this is the first Supernatural fic that I've managed to transfer from my brain to a text document. It's also the first story of any kind that I've written since October so I'm in awe of the fact that I managed to write it at all. Be gentle with my rusty bits and pieces.
Author's Note: Supernatural and its characters have been manipulated here without the knowledge or consent of Eric Kripke and Warner Bros. Entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.

The first time Dean lays eyes on Bela Talbot, she is just a pretty face famed by a black bob; a waitress with a generic name that seems to have taken a shine to Sam. Just someone to bring him a piece of pie as dessert to follow the ice cream sundae entrée.

The second time he sees her, this time in her own element, he knows that she is going to haunt him. He has sought her out of his own volition but he is sure that her existence, their meeting, is going to come back to bite him in the ass. Again.

Her lair may be a posh pied-à-terre in Queens, New York but she's not fooling anyone. Least of all a man who knows evil when he sees it. She's a fiend like every other thing he's ever pursued and just as dangerous.

Maybe more dangerous.

It's not the elusive Bela's wherewithal that strikes a chord with him, nor her obvious competence in getting what she wants. What incites an irascibility in him is facing an opponent who has an agenda. Intuition tells him that, had he not already pocketed the coveted rabbit's foot, harassment wouldn't be enough to threaten her into compliance.

The only thing that subdues Dean is the knowledge that he can't pull the trigger on her now. He can't blow her away with a few well-aimed bullets like snuffing out a candle. And, worst of all, he can't pretend that she doesn't have a soul or a beating heart; two unfortunate components that make her so different from all of the things that go bump in the night and the way he exterminates them with a deft sense of duty.

Dean can't put her down like a rabid animal and turn a blind eye to the fact that she is merely a human being. If only because it would be unlike him to purposely bypass the foaming of the mouth and the gnashing of teeth that he is sure is yet to come. That dark part of his hunger for the hunt is in tact and integral to being here now when he could have taken what he wanted and left.

Dean cocks his pistol and listens to the click being predictably echoed as Bela whirls to face him, doing just the same.

He is suddenly on a high; blissed out by the adrenaline that comes with staring down the barrel of a gun and the way it makes him feel alive. Like he has something to lose and longer than shy of a year in which to lose it. He thrives on the familiar weight of the weapon in his hand and doesn't permit himself to dwell on the awareness that he won't have to use it on the blue-eyed banshee gazing back at him.

Bela and her self-satisfied smirk are enough to make Dean want to laugh. He could laugh at her overrated bravado, at her misplaced knack for intimidation or at the very fact that he's already got what he wants, unbeknownst to her.

Instead he stares her down with an unflappable self-confidence that comes with feeling invincible. More importantly, Dean allows himself to pretend that same invincibility won't feel so out of reach again the moment he's walked out the door.

For now, he's in control - of the situation, of his life - and he relishes the half-baked notion as he addresses his foe cooly, "You left without your tip."