September 11 – September 15

2014

Convention dates 09/12-09/14

Wendy gets up and flies out of Houston early (WAY too early!)

Sunrise in Houston International Airport…

Wendy’s breakfast along with her tea, cooling cause the cup keeps it WAY too hot!

Ashley leaves Phoenix.

Wendy connects in LAX, finds out it is freaking expensive to eat in LAX.  Wanders the Airport to find reasonable food.  Finds picture for Robin:

Wendy Arrives in Las Vegas!!!!!

Meanwhilke….Ashley is driving to Las Vegas….

We find each other after a lot of confusing about how the freaking airport is set up (More for Limo’s and Taxi’s than being picked up)

Head to the Rio!

We check in, and get into our room.

Ashley and I get to know each other in person… Before we head down to register for the Convention the next day.

Once in the process of checking in, we find the hike to the convention area from our room is a trek and then some.  I’m thinking at least 15 minutes from the restaurant we stopped on the way to eat breakfast at.  And easily 10 -15 to there.  We got our exercise each day!!!

Once we stand in the long line for the Gold people to check in, getting our passes and our ticket for the Ian Photo Op:

Once we were set up, we went to wander the vendor hall, and unknown to us, start to make an impression on the ladies who run the thing.  I talked Ashley into buying an autographed picture of Ian and get the other picture.  She also took the time to grab an autograph of Kol.  I also picked up a pose I really liked of Ian…

We stopped at a poster they had outside the vendor area for some pics:

On our way back, we even were nice to take a pic for our hubs… Once there, we were both tired, ordered food and dropped off the face of the earth.

 Schedule of Events we attended:

12:15 pm Theatre open for all

12:35 am Welcome and Video Presentation

12:40 pm Micah Parker (Adrian, The Vampire Diaries). Micah will also be the host and MC of the convention this weekend for the very first time so let’s give him a great welcome!

1:30 pm Music Video Presentation

1:35 pm Paul Telfer (Alexander, The Vampire Diaries)

2:20 pm Lunch Intermission

5:45 pm AUTOGRAPHS with Paul Telfer, Micah Parker and Chase Coleman as follows:

 Our day started off with breakfast at Hash Hash a Go Go.

Great food.  Pricey, but WELL worth the price. Often we found ourselves without time for food, and the food from here was PLENTY!  I highly recommend my favorite, Griddled French Toast.  They grilled Banana’s and served them along with pecans on top of it.  I also recommend the Griddled Mash Potatoes!

From there we headed to the convention area for the official start of our weekend.

First we started off on the ticket line for me to buy some autogragh pics.  I picked up Sebastian Roche and Mathew Davis.  Then we headed back to the vendor area.  I picked up gifts for Christmas (yes I am one of THOSE) (not telling who!) as well as I picked up the last of the signing boards that were sidewise.

I also went back through the pics line, and got my own Kol (the last one!) as well as asking if I can look through for Supernatural pics since they were starting to set them out.  I found one of the Trickster/Gabriel!  Who along with Castiel are my favorite Angels.  In fact the only way I will write a Supernatural is if I write one with Gabriel.

We meet our MC of the Convention, and he was a lot of fun!!!  Micah was a blast, and he was the same way throughout the convention.  Often taking pics with the people as he walked around.

Then… Our very own Ashley got up to ask a question: If you could have anyone play you in a movie of your life, who would it be?  after much debate mentioning that the person might not be born yet, he decided on Colin Farrell.

For more pics and highlights of his panel, please visit: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-micah-parker-friday-panel/

We stayed for Paul.

The Man was a GEM!!!!  He was a treat and then some.  Not only was he pure Eye Candy, there was the Scottish accent… and… he was the first person I asked a question of.

he had mentioned that he had grown up watching movies due to health issues and always wanted to be an actor.  I asked who he wanted to be.  He told us that he had originally wanted to be Bruce Lee and had practiced his kicks and so on so he could stare opposite him.  Then he was told he died.  But after some laughter and talking about Doctor Who and how Scotland was cornering that market, he decided on Sean Connery.  Since he was the first person I talked to, in addition to the fact I really liked him and his outlook on life, I bought a ticket for his autogragh.

Unfortunately, After Dark did not do his panel…. Should have!! it was awesome!

Our break was up to the room to charge phones, and to eat leftover pizza and breadsticks.  Then we hiked back to the hall for the autographs.

We did ours with Paul first, and he was awesome.  He laughed at us and chatted as he signed.  Then Micah.  He talked with Ashley… then as I laughed at them, he told me I was a very cheerful bubbly person and he loves hearing me laugh.  He will be looking forward to the rest of the weekend and me laughing as the days go past!

After that we ended up going to the room, well I did after wondering he hotel and finding that while I was somewhat lucky, not enough to gamble that much this weekend.  Whopper Bar was dinner.

Schedule:

8:30 am Theatre Open to All Patrons

9:00 am Welcome from your host Micah Parker

9:15 am Music Video Presentation

9:20 am Matthew Davis (Alaric, The Vampire Diaries)

10:00 am The Vampire Diaries and The Originals Costume Competition:

10:45 am THEATRE MUST BE CLEARED EXCEPT GOLD WEEKEND PATRONS, others can return at 11:50 am. Wristbands and lanyards will be checked!

11:15 am Special 1/2 Hour PANEL with IAN SOMERHALDER and PAUL WESLEY for GOLD WEEKEND PATRONS ONLY. Please show both your gold wristband and lanyard on the way in. Thanks and enjoy!

—– 1:30 pm Photo op with Daniel Gillies, Daniel has an early plane to catch tomorrow to get back to filming, so in order to insure that everyone receives their photo ops, Daniel has graciously agreed to do two sessions, one today and one tomorrow.

1:50 pm Intermission/Stage Reset

—– 2:00 pm Photo op with Ian Somerhalder!

2:10 pm The Vampire Diaries No Minimum Bid Auction: Stake your claim to our great goodies including our famous stage and theatre banners: all up for grabs at no minimum bid!

2:55 pm Music Video Presentation

3:00 pm IAN SOMERHALDER and PAUL WESLEY ON STAGE!

4:00 pm AUTOGRAPHS with Paul Wesley and Daniel Gillies

4:20 pm AUTOGRAPHS with Ian Somerhalder

6:45 pm Rick Cosnett (Dr. Wes Maxfield, Vampire Diaries)

7:30 pm Sebastian Roche (Mikael, The Originals)

8:15 pm AUTOGRAPHS with Rick Cosnett, Sebastian Roche and Matt Davis

As you can tell this was the big day!! and it was jam packed with stuff to do.  In fact we had a slight issue with keeping our phones charged!!!  WE had very few moments to run up to the room, and I will just say, I don’t think we stopped to eat until the end of it all.  Both of us were way too exhausted to go to the ball, which unfortunately, according to everyone who went, was awful.   Sad really.  And we went back to the Whopper Bar.  (It was cheap!!!)

We started off in the breakfast place from heaven.  I think I had the griddled mash potatoes for the first time and neither of us EVER went back.  We got there for the opening, and the theater was packed.  You could tell this was THE day.  Luckily, all Gold Ticket holders had assigned seats.  We also had started to make friends with the ladies around us.

Mathew Davies was up first.  I love his character a lot… so I looked forward to his.

He came on apologizing that his shoes were black and his belt brown.  Adorable!  He also had a serious thing for praising Nina.  Really.  He was funny, we found out he wrote fanfiction, and not sure he will go back to it now he is back.

We also found out he was going to tell Julie (the exec on the show) that it was too painful to come back as a guest now.  Instead, she told him that they wanted him to come back full time.  he tried to play it cool he said while inside he was jumping for joy.

The man was awesome, and he had a great sense of humor.

The lines for the questions were QUITE long for the entire day, so not many questions could be thought of by either of us…

Here is the link to After Dark page for his panel: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-matt-davis-appearance/

Next up was a Costume contest, it was awesome for all the under 14 year olds, they won automatically.  Then they had a contest for the older group.  One girl made her own Werewolf bite on her neck with makeup and latex.

It was a great job!!!!

Then they cleared out all but the Gold Ticket holders, for a special half hour panel with the two main stares, Paul and Ian.  Ian was late, but Paul came out to start the questioning, then there was Matt who came out to be with him, and stuck for most of the questions until Paul left for his meet and greet.  Then we got one on one time with Ian.  It was awesome.  Truly.  I can’t say enough about it to the point I can’t say anything.  I will say this.  That man would be all the friend you would need to support you by himself.  See the pics below…

During this, poor Micah ran around the room trying to take the mike for questions.  At one point he sat down on our row…

For more information on the panel and more pics, click: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-gold-panel-ian-somerhalder-paul-Wesley/

At this point, Ashley and I booked our way to the Daniel Gillies photo op.  Ashley had paid for the two of us, as a memory of our trip together.  They were booking the photos right through, and we found out he later tried to give lots of original poses.  He gave us each a hug, then he lifted up his hand behind me and we had no idea what he was doing.  See below for our surprise!

Then we went back.. to only find we needed to line up for Ian’s photo op.  Needless to say I was thrilled!

We waiting in line (I expect there is a pic of Ashley and I waiting, Robin will  have to find it…) And when we got there, Ashley went first, and I laughed.  He closed his eyes momentarily when he hugged her, resting his head on her.

Then it was my turn.  This man came into my life when I was writing In The End.  I was writing Hades scene, and he came strolling into the scene.  Now I have seen parts of The Vampire Diaries, and loved it.  But it was not a big deal, and I only saw parts of it.  but out of nowhere he came into my story, and his entire character there is the one that helps tie so many stories together it aint funny.

So when I came up, I grinned, and asked how he was, he told me awesome.  He hugged, the camera flashed.  then I was telling him, Thank you.  And he halted me and told me “no, no.  Thank YOU!”  I just laughed, and told him I will see him later.

That was my first personal interaction with him.   Here is the pic (Thanks Ashley for sending me the jpeg!)

So happy I got that pic!

Then we stumbled back in the room, as they started bidding on twelve autographed pics from Supernatural.  I saw Castiel on there, and started to bid.  I was getting a little aggravated, and I began bidding as though I was playing poker.  I jumped up in $25 increments from my last bid.  I went up to $150 to win. (which each was going about $35 * 12 = 420.  Now a lot of them had stickers for $20, but some of them were for much higher)  So all in all I got a bargain.  I only kept Castiel, since he is my favorite and I already got the other one, Gabriel.  The rest.. well I played a game with my mom, I sent her all but the well known ones, and told her she had to guess what show.. she got it right and she owns all the rest.

I do love my mom!

After that it was time for the Panel everyone was waiting for!  I will tell the room filled up for the Ian and Paul questionnaire.  We had Ian being given a stuffed puppy once he read a story.  For the rest of the Question and Answer session Paul and Ian played with the puppy.

We also had a special guest.  “Eduardo”, who was Paul’s assistant.   You can guess who he really is.    He brought a banana.  We asked him to stay, and the guys were willing, but he had to leave for a photo shoot.  they were packed with them.  Paul offered the banana to the most unique question.  The lady who got it asked if she could have it.  She also was told if she dropped it, it wasn’t hers.  She didn’t drop it!

The two men played around the whole time, making a lot of us laugh and joke.  But they showed the better side of them also.  We had a fan there the entire weekend, and she was nervous talking to people.  But she worked hard to overcome her shyness, and to be frank, we were all pretty proud of her for her strength to keep asking questions, even when it was obvious she was scared or too shy.  But when she asked Ian and Paul a question and ended up breaking down crying in the middle of it, Ian gets really gentle and tells her “Talk to me Love, you got this.”   they kept encouraging her to talk.

There were some surprises, seems neither of them have read Harry Potter so they had no idea what houses they would be sorted into. They also talked about the joking going on set, and we all got different ideas of life on set.  the funniest to me was of a scene in season one when Damon walks into Stefan’s bedroom and Nina and Paul were in bed.  He sat on the bed to do his lines, but the crew was cracking up.  He finally had enough and went to see what it was.

It turns out that the camera angel, which had it raising from the floor to the top of the bed, well Paul’s big toe was sticking up, and with the angle….lets say it didn’t look like a big toe.  Paul and Nina had no idea for a long time since they were still in bed.

For more on what happened visit: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-ian-somerhalder-paul-wesley-panel/

Next up was the Authographs.  Needless to say Ian was mobbed.  They went by row, and we waited.  They did Paul and then Daniel, and finally Ian.  We did Paul first, and frankly, I was not impressed with him.  He spent his time talking to his manager during the process, then gives you a quick smile when he is done, and went back talking to his manager.  To note, from all the people there, he is the only one who did that.

Daniel, well Ashley and I felt bad for him.  Some VIPS Came through and cut in front of us, and the woman didn’t want to have her arm signed, she wanted a pic signed by him.  They fought until it was time, then Daniel didn’t want to do it.  He didn’t want them to tattoo it.  When the whole thing was over, he was upset, the group waiting was upset and it was not good.  He told the guy with him that he will never do that again.  I don’t blame him.  But even with that, he was still very kind to Ashley and I.  We didn’t get gyped by the bad experience.

Then we were off to Ian.  And that man was a blast.  He signed the heart of Ashley’s board.  But I brought the pic that helped inspire You’re.  He looked at it in shock, but signed it, talking tome.  I told him that he inspired me writing a fic from that pic, and he looked up at me again.  He grinned, and told me he loves it.  I thanked him, and he told me, “No, without people like you writing, I don’t have a job.”

By the time this was all over, we didn’t have a chance to do much than get a quick charge to the phones.

Then we went back to hear Chase, who Ashley remembered at the last minute was to be Flash, but it was too late to get an autograph.  (No worries I hooked her up after the convention!)

The last answer and Question time was Sebastian Roche.

Holy shit is the man a riot!!! He wouldn’t allow anyone to ask questions, instead, he lead us in dancing and singing, and we were laughing so hard, my head hurt by the end of it.  But I can tell you I had so much fun it was unbelievable!!!   He had a typical English sense of humor, which if you know me, I love that type of humor.  I was raised on Monty Python!!!!  He apologized for cussing, but mentioned it was like asking an Irishman to not drink alcohol from their mother’s teat.   WE didn’t care.  It was harder than hell to capture him on the camera’s cause of him constantly moving.  He did tell us he was over 50!

Whe he started off, there was no one in line for him, so he had his own answer and question time with himself… Voices and all.

Then it was time to get Matt Davies Autograph and Sebastian’s.  Both were sweet, but Sebastian made me crack up.  I told him my mother would be jealous that I met him.  She is a huge supernatural fan.  He asked if she would see the board he was signing, and I told him yes.  So he signed it Balthazar and Mikael.

Here is the board at the end of the night:

Then Ashley and I went up to our rooms.  I never took the pics of our walk.. but I did take of the hallway we were in.

The first was the way from the elevators to our room, and the last one was the view looking back at the way we came.  We were not the last suites, but the next to last.  We later told each other that if the little girls from the Shining had appeared, we would have screamed.

Schedule of Events we attended:

THEATRE PROGRAMMING
7:40 am Theatre open for those with Steven R. McQueen’s autograph ticket

8:00 am AUTOGRAPHS with Steven R. McQueen as follows:

9:40 am WELCOME from our host for the weekend Micah Parker

9:50 am Music Video Presentation

9:55 am Daniel Gillies (Elijah Mikaelson, The Originals) & Charles Michael Davis (Marcel Gerard, The Originals)

10:50 am AUTOGRAPHS with Daniel & Charles

12:15 pm Steven R. McQueen (Jeremy Gilbert, The Vampire Diaries)

1:30 pm Zach Roerig (Matt Donovan, The Vampire Diaries) & Michael Trevino (Tyler Lockwood, The Vampire Diaries)

4:10 pm Music Video Presentation

4:15 pm Kat Graham (Bonnie Bennett, The Vampire Diaries)

6:20 pm AUTOGRAPHS with Zach, Michael and Kat

7:00 pm We’ll be back as we return to Rio on Sept. 18-20, 2015!

Both of us were VERY tired.  We got up, went to our place for food.  Then we, as well as the rest of our group, all stumbled into the theater.  Everyone was dragging.  It didn’t help we had to be there so early for the autographs.

We talked with the group, since I had such a bad headache by the time we had gone up, and Ashley was tired too… we skipped the masquerade.  Then found out that it was not good at all.  All in all, we made a great choice.  we also had some fun with the ladies, while waiting.  You had your typical drunks and so on.  All in all, it was a fun group of people to hang around.

As we waited, Steven bounced into the room to tell us all good morning!

From there, we ended up having a great time with him.  He was there all day, and mostly because of his MANY picture ops.  but he had fun playing with us, and joking around on the stage with the people who were doing their part.  He spent time as he could with the fans.

When we got up there, he caught Ashley’s tattoo and stopped the process to write down the poem it was from.  He didn’t do technology well, but he was amusing.  He grinned at me as I was laughing at them.  Yes I laugh a lot.

Micah came on, told us he came back from filming straight there. Poor guy! Steven came on for a little bit to talk while they waited for the next guests. (You get the idea he was truly the little brother.) But he introduced Daniel Gillies & Charles Michael Davis (Marcel).

OMFG.  Daniel had Charles and us cracking up, as he…ummm… enhanced answers.  For instance, they asked him what he does to get into character.  The answer involved a shrine built with the help of Charles to Mario Lopez.  He then prays and listens to Adele as he smears peanut butter from his chest to his thighs.  The wardrobe department asked him to stop, he was ruining his suits.  So he saran wrapped around his waste.  Charles was cracking up, and told us that when Daniel switched to almond butter once that it messed up his lines cause the smell was so different…

Or when he was asked what he wears since he smells so good, he told us it was sweat from the small of Charles’ back.  The spot is like a unicorn head and makes him smell so appetizing.

As you can see, he was freaking hilarious.  Not that he was like Sebastian, but it made the hour enjoyable.

Also, Stephen was still signing while this was happening, and he was having a ball playing with the screens.  If you want to have more of an idea what was going on, check out the pics, and the After dark:

the site: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-daniel-gillies-charles-michael-davis/

We escaped to the room for some charging (Seriously thinking of buying a portable charger for next time!) and talked.  We made it down to be there at the Steven’s Q & A.  And he was a freaking hoot.  He called the ladies all Boo, but hated to be called poo.  he was a huge amount of fun.

He was very touchy with the fans, which they all loved.  He often falls asleep when he has to play dead and Nina would hit him when he would snore him and ruin an emotional scene.  And he is gassy…  remember this for later…

When asked who he would kill, he told us that an Original would be too hard for his first kill.  No he would do someone newer, and then work his way up.  Makes more sense?

He also mentioned one of the mysteries he has with his character was that Jeremy had a dog in Denver, and then it disappeared.  He wonders what happened to it.  (Hint hint!!!)

He also brings a girl who was nervous up on stage, seats her in his chair, and gives her a backrub.  Though he does ask for one back while he answers her questions.

He mentions some spoilers for the season, which is making more and more sense.  For more, see the After dark and pics:

After dark: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-steven-r-mcqueen-panel/

After he was done we stayed for Zach and Michael, but neither of us are that into the characters:

The two were funny.  They debated off mic what they could talk about a couple of times… but all in all, not much there even when I read over the highlights.  They just didn’t really do anything for me, or inspire me in any way for their characters.  Sorry!

The after dark panel: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-zach-roerig-michael-Trevino/

I know we took a break, but I can’t remember much of anything.  It was probably a recharge, and read some.  We did this often, it was a very action packed weekend!

Last panel of the conference was Kat.  And this opened my eyes a lot towards her character. Just the information she gave on Bonnie and how the character she describes helped so much.  I will say she easily has affected the Free Will is Everything universe the most during this trip.  I have a line to go with Bonnie that will help direct the rest of the books.

But she does comment that Harry potter helped her want to become Bonnie.  She mentions her and Ian, and that they have the same actor coach, so they have worked well for a very long time.  The two of them are really quite close, and it has made both of them happy for this period of time they can act together.

She had trouble trying to think what she could say to us, explaining that she knows we are quite smart and have figured many things in the past.

All in all, I really enjoyed her, and as I said, she gave me new direction for the story.

Afterdark: http://tvafterdark.com/tvd-vegas-kat-graham-panel/

Afterwards was the autogragh session.  When we were in the back getting hers, I told her thank you, she helped me with her character in a fanfiction I am writing.  She surprised me saying she had to stop reading the fan fiction cause when the story would go another way, she was sometimes all upset.  But she will go back and read them later!

That was the end of a awesome experience.  My board at the end:

and just so you know who signed where:

There was more, the ladies we sat next to, well one of them has read ED.  She is going to read more of my stuff.  We also found that she tried for the role of Luna in the Harry Potter films.  The other ladies around us asked for our sites and to read our stuff.

I will say, I was thrilled to be able to sleep in, we were so tired at the end of the night on Sunday that we ordered Room Service.

And our fun had to end.  We got ready, packed up all our goodies.  We checked out of the room.  But I did take pics of the view from our room:

From there we went to our favorite place for breakfast.  We had a last meal, and took our time for once.  Eventually, we had to leave, knowing that our adventure had ended.  I had a flight, and she had a long drive home.  So she dropped me off, promising to talk again.

I had a trek around the Las Vegas airport. It’s a really pretty airport, and any of you know me and butterflies, well I HAD to take this one!

From there, I went and had some fun.  Last time I was in Vegas there was a game called Lobster Mania I was quite lucky on.  The airport had the game.  I ended up winning $54 dollars playing it.  I went to Brighton, as was the tradition, and bought myself a new necklace and a charm for my Las Vegas bracelet.

Ashley and I had prepared me for the trip, and I had snacks galore to help me through it.  But as you guys learned, when I was in Los Angeles, we had bad news hit the end of our trip.  I was literally on the plane for take off for Houston, when I was told I had to turn off my phone.  A last pic, I believe of the Atlantic as we overflew it on my way home:

Actually looking at it, it was the mountains around Los Angeles.

Ashley and I are planning to go back, and you are more than welcome to join us!!!!  My hubs has already told me he is going.  I will say this, go earlier if you want time to meet with people.  Afterwards you are just wiped…