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Ahhhh. The pristine white paper (well, on the monitor, it’s white pixels, jammed together to look like pristine what paper) awaits the story to be told. All through the weekend, I was itching to get to the keyboard and put thoughts into a more solid form until they evaporated. In fact, I almost paid to spend a couple of hours online at the airport while I waited for my flight, but after taking 10 minutes to send my friend, Kate (our resident cynic), an e-mail of a couple of lines using the keyboard that was about the size of a Hershey bar, I quickly determined that rampant swearing and continued backspacing and deleting would result in unpleasantness and frustration for all concerned (including me). I gave up on that idea and settled in to wait for what would turn out to be a delightful flight with a battalion of Army guys coming back from maneuvers in Sioux City, Iowa (told you I was blessed). The good news was that the Thursday night, Sacramento had the most bodacious thunderstorm I’ve experienced since I moved here in January of 97. We’re so coastal that the static electricity doesn’t have a chance to build up, so it just doesn’t happen. Lots of rain; no storms. It cracked all through the night while the rain poured and the lightening flashed. *sigh* Thunderstorms and lightening bugs are the only things from the East Coast I’d transport here if I could. The bad news is that the storm ended (for my purposes, that was ultimately good), but the overcast weather continued and delayed out my flight leaving by an hour. I knew if I landed in LA at 3pm as planned, the traffic on the 405 north would be a bear, but would likely be moving. Landing at 4pm would be (and was) tragic. It took two hours after getting the rental car to get the 21 miles up the road to Studio City to check in (actually, I expected about an hour longer). After the obligatory spit and polish, I headed over to the Sportsmen’s Lodge. I hooked up with Kathy and Carolyn right away and they were even more gorgeous than their pictures revealed. Right away, we ran into Nina and Maxine from Soap Town USA and had a good chat. We moved on to the pool and the girls had a wonderful cuddle with Scott Egan (Johnny the Body Guard, who would become our best pal for the weekend – yum).
(Carolyn, left - Kathy, right) I never wanted to be a green straw so much in my life.
After that, I headed over to the bar to find my friend Tracey (score!) who used to write for our site on the GH side and who I am trying to lure in for a OLTL gig now that she's rejected GH for the most part. Tracey was my guru in the world of fan events and remains my touchpoint for all I need to know about any and every given event. Tracey gave me the report and briefed me fully on the lay of the land and all was good. I congratulated her on the arrival of her new future husband to ABC daytime with Dan Gautier (NununununuKevin on OLTL) being appointed by her as the greatest object of her intended impending matrimony, usurping the much-stalked Wally Kurth (although her affection - and stalking of - Kurth has not been diminished one iota, much to his pleasure) in that position. Little did Wally know that the recent OLTL fan event, while not knocking him off his pedestal for a moment, would result in a higher pedestal being built beside his (for the sake of convenience) and Gautier being shoved up onto it. We moved on to dinner at the Patio Cafe, always a pleasure (although they have the suckiest potato skins I have likely ever encountered) with Daya, our waitress from 2 years ago, still on the job (well, not still on the same shift, just still employed there and working when we ordered). Some ZEm fans were behind us and they joined up with us a bit and we talked about the spoilers we'd grabbed out of the air while networking before dinner. A very trusted source had told me about the Kristina custody spoiler and we were speculation wildly on that one. Victoria showed up from the PC event and we chatted about that for a while. Tracey's friends from "The Gate" also showed up and we had fun hanging out and dishing soaps. August 23, Day 2, The GH Luncheon, Interviews and Other Wildness At some point that night, we stumbled back to the hotel (we stayed at the Days Inn down the block, which I highly recommend at half the price of the Lodge) and I (get ready, those who know me) slept straight through like a rock from 11pm until my wretched alarm went off at 7am. I banged on the snooze and rolled over, just as the gals banged on my door, ready for breakfast. I hurried and dressed and we had a nice breakfast, then headed for the lodge.
So
we got to the real line and waited around for about an hour until they let
people in. A lot of the people in line knew us, so it was fun to
talk to them and share info and such. After they opened the
courtyard where we were to wait (some more) and we got in line for
EVERY fan base (militia is more like it) had marketing and propaganda and campaign toys dedicated to promoting their particular cause. There were baby bracelets for the newest Corinthos, divided into those who were determined it would be a boy and those who were determined it would be a boy. Chad Brannon stuff, ZEm stuff, Sexis stuff, pins, magnets, can coolers, pencils and "Fire Guza" stickers. We were sadly without EOS paraphernalia. *sniff* I did have business cards and used a few of those. Carolyn, Kathy and I prowled the vendors and then copped a squat under a tree until time to go inside. It was wickedly hot, of course, which I love about California, but standing out in it isn't really a blast.
THANKS GALS, IT WAS A BLAST!! I was so excited that I had to do a happy dance and go show the gals. Overall, the GH luncheon this year was the smoothest I've seen yet. Any time you're handling that many people and coordinating that many stars, it's always going to be a massive job with a few hundred opportunities for disaster. To all appearances as far as I could see, this one went off without a hitch.
Debbie O'Connor and Debbie Morris of the GH/PC Fan Club are the conductors
of this orchestra, so to speak, and Debbie O'C introduced our usual emcee
for the event, my favorite and most coveted Grandpa Man, John Ingle, who
introduced the rest of the cast. Of interest as well as who is
there, is who is not there in a particular year. This year,
the MIA included Lane Davies (no explanation heard, possibly over Sherry
Mercurio's weeping, choking sobs), Anthony Geary (very rarely to never
attends fan events since the Luke and Laura frenzy), Kin Shriner (no
explanation), Elizabeth Herbst (sick with vertigo, although Kathy got the
feeling two weeks ago that Herbst is expecting again), Ron Hale (who is
always at these things!), Anna Lee (broke her hip -
When called in alphabetical order, the stars would enter on a red carpet to the side of the room and then come up onto the stage where there were two rows of chairs. One of the things I found funny, intentional or not, was that when Ingle introduced Maurice Benard and he said, "These kids who work EVERY DAY work their butts off EVERY DAY..." then next (alphabetically, as it turned out) was Tamara Braun, "And someone else who works EVERY DAY..." Anyway, my point is that in the introduction of these two, the phrase "EVERY DAY" was emphatically used a few times. Again, I'm easily amused. Another funny moment was when Ingle referred to Scott Clifton (Dillion) as "chia pet." Heh heh heh. Loved Jackie Zeman's hair, but she left very, very quickly and I was unable to get a picture of her. I'm sure other sites on the net will have them. The stage was backlit and I was several rows back, so my pictures toward the stage were abysmal. Awards were given out by Andrea Pearson (Gia) and Cynthia Preston (Faith), as voted on by the people buying tickets for the event. Results are here. Then, in the hottest coup of the weekend, nay, of the history of GH fan events, once the awards were given and everyone was settled again, Debbie Morris stepped to the microphone and said, "I've noticed that the PCPD has been having some problems lately, so I've decided to call in the WSB..." (If the air didn't go up on your arms when you read that, you either are too young to appreciate it or you need to check your blood pressure cause you're dead) Down the red carpet walked Tristan Rogers (Robert Scorpio) and John Reilly (Sean Donnelly)!! To say "the crowd went wild" is an understatement. I can't tell you how stunned I was. I could feel my mouth opening and closing like a cod fish. I could see a teletext of "OMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!" going through my head. My first coherent thought was "Oh shit, Tracey" and I waited to hear the THUD THUNK! as her head hit the table and her body hit the floor. Above NunununununuKevin, above Wally (or "Wally Who" as she referred to him afterward), Tristan Rogers is Tracey's MAN. I'm talking he's her OM (ORIGINAL man). My next thought was sadness, as I realized that half of the room was probably wondering "who the hell is that" while the other half was trying to get their brain to reboot and their libido to stabilize. Of course, as a critical mass united being, we all stared at the red carpet, waiting for Finola Hughes (Anna Devane) to appear (she didn't).
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We ended up going in
the wrong entrance for check in and this guy who looked for all the world
like Bob Guza redirected us. Kathy asked him for his name and he
said it was Paul. We didn't believe him. I mean, if you were
Bob Guza, would you dare show up at a fan event and give your real name? Later, Tracey told us
it wasn't him and that he was staff for the function. What a pisser!
It would have been fab to have been shown the door by Bob Guza. Hey,
I'm simple and very easily amused. (Life is so much more, well,
amusing, when you allow yourself to be easily amused).
*sniff*), Ingo Rademacher (no explanation) and the oddest of the MIA,
Billy Warlock.