GH FAN EVENT 2000, JULY 22 & 23
by Tracey Warren

THE GREAT L. A. ADVENTURE
Arrived Thursday evening, had the cab driver from hell.  The hotel is full of stairs, and I had a pull along bag.  Figures.    The weather girl was talking about how hot it was, whatever!  It was like 67 degrees that night.  She should visit the mid-south for a minute or two.   Finally, went to bed around 3:30 a.m.  Friday morning hung around the hotel for a while, got very familiar with Henry the poolside bartender.  Henry Rules!  Went to Catalina that afternoon, love that place, had a nice dinner at an Italian place, can't recall the name but it'll be on the credit card receipt (lol) on the ride back from Catalina we sat on the upper deck outdoors because those were the only seats left and we damn near froze to death, but I did catch glimpse of a dolphin playing around having a good time and pointed it out to Bridgette and everyone else on the deck got all excited .. . so your welcome y'all!  Anyway, our driver from the hotel was there waiting (Rafael is da man!) Thank goodness.  He stopped at a package store for us to procure some spirits which we proceeded to inhale once we were back at the hotel while sitting on the patio again.  During my absence, several on-line buddies stopped by and left me messages.  Thanks guys!  Once I settled into my patio chair and was getting the tunes rolling some of the aforementioned buds stopped by to introduce themselves so I moved out to the pool area to chat it up with them.

I didn't end up saying much (pssst: I was quite inebriated).  I think we split up around 2:30 that morning, but it was another hour before I went to bed.  At 7:30 Saturday morning when I woke up for a potty break, I was (for the first and only time) thankful that I did not have a ticket to NLGs event.  I got in another hour of winks before I had to get ready for the Q brunch.  I would like to thank Donna for the ride over to the Hilton and back to Sportsmen's.  It was very much appreciated.

THE BRUNCH WITH THE QUARTERMAINES:
Leslie Charleston, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Saucedo, Susan Brown, John Ingle, Anna Lee, {Reggie, can't think of his name right now} [pssst.  This is Katrina...His name is Stephen Kay], Billy, Tava, Anna's son who is on PC (no clue who) and her nurse were there to take care of her {No Wally so color me disappointed!} Stuart wasn't there because he was ill and needed some rest.  Fortunately for me, I met him last year at SSW and I thought he was just adorable.  I was looking forward to seeing him again, but if rest was necessary so we can get some more Alan that's fine by me and I hope Stuart is feeling better now.  Leslie intro'ed everybody and we ate lunch then there was a Q&A.  Anna was asked why Lila puts up with Edward and she said she had no idea, LOL!  John Ingle is a card, he cracks me up.  Susan asked if we thought Gail needed to be more involved with Monica the unanimous answer was Yes (in my mind she got a "HELL YES"), Amber talked about her poetry book, Michael talked about his CD, Billy was asked if playing AJ was more fun sober or drunk and he replied that AJ is definitely more fun now (AMEN).

Then they handed out all of the raffle items and Leslie was joking about the wardrobe department donating all of Monica's blouses (there were several) and perhaps Monica would be shopping for maternity clothing soon, IMO Leslie did not look thrilled at that.  Other auction items included one of Alan's suits, some scripts, Monica's earrings, AJ's bow tie, one of Edward's ties, a menu
from the Triple L Diner and Kellys, a pair of Emily's shoes (whereupon Amber threw a little fit, it was funny when she was offended that they were giving away the shoes that she liked, until she started to walk off with them and Leslie told her to bring them back, she did but she walked over and threw them down on the floor in front of Leslie.  Leslie commented on the fact that she was glad she did not have Amber, she was glad Russ [psst.  Katrina again...Russ Tamblyn is Amber's dad]  had that privilege -ITA).  Michael came over first, I'm not the least bit impressed with him, so I let him sign a picture I took of him and Amber last year at SSW and he moved on.  Amber came by and signed the same picture and the GH book.  John Ingle came by to sign and when he saw my name, he said you know I wish Tracy would come back even if Jane wouldn't come back because her family is on the East coast so she wants to be there.  He thinks they should hire Louise Sorel because she was a student of his and they would love to work together.  I happen to think it's a great idea! This idea has been batted around for some time on the 'net.  So anyway we talked about that for a few minutes.  Then he thanked us for working so hard all year in order to come to L.A. and spend outrageous amounts of money to see them. He is so nice!  Susan Brown came by and signed the book.  I didn't say much to her.  I let Tava sign the book despite my contempt for her character, the actress is very sweet.  She had on that damn shower curtain skirt that I hate.  Leslie walked up right behind me, startled me actually because our entire table was deep into a conversation about some silly thing or another.  She was extremely nice, stood there and chatted forever, signed everything and made sure everyone was enjoying themselves.  Billy, ahhh Billy, I must digress for a moment and say WHAT A BABE!  He came over and jumped into our conversation like he'd known us forever.  We were discussing how two people at our table missed NLGs event because they were not notified of the change and couldn't get their money back.  Billy said "Ahh, see that's bullshit!"  Go Billy!!  He intends to host a fan event next year and either not charge at all for it or give the proceeds to charity because he and John Ingle were discussing it, if a fan came to L.A. and went to all of the events it would have cost something like $800.00.  I haven't done the math.  I'll just take their word for it.  He said it's one thing to charge fans to do appearances across the county because they come to us, but when we go to them at "their home" then that's just not right.  Billy is the only person I had my picture taken with.  I got shots of everybody else, but I had to have one of me and Billy.  Woowee!

KURTH & TAYLOR CONCERT:
First of all, once I returned from the Q brunch I was hanging around my room which was right by the garden where the concert was going to be held, so I was sitting on my patio chillin', drinking a margarita (my drink of choice) with my feet propped up on the gate when Wally and the band showed up for the sound check.  I sat there and listened getting all excited about the concert.  When they were finished I saw Wally walk out of the garden, carrying his guitar, wearing a baseball cap, glasses, orange shorts and a t-shirt, he stopped and posed for a picture with a table of folks and then walked right past my room so I had to say something! LOL!!  I just said "Hey Wally, sounding good!"  He said "Hey, thanks, how are you?"  I said, "I'm fine.  I don't want to hold you up so I'll just see you later tonight at the concert."  He said, "Great!"  For those of you who don't know (is that possible?) - I adore him!  I guess I missed the perfect opportunity to hold him down and shave the fuzz off.  Darnit!

Moving on: If you say check-in is at 6:30, then check-in should start at six -thirty, not 5:30.  The only reason I knew this had been changed is because, like I said, my room was by the garden and a line was forming.  So I did my check-in garbage and went back to my room to continue the margarita festival until it was time to line up. I hooked up with some friends and watched the parade of poolside fashion mistakes. 

I liked the set up in the garden for the concert.  It was a pleasantly warm evening, not hot and not chilly.  Those in charge of the concert gave us those stupid plastic leis to wear and we had to keep them on along with our nametags in order to go in and out of the garden. 

The band made it to the stage first, then Wally walked out in all of his leather-clad glory (man, I love those pants!) :::SWOON:::: fanning self :::: pant, pant, pant:::: THUD! :::::lol! They jumped right into some songs before Wally started talking, he was at a loss for words for a few moments which is unusual because every other time I've been to a concert he talks nonstop between songs.  It didn't take him long to recover.  He sounded fabulous, the band was great!  They did almost all the songs from Freedom, Heartland Train from Nashville, Seventh Son, Gimme 3 Steps for the last time.  Tava, Jacob and Coltin showed up.  Tava had her groove on and danced through the entire show.  Rena was there with Meghann and Rosabel and I believe Rena's brother.  Wally walked out into the aisle during one song (I recall not which song it was) so I got an upcloseandpersonal view of the leather clad ass.   About half way through the show one of the speakers fell over, which made for some interesting sounds.  Wally's mic also tried to go haywire everytime he took it out of the mic stand.  During the second to last song Wally broke a string on his guitar and couldn't play during the last song.

Once the concert was over, the band took a break so I crept off to my room for a potty break and a little buzz refresher.  As it turned out the crew I was hanging with temporarily were the last folks in line to talk to Wally and the entire band.  The conversation in line turned to the movie and the aforementioned fuzz (keep in mind I was inebriated) so when I got up to talk to Wally and Christian, first I told Christian that his "y'all" needs practice then a new buddy was ready to snap my pic with Wally and Christian.  I was standing between them, so I put an arm around Wally's shoulders and the other around Christian.  Then I yelled "wait, wait, wait" and put my hand in front of Wally's chin.  He laughingly asked why I was doing that, so I told him that stuff on your lip and clamped my hand over it.  I really did not mean to manhandle him and I hope I didn't offend him, but that stuff has to go!  Boy, does he have soft lips!  Yummy!!!!!!! As I was walking off, he turned and smiled at me and I told him once again that I really hate the fuzz.  When they passed the picture for the rest of the band to sign Lee and Jim (band members) were joking about what I'd just done and pretended to draw in the fuzz on Wally's face in the picture.   I told them they sounded great and said goodnight to everyone and made my way back to my room for a few more margaritas poolside with my buds.


GH LUNCHEON:
 Why they have us check-in by 9:30 and don't even open the doors until 10:30 is beyond my comprehension.  There's not that many things to look at and nowhere to sit, so since I got there at 9, I had to stand outside (it was a little toasty) for an hour and a half.  I was not a happy camper!  Had I known they weren't going to let us right in, I would have gone back to my room.  Anyway...The food was not good. The beer was though.  I was sitting by the president of Tava's fan club and #1Chloe cheerleader on one side and two rabid S&C fans on the other.  Those of you who know me well, can imagine how thrilled (note the sarcastic tone) I was at this :::rolling eyes::::.  Gag me! John Ingle was intro'ed first and he intro'ed everybody else. Rachel Ames, Anna Lee, Leslie Charleston, Billy Warlock, Wally Kurth (yeah, baybee!),  Stephen Nichols, Constance Towers, Landon Wine (woowee!), Maurice Bernard (who was late), Scott Egan, Tava Smiley, Ingo Rademacher (who was really late) Sarah Brown (who never even showed up), Real Andrews, Jackie Zeman, Susan Brown, Denise Alexander, John J. York, Kristina Wagner (who left early), Colton Scott, Amber Tamblyn, Jacob Young, Jon Lindstrom, Vanita Harbour, new blackmailer chickie whose name I do not recall, Wendy Riche (@#$%^) I'm sure I left out somebody, but you get the picture anyway.

Next, Constance and Landon handed out some awards allegedly from the fan club.  She said that she's decided if Helena kills Andreas when she finds out he's been betraying her, then Landon will be playing a triplet!  I had to loudly applaud that one! 

But back to the awards, I think it's bull, because I never saw a ballot, but whatever.  Jax and Alexis got favorite couple, again I say bull, they were never even a couple.  Nexis Rules!  The only good thing about that award is I bet it made Wendy grind her teeth, HAHA!! JJY got best on-line fan club and called Lisa up to the stage and let her hang on to the award!  You go Lisa!  Wally got best regular fan club, brought the president up to the stage and told everybody that she is the greatest.  Hell yeah she is!  Billy got best supporting actor.  He said he'd take it as his Emmy since it didn't look like he'd ever get one of those.  It was joke.  Tava got best supporting actress.  A different kind of joke if you ask me.  I almost screamed out "bull****" at that one!  I refrained and just rolled my eyes.  Who the hell actually voted for this crap?  Sarah and Maurice got best actress/actor, I think, whatever.  The best part of this entire portion of the program was Landon's continued presence on stage!  I don't remember any others.

Then there was a Q&A with JJY asking the ?s.  Denise Alexander was first and the question was something about would she like to see Lesley doing anything besides babysitting.  She said of course (to which I almost yelled out "Hell yeah!"), but then she's thankful that she's there at all, and she thanked all the fans for remembering.  She was in tears and almost made me cry.  Wally talked about his movie.  It might be next summer before he can make it.  I hope he shaves that caterpillar off of his lip if he's not doing the movie until next summer.  I don't know that I can take it for another year.  I was willing to go with it now for the sake of the movie being made this summer. Coltin and Michael once again talked about their freakin' CDs.  Jon Lindstrom said that Kevin would never be over Lucy.  Woohoo! Ingo talked about Titans ::yawn::

Scott was asked if Johnny had any hidden talents which caused some snickers in the audience.  Yep, I bet he has some hidden talents.  JJY chimed in with "he can open a hell of a door!"  When Billy got up to answer his question (don't recall what it was) he jokingly said that he'd like to talk about his CD  since everybody else on the show was singing and his first single was called "I'm a drunken loser" in honor of AJ.  It was just a joke, he's not singing, but it was funny!

Then it was autograph time.  First, Denise Alexander and Rachel Ames.  I told Denise that some of us were pulling for Lesley to go back to work at the hospital, if for no other reason than to get in Monica's face.  She was very nice and pleasant.  I just let Rachel sign the book and said thank you.

Next, my man, my reason for watching GH this summer, yes that's right ladies and gents, Wally Kurth. :::insert applause from screaming groupie::: Did I mention that I love him?  Well, I do.  He is always so sweet and remembers me.  I promised not to manhandle his face again and he said he didn't mind.  (Big mistake Wally!  If I have permission to manhandle there's no telling where these hands might wander! lol!)  He signed the cover of the Freedom CD for me, took another picture and as I was getting up the GH book slid off of my 3ring binder where I was toting all my tickets and whatnot.  The plastic cover of the binder had six fantastic shots of K&T from last year's SSW, so he grabbed it and I told him what it was.  He kept looking at it and said "this is so neat!"  Be still my heart, a compliment from my heart's desire!  LOL!  I had no intention of showing that to him, it was just something I did on the plane to amuse myself.

Then, I crossed the room to see Maurice Bernard and Scott Egan, (mostly Scott)!  Maurice was already telling the escort person that when the line thinned out, he was out of here.  Whatever Maurice.  Sign the book and I'll move on.  Scott was absolutely adorable and I mentioned to him that I think Johnny should hook up with Carly to get him more airtime.  Not that I wish that torture on Johnny, but it would certainly get him more airtime!  He said that was nice of me to say and a good idea.  I got to take a picture between Maurice and Scott.  Talk about Hubba Hubba!  Woowee!!

Next was Constance Towers and Landon Wine.  I must have talked to Constance for ten minutes, I'm sure everyone in line behind me was like "shut up already!"  She is the sweetest person.  NLG move over I have a new fav actress! LOL! I'm just kidding, I love them both!  I told her that her website was just fabulous, but I haven't had a chance to write yet, and she said that I should definitely write.  She loves to hear from the fans, so guess what . . .she's getting a letter tomorrow with a copy of the picture of the two of us.  When we took the picture she held my hand with both of her hands, and said it was nice to meet me.  I cannot say enough wonderful things about this lady! 

Landon is a total babe and a sweetheart.  I told him he needed a contract, he laughed. GGGrowl!!!  I let somebody else take our picture and they cut us off on the foreheads.  I'm thrilled I had the forethought to take another one of just him. I'm thinking it'll make good wallpaper and I don't mean for the computer!

On to Stephen Nichols, I've met him a couple of times before but he never fails to entertain me.  I gave him a pic of Super Soap Weekend last year to sign and he asked where it was taken and I said Super Soap Weekend and he laughed and said "I'm so glad you didn't say SSW.  You guys with the initials, GH, SSW, blah blah blah, half the time I don't know what you are talking about."  He cracks me up.  Took yet another picture with him.  he is always nice.  He did keep telling people that there were two lines at the table, one for Helena and the boytoy and one for Stefan.  He was yelling over the crowd and laughing about it.

Then Ingo.  I had the Playgirl with him on the cover.  I kept it stuffed inside the GH book all day until I got to the front of his line.  Normally, I don't advocate the buying or selling of that trash, but the picture of Ingo on the cover is enough to make this girl's eyes water.  Anyway,  I opened the book to the magazine and told him he would not believe the amount of trouble I went through to get that damn thing.  It took me several months to find it on eBay.  Anyway, when he saw what it was, he said "AAHH, THE DICK MAGAZINE".   I was thinking, um could you say it a little louder I don't think a few people in the back heard you!   He asked me where I found it, I told him then he asked how much I paid for it.  I told him it was like $12 or something.  He said that wasn't bad.  I didn't think so either.  Everybody wanted to see it after that.  I thought I was going to need a guard.

John J. York is next.  His line took forever.  He was holding entire conversations with everyone; however, while I was waiting Ingo and Tava got into some sort of sharpie fight.  Apparently Ingo had been putting dots down her spine when she figured it out the war was on and a chase ensued.  Across the stage out into the fans.  Tava stopped to kick her shoes off and Ingo hesitated so a guy in the audience grabbed him and everyone was screaming "GET HIM TAVA".  Ingo broke loose before Tava could get there, but she eventually caught up with him and both of them had sharpie colored arms for the rest of the afternoon.  It was pretty amusing.  Got to meet JJY finally, he signed my GH book and a really hot b&w pic for me.  He is so nice.  I told him Mac deserves better than the Flea.  He thought it was funny.

By this time it was like 3:45 and time to head to the Stephen Nichols event, but on my way out I stopped long enough to meet Jon Lindstrom and snap some pics of him for my little sister.  She's got the biggest crush on him.  I just showed her the pics and she's so jealous.  Hehehe!  He was very nice.  I told him that I watch PC sometimes and these days I enjoy it more than GH.  He said he's heard that from a lot of people and maybe it's because PC moves faster and is not as much of a time investment, just 30 minutes a day.  I told him I usually catch it on SoapNet and watch the whole week at one time.  He said that SoapNet is a big hit.   I believe it, I sure watch it all the time.  He laughed.  As I was walking away I told him to tell Eileen that we miss her on Days and he said that would be sure to tell her.  Ok, love him now!

Vanita Harbour was waiting on the valet out front to bring her car around so I said hi to her as a passed by on my way to my room.

STEPHEN NICHOLS EVENT
Ran into the room for a quick change into some shorts since it's by the pool, in the garden again.  He was there early and stayed more than an hour late.  He fielded some questions from the fans, mostly dealing with his lack of storyline.  He is NOT happy about what's been happening.  He wanted Stefan to tell Nik that he was not dead, at least send a letter and have it intercepted, so Stefan would have at least made the effort.  Stefan and Laura is over, get over it y'all!  Yippee!!!!  Now the part I don't like is that they are definitely going to try pairing him with Chloe.  He said to give it a chance because if we automatically write in saying we hate it, they'll yank his storyline again and he'll leave when his contract is up!  Which is the lesser of two evils, a Chloe storyline or no Stefan?  I definitely think him leaving, but if this story turns into another Chloe story where he's playing second-fiddle to that twit, Wendy will hear from me.  I'd rather see him go to some other show that will appreciate him.

He apparently reads his fanmail because he recognized some of the names of people at the event.  He is very approachable, he milled around chatting and cutting up with everybody.  I wannabe a Cassaho!  ROFL!  Oh Coltin came by on his way to Real's gospel singing event and we sang Happy Birthday to him, whatever!  Stephen did a lot of singing himself and insisted that all the video tapes of this event must edit that out.   He took up painting as a hobby back in April and is really enjoying that.  They served Greek horsderves, but I wasn't into them, so no comment.  My water was plenty.  The other thing he said is if he was writing Stefan's  storyline...Stavros would NOT be the heir, he would be a child of Helena and a lover (you know she's had plenty), Stefan would be the real heir and that's why Helena hates him so much.  {THIS IS THE STORY I'VE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG!} There's more detail, but you get the idea.  I could so write this show! LOL!

After that I went back to, ahem, the bar.  Ordered up two more 'ritas and proceeded to let the events of the day set in.  About an hour later my roomie decided to show up so we went, um, to the bar and had some more drinks with our dinner.  lol! As we finished eating, Real walked out and right over to us to say hi and asked us how we were doing.  Well, needless to say I was feeling pretty good, so that's what I said. LOL!