C3, part the deux

[jaina]

Here we go with Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday:

Friday

Friday. What did I do on Friday morning? I don't really remember. I think I went in a bit early to try and finish the pilot vests and stuff. Did Elise come with me? ("Supposably...") Anyway, we had a 11:30 show so call was at 9:30. With the help of recently-arrived Nori's Mom, we got the pilot vests stitched rather than just stapled (I think I terrified my actors when I came at them with bits of white vinyl and a stapler) and the strapping pinned to jumpsuits. Elise dealt with making Todd's vest work with his quick-change.

The show went pretty smoothly. We had an audience of about a thousand, and a new preshow-- two guys dueling with Master Replicas sabers. They were really whaling away on each other. Nori's mom got to see the show for the first time ever, yay!

After the show, I raced to fix and iron my rainbow dress in time for the Costume Pageant. I wasn't in it, but a lot of my friends were, and the girls from the TFN Costuming&Props board were going to have a photoshoot afterward. Unfortunately, it took me longer than I'd anticipated to get everything done, so I ended up missing the kids' category and I didn't get to do my hair. But Elise was saving me a seat down in the volunteer section, so I was able to scuttle down there to see things up close. Also, I'd forgotten my double-stick tape, so I used spirit gum to secure the dress to me and it kept coming undone! So I basically had to keep my arms pressed to my sides at all times, lest I give folks more of a show than they bargained for! *g*

The contest was awesome, and there were a ton of great entries. I cheered like crazy for all my C&P buds, causing my neighbors go give me strange looks. I was so happy when Obi-Dawn won! She's put so much effort into making her picnic dress just perfect that she really deserves it. Afterward, we tried to get everyone together for a picture, but it was seriously like herding cats. (I know, I know, a really big can of tuna!) I sort of morphed into scary-bossy mode, herding everyone out into the hallway, because "dammit, I got into this dress just for this picture, so we are going to *take* this picture!" Um, sorry about that, guys. I'm normally slightly calmer than that. Slightly. But the picture did get taken, and it was awesome-- clicky me to see!. It was so fun getting to meet all these people who'd previously been just names and dresses, although I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with everyone! (There was a lot of, "Okay, I *know* that dress, but I don't know your name!")

Eventually, the cameras stopped and everyone started drifting away, so I went back to the green room to change. Elise and I hit the con floor, since she hadn't been yet. Then we went over to Hall C, where I introduced her to the terrifying hilarity of the Jedi Training Academy and we took a closer look at the Road Squadron cars. We thought about going to the Archives, but the line was long and we didn't know then that our badges would have gotten us right in.

Finally, it was time for me to go to Rock Bottom for the Club Jade dinner. But it was raining cats and dogs, so we took the skywalks and walked through the mall. Elise bid me farewell at the mall exit and I dashed across the street, running into a thoroughly drenched Rogue, Jeff, and Kristin on the way. There were far more people at the dinner than had been expected, but somehow it all worked out. I got to have nice chats with Cyndi and Emperor Aaron among other people, and Susan told me she'd been working the Archives and I could just show my volunteer badge to the stormtrooper at the door. She also introduced me to the two archivists. We sang to Cyndi for her birthday and made her wear a crown, and we had various desserts in lieu of cake. At last, dinner came to an end, and most of us headed over to the Hyatt for the 501st party. Rogue and I didn't stay long, although I did notice that they were serving lots of free salty food and selling water for $3.50.

Back to the Crowne Plaza we went, where we discovered lots of SWME folks hanging out in the restaurant. Naturally, we joined them. The SW30 people were lounging just a little ways away and again their Mark and James came over. We mutually agreed to save seats for each other at the Saturday performances of our respective shows-- we could go to their 11 am, since call was at 11:30. Michael, the guy who played Jabba, also came over and attempted to understand exactly what a Star Wars musical entailed. After a couple of failed explanations, Jax asked, "So how many drinks have you had?" "Oh, I'm not drunk," he assured us. "I'm high!" *So,* so much <3 for the SW30 people. *g* At long last, we went off to sleep, although I think some people stayed up playing poker.

Saturday

A bunch of us got up bright and early to see the Archives exhibit before SW30. It was incredibly crowded in the convention center, due both to more people in general and Uncle George's shows. We got into Archives with our badges and had a nice look around. Susan gave us some tidbits about Padme's costume, since she had dressed her. Afterward, we wanted to see the R2 builders' room, but the entire upstairs was closed on account of George. So we all kind of split up-- I went back to the dealers' room to get the T-shirts I'd been coveting, where I ran into Liz and Emperor Aaron. Having obtained my Captain Jack and Hitchhiker's Guide T-shirts, I went back to the SW30 entrance, where the Musical folks were assembling for the 11 am show. First we stood. Then we sat. Then we stood. Then we realized that standing was attracting people so we moved further away and sat again. Finally their stage manager let us in, so we stood and then sat.

SW30 was awesome. I'd seen it two years ago at the Fan Film awards at Comic-Con, and it was still screamingly hilarious. It was interesting to see which gags our shows had in common. As soon as the show was over, we raced (as much as you could race in the crowded convention center) to the green room, ignoring calls of "Don't run!", because we were already late for call and wanted to avoid the Wrath of Jax as much as possible.

We had a full house for Saturday's show. It was really something to walk out onstage and see almost three thousand people looking back at you. There were even people standing in the back and along the sides! Meanwhile, backstage, Cyndi had introduced herself to my dad, because I kept forgetting. Bad Caitlin. I think this is the show where we couldn't get back into the green room right away, so we had to wait outside and I had my picture taken with two adorably shy little girls. Once we got in, though, we were all getting dressed as fast as possible because we wanted to go see One-Man Star Wars, which was on the same stage a half-hour after us. This was going to be the only chance we'd have to see him, and the room was filling fast. A few of us ran in and saved basically all of the volunteer seats that were left, but it still wasn't enough. Luckily, I think everyone else somehow found somewhere to sit.

Charlie Ross is truly a wonder. I wish I'd gotten to meet him, as some of the other Musical people did. At the Fan Film awards last year, he did just ANH, and he did One-Man LOTR at One Ring Celebration in January, but this was the first time I'd seen him do the whole SW trilogy. It was hella awesome and then some. I especially loved when someone's cell phone rang, and he mimed pulling out a blaster and shooting them.

After that, a bunch of us went and got food, having not really eaten all day. Then we realized that if we wanted to see the R2 Builders' room, we'd have have to go right then, since it was after 5, the room closed at 6, and we weren't going to have another chance. So off we went. The room was amazing-- the effort the builders have put into their droids is just astounding. My costuming absolutely pales in comparison. Apparently Jamez and Heather had been through earlier and gotten all sorts of ideas for fall; it definitely made a lot of people think about improving our R2. My poor cooler feels jealous and snubbed.

When we finished with the R2 room, we decided to go get ice cream at Maggie Moo's before seeing Sin City at 7, so it was back to the mall. We sat down in an unoccupied corner of the mall walkway, where we discovered that the crazies in and around the mall weren't limited to C3 attendees. Two really hyper local girls wanted to make friends, and then some other people wanted to take our picture. Not because we were in the Musical, or anything, they just wanted to take a picture of some random people sitting in a circle. Weird.

I left the rest of the group to their Sinning-- one viewing was more than enough for me, thanks-- and went back to the green room to get a start on cleanup and organization, and hopefully separate my and Elise's sewing supplies, which at this point seemed hopelessly intermingled. Elise arrived a bit later to help, and by the time Rogue called to say they were finished I felt like we had a pretty good handle on things for Sunday.

Surprise, surprise, we ended up back at the Crowne Plaza's restaurant again, because Mark and Nori wanted steak after Sin City. The SW30 people were there again, and Elise gave them some leads on theater spaces in Boston if they ever decided to tour. They were partying it up and invited us to join them, but we had an 8:30 call the next morning, so we declined. "Email me sometime, we'll do shots!" called their Mark as we left. (Have I mentioned how awesomely funny these people were?) I ended up in Elise and Nori's room while Rogue and the rest of the tech crew dealt with yet another crisis, but finally went back to my own room to catch a few hours of sleep.

Sunday

Up we were, bright and early for our 8:30 am call. Not so, I lie! I was late, and I know I wasn't the only one. I was tiiiiiiiiired. But somehow we all shook off the sleepiness and turned in what might have been our best performance of the weekend, even if the audience took a little while to warm up. I know I certainly had my best show of the four. And there were a number of VIPs in the front row who told us afterward what a great show it was, so that was also nice.

I'm a little fuzzy on what happened after the show. I think it was some frantic combination of packing up the costumes and getting lunch (Dad and I powerwalked over the the food court for Subway, since it was Sunday and Chick-Fil-A was closed). And also possibly packing up the bus? All I know for sure is that at 1:45 we all gathered back at the Saga Stage for a group picture with Warwick Davis, who is a very cool guy. It was right before the Costume Cabaret, so we had an audience of rather perplexed contest-viewers. I said a quick hello and good luck to my former cabaret entry (I'm so sorry I had to drop out, guys!) and then we finished packing up the bus, since we really needed to get on the road. We bid adieu to my dad, Jeff and Kristin, and ML, who for one reason or another weren't travelling with us. After some seat-shuffling due to me freaking out yet again (luckily for the last time, I think), we were underway.

This was a different bus, and its sound system wasn't screwy like the previous bus's had been, so we got to watch Red vs Blue! Yay. We also watched The Incredibles and, uh, some other stuff. (A little help here?) I was asleep for a lot of it. Unfortunately, we were only a few hours into the drive when it started snowing. A little at first, then harder and harder until it was a full-blown snowstorm and we were driving at practically a crawl. Oh yay. To make things even more fun, the heat in the back of the bus wasn't working, and we were shivering. At our dinner stop, we bought the convenience store out of blankets, only to re-board the bus and discover they'd fixed the heat! Brie also bought some truck reflectors, because "don't they look just like droid eyes!? They totally do!" It was a little bizarre not to have any sewing to do, and I realized I really hadn't brought anything else to keep me occupied. So I watched the movies when they were on and slept when I got tired enough to stay asleep in an uncomfortable position.

Monday

Eventually we arrived back at 77 Mass Ave around 10ish, almost three hours later than we'd expected. Thanks, snowstorm! Unpacking consisted mostly of dragging things into the MTG office and dumping them wherever there was room. And that was the end of our Celebration 3 trip!

I still didn't get to go to sleep, because I had to organize all the costumes so that Nori could deal with them after I'd left. Welkin very sweetly came and helped me out, which was nice. Then I went back to Steve and ML's, where they'd ordered pizza for the four of us, and we watched the two most recent Amazing Races that we'd missed because of the show. Thanks, Steve and ML. That was fun.

And then we got up ass-early the next morning, Steve drove us to the airport, and we came home! And I finally slept. The End.

Comments

[spccadet.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted a report too - I love reading them all - and really hope the rumor is true and they plan another celebration for the 30th anniversary in '07.

I love your rainbow dress with your current hairdo actually - I know it's not what was in the movie - but it really suits you - and that pic is great, but you are by far in the top costumers in that group it looked like!

What were you entering in the costume pageant?

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I had formerly been in the "Anakin's Nightmare" entry, which was a bunch of Padmes and an Anakin. I was going to wear my Ep2 family gown.

[knitress.livejournal.com]

The Sunday show was awesome.

And I forgot to blog the droid room! I was amazed by what they do, and I so loved Jar-Jar in carbonite.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks Nancy. :)

[portnoyslp.livejournal.com]

I think the movies on the bus trip home were, if I recall correctly, Red vs. Blue, Incredibles ("no capes!"), and Real Genius. I vaguely also recall the Pirates of the Caribbean, but methinks that was on the trip out there rather than the trip home. :-) It's hard to be sure, since I kept falling asleep and waking up.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Real Genius. I think you're right, Pirates was on the way out.

[slyvermont.livejournal.com]

I like the cooler R2 you guys use now!

And thanks for posting such a great report.

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks Susan!

[cyndisuesue.livejournal.com]

Great Recap! It was a pleasure to meet your dad Finally! (Now I just have to meet your brother and I can say it only took me 8 years for me to meet them all! :-) ) As to meeting Charlie, all you had to do was "Ask" my dear! How hard would it have been for your old Master to arrange that?!

[(Anonymous)]

It was a plesure to meet you, too, Cyndi. Too bad that Caitlin's brother Sean was busy with end-of-semester things (like getting ready for exams) and couldn't make it to Indy. He, like his sister, is a pretty neat person -- but then, I'm bound to be a bit biased :-)
Qui-gon D

[brightcupenny.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't even think about asking. It didn't even occur to me until we were on the way home. I'm sure I'll get the chance to meet him some other time. :)