I'm an avid Supernatural fan. It's a tv show on Friday nights. It's been on for six seasons! On October 22-23, my sister and I attended the Supernatural convention in Chicago, IL. It was tons of fun!
It all started back in April of 2011. I was trying to come up with the best birthday present EVER for my little sis. She hadn't been on a vacation in a loooooong time; so I knew I wanted to plan for a mini-vacay. The main issue is she has 3 dogs, and it costs a small fortune to board them. But Mom and I pooled our $$ and made it work.
We arrived at the Westin O'Hare in Chicago early on Saturday morning. As soon as we arrived at the hotel (of course we're too early to check in) we immediately went in search of the stars of the show! We followed a group of gals downstairs and saw a line waiting for photos with Corin Nemic. I still think of him as Parker Lewis - so did not wait in line.
Next, we made our way to the big auditorium where Amy Gumenick was talking about her roll as Mary Winchester on the show. The main auditorium was huge and there were at least a thousand chairs. I stayed and listened to her talk while my sis went in search of something. I can't remember what, tho!
We headed over to the exhibitors hall and were shocked because there were only five vendors. Yes, FIVE! Photos, jewelry, t-shirts... that's it. I'm used to going to conventions where there are at least a couple hundred vendors! Well, I wasn't there to buy stuff - so we moved on.
We returned to the auditorium and found out we could sit right up front during what I like to call the *star talks*. I really enjoy sitting on the front row for anything!
I tried to convince my sis to take part in the trivia contest, but she refused to raise her hand. She's a bit shy. It didn't matter because the questions came from the audience and were ridiculously difficult. It reminded me of the SNL sketch with William Shatner where he yelled at the audience to get a life!
Next, Richard Speight, Jr. (Trickster/Gabriel) and Matt Cohen (Daddy Winchester) were all over the place. They never remained on stage which made getting photos of them quite difficult. But they were funny and entertaining. At one point, Misha Collins walked in. The ladies in the crowd went crazy.
Let's talk about these ladies in the audience, shall we? I'd say the audience was made up of 99% women and 1% other. At one point my sister and I were playing a game of guessing how many cats each woman owned. Oh sure, you can say that's mean, but I have a cat, too!! We loved that we fit right in.
Our first photo op was with Richard Speight and Matt Cohen. I told Richard I loved him while walking away from him and into the arms of Matt Cohen. Yes, I had my arms out for a hug. I felt a push from behind me. My sis pushed me out of the way, which made Mr. Speight laugh. We both hugged these gentleman and got a great picture! Oh, and Matt Cohen smelled wonderful!
During lunch we walked around the corner to Giordano's. I have to say I thought that someplace called Giordanos who claims to have the best Italian food wouldn't use canned spaghetti sauce, but .. oh well.
More importantly, during lunch I convinced my sis that we needed to join the next contest: Present a Supernatural movie idea in 45 seconds on less. The winner would get a $100 gift certificate. We spent lunch writing our pitch on a scratch sheet of paper.
When we returned to the auditorium, I raised my hand HIGH to be chosen for the movie idea contest. My sis would not get up on stage with me. So I had her man the camera!
There were 8 people on stage. The first young man (there was 1) pitched an idea involving Greek Gods. I was second. I took out my tomato-stained scratch paper out and read the following with as much gusto as I could manage:
Supernatural: The Movie
Sam and Dean are transported into a parallel universe where they are now responsible for saving monsters and demons from people!
The creatures live in fear of humans and seek help from sam and Dean because Lucifer is MIA the same way God is here. They have no protection from people who now know all the Hunter's tricks of the trade.
It's up to Castiel and Bobby to help Sam and Dean find a way back home because the Boys are having an incredibly tough time keeping the monsters alive when ever fiber of their being screams KILL THEM ALL!
The third young lady opened up her iPad and began reading her idea which I didn't understand a word of. The remaining contestants gave their pitch. I was too nervous to pay attention. I figured the iPad girl would win even if she ran out of time. But when the audience voted with applause, I WON! (technically, my sister and I won.)
Then the host handed the microphone to me again and asked me to flesh out my idea. Huh? What? I already read everything I have! What was I going to say??? I made up some nonsense about Dean falling in love with a demon because of the romantic in me. Ugh...that part was embarassing. Luckily, they couldn't take back the award! :)
Of course, days later I thought of ways to flesh out the idea, but it was too late.
My sis and I spent that $100 at the five previously-mentioned vendors. LOL Hey, I got a tshirt and magazine and coffee mug. The sis picked out two t-shirts.
Next up was Misha Collins. He was a treat. He's very quick-witted and sarcastic. I really enjoyed how he handled the most inane questions/comments I've ever heard. I was slightly embarrassed to be a part of the crowd. Nevertheless, he was entertaining.
After the *star talk* we went downstairs for our photos with Misha Collins (Castiel) and Mark Pelligrino (Lucifer) - the Heaven -n- Hell photo op! LOL
Later this evening we waited for HOURS to get an autograph from Matt Cohen and Misha Collins. I tried to sell these autograph tickets because I got the photo ops instead. That didn't work out. So we waited... and waited... and waited.
By the time we got to these gentlemen, I was expecting two very worn out fellas. Nope! Misha Collins was joking around with everyone and Matt Cohen still had a big smile on his face.
The sis and I went back to the room around 11ish and ordered two small Chicago-style pizzas. (She's a vegetarian.) Mine WAS SO GOOD, but I was all tuckered out. Most of it ended up in the trash.
The next day, we began with our photo op with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, the stars of the show. Both were very sweet. Of course, I gave Jared a big hug and he gave a bear hug in return. I wanted to give one to Jensen but was told by the ladies in line that he doesn't like that! LOL I couldn't believe a guy from Dallas would be unfriendly. So, I patted his shoulder and told him we were a couple of Dallas gals. He smiled and said, "Hey, I'm going home later tonight!" I said something inane like, "Excellent." and that was it. Like I said, very sweet dudes.
Later, we sat through their *star talk* but had to sit in the back of the auditorium because the front row seats were reserved. No biggie. I have a zooooooom lens. :)
I told my sis since Mr. Ackles is going home to Dallas and that he'd probably be on our flight. She laughed at me. I laughed, too. The chances were one in...however many flights were flying to Dallas from O'Hare that evening. (hehehe)
Later, we were sitting in at O'Hare after having eaten at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. The food was great. The service was awful - especially the hostess. ANYway, while talking about how there are no extraordinarily handsome men anywhere, we created a bet (we do that alot) on who could find the first really good-looking man. Guess who walked by? Yes, Mr. Ackles. My sister frantically started slapping my shoulder telling me she found one. I looked and started to agree with her before it clicked that I was looking at Jensen Ackles! We waved and he waved back. (Told ya he was a nice dude).
When we got on the plane, he was in first class sitting with his eyes closed. I warned my sis that he would pretend he was asleep, otherwise people would bug him. I smiled at his wife and saw her nudge her husband and say something like, "there they are" but we had already passed by before he could do anything about it.
I must say I should win a medal or award or something for keeping my sister in her seat during that entire plane ride home! I explained that he'd have to pick up his luggage and we'll see him in baggage claim when we landed. She calmed down.
Sure enough he was awaiting his luggage. I told my sis it was her final chance to say hi or do whatever it was she wanted to do. She just wanted to get a photo "near" him -- not *with* him but NEAR him. I took the photo on the sly and we finally went home.
There are more stories from this trip like the lady who spent $5,000 in the auction for salt used on the show. Yes, *salt*. Sure, the proceeds went to a fabulous charity, but $5,000??? Wow.
There were other stories of people who spent thousands so they could be first in line. Yes, the same line I was in - we all got to the finish line, but I paid considerably less.
There was the lady in charge of photo ops who simultaneously yelled at us, herded us, and encouraged us to smile all in the same sentence. We nicknamed her tinkerbell because she was a little ball of energy and light.
And there was the hotel's restaurant with that horrible, horrible $20 cheeseburger.
And there was the costume contest with only two good costumes out of the whole bunch!
Needless to say, it was a loooong two days but sooo much fun!
Here are some pics from the event: http://debbieshockeyphotos.smugmug.com/Other/Supernatural-Convention/19740388_rcM9Q6#1550211979_dPRgqG5
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