When Country Came to Town

Last weekend I Michael and I went to the big city of Atlanta, GA for Dragon*Con. We'd only been planning this since May! Needless to say we were very excited, but I was also quite a bit nervous...I have never been to a city as big as Atlanta. (I'm not counting Las Vegas, where Michael and I got married because to me that was like a large network of tiny hotel/cities connected by side walks.) I grew up in a very rural area of a tiny town so this was completely different for me. Country truly had come to town.

We got into Atlanta around 4:30 Thursday afternoon. We checked into our hotel (the Westin at Peachtree Plaza. Don't stay there by the way, it's an overpriced shit hole, pardon my language) and then walked down to the Sheraton where we had to pick up our badges. After standing in a line to stand in another line for several rather interesting, hot, hours we got our badges. Then we had to walk somewhere to get supper. Of course the hill we had walked down to get to the Sheraton didn't seem even a quarter as steep as when we started walking back up it. Halfway there and halfway dead from being fat and terribly out of shape we found a great spot to rest our weary feet: The Metro Cafe, a 24 hour diner/karaoke bar. Great gyro, not the greatest Greek salad, good booze.

Friday morning we got up early for breakfast and to get the line for the first panel were wanted to see. Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner at 10 am. Loved them! We had great seats!

Later on Friday we went to see Charlaine Harris. I'm a huge fan of her Sookie Stackhouse books and now I'm a huge fan of her. Listening to her talk you could tell that she has that perfect mix of sugar, spice and sass that makes southern women so spectacular.

SOmetime on Friday or Saturday, not sure which, we went to see John Billingsley and Anthony Montgomery, who were on Star Trek Enterprise. John Billingsley has also been on this season of True Blood on HBO.

We took a few minutes on Saturday to go to the Walk of Fame the first time. We got to meet Craig Parker. Craig Parker played the slightly overweight elf who commanded the Elven Army that came to help the people in the stronghold fight off the Orcs. He now plays Darken Rahl in Legend of the Seeker (not sure what channel).

We got to see Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.

We got the opportunity to meet Kevin Anderson who co-authors the newest Dune books with Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert. We were able to bring our hard back books of his to be signed.

Sunday we got to go to a panel where my favorite author, S.M. Stirling, talked about his books in the Emberverse series. It was absolutely amazing getting to talk to the people who were waiting for the event to start and to sit and listen to Stirling talk about his books. I was very impressed by the process he goes through with his books and how much care he puts into making them just so. We were also able to go to his autograph session.

Then we went back to the Walk of Fame since we had some spare moments.

We got to meet and talk to Tom Felton and Michael got his autograph.

We got to meet Anthony Montgomery and Michael got his autograph.

And John Billingsley...

And just for me, James Marsters. (he's so dreamy!)

And because this is supposed to be a blog about crafting and making things, here are some of the costumes we saw, of which I am sure at least some portion is somewhat handmade. These are the ones that turned out pretty good. No, I don't know what all the characters are.

And for my own viewing pleasure, here are a couple pictures of James Marsters that I wasn't supposed to take. Oops, my finger must have pressed that button without realizing it. Oh, darn.

Overall, Dragon*Con was fantastic. The people, the costumes, the topics...just fantastic. I'm very impressed with the people I got to meet. I know we tend to put celebrities and famous people on a pedestal, but now that I've met a few and talked with them I know better. They're real people just like we are.