Woke at 6:50 and decided that I was going to do better at keeping to that convention rules of 6-2-1. I am at least closer to the 6 hours of sleep today to keep me going. Now, I just needed to get some food within my system and some coffee.
I went to the restaurant at the hotel and ate with two lovely young women from England that befriended me. While we ate, we watched as the magician (Joshua Chaikin) ran back and forth (quite literally at times) between the ballroom and the restaurant. We began to actually start making jokes about how he might have forgotten how certain tricks were performed and was working it out in his head. Perhaps it wasn’t nice, but it was funny.
I was able to make it to the ballroom a little after 8:30. I missed the very beginning of the second showing of the Quantum Leap Fan-Film: A Leap to Di For. Since I had already seen the last part of it, I watched up to the part where I got caught up. Chris Allen really did a nice job with all of the work that he put into the show and I told him so when I had the opportunity to do so.
At 9:00, we had VIP Admission to the Dealers room for Diamond and Platinum holders. I went down there and looked around. It was nicely set up and I took various pictures of some of the awesome displays that they had up of the posters at the back of the room. It was really quite lovely.
At 9:30 the magician Joshua Chaikin performed, but I missed it. I was in the Dealers room, then went across to the artist’s room to look at the pictures they had up there. It was nice to see some of those pictures. They were really well done. When I have the chance, I'll post the pictures somewhere for everyone to see.
It was at this point when I began talking with John Durham. He was sitting in the Artists room just watching over things and I didn’t know who he was – thought he was just a fan. I had no idea that he was one of the assistants of Deborah Pratt.
He let me know that he was a writer. He asked me if I wrote – I said that yes, I wrote fan-fiction. He was interested in what I had to say, so, I just told him that I had written a story a while back that I just absolutely hated. He asked me what it was about the story that I hated. I told him that it was that the characters didn’t want to do what *I* wanted them to do – that they took on a life of their own. He was amused at that and asked if I was a published writer. I told him no. It was then that he wrote down his name, his phone number, and his email address. He told me that he said that he would do his best to help me get published – and introduce me to Lana Bettencourt (who is Deborah Pratt’s personal assistant). Talk about mind boggling.
John walked me into the Dealer’s Room and introduced me to Lana Bettencourt. I looked at her like I knew her from somewhere… and she told me that she remembered me too. Lana had taken the picture of me with Deborah Pratt. She asked me what I was interested in, and I told her that I did work on websites, wrote, and did audio production for Colonial Radio Theatre. I told her about working on Moonfleet and how it might be interesting to see Deborah’s story (The Vision Quest) get made into an audio drama. She asked me to jot down my name, email, phone, and address so that she could contact me and get a hold of me about different things.
At that point in time, I thought that she was just blowing smoke, but I did it anyway. I mean, I’m just a lowly fan looking up at all of this at this moment as just a grand and wonderful thing to even meeting people and having fun!
At 10:00, we had Guest Star Panel Number 3 with the following people: Rob LaBelle, Lisa Jane Persky, Erika Amato, Natasha Pavlovich, Fabiana Udenio, Susan Isaacs and Michael Gregory.
It was during this panel that I finally got up the courage to go up to the microphones that were set up and give a comment to all of these wonderful guest stars that had come to the convention. I really didn’t have a question for them, but a comment. I told them that my name and that I was from Texas. I then went ahead and told them that I appreciated them coming down to the convention to tell us their stories about the show and about Scott. I went ahead to tell them that I wrote fan-fiction stories and thanked them for helping me to teach my content. I saw the quizzical expressions and told them that I used Quantum Leap in the classroom to help get the point across from various standpoints. Not just the racial card, but to show how plot is used, etc. Regardless, I said thank you them. That must have made an impact on Michael Gregory. (You’ll see when you read a bit more.)
The next panel then came up on the stage at 11:00: and there wasn’t a way that I wasn’t going to get my pictures and see as much as I could of this panel. It has my favorite two people in it: David Newsome (Tom Beckett) and Carolyn Seymour (Zoe)!!!
The Guest Stars in Panel No. 4 were: Michael Gregory, Jane Sibbett, David Newsome, Jarrett Lennon, Carolyn Seymour, and Donna Magnani.
This group was actually quite amazing. Just listening to them talk about working with Scott and having so much fun, I decided that I was going to definitely get up and talk to David Newsome and Carolyn Seymour. I really didn’t know what I was going to say until I got up to the microphone. What came out was something along this manner: “It’s because of the people who are in the panels who have kept me writing fan-fiction for the past 9 years – especially Carolyn Seymour and David Newsome.” David then grinned and asked, “Oh…. Am I in trouble?” I told him back that no, he wasn’t in trouble… yet. I then thanked them for participating with the convention, for working on TV and just thank you for your talent.
It was at that point that I turned away from the microphone to leave (they had called my row to go to get autographs) when I heard: “MJ! Aren’t you the teacher?” I turned back to the panel and saw that Michael Gregory had asked me this question. So, I re-centered myself at the microphone then said, “Yes sir.”
He said, “Would you tell this panel what you said to the previous panel?”
I replied, “Sure.” I was actually thinking – oh crap. I’m screwed. You know? What did I say? So, I repeated the school stuff and I believe added that these days you had to get the kids engaged and that was one way to do it. At that point, Carolyn Seymour leaned forward in her chair and said, “And that’s what makes you an awesome teacher,” and she began clapping (as did the rest of the panel). It went from her lips to my ears to my heart. I immediately found tears in my eyes and my voice cracked as I looked up at her and said, “Thank you.” As they clapped (the panel!!!), I beat a retreat back to the back of the room because I really didn’t want to cry in front of them. So, I headed down to the next autograph session with the previous panel. I had already decided that no matter what I was going to pay for Carolyn Seymour’s autograph.
So, I was able to get autographs and pictures with these people from panel No. 4:
• Rob LaBelle
• Erika Amato
• Lisa Jane Persky
• K. Callen (Showed up afterwards)
• Natasha Pavlovich
• Fabiana Udenio (didn’t get a picture with her – she had to leave)
• Susan Isaacs (didn’t get a picture or autograph – she left (I believe))
Because I was getting these autographs from one panel, I wasn’t able to get to see the panel for the Novels and Comics (C. Winston Taylor, Julie Barrett, Mindy Peterman and Chris DeFilippis) that happened at 12:00, but I was able to get into the line for the autographs for Panel no. 5.
I was able to get autographs and pictures with the following:
• David Newsome (my god… he’s handsome)
• Michael Gregory (a very sweet and humbling man)
• Jane Sibbett (autograph only)
• Jarrett Lennon (autograph only)
• Donna Magnani (autograph only)
• Carolyn Seymour (you had to pay for her autograph) – more detail on that one below.
The Novels and Comics Panel showed up then and I was able to get autographs with them as well:
• C. Winston Taylor
• Julie Barrett
• Mindy Peterman
• Chris DeFilippis
Because I was getting all of these autographs, I wasn’t able to see the Guest Panel No. 5 at 1:00 with Claudia Christian, Beverly Leech, Vaughn Armstrong, Richard Herd, K Callan, Stuart Fratkin and James Harper. BUT... I did get the following later:
• Claudia Christian - a picture with her and her autograph. (had to pay for)
• Vaughn Armstrong - a picture with him the day before.
• Richard Herd - a picture and an autograph (had to pay for)
• James Harper - I wasn't able to get either a photo or an autograph.
• Stuart Fratkin - he wasn't there. (I don't think)
After I got all the autographs at this point, I went down to the Dealers room to see if I could get an autograph from Carolyn Seymour. When I showed up, she was actually walking down the hallway toward the room and I called out her name. “Ms. Seymour?” She didn’t hear me and kept walking – so, I tried to hurry toward her and said, “Carolyn?”
She turned around with a smile and said, “Yes, love?”
Okay… right then… I didn’t care if I had to pay a LOT of money for her autograph. I was going to get it no matter what. I mean, having ZOE of all people calling me Love?!
She met up with me, gave me a half hug, and said, “Why… oh, wait, you’re the teacher!” I nodded and she said, “I have something that I want to give to you.” I was flubbered. What would Carolyn Seymour want to give me!? It didn’t make sense, but I followed her into the Dealer’s Room and we went to her set up. She motioned to the pictures that she had amongst her possessions, picked one, and then said, “This one will do, I think.” It a picture of her all made up to look like a Romulan from Star Trek: The New Generation. She asked how to spell my name, and wrote on it: “To Mar-Jayne, What lucky kids! Love, Carolyn Seymour.”
I asked her how much it would be for her autograph and she immediately, “No love, this is from me to you. You owe me nothing. This is for your kids at school.” I was able to get a picture not just of her, but with her.
We talked about the short story that she’s writing about her great aunt. Carolyn said she wasn’t ready to come to the end of the story, because that would mean that she would have to somehow permanently come to the end of the one woman who believed in her. I can definitely understand that logic and appreciate how she’s taking her time with it. I did tell her that whenever she did finish it that I would love to read it. She then told me that she was on Facebook and to add her, that when she finished it, she would send out a message to let me know that it was available to get.
While we were talking and getting pictures with her, I missed listening to Jay Schwartz on this memories of Quantum Leap because I was getting autographs and pictures with all of the above. Amazing.
I had called AJ Burfield at some point during the day and found out that she would be coming up to talk with me at 3:00. I wanted to desperately meet AJ since we had began Quantum Leap: The Virtual Seasons back in 1999.
We met at 3:00, had a leisurely lunch, and just chatted for a long time because I didn’t have money for the auction. I knew that I wasn’t able to buy anything so, I was going to spend as much time with AJ as I could. She had to leave around 5:00 so, we were able to get a nice visit in. ☺ YAY!
I did go into the Charity Auction and watch for a little while. I couldn’t believe how much money people were willing to give for something. It was absolutely amazing. I believe that someone even bought the construction of Ziggy that Chris Allen made.
I met up with Julie Greene – Brian’s wife, and had dinner with her. It was really nice to meet up with Julie and get to know her a bit better. She’s pregnant and the precious baby boy will be born in July. I can’t wait to see a picture of him. He’s going to be beautiful. ☺ With parents like those two - why wouldn't he be???
Our dinner did take awhile because interestingly enough, I believe that they forgot about us. I had to hurry back to the room to get chanced for the Costume Masquerade that was going to happen.
I showed up a little bit late… but that was okay. The Enterprise Blues Band was playing when I joined in at 8:15. They were really good. Richard Herd sang a lovely version of “Oh Danny Boy” and I was able to at least get a few pictures of him singing it. We all stopped when he started singing it and reveled in it. Very, very nice.
The Costume Masquerade was really well done. We had some very interesting characters as you can see below. However, how the judging was done could have been done better. Unfortunately, they didn’t ask who we were or allow us to tell. What happened was Marc Lee actually put his hand over people’s head and then the audience clapped to see if they liked the costume or not. When I saw that happening, I wasn’t going to abject myself to that humiliation. I went ahead and took myself out of the running and went to talk with Jonathan, Mike and Morgan.
Even though I participated in the raffles, I didn’t win anything. ☹ That’s okay, I have my own memories and that’s good enough.
The evening ended at 11:00, but I was able to spend time with Brian to finally catch up with him. He had promised me that we would catch up and we did. We talked of his family and of mine. It was nice to finally get a chance to spend time with him.
As far as the convention rules go for Saturday – I met the requirement for eating at least twice a day. I was going to try to get in at least 6 hours of sleep. The one exciting thing for each day: Being able to talk with Brian, a picture with David Newsome and my favorite picture with Carolyn Seymour.
