Mar. 27 - Friday

March 27, 2009 Friday - Day 1 of the Quantum Leap Convention


It all started when I got up at 3:30 on Friday morning and did all the normal ritualistic things to get ready to leave the house. I grabbed two small bagels, fixed a small snack bag of pretzels for the plane trip, and put them in my purse. Then, I finished the last little bit of packing, got it in the car and then headed out of town at around 4:45, only to realize that I had forgotten the camera – turned back around and go get it. (Praise be that I remembered it as close as I was to the house. I was already running a bit late. I was supposed to leave to get the airport on time at 4:30.) By the time that I was actually on the road to the airport, it was closer to five. Regardless, I got to the airport on time, checked in, and caught my flight out to California. Nothing exciting there, but thank goodness that nothing outrageous happened on the way to California. It’s the little things in life, right? Right. I left Austin Airport at 7:15 CST.

By the time that the flight landed, it was 8:35 PST. I went ahead and ate one of the two bags of pretzels that I brought with me while on the plane ride and just did the best that I could to space out my meals. I exited the plane and found myself smiling. It was like I couldn’t just let it go that I was actually in California and that I was going to be able to meet up with Scott Bakula and fulfill a dream of mine for the last twenty years. I got into a shuttle bus that took me over to the Beverly Garland’s Holiday Inn in North Hollywood. (Let me tell you right here, right now, I think that the driver of the shuttle was actually a kamikaze pilot! We almost had three wrecks. He’d honk the horn and everything and the passengers that were in the car with me agreed that he was a kamikaze pilot!)

What should have tipped me off that it was going to be an awesome weekend was walking into the lobby of the Holiday Inn to meet with the Master of Ceremonies Marc B. Lee. I recognized him and introduced myself while the employees were getting the entire necessary paperwork ready for me to sign, etc. It was then that I laid my hand on my suitcase and found out at that point that something was going on in my bag. I knew that I hadn’t packed the dog (at least I hoped that I hadn’t). But when I laid the bag down, I unzipped the bag and found myself starting to smile when I heard Marc Lee ask, “Something wrong?”

I told him that there was something going off in my bag and unzipped it to hear my toothbrush actually vibrating within the bag. I started grinning when I reached in, grabbed it and turned it off. Marc started backing away and said, “I really don’t want to know what’s going off in your bag.” I started giggling and said, “Oh, it’s just my toothbrush.” His response was only to say: “Oh… is that what they are calling those things these days?”

Totally embarrassing, but that was how my day began in California. Amazing. LOL

From there, it just kept getting better.

I went to the room where we were to get our registration packets for the Quantum Leap Convention. We received a lanyard with our row and seat number and a bag with pictures of Scott and Dean and a booklet with all of the people who could possibly show up. It was really a nice little gift to have and I’m totally going to use it!

On the way to the ballroom, I met Janine Humphreys and her mother. Janine Humphreys is someone that I had met online a few years ago. She played a part in the Quantum Retribution Audio Production. We were able to talk for quite some time. I met her mom and we really did hit it off.

While Janine and I were talking, I saw this man walking around in a green and white shirt. I kept thinking that I knew this man from somewhere. I finally squinted my eyes and finally called out, “Brian Greene?” He kept walking and probably didn’t hear me. Janine and I continued to talk about things in general when I saw the same person coming and going back into the ballroom where the main hub of the convention would be held. I was conveniently hidden slightly behind Janine when I called out his name once again as he walked inside the door of the ballroom. He stepped back out and looked around at who might have been calling his name. I stood up and smiled, walked over to him and gave him a big hug.

For those that don’t know, Brian Greene and I had met each other online via Al’s Place (A Quantum Leap Website – he’s the owner). It says that I joined the Al’s Place Forum back in 2002, but I’ve talked on and off with Brian since 1999 -- ten years. It was finally nice to put the person with the face and smile that I’ve seen in his pictures. He was busy of course, but he stopped a moment in his hectic schedule to talk at least for a few minutes before the ballroom was opened to us at around 11:45 in the morning.

The ballroom was set up and looked very nice. I’ll go around the room to describe the room. When you walked in, if you turned to your left, you got to see a replica of Ziggy that Chris Allen had made. It was great to see the “old girl” sitting there – all shiny and brightly lit up. A little bit away from her was the sound booth and camera for the taping of the convention. On the far left wall, there was memorabilia lined up to be raffled / auctioned off. In front was the stage and on either side of the stage there were two big TV screens so that we could all see the stage. A banner was set up above the stage that announced the convention from 1999 to 2009. To the right of the stage and going back to the door was even more memorabilia to be auctioned off for charity.

At 12:30, Deborah Pratt came in and talked to us about Quantum Leap. It was amazing to listen to her and know that she’s the reason why I’m writing some of the stuff that I do about Ziggy. Deborah Pratt is the voice of Ziggy, played in the show as Troian, and wrote episodes that are some of my favorite ones (The Trilogy). Several people asked questions – and it was nice to get to know Deborah a little bit more.

Around 1:40, we had our first panel of guests that came to the convention. The following people were in the panel: Holly Fields, Cynthia Bain, Lydia Cornell, Ken Foree, T’Keyah C. Keymah and Jim Townsend. It was interesting to listen to them talk about how things had been while they had been working with Scott. While the panel was still going on, they began to show the rows of people who could go to the Mission North room to get an autograph with Deborah Pratt.

This was crappy. You see, because if you wanted to get an autograph, you had to leave the panel and then miss out on what they were talking about. But I left anyway to get Deborah’s autograph. Deborah was a big part of Quantum Leap and I didn’t want to miss out on that. It was just too interesting to be able to meet her. Lana Bettencourt, her personal assistant, was there and she is the one that took the pictures for me for meeting Deborah. She was very nice (boy… had I only known)!

There was a small snafu with the signing of the autographs. Unfortunately, people didn’t understand that rows would be called out to go get autographs. A lot of people rushed out to go to the room where Deborah would be to get an autograph. This screwed everything up and made it take even longer to get an autograph. So… we had to just deal with long lines while they sorted us out in row and number order. Very frustrating and tiring when you think about it.

From 1:30 to 3:30, we could go into the Mission South room to look at the items that were going to go up on auction. I didn’t really peruse the auction items that were available. I didn’t have the money to do something so extravagant like buy memorabilia. I was just glad to be there meeting fans, meeting friends and meeting some of the people I had watched on TV for so long.

I totally missed the music video competition, because I went to go get autographs for Panel Number 1. I was able to get the following autographs and pictures with:
• Holly Fields
• Lydia Cornell
• T’Keyah C. Keymah
• Ken Foree
• and Jim Townsend.
• Cynthia Bain had to leave and was unable to sign.

I did get a picture with Vaughn Armstrong. He was hilarious to actually get a picture with. He said that he would give pictures to all the ladies. He wrapped his arms around me and then growled in my ear. LOL!

At 3:30, the showing of A Leap to Di For was shown. I missed the first part of it because I was still getting autographs from the first panel. I came back in time to see the end of the episode and then watch Chris Allen and Deborah Pratt talk about the show. We were introduced to all the actors and they were appreciated. In all honesty, the whole concept that they were doing in the fan-video was really well done, but no one can replace Scott.

Around 4:45, we had our next panel show up. It had the following people in it: Joe Napolitano, Rich Whiteside, Mike DeMerritt and Chris Ruppenthal. I had to get something to eat during the middle of this particular panel. I grabbed a coke and a snickers bar. I needed something to have to help me pep myself up. I had been awake since 3:30 AM Texas time. So, I had been up a grand total at this point was: fifteen hours.

It was at this point in the day that I saw someone walk by who looked really familiar. A great big smile on his face and all. Mike Bloxam. I happened to be on the phone with Eleiece when I called out his name and he came back and talked with me and with Eleiece. We talked and made sure that we would get a picture later at some point so that we could have documentation that we had met. *grin*

I was able to get autographs and pictures with Rich Whiteside and Mike DeMerritt.

By the time that this was done, I had to go to another room to begin to learn the Quantum Leap line dance to the song: Somewhere In The Night. We only had 30 minutes to learn it and it was very interesting to do so because I was adding to the wonderfulness of the line dance by doing my own thing, I think. I was so confused. It was a bit disorienting. Mike was there and we did our best to actually get the dance learned. Unfortunately, we only learned like the first couple of steps before we had to leave to go to the next party.

At 7:30, all of the people who were staying in the Holiday Inn came into the ballroom, which was set up just for us, and we had a nice little dinner of BBQ and sandwiches. By the time that I got there, there wasn’t any more BBQ, but I did have at least four pieces of a sandwich. It was really good. It was at that point that I got to meet one of Brian’s best friends, Jonathan. He was too funny. By this point in the night, I had met up with Mike, Morgan, Brian (when he wasn’t running around like a chicken without a head) and some other friends that I never really caught their names, but we stood around, laughed and had a grand time!

This only led into the next event at 8:00 where we had our first party featuring music with Erika Amato, we had a fan-trivia contest and just had fun meeting people. It was neat to be able to see everyone having a good time and learning more about the people that I’ve met over the last couple of years. I did have a couple of drinks that helped me pass the night, and with the little bit of food that I had eaten, the alcohol, I believe went straight to my head. I didn’t get sick, but I was quite content with where I was and how I was feeling. *grin*

The event for the day ended at 11:00; but that didn’t stop us from going outside in the cool night air and sitting outside on the bench and just talking until 12:45. I walked back to the room just wondering if I’d be able to sleep at all. Thankfully, I climbed into bed, set the alarm for 6:50, and then passed out.

At some point, I did call Brian Oldham and found out the “Convention Rules”. He told me that it was the 6-2-1 rule. Get at least 6 hours of sleep every night, have at least 2 meals a day, and do 1 thing that is memorable for every day of the convention.

For Friday – I obviously didn’t follow this very well:
1) Was working off of four hours of sleep
2) Didn’t have enough to eat – 2 small bagels, a bag of pretzels, snickers bar, equivalent of 1 sandwich and 1 small spinach quiche.
3) The one thing that I was able to do that was memorable: To meet Deborah Pratt and get to talk with her when I got her autograph.