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Not yet, but soon. I haven't had the time to get through Saturday yet, was hoping to get something for that up this weekend.

No, it's okay! Keep checking back.

And I know, I'm impatient to go through all of it as well.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Saturday was wild ride for me. Mostly because I was up by 7:30am and didn't get into bed until almost 2am, had no real decent meal all day (a McDonald's breakfast at about 9am, a brief hotdog during the day, part of a McDonald's chicken sandwich at like 11pm and granola bars the rest of the time) and because I was doing way too many things. But it was worth it because I did have a whole lot of fun.

My Renee photo op was the first thing that morning: 8:30am! But it was totally worth it because she chose to were her classic Gabby outfit: the BGSB. I had thought about wearing my Xena costume that morning for the photo op but didn't get to it. I obviously had no idea what she would choose to wear on what days--it was a total gamble. I would have liked to wear it with Renee dressed as Classic Gabby and I still kick myself that I didn't decide to bring the costume out at that time in the morning.... Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Still, I really like my photo with her in it. And I guess, in a way, I like that I'm "me" and not "Xena" because then it's more real that way--I gotta meet Gabby! I'm really happy with the photo, and I just loved how much Renee could look like Gabrielle still after all these years when she goes to put on an outfit like that.



I ended up missing most of Missy Good's time on stage because I was still getting ready in my room. I had chosen to wear my Najara costume for part of the day. It was really nice wearing an old costume like that, and I still consider it one of my top favorites.

Katherine Fugate did a skit like she did last year. Last year it was all about what she would do if she were to write a Xena Movie. This year, it was all about what she would have done for the Xena Series Finale. As always, it was entertaining, with guest stars like Adrienne Wilkinson and Steve Sears (who was playing Rob Tapert). It was cool to see Claudia Black (who had been on Xena before, and Hercules  but I cannot remember who she played) as well as getting a glimpse of Tim Omundson that we would see again later on that day (he's so funny) and David Franklin again. Renee made an appearance as Gabrielle (with her staff!) and did a speech with Claudia (who was playing Xena--so funny when she first came out on stage and acted totally confused as to where she was) where "Gabrielle" does this long, drawn-out, heartfelt speech asking "Xena" to marry her. It was sappy but I thought it was sweet, and I'm not even a subtexter. Of course, the crowd loved it.

After the skit, Katherine came out to talk to us for a bit (I cannot remember what she said--I know that some guy asked her about doing romantic movies with guys as the leads rather than girl-centric, I think) but I do remember that a fan, and the crowd, was going to do a flash mob in front of Katherine whereby people would get up out of their seats and hit each other with a pillow they had hiding under their chair. It was rather entertaining and Katherine was surprised. Apparently, she likes flash mobs? Not sure where it came from--I'm sure someone else knows for sure.







See more of Katherine and the Skit here.

Next up was Michael and Jennifer, always crowd favorites--or at least, my favorites. They did a video slideshow as they have done in previous years detailing everything that they had been up to during the course of the year. I love how busy they always seem to be and how interesting and rewarding their work is for them. They truly enjoy what they do, and that they do it together.

After the slideshow, they took questions. I know that someone asked them how their relationship is and how they get along in their marriage because this person kind of compares them to Xena and Gabrielle (because of the height difference and the hair color?). I didn't quite get the question but I thought it was interesting, if a bit strange, to compare a real-life couple to that of fictional characters. Still, Michael and Jennifer took it with class.

I have to say, though, that their outfits (especially Michael's) were kind of out there. I actually would have preferred if Michael wore something nicer on stage (and to the photo op)--not dressed up or a suit or anything like that, it's just I thought his outfit was kinda tacky, actually. The Hawaiian type shirt and those leopard-print boots. Interesting choice... LOL Plus, I found that he really blended in with the flower background.





See more of Michael and Jennifer here.

I got my photo op with Michael and Jennifer with my Najara costume on (because I had it on at the time and no time to change). I'm telling you, I really love my photo ops this year. Better than any year I've done them. I love this one, too, because I got to wear my costume. I'm at a Xena con, why not?



It was really nice to see Jacqueline again. And she can thank the fans for her appearance at this con as she was one of the people many of us pushed to have appear if, indeed, it was to be the last convention. I'm glad that we got to spend some time with her again.

She's always so nice and down to earth, she has a lot of heart. She performed some of her songs again for us as well as a song off of her new album that she's producing. We even did a short meditation at the end of her session where she talked about breathing and we all closed our eyes. It was actually really relaxing--a nice short break in the middle of such a nutty day.

She talked about how she's really working to put herself out there more and not be so shy and reserved. I could definitely notice a difference with her personality now from what it was a few years ago when I first saw her in 2009. One thing that I really do remember was when someone asked her about the kiss between Lao Ma and Xena under the water, and she said that Lucy was such a trooper with regards to that apparently murky, rather dirty water. When Jacqueline put her head under the water Lucy told her "don't worry about opening your eyes. Put your head down and I will find your mouth."





See more of Jacqueline here.

Brittney was up next. Oh, Brittney. I actually don't think there was a lot of discussion when she was on stage. Not really any questions from the audience. She basically jumped pretty quickly into the bra auction... Actually, I think that on Saturday, at least, because there was SO much going on, the star's time on stage was fairly short compare to other times so not a lot happened in general, I think. I know that Jacqueline wished that she had more time (she even told us that--she really likes spending time with us and I am glad that we enjoy it as much as she does--goes both ways).

Her bra auctions are always rather entertaining: one side of the room against the other. A couple from New Orleans against someone from England leading one side of the room against the other. It's a really crazy shouting match, running around trying to collect money and as I was up in the front this time, I was really in the middle of the action in a way that I never had been before.

The left side of the room, led by the New Orleans couple, won. I think they raised about $3500. There side had like $2000 something because I know the grand total ended up being around $5200. Pretty impressive.







See more of Brittney here.

I have to say that the absolute best part of Saturday, for me, was Claire and Tim on stage. They are absolutely hilarious and I am so glad that they got to make it this year! The fans had a hand in getting Claire to be a part of the schedule as well which is why they came out with an "Occupy Creation" t-shirt. Too funny!

I can't even begin to express how much fun it was to watch them on stage. Their "Questions" performance was hilarious. Both of them asking each other the same questions and getting very Claire and Tim answers. I don't remember all the dialogue, unfortunately (and I wish it had been recorded because it was THAT good) but every single thing made me laugh. I know that one of the questions was what's your favorite curse word and of course, Claire dropped the F-bomb again and again. But she is known for that so we shouldn't complain! There were other questions like "what would you say to god when you got to heaven" and "what is a sound you love and a sound you hate". Claire's favorite sounds were her kids laughing, and us (her fans) laughing. The sound she hated was her kids crying, and us (her fans) in silence. LOL

Then once they were done asking each other questions, they decided to go one step further and do the same skit but this time, as Alti and Eli! I was actually hoping that they would do something like that on stage because Alti and Eli are total and complete opposites. And the skit was just as hilarious, probably even more so than when they were Claire and Tim.

Claire wore a brown snuggy (she said she's probably the first and only guest to ever where a snuggy on stage) to make herself look more like Alti, and Tim wore a green robe and a green bandanna across his forehead. He was very hippy-ish and so were his answers! He kept giving answers like "I love rainbows and unicorns and bunnies" and he loves peace and love and happiness. His favorite curse word is "Heck". He was very serene on stage, like nothing could phase him. Of course, that made Alti even more annoyed.

Alti kept questioning Eli about his relationship with Gabrielle, if he wanted her and loved her etc but he kept averting the question. After all, Eli is not allowed to have those kinds of feelings. Then we find out that he was very jealous of Xena for being that close to Gabrielle. (or something--I don't remember details).

At one point, Alti was going to put her pressure on him so that he would see his past lives and give her an answer that he didn't want to give. Hilarious.

They were definitely a huge highlight of the con for me. I absolutely wish I had the entire thing on video.

Tim is quite cute, too, I must admit. I was simply taken away by his blue eyes. When I got him to sign my autograph book, he saw the picture of Eli and wrote "handsome". It was great.











See more of Claire and Tim here.

I had a bit of a break between the end of Claire and Tim and the beginning of Musetta on stage. I don't remember exactly what I did but I know that I had to get out of the costume I was wear (the Najara one) and I was hoping to get something to eat but didn't end up having time... I did run into LadyKate in the restaurant and they had a big plate of fries which I helped them eat, and ate most of them, lol. I was hungry. It was nice being able to sit and talk with her for a bit (as well as Soturiprinsessa). I really feel bad that I didn't get to spend really any time with LadyKate over the entire weekend. It's my biggest con regret. We did get one photo, though, so at least I can prove I saw her during the weekend.



I was slightly late for Musetta's time on stage but that was okay, I'd seen her before. She ended up doing an auction of her own for a Xena Crew sweatshirt that was apparently very rare. To help her with the auction (as she had never done one before) she asked Brittney to help her so we got to see the two of them on stage for a while. And let me tell you, they were hilarious! They got to talking about how the two of them should star in some kind of series or movie where they are love interests (or something). They would really play well off each other, the blonde and the brunette. Musetta would be the dominatrix. They kept coming up with concepts for their thrilling tale they would like to tell, of adventure, drama, sex and action. They titled their hopeful movie together "New Frontiers" that's scifi based but also fantasy. I wish I remembered exactly what they said because they went as far as figuring out what the plot could be. It was just really funny and I really enjoyed how they played off each other.

Musetta auctioned off the sweatshirt as well as a Xena chakram watch that someone in the audience just decided to give away. Musetta was auctioning off these items to benefit the animal shelter or some other animal-related charity. It was really nice, though I don't remember how much it went for.





See more of Musetta here.

After the guest events of the convention were over with, it was time to get ready for the Costume Competition. Again, I had no time to eat because I was pretty much stuck in autograph lines for almost the entire time. I went out to get something from McDonald's but had no time to actually eat it, and it sat in my hotel room until about 11pm when I didn't feel like eating it at that time, anyway. I took a few bites and that was it. Oh well, I survived.

The Costume Contest was awesome, though! I mean, I have never seen so many people wearing costumes at any of the cons I have been to. It was truly epic. I gave my camera to my roommate so she could take photos of all of the contestants as they got up on stage. I counted the photos afterwords and there were around 40 people in costume and they had to line us all up in two or three lines at the end because we couldn't all fit on the stage at once. It was massive. Everyone loved my Xena costume and I am so proud of that because I did spend SO much time on it (like 4 months). I wanted it to be spectacular, do something that I probably never thought I could do, if indeed this was to be the last convention. Now that it's not, I might wear it again next year!

The winners of the competition wasn't too surprising. It was two girls dressed as archangels Gabrielle and Xena. They were from another country and I have NO idea how they transported the wings but they were very impressive.

I was also impressed with Creation's choice to to have judges for the competition and not have the winner based on the loudest cheers in the audience. That always annoyed me because it was more like a popularity contest than anything else. (you might have an awesome costume but you are fairly unknown so you don't get a lot of screams). Steve and Jacqueline were the judges. He took photos of each one of us and then they picked who were the best ones. The third place, I believe, was a girl in a Xena costume but just the leather outfit and no armor of any kind. Steve said he liked it because it's a unique take on the Xena costume. The second place winner was Poseidon--well deserved!

There were a lot of awesome costumes. I love the Fury, as well as all the Amazons who ended up lining up in the end to do a group Amazon shot. There were probably 6 or 7 Xena's (classic Xena's) as well (and I was one of them!). There was an Ares, too, which I thought was great because I've never seen one like him before. And he was cute and really pulled off the Ares look.

Here's my costume:



And a few of my favorites. Make sure you check out the gallery below--there's a lot to see!











See more of the Costume Contest here.

I mingled in the hallway after the competition for a bit and I got two photos that are really precious to me: one of me and Gabrielle (classic Gabby no less, my favorite!) and one of me and Ares. Best times--so glad I got them!





But the night wasn't over yet! I still had the Dessert Party (well, the Cocktail Party--since they had no dessert this time, VERY disappointed about that) to go to. I was tired. I was hungry and I seriously was considering skipping the party altogether. But I sucked it up and decided to go anyway (it was like 11:30pm at the time). I'm glad I did though because if I hadn't, I never would have won the centerpiece competition!

I knew that if this was the last convention, I wanted to do something that celebrated the cons. I've only been a part of them since 2007 but they've meant the world to me. So I made a tiered cake of sorts out of wooden chakrams and dowel rods that were decorated like staffs, then printed a panel for each year that the cons have been around--15 in all. It was a timeline of the cons, of all the good times and all the great guests. Adam was really impressed--I actually think he was rather touched by it because I was celebrating all that Creation has done for us in terms of the cons. It's why I never want them to end. They are very special, personally, emotionally.

I did dub my centerpiece "The Leaning Tower of Chakrams" because it wanted to lean (it wasn't too stable, I guess).



See more Miscellaneous photos here.

And after that, I pretty much crashed for the night. Went back to the hotel room and was in bed by 1:40 am. A long, long day finally over with but I had so much fun.

Thanks, LK

Yes, you were most definitely one of my favorites. I'm just such a huge Ares fan, I loved seeing him represented. And you did a great job. Looking forward to an even better Ares from you next year!

Sazy, I fixed the link for Jacqueline's photos. It should work now. Also, thanks for letting me know that Poseidon got second place. I adjusted it in my review. That makes more sense--he definitely deserved it!

I never saw someone writing an article but I hope that we can find it if there is something out there about the con. I just did a quick search and found an article on examiner.com but don't know if it's the same thing: http://www.examiner.com/film-industry-in-san-francisco/xena-convention-2012-the-final-journey