GEN CON Dec 3-4, 2004

Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin

I went with Julie to Gen Con (a big gaming convention) in Anaheim. We arrived that Saturday at 9:00 am, but things did not begin officially until 10am.

The Guest of Honors section was where the autograph session was. It was quite small. Morena and Nathan were right at the end. We walked around for a bit, taking things in. As we were walking back, I saw Nathan for the first time, and he took my breath away. He was standing and talking on his cell phone. He was taking pictures of the surroundings. There was another woman sitting nearby and I didn’t realize it until a few minutes later that it was Morena. Morena cut her hair!!! It was short and curly and looked cute.

There were two ladies taking care of the finances. We saw Nathan help with the set up. We watched them for a while and saw other folks walk up. Finally we approached and I started talking to Morena. I told her I wanted to buy her picture but I really wanted her autograph in my Firefly autograph book. Then Julie took our picture and I took theirs. She was very sweet. The picture was for a donation; I can’t remember the name of the charity.

Then we walked over to Nathan. I was wearing my badge but he looked up at me and said, “Rosie, I remember you”. He shook my hand and then said, “Nice coat.” I selected a picture to get autographed. I can’t remember saying anything else to him after he said he remembered me. I just went mute. When Julie walked up to Nathan he said he liked her shirt. It was a Serenity shirt she made. Unfortunately, the camera wouldn’t work, so Julie just got Nathan’s autographs. Nathan warned her to let them dry. He said if they smudge she could come back.

We walked off and waited for the autographs to dry. She fiddled with her camera and finally fixed it. So we returned to take a picture with Nathan. First I got my picture taken with Nathan. However when it was my turn to take his picture with Julie I was so nervous my hand was shaking. I tried a second time and Nathan said, “Take a deep breath.” so I did. It was only slightly better. So then Nathan says, “Let me see the camera.” He then proceeded to take the picture himself of him and Julie. Then I don’t remember how we parted.

It was a wonderful experience. We decided to walk around the exhibit hall. There were all types of games, RPG and card games as well as board games. We had no knowledge of the games so we sat down and thought of other things we wanted to say to Nathan and Morena. Then I started to write them down. We walked back to the autograph session just as Nathan was making a run for it. He wanted to go play. Erin Gray is the lady who was sitting next to Morena. She played Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers. I loved her and so I made sure to tell her that I was a fan. Then to Morena I asked about a certain deodorant commercial. She was embarrassed but confirmed it was her. Then I told her about our shindigs since she made a comment about Firefly parties. I told her about various shindigs I have attended. She asked what we did. I told her about the activities at the Browncoat Ball. Then Julie asked about the screening of Serenity the day before. Morena said she got chills watching it. The only ones missing were Sean and Gina.

Others approached so we thanked her and walked away. Nathan was still playing. We wandered around and then returned to talk to Nathan before we left. We told him we were leaving but we just wanted to ask a couple of questions. First was does he ever get nervous or star struck. He said, “Yes when ever I meet...” he proceeded to list everyone present at the autograph session. Then we told him we were planning a big LA Premiere Shindig. He asked if we knew they pushed it back. I said of course. I told him his parents rock. I saw they attended the Phoenix Shindig. Then others approached so we walked away.

It was truly a great experience. We plan on returning tomorrow. We are both bringing others. There were no lines so we are hoping for more of the same.

Julie’s account Day 1

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This cast is the nicest, sweetest bunch of people around. I may have come in late to the Firefly universe, but I am so happy I did.

Rosie pretty much summed up our day. Nathan and Morena were both wonderful. I was able to get my DVDs autographed, which I was very excited about. I mentioned to Morena that I was hoping to get the entire cast to autograph the set someday. She said that wouldn’t be a problem as we’d probably be seeing them around a lot next year. Yes, Rosie did get a little excited taking the picture of Nathan and me. I didn’t mind a bit as that meant I got to stand next to him that much longer. When the second picture was still blurry, the sweet, sweet man took my camera, hugged me a little tighter and took it himself. He thanked both of us for being there and was happy to see me in a Serenity shirt. His autograph told me to “Stay shiny”.

I couldn’t believe how deserted the con was since it was billed as one of the biggest gaming cons of the year. It was good for us because we got to spend a little more time with our BDHs. We talked about Thursday’s cast screening of Serenity. Morena said the film was wonderful with lots of stuff happening all the time. She said it gave her goose bumps. Nathan said the film was amazing and that the fans are going to love it. He is a little concerned about it being marketed correctly to the mainstream audience. I asked them what we as fans could do to help make the film a success. They said to keep doing what we’re doing. Talking up the film and sharing the DVDs with everyone we know. Erin was even excited about the film.

We’re going to the con tomorrow with several of our friends, so we more than likely will have more stories to share.

Gen Con Saturday

Julie’s teaser for day 2

Just got back from Day 2 of Gen Con. Will write a longer post later today, but thought I would post a little teaser. Coming up...

Nathan warning us he better not see his spit on ebay.

Me accidentally blurting out to Morena that Nathan was indeed hot.

More later.

Rosie’s account

I went back with my sister Carol, and joined Julie who brought 2 co-workers Betty and Aimee. There were more people today at Gen Con, but still not as many as expected. We met at 9:30am and waited. There was no line and Morena was already there with the 2 ladies. However Nathan was not there yet. We went to get some food and sat down so we could see when they were ready.

Once they were ready we walked over to Morena first. I approached and introduced my sister and the other 2 ladies. They were both teachers so Morena asked questions about what grade and how many students. Carol couldn’t decide which picture she wanted but finally made a selection. They were talking about New York and my sister said she wanted to go there. Morena said it’s a great place. We took pictures with Morena and then moved over to Nathan.

Nathan said, “Rosie’s back.” I said, “I brought my sister Carol” Then I told him that Carol was in a play at school and let her tell him the title. Carol proceeds to wave her hands side to side in front of her and sings, “I’m Sorry The Bridge Is Out You’ll Have To Spend The Night.” Nathan then said, “It’s a musical.” We said yeah. He asked, “Where at?” Then we tell him the name of our town. Then he asked “Where at?” Then we said the name of her high school. “Where’s that?” We said the name of our town again and he said, “I don’t know where that is.” I just think it was hilarious that he was interested. I gave him a general idea using freeways.

Then Carol chose her picture as the others approached. They started talking about being teachers and Nathan shared that his parents are retired teachers and his brother is a teacher. Nathan was thinking of being a teacher. He was going to teach arts and drama.

When he started signing for the 2 ladies, they presented the DVD set. Nathan noticed Morena’s autograph had smudged. So Nathan decided to fix it. He used some saliva and the curtain hanging from the table and began to remove the autograph. Nathan then said, “I don’t want to see my saliva on e-bay.” We all laugh. Morena then looks over and sees Nathan has removed her autograph. He begins to explain and someone says he just really wanted to sign there. Then he tells her what happened. He signs then she signs. As Nathan hands it back he said, “Let it dry.” Then he signed a photo. The same smudge happened to the second lady as well. This time Morena is shown the smudged autograph. She said, “Let me see what I wrote.” Then she saw Nathan begin to wipe the autograph using his saliva and the table curtain for the first time. Morena was worried he might mess it up.

Then as Morena signed he asked the name of the second lady and sees she had a flower next to her name on her badge. She said her friend did it; she had requested that it look pretty.

While she was deciding on what picture she said not the Buffy ones. I tell Nathan how much I enjoyed his first episode on Buffy. Then he tells us he had a couple of friends who loved Buffy and were very excited he was on it. So he invited them over to watch it when it aired. They enjoyed everything up to the end. (won’t spoil for those who haven’t seen it.) the episode ends on a down note and his friends were not happy with Nathan. It was quite upsetting for Buffy fans.

She chose a picture and Nathan began to autograph it and made it pretty. Nathan was not happy with it so he tossed it and started again. He had colored markers and started by making the first letter an elaborate bubble letter. He added a pink flower and continued with the autograph then before he finished he added a blue bird. He handed it back and said, “Let it dry.” Then he signed the DVD set.

Afterward we took pictures with Nathan. I told Nathan, “Since I had trouble yesterday do you want to take the picture?” So he took the camera and took a picture of Carol and I. Then he took one of the 3 of us and then he asked the lady taking money for him to take a proper one. The other ladies took pictures with Nathan. More people came up so we told them we would be back later. Julie wanted a picture of just Nathan and Morena.

We walked around and finally returned to see if there were many people. There were just couple a people in front of Nathan. We got our donations together for pictures. Carol had her picture taken with Nathan and Morena. Nathan said he blinked. Morena asked, “How do you know?” Nathan says, “I wasn’t warned before it was taken.” So another is taken. Then Julie takes a picture with them and Carol takes that picture. Then Julie asked for a picture of just the 2 of them. They embrace as they pose and we “Awww”

We thanked them again and were on our way. It was a truly shiny experience.

I really hope more of you get the same opportunity. Meeting our BDHs is a wonderful opportunity.

Julie’s report of Day 2

Gen Con was even deserted on a Saturday. Very surprising. As with Friday, Nathan and Morena had the most people asking for autographs. Two actors from the Star Wars prequels (Ray Park who played Darth Maul and Daniel Logan who played the young Boba Fett) had no one at their table. The entire time we were there, I only saw two people getting autographs. I’ve been a Star Wars fan my whole life, and I found the lack of people at their table shocking. Daniel even wandered over to the Firefly table for a spell to talk with Nathan.

Friday’s charity donation for the candid pictures was an educational program chosen by Nathan because he comes from a family of teachers. Morena chose Saturday’s charity. It was for a school in Fiji where a friend of hers lives.

My two friends, Betty and Aimee, teach at the same school with me. Morena and Nathan were interested, asking about our grade level, how many students we had, details about assistants. It was a little odd to be on the receiving end of questions. Having Nathan tell me that I’m doing the “Lord’s work” is a definite boost in getting me through the next two weeks of Parent Conferences. :)

As we stated before, they were so nice and friendly. We apologized for taking up so much of their time with questions, but they just rolled their eyes and laughed, gesturing to the nearly empty convention center.

There were five of us, so many pictures were taken. A word of warning to those who meet Nathan in the future, not only does he like to check your camera to make sure the picture came out good, he also likes to go through the rest of your digital pictures to see what’s on your camera. Betty’s camera is new, so she had taken a picture of her bedroom as a test. Nathan used the zoom feature to tour her room and tried to read the titles of her CDs. He teased her about her stuffed animals and told her she needed to clean her room.

After I took the picture of Nathan and Morena, he wanted to go through my camera. A picture of my friend’s diaper clad baby was deemed “child pornography”. I still had my pictures of Nathan and Adam from my ’Versal Shindig with Rosie and Carol this past summer. Morena was looking over his shoulder at the camera. When she saw the picture of him from filming, she said, “Look, that’s when you used to be hot.” He countered that he was hot now. Morena argues that he used to be hot, but now anymore. My brain takes a holiday and I blurt out, “No, he’s still hot!” Then immediately put my hand over my mouth. They started cracking up and I try to hide my face in embarrassment.

We thanked them for their time and they thanked us for coming. Everyone there was so nice! We had a great time.