The Official Stargate Convention
August 27-29, 2004
Chicago, IL
Warning: there may be spoilers on this page for Stargate, season 8
The group pictures of us with Don, Michael, Amanda and Chris are property of Suzie Bagley. The last group picture with Michael is property of TerryLynnM. All other pictures are mine. Please DO NOT take any of these pictures and place them somewhere else.
My convention weekend started on Thursday the 26th. After failing to have enough iron in my blood to donate at the blood drive at the theater where I work, I picked up my mom and we headed to my apartment on campus so I could drop off some things that I had forgotten to bring before and so I could set up my computer and tv/vcr so I could tape Stargate and Stargate Atlantis on Friday. After that was done, we were on our way to Chicago. Well, Indiana technically. We stayed Thursday night at my aunt and uncle's house so we could just leave for Chicago from there. While there, my cousin came over with her two sons and we had cake for Damian because it was his first day of school that day.
Damian, left and Jacob, right with my aunt in the background.
Friday, mom and I left for Chicago around 9:30 or so (central time). We got to the hotel around 11 and had to kill time because we couldn't check in yet. We walked down the road the hotel was on, just to see what was around the area. Then we headed back to the hotel and were able to check in. I quick dropped my bags off and headed back down to the lobby to wait in the registration line that was forming. There, Suzie came up to me and asked if I was Amanda, which I was, so she invited me to move up in line so I could wait with her and Joy.
After we registered and I bought an extra autograph ticket for Michael Shanks, so I could get something signed for Michelle from the DanandJan list, we went into the dealer room and I spent lots of money on pretty pictures. Then it was time to kill time with Suzie and Joy while we waited for Tom McBeath's talk to begin.
Tom McBeath was great...he's a very funny man. He told us a little bit about "It's Good to Be King", mainly that Sam was jealous that she wasn't one of Maybourne's wives. *g* It sounds like it will be a good episode. You've gotta love Maybourne. He had some funny stories from the set and about Canadian border patrols. He is living with Karin Konoval, who played Mrs. Peacock in the X-FIles ep "Home". He assured us that she has arms. And eyes.
During the auto signing, he signed my photo "To Amanda, with Tom McBeath". I looked at it when he gave it back to me and I was like "I think you forgot a word." So he took it back and wrote 'love'. So now it says "To Amanda, with love, Tom McBeath."
Sadly, I don't have very many good pictures of Tom's talk. They're all kind of dark and I don't feel like playing with them right now. Maybe sometime soon, though.
That was pretty much it for Friday, con-wise. After the signing, a group of us were going to go to someone's house to watch Sumuru, but Suzie, Joy and I decided not to go. Misty and Stacy still went though, and assured us that MS looks very good and is sort-of Daniel-like in parts.
Instead of watching Sumuru, the three of us had dinner at Maxie's, one of the places in the hotel. During the time we were there, Tom cam in and sat with some people, whom we are assuming were somehow related to him. He was sort of in the corner of the room, and about 10 minutes after he had sat down, Suzie (who was the only one who could see him from where she sat) burst out laughing and said "Maybourne's in the corner!", which cracked Joy and myself up and continued as a running joke the whole rest of the weekend.
After dinner, I showed Suzie my "Frozen Flame" binder, which she couldn't believe I had actually brought with me.
And that was it for Friday.
The first thing I did on Saturday was line up for the Michael Shanks photo-op. I was early, so I was way in the front of the line. I talked with Misty and Stacy while waiting, Suzie and Joy joined us after they had bough photo-op tickets for Amanda and Chris. Since we were in the front, we saw Michael walk into the room where pictures were being taken. He came in from the side of the hotel where everyone but my mom and I were, and we joked about riding the elevators on that side until we found out what floor he was on.
The photo-ops went really, really fast and I can only hope my picture turned out okay. I saw the tiny version of it on the Creation site, and it looked okay, I can only hope the big version looks good too.
After we were done with that, we sat down to wait for Michael's panel.
Oh my God, is that man even more attractive in person! And he's so funny! He got on stage and the first thing he said was "I'm punchy today!" so we all knew we were in for it. He was great.
He answered a lot of questions. But when he started running out of time, he looked at the line and said "I'll answer 3 more questions." I was fourth in line. But then we complained and he went into speed mode and answered as many questions as fast as he possibly could. And I thought Daniel talked fast!
Anyway, he answered Misty's question about Janet having Daniel's glasses in "Fallen" with "Yeah. They were doing it" and my question (for Vicki) regarding whether or not he meant to play "Heroes" like Daniel was in love with Janet with a quick "yes".
Michael answering Misty's question (that's Misty in the right corner), Michael answering (I believe) the question from the little boy in front of me, and Michael autographing the banner in a very specific place, complete with smiley face. *g*
After he was done talking, it was autograph time for Michael and Don. I got my Daniel/Janet shipper boxers signed. And since I was wearing my Daniel/Janet t-shirt, he read the front and the back. I think he liked it. *g*
Michael signing the boxers; the finished product; Don after signing my photo.
After the signing, we killed time in Suzie and Joy's room looking at the lovely pictures Suzie had taken. Then, it was time for the Happy Hour, which turned more into a Happy Half Hour, for which Don was only present for about 10 minutes. They had taken so long signing autographs that they were late to the Happy Hour and they even had to push Don's talk back so he could be there at all.
Don quickly made his way around the restaurant, snapping quick photos. We, on the spur-of-the-moment, decided to do one with all five of us (Suzie, Joy, Misty, Stacy and me) to make it faster and easier on Don. So we took the picture, which turned out really well and then we decided we should just do that with everyone because it worked so well.
Michael pretty much never left the doorway of the restaurant, so we had to go to him to get pictures. We did the group thing again and took two different pictures on Suzie's camera and had someone else take one on her camera. Those turned out well, if you ignore the fact that none of us are ever looking at the right camera at the same time. *g* And ignore that Joy sort of got cut out of the first one.
After our group photos, we hung around and snapped some pictures of Michael. Wouldn't you have? ;)
Michael and his precious beer bottle; Michael doing something, I don't know what, but look! it's his tongue!; Michael leaving to do an interview....ladies (you know who you are....) what do your eyes immediately go to?
The funny thing about the Happy Hour was that Tom arrived before Michael and Don and he wasn't even supposed to be there. He said later that he was looking for someone and figured no one would notice him since Michael and Don were there, but they weren't yet.
When we were done snapping pictures and Michael was gone, we decided to miss Don's talk because we had already missed part of it while waiting on Michael and none of us had eaten, so we had dinner instead.
After dinner, we again killed time in Suzie and Joy's room, where we found an interesting accidental picture. And I used the rest of one of my rolls of film taking pictures of us hanging out in the room. We set the timer to take one of all of us sitting on the bed, which turned out well, I think.
All five of us were really hyper and crazy and laughing and it was tons of fun. And it was all Michael's fault for being punchy.
At the dessert party, we chose a table in the back corner, which meant random mutterings of "Maybourne's in the corner!", which only got worse once Tom came in and made his way around the room, starting in a corner across the room from us.
Tom was the only one at the dessert party (Tony Amendola, unfortunately, had to cancel the whole weekend because of a family emergency) so it took quite a while for him to come around to us, but we didn't even care because we were quite content laughing at pretty much anything and everything. And none of us had even been drinking! The table next to us had even said that we weren't allowed any more sugar, but we hadn't even had any.
At one point, some guy from a table near ours came over to find out what the hell we were laughing about. We told him that it was all Michael's fault and also the fault of a little green bottle.
Us and the guy from the other table.
This guy obviously told Tom some of what we had said, because after that guy's table, Tom came right over to ours, practically laid over the table and asked us about the bottle. Even while we were taking our group pictures, he kept asking about it. "Did someone spit in the bottle?" It was hilarious.
And Tom was great because after we did the group thing, he was like, "You don't want individuals?" So we did individual pictures with him. Whoever went after me got two pictures, a serious and a fun, so before he left for the next table, I was like "I didn't get two, what's up with that?" So then we posed for another picture. Tom really is a great guy.
One of the group shots with Tom; my first picture with Tom; the second, more fun shot.
We left not long after he left our table to go to bed. But because I was so hyper and because the guys in the room next to ours had gone to the Metallica concert and came back around 1 singing loudly, I didn't fall asleep til around 2.
Sunday was the breakfast with Chris and Amanda, where the five of us were much more composed and quiet. When Amanda and Chris came in, we sang "Happy Birthday" because Amanda's birthday had been on Saturday. She turned so pink she almost matched the color of her shirt.
Amanda and Chris entering the breakfast, pre-Happy Birthday.
They went around the room in different directions and Amanda came to our table first, so we did our group picture with her.
Amanda at our table; the group shot.
Then it was Chris' turn and after we took the picture, when he moved, he knocked the house phone off the wall. He picked it up and said "Someone give me a number!" Since all my numbers would have been long distance and no one would have known him anyway, I didn't offer him one. However, one of the women at our table had a local Chicago number so she gave it to him and he actually called it. It was the woman's nephew that answered and Chris enjoyed picking on him.
The group shot; Chris on the phone; what has to be my favorite picture of Chris from the weekend.
At the next table, some woman accidentally kneed him in the nuts while posing for her picture. He left the room and we had no idea whether he was joking or serious because his back had been to us. But I guess he was serious because at the next table, he told someone "She kneed me in the nuts" or something similar.
After they had both been at our table, we left to sit down to wait for Amanda's autograph, but not before we saw someone give Chris a Chia Teal'c.
I don't know if you can see that, but down on the table, sort of by Chris's hip, is the Chia Teal'c box.
The whole weekend there had been an open seat in the front row, in front of Suzie and next to Sue from Our Stargate. So, I took my chances hoping that person wouldn't be there for Sunday only and sat down. No one ever came, so I got to sit in the front row for Amanda and Chris, which was awesome.
They used Tony's talk time to start Amanda's autographs because she had to leave early, so we did autographs, then got in line for her photo-op. We were toward the back this time, but it didn't really matter because of how fast they go. So we did those, and again I'm hoping the picture turns out all right.
Then it was time for Amanda's talk and still no one had claimed that seat (which was like, front row center), so I stayed there.
Amanda was adorable! She's makes the cutest faces. She was definitely punchy as well. She answered a lot of questions and explained how she had been surprised with quite a few things this year when she got scripts. She, apparently, was quite surprised when she read that Pete proposed and went to Peter DeLuise saying "I'm not ready!" And she explained that she had fought with them over the ending of "Affinity" because Sam would never do something like that, but she lost and it stayed like that. She wanted us to know that she didn't agree with it either, which, in my opinion, was really great.
Amanda and some of her many faces; Amanda talking to the woman dressed as Carter in "Emancipation".
After Amanda, we lined up for Chris's photo-op. Again we were in the back, but it goes fast. When I sat down, I told him I liked his shoes. They were really cool. :) Again, hoping it turns out okay.
My mom, while we were waiting in line for Chris's photo-op.
Chris was the only one who sat down during his talk, which was nice because Michael and Amanda moved around a lot and some of my pictures of them turned out blurry.
He ended up having to give every child in the audience $2 for a cuss word he had said. By that point, I was sitting on the floor in front on my seat in the front row because my ass hurt from slouching in my seat so Suzie could take pictures without my head in the way. Someone, either Joy or Suzie, told me I should go up on my knees to see if he'd give me $2 as well, but I didn't. I should have tried though, damn it.
I honestly don't remember snapping so many pictures of Chris while he was on stage, but somehow I ended up with two full rolls of him. *sheepish*
Chris having microphone problems -- "I hate when you pull it out and you can't get it back in." -- ; Chris in the background while the guy proposes to the girl; Chris and his gift of Beano; after someone asked him to take his hat off; a nice picture, I think; with the money he gave to the kids in the audience; signing the banner, following Michael's trend.
While I was waiting to get in line for Chris' autograph, they did upgrading for those who had already bought tickets for next year. The woman who was next to me in A15 was apparently blind and didn't see the form that was attached to the schedule to sign up and keep her seats, so next year, I'll be in A15 instead of D18 or A16 and I'll be in front of Joy instead of Suzie. And Misty upgraded to next to Stacy, so the five of us will be together. I feel bad for whoever is a guest next year. *g*
When Chris was signing autographs, I had a pregnant woman in front of me and he asked her when she was due. She told him and he said he's got one due on February 14. Did anyone know that? Or am I just out of the loop?
Once I had gotten my autograph, I had to get out of there because mom said she didn't want to leave after 5, which it already was. So we took one more picture of the firve of us and I quickly said good bye to Misty, Stacy, Joy and Suzie.
These are just a handfull of pictures from the eight rolls of film I took while in Chicago. If I ever get really ambitious, I'll go through them all and fix whatever needs to be fixed on them.
