Today. Was.
Ridiculous. You know those days where everything goes right and it seems as though the universe is aligning itself for the sole purpose of giving you an incredible day? Well that was not today. In any way. Today, everything went as awry as it possibly could have. Well, not
everything, I suppose, but many many things!
It began with a groggy noon-thirty scroll through my facebook news feed. I have the David Tennant page "liked" so I sometimes get random news about him that I would normally just disregard and scroll past. However, I noticed something about signings and meeting him, and I looked closer, and there was an event. An event? Here in London! With DAVID TENNANT! AN EVENT WHERE YOU GET TO MEET DAVID TENNANT IN LONDON. (Called EMS, incidentally, but it's over now.) After that everything went to hell. I ran around my room, heart beating a billion times a minute, adrenaline rush negating any need for breakfast, so I shot Shaun a text, grabbed my camera, and bolted out of my room on a mission to Earl's Court.
After that was when the "awry" started happening. Trains from Uxbridge were closed for whatever godforsaken reason, so I had to take a replacement service bus to West Ruislip, from there took the Central Line to White City, then walked over to the Hammersmith Line and took that down to Hammersmith,
from where, I took the Piccadilly Line to Earl's Court.
By the way, there is no air conditioning on the tube. It was about 80 degrees today. Before I even got to the exhibition center I was dehydrated, sweaty, stinky, and exhausted. Even so, I made my way to the exhibition center, at which point I discovered that autographs from David Tennant were £35 (actually turned out to be £45 in the end but what's ten more pounds). I did not have £35 in cash, which I figured I'd need (turns out I didn't really), so I went to the ATM. It was out of cash. The member of staff told me I needed to go back to Earl's Court in order to find a working one.
On the way back to the station I saw a man dressed as the Tenth Doctor so I asked for a photo. When I turned on my camera I realized: I'd left the memory card at home. Noooo! How could I attend a nerd convention without my camera?! So, panicked, I returned to Earl's Court station and asked a man at a kiosk if he sold camera memory cards. He did not. I asked where the ATM was. He said around the block, on the high street. I asked where I could find a memory card, and he said on the high street as well. I said thanks and went toward the high street.
By this time my feet already hurt, I was giddy and light-headed from lack of nutrients (I'd only had a Gatorade or something which was oddly carbonated), and I was terrified I'd miss the Tennant signing so I was hurrying about with a crazed look in my eye.
Turning the corner from Earl's Court, I saw a cluster of
Doctor Who cosplayers. I recognized them by the tall ginger dressed as a police kissogram, and I gasped and said, "Amy Pond!" As I trotted off (on a mission, remember), I heard the Amy cosplayer say excitedly to her friends, "She had a TARDIS tattoo on her arm! Did you see?" It made my day! Well, among other things.
Let's skip to the part where I found a memory card on Earl's Court Road, took cash out of a nearby cash machine, and booked it back to the exhibition center wherein David Tennant awaited me. I was sweaty and disgusting, but luckily I'd straightened my hair the night before (good thinking Meg), and had, on a stroke of genius, brought my comb with which to fix my bangs. Thank god, otherwise I'd have looked a right crazy person.
Right. Let's see some of the sights that met me upon my arrival at the Entertainment Media Show.
Okay this is great -- they had a stall selling American Stuff! LMFAO. Lucky Charms, Pop Tarts, Skittles? I had no idea this was a commodity at English geek conventions. I was
so amused so I took photos.
Anyway, back the topic at hand: the deal with the Tennant signing was that you had to get a little ticket that had a number on, and when your number was written on the little white board (as shown at the beginning of this post), you could queue up for an autograph. I ended up buying some swag while waiting, because I found out you could pay for your autograph by credit card, so I spent a bit of my cash (I'm so responsible) and then bought vouchers for the signing with my debit card, and after that spent more of my cash on an autograph from Joe Flanigan from
Stargate Atlantis. I pretty much just throw cash at celebs from geeky shows now.
So long story short I ended up in line for David Tennant, and I was
so nervous and excited (and malnourished) that I was shaking. I'd dropped my camera earlier due to the strap coming undone (don't worry Dad it's fine), so I was clutching that under one arm, I had a bag of swag on my wrist, and a photo for David to sign in the other hand. I felt so awkward as I neared him, and I prepared my TARDIS tattoo in preparation to show it to him, but as soon as it was my turn... I clammed up. I absolutely
froze. He signed the photo, looked up at me (
into my eyes), and said, "There you go," in that glorious Scottish voice from the gods. I smiled as ridiculously as only a fangirl could and said, "Thank you!" before scampering off in a dizzy rush. And that was
that.
I know, how lame, I didn't even show him my tattoo, I didn't say how much I love him, or that he's amazing, or that I dream about him often or that his freckles are so beautiful or that I've drawn renditions of him on many post-it notes to pass the time at work because he is the perfect Doctor in my mind. I didn't say it. Not any of it! Ugh, I am
so awkward. Epic fail. Although I'm sure we can all agree it would've been horrible if I'd mentioned the freckles thing.
Anyway, here's a stupid photo I took while waiting in line. GUESS WHO:
DAVID I LOVE YOU.
Now that that's out of my system...
Oh yes, I mentioned Joe Flanigan.
Well! Some of you may know that I am a huge fan of
Stargate in all its forms, except for
Stargate Universe, which was dumb and trying too hard to be like
Battlestar Galactica. So the fact that John Sheppard, I mean Joe Flanigan was there got me super excited. I kept slowly walking past his little section of table, taking photos from afar before shuffling away, but finally I worked up the courage (and £15) to meet him. By the time I went up there the con was on its way to closing, so not many people were about. I picked out my favorite photo and gave my name to the member of staff so he could personalize it, and went up to him. You may imagine I was suave, that I played it cool and was like, "Oh hey Joe. What's up. I'm just hanging out, you know, being smooth and cool and collected," but no. Not whatsoever. I rambled at him, you guys. I RAMBLED SO MUCH. I was still giddy from David Tennant, and I hadn't eaten, and I just went off. I said something like, "I'm such a huge Stargate fan, seriously! I've been working up the nerve to come over here forever! I seriously loved Stargate Atlantis! I was on the tube for hours on the way here, dying of heat! Oh, I came in from Uxbridge! Yeah I'm American, hahahaahahahaha yeah! Oh I saw David Tennant earlier that was fun, can I have a photo?! ...No that's not how it works, sorry, you have to look through the viewfinder, sorry, yeah, no just use the lens to zoom out, sorry, yeah it should... There you go, yeah, did it work? No, okay another one, okay... okay yay! Thanks! Good! Thanks for the photo! Okay this was awesome, you made my day seriously! Thank you so much, okay bye!" That is, not joking, almost exactly how it went. I mean he said things in the midst of it, like "Oh you're American" and "Where did you come in from" and "It was nice meeting you" but... oh god. I am such a spaz, you guys. Such. A spaz. FML.
OH WELL, I got a photo at least! Even after the staff lady had a million issues using my camera, and
clearly didn't hear what I said about zooming out with the lens. Oh well, I think I look rather okay, despite internally having a seizure and having run all over London in the hot sun for hours beforehand. Go me! (It's the straight hair, I swear. Saves you from all kinds of frumpiness.)
At the end of the day, I came away with some pretty awesome swag (photos 5 for £10!):
Mission: accomplished. Of course the trek home was its own adventure, which I will tell briefly. I made it all the way back to Uxbridge on nothing but Gatorade, water, and a small muffin. By then it was 7:50pm. I was waiting for the bus, and was suddenly overcome with the feeling that I was about to faint. So, not really looking forward to passing out on the overly hot bus back to Brunel, I ran across the street to The Good Yarn, a pub I'd gone to earlier in the week with Shaun. I asked for water and chips, and planted myself at a table for the next hour. It took me about that long to recover, after three glasses of water and a bowl of chips (i.e. French fries, just in case anyone reading this is super American). When I was considering going back out to catch the bus, a random drunk man came up to me and decided we should be friends. Turned out he'd been drinking all day watching football (soccer), came to the pub, and was now apparently chatting up girls half his age. His name was John and he was a London cab driver. I wanted to ask if he ever thought of using his profession as a way to kidnap and murder people, but I didn't think that would go over well and I doubt he was a fan of
Sherlock anyway.
Here's me in the bathroom of the pub, reacting to the events of the day:
And there's The Good Yarn! It's a pretty awesome pub. Every time I've gone in there it's mostly old British dudes drinking pints, and they have some super cheap food. Shaun and I got sausages, chips, and beans (3 sausages each, guys) for £3.20 apiece. Ridiculously awesome! If you visit me I'll take you there, guaranteed.
So, long story long, I think today was a success. I came home to all of my flat mates having a bit of a party in the kitchen, so I joined them and was offered wine and gherkins (tiny pickles), the latter of which I refused. Now I'm still completely jacked up from everything, although I think if I got in bed I might just pass out instantaneously. You never know until you try.
Aaaand last but not least:
