Baaack From the Abyss (New Jersey)

What a fragged-up weekend -- fragged being good as well as bad. BUT, I got to see Mira, and meet Pat Tallman.

I left home expecting to get there before dark -- riiight!!! Both the Yahoo and MapQuest maps were off. I ended up almost running out of gas in Newark. It was in fact after 6 p.m., and dark, when I finally arrived at the Sheraton so I am so very glad that fellow Mira's Minion member, Bev, saw me. I most likely looked like a deer in headlights. Bev is the greatest!! She made us (members from the Mira Chat Room) "Mira's Minions" name badges. There were people I'd never met before that if it were not for the badges with Mira's pic on it, we'd have passed each other by! :::thumbs up!:::

It was crowded, and Mira and her trusty sidekick Tonto Moyra were already in the tent signing. Mira said Hi, but didn't seem to remember me. I found out later that she seemed to have blocked out much of the time around Branko's death, which was a week before Vulkon in Cleveland last year. Supposedly she doesn't even remember going to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. *sigh*

After hooking up again with Bev & Val, we checked out the other tent. I got to see where things were so I could formulate some sort of plan of attack. I was way too tired to attack that night. We had to check the front desk a couple times for a banner that Pellmelody had made for Mira. It did finally arrive (not anywhere near the scheduled time of 12 noon, and I think having being delivered by Pony Express), and it looked great! Mira was tickled to death, looking like a kid opening a Christmas present. Now Pat Tallman wants one!

Friday night's signing ran later than expected. Bev was beat, having flown to New Jersey from Edmonton (her arms were tired), and I was on the left-side of cranky and Val was... Val. We opted to go back to the hotel and chow down on some of the Croatian recipes I had made for Mira. Heheheee! We put a pretty good dent in it too, but there was plenty left for what turned out to be when it was needed most: during the Great Saturday Signing Marathon, with the three hour or more wait, in the Line-from-Hell to even get into the tent.

Day 2 of Con Captivity

Saturday started early.... Good, because I got a great parking spot, and put us in a spiffy place in line. There were three lines building- 1. for already purchased pre-show; 2. pre-purchased regular admission (which we had) and 3. the deadly line to purchase tickets.

By the time we got in, the line to get into the tent where Mira, Bill, Pat, and Walter were was a good two to three hours long. So we popped into the other tent so I could get Joanna Cassidy's *sigh* autograph. :::big toothy smile::: She was very sweet! AND what a face!!! It does however look like she has spent a little too much time in the sun, judging from her arms & hands. She asked about the other line, since her tent was relatively quiet in comparison. I told her that the line was so long because the tent had a number of so called models, and their chests were very popular... as was the old retired wrestler, George "The Animal" Steele. She laughed... that great laugh of hers!!! I couldn't decide which pic of her I wanted, so I asked her which one she likes. She picked a really weird one with her in a red wig. Me no like. I was torn between a pic of her running in that plastic raincoat in Bladerunner, and one of her in a pool with her wet hair slicked back. Mmmmmm... So I told her I couldn't make up my mind... it was between the pic with the great legs, or the pool one. And when I decided, I told her I wanted the one with her beautiful face. (I think somewhere in the inner reaches of my mind, I wanted to hit on her.)

After spending some time in that tent... Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams had yet to arrive. * yawn* We preceded to stand in the line-of-death to get into Mira's tent. The line wound through the parking lot, so when it got close enough-ish to the car, I ran for the food. It had probably been about two hours when we saw Mira speed through the parking lot towards the hotel. Bev went to find her, but lost her in the crowd. We just wanted to let her know that food was on the way. *wink* Luckily, we did catch her on the way back to the tent. Upon being told about the food, she pulled us out of line, marching the 'catering entourage' into the tent. After that happened... our Mira's Minion badges worked like we were security, hopping the line for whatever reason. *snerk*

Bev had borrowed actual real plates from the hotel. Bill didn't want anything (I heard later he did have some chocolate salami). So Mira, Moyra, Pat, and her odd helper, John, had plates of food. As soon as Mira tasted the cheese spread I made like last year, her face lit up as if the memory of last year's food came back to her. AND when I slowly brought the foil wrapped chocolate salami into sight, those big blue eyes became enormous. When I told her that there was another just like it back at the hotel, she smiled that smile and began to laugh in amazement, as the back of my head began to erupt. BOOM!!!

I left them to eat, and wandered over to Walter's table. For some unknown reason he was placed elsewhere, away from the B5 group. He stared at me long and hard asking, "We've met before, haven't we?" I was so surprised, all I could say was..."Now that's a line!" We both chuckled and I got a cool pic of him as Bester. Next I headed over and got Bill to autograph one of his music CDs.

Sometime after that Mira said to me (a number of times), "You really saved our lives," thanking me for the food. You see, the autograph stuff was supposed to go from 10 am to 5 pm. Then it was changed to 6 pm, and then (because the line-from-hell was never-ending) to 8 pm. They had no breaks! Pat said she didn't want to leave the table and disappoint anyone who might have been waiting outside in the crappy, chilly, not quite raining weather for several hours. I got a very cute un-Lyta pic of her with a little cleavage and an arrow in her shoulder. She said it was the newest of all her pix, so I went with the novelty!

Actresses and Zealots and Merlot...Oh My

I don't know who had the idea to all go out to dinner... I don't care. Moyra and I both drove, with Bev, Val and me following her, chauffeuring Pat and Mira. It was a wild ride... she not knowing where she was going, and me trying to keep her in my sights. At times I thought she was trying to lose us! *snerk*

We ended up in downtown Rutherford at about 9 pm for dinner. First we were going to do Italian... Mira seemed to really want it. She was the one to go into the restaurant and ask how long a wait to get a table (over 20 minutes) and ask a couple (who were also waiting to enter) their recommendations. (We later wished we had told the couple to catch Mira in 'Lost' in a few weeks). They also suggested another restaurant up the street that also sold wine by the bottle in an attached store, so that is where we went.

We all chatted about many things. Mira couldn't wrap her head around Penny Marshall having been an 'actress,' and was questioning about the show Laverne & Shirley. Pat told us a story about a movie she did with Christopher Reeve. She had a nude bathtub scene with him, but it ended up on the cutting room floor, because she looked better than Genevieve Bujold, the female lead. BUT… how she brought a rubber ducky and threw it into the tub, to break the ice. Supposedly Christopher was quite amused!

The food was good... the wine was great, and the company was unbelievable! Pat got misty eyed over Reeve, and Mira got very quiet over Tim Choate. It seems she was the one that helped Tim get that gig he was rehearsing for. What we didn't know till that evening was that the rehearsal had been canceled, but Tim never got the message, and took the bike because he thought he was going to be late. Mira is feeling a certain amount of responsibility for his loss. *sigh*

There was theater talk... computer talk (Val got a web design job from Pat), and a little bit of red wine induced babbling. No one knows anything about the much-awaited TMoS. Pat was very animated, and Mira slightly silly, but still intense. AND Mira was a tiny bit hung over the next day, but both she and Pat were divine!

And So it Continues...

After a break in writing about the post-con doings, I remembered Pat's experience in defying traffic in Rutherford. Though crossing the street in a marked crosswalk, she stepped into the late night street flux in a very 'Lyta-like' fashion. We were screaming at her... as was the driver in the first car that was forced to stop, but she marched across the road as if daring to be hit! We scampered behind her like baby ducklings, laughing.

Sunday morning started a bit later... thank the Great Maker... we were all dragging, especially Mira. Using our "Mira's Minions" ID badges, we were in the tent in no time, and the lines were nowhere as hideous as they were on Saturday! I bought the first two Annie Manx audio books (on CD) from Pat. Claudia Christian is the lead, and Pat gets to cheese it up as the evil nemesis. Pat said that Bruce has signed to do the (I think) fifth book. Woo Hooo!

So until Sunday, I hadn't taken any pictures. Friday I was too tired, and the lighting was crappy at night. Saturday was way the frell too busy -- unless I wanted to take pictures of backs. AND really, well... I was nervous. My pix last year looked not only like drenn, but moving drenn. I also felt that my taking a picture of these people was like stealing from them, since their images are part of their job. And well... some security guy wouldn't even let me take a picture of Cindy Williams. Frell that! She ain't even working; I just had an open shot and thought I grab a pic. :::rolls her eyes:::

I never did get the chutzpah to just ask the people if I could take their pix. That is my shy and retiring alter-ego rearing its annoying head.

The strangest thing happened as we hovered across from Pat and Mira's tables in the early afternoon. Pat came over to me, grabbing my shoulder, and said she has a friend over at the next table (Carol Cleveland's) who thinks he knows me. I thought, "Yeah... riiiight!" She took my arm, saying his name is Marty Schiff, and I think I almost tripped over my jaw as it hit the ground. I knew Marty from the late 70's and the Pittsburgh Playhouse when I was a member of the professional children's theater company. It was like... OMG!!!!! He and Pat had worked together in the movie Night of the Living Dead. Seems he recognized me because, as he said, I'd hardly changed. OMG...* really???* :::rolls eyes @ self::: He asked me how I knew Pat, whether we'd worked together. I chuckled and said Nooo... I know her from this and this... and began pointing at the photos on her table. I mentioned a fellow former theater friend, causing him to start telling stories of the two of them working together. He was a stage manager, she a lighting designer. What was even more funny is that she was the person babysitting my dog! I was so shocked, I neglected to ask him why he was at Carol Cleveland's table!

Halloween in the City That Doesn't Sleep

Sunday at Chiller was not crazed as the previous day. The scheduled shut-down time was 5 pm, and by the gods, some vendors were shutting down at 3:30. Bill Mumy, in fact, was in his limo off to the airport before 4:00. I had brought a cake. It was an adaptation on a Croatian recipe (what a surprise). It was very rich with dried figs and raisins, and butter creme icing that I'd whipped in Dalmatian Fig & Orange Preserves into. Pat was worried about her hips... but Ricco Ross and Glenn Shaddix both had some, as did Mira. I think it was Pellmelody who claimed Mira had the metabolism of a humming bird. I fear she is right. * sigh *

As we were leaving, Mira once again thanked me for feeding her… which is exactly how she signed the picture I got from her. And remarked about the cake being a surprise. I told her it was my way of sharing my birthday with everyone. Upon hearing that there was only one thing I wanted for my b-day, she hesitantly hinted, almost apologizing for prying... but knowing it had something to do with the election. She was very relieved when I said I wanted a new president... without wrapping paper or bows. She giggled and she spoke of her concern about the Bush administration, and the fact that this would be her first time voting. I jokingly congratulated her and welcomed her to the electoral college. Ahhhh... that smile.

Pat's 'odd' convention assistant invited himself to join her for dinner with some of her old friends. Mira was going to have dinner and spend some time in Manhattan with some friend from 'the old country.' So Pat invited The Minions to have dinner with her, her friends and John the con helper. She figured we could run interference, thus enabling her to chat with her friends. Did I say that John likes... no loves to be in your face to talk... a lot!

We parked the car in a garage on 44th near the Lincoln Tunnel, and one of Pat's friends suggested a little restaurant in the Village called Cowgirls. So we (Bev from Canoooodia, Val... "living here in Allentown," and myself... a former resident of the Big Apple, in a past life) took a subway down to the Village.

Now mind you, this is Halloween, and there was a parade on this festive evening, so the streets and subway were packed with holiday dressers. Of course, in the Village there were people in various states of dress & undress, and a bevy of boys in drag. I loved walkin' in Manhattan, but poor Val did not wear good walking shoes. I thought she was gonna pass out. Eeeek!

It is now midnight. We all meet back at the garage. Mira's friends drop her off in a large SUV, and it seemed as if she didn't want to leave them. I suppose she had no idea when she may see them again. By the time the attendant at the garage brings my car, Moyra and her group were gone. My trip was made oh so special by my discovery that one of my 3 day old front tires was flat -- not soft, but flat. And it being NYC, midnight, Sunday and Halloween, all the attendant could/would do is direct us to the nearest gas station. The guard at the gas station was very kind, directing the line-up of taxis to make room for me to fill my tire. The biggest surprise was... it was a FREE AIR PUMP. I said to the guy... ain't nuthin' in the city for free! No wonder there is a line!!

In the garage was the last time I saw Pat & Mira. Mira had to be at the airport at something obscene like 6 am, and Pat at 9-ish. I made it home in record time, with no tire problems.