That was the weekend that was! (Part 1)

[dizzojay]

Well, that was Asylum 16; another weekend of gloriously chaotic, crazy, squee-filled mayhem.  By the end of it, I was dazed and exhausted.  My feet felt like they'd been minced and my head was spinning.  And I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

First thanks go to all my lovelies (in no particular order):

edina_clouds128, milly_gal, jj1564, amberdreams, theymp (and his lovely daughter, Lily), sasha_dragon, chellexxx, 999alena, herminekurotowa, heavenli24, the_rant_girl, and xlittleangx

I'm sorry I didn't get to spend more time with saltandburnboys and somersault_j!




The Friday started off at the ass-crack of dawn, as edina_clouds128, milly_gal, and I set off at 6.00 am in an effort to cover the 100 miles up to Birmingham before the rush hour set in.  The convention fairy (complete with nipples) must have been smiling on us that morning because we rocked up at about 8.15 am after the smoothest drive to anywhere I've enjoyed for a long time.

Not a lot can be said about registration on Friday.  It took place offsite, at a shiny new venue called 'the Vox', about five minutes walk from the Hilton and when registration opened at 9.00 am Rogue time, everything was ticking along quite nicely.

It was about lunchtime that the convention fairy, ably assisted by some seriously questionable preparation by The Vox, threw a hissy fit and everything went spectacularly tits (or should that be nipples?) up.

Apparently the Vox had decided that they were totally unprepared for two thousand impatient, excited, tattooed and pierced and jawbone wielding Supernatural fans converging on their premises, and shut the place down!

But, Friday fiascos notwithstanding, the weekend was a glorious and wonderful rush of insanity.  As an upgrade, it didn't take me long to realise that to get all the photos and autographs that I was entitled to and, in addition, to watch any of the panels, I would need to clone myself.

Given that genetic engineering wasn't a feasible option in the time frame available, prioritising became the order of the weekend and my priority was ...



Really?  Are you surprised?

Our gorgeous boys were on good form, if slightly jet-lagged.  Jared reminded us several times in his Saturday morning panel that it was 4 am in Austin, but it didn't stop him looking totally edible!

All the guests were fabulous.  Mark Sheppard spoke eloquently and from the heart.  He never fails to make me laugh with that acerbic British humour of his, but underneath the snark his appreciation toward the fans can never be in doubt.

Ty is always entertaining, and he gives great hugs too :)



It was lovely to catch up with Jim again too



Then came my J2 photos, one of which I was sharing with my lovely jj1564 and the second with herminekurotowa (photo to follow).

My photo with JJ was a truly memorable experience.  At the first attempt, the photographer buggered up.  At the second attempt, JJ blinked and so it took three attempts to get a good picture.  Three J2 squeezes in the space of two minutes ... such an ordeal ...

Here's the second photo; JJ has custody of the third!



On Sunday, Viv and I shared a Jensen and Mark photo.  I was forced under pain of death and eternal damnation to let Viv stand next to Jensen this year, and because I'm an awesome friend, I agreed.  Then promptly forgot and had to be shoved out of the way!



Ruth is beautiful and petite and made me feel like a brick outhouse.



Mitch is seriously smooth and delightful!



And Gil is truly delightful in every way.



My photo ops were all wonderful experiences as always.  I will NEVER tire of getting close to our wonderful cast.

Aside from the photos, I had a mission to get my artwork signed, and that gave me an experience that left me walking on air ... more on that soon ...

Comments

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Your photos are all lovely Jane, except for me ruining J2!! But at least we got three squeezes instead of one!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your art and Jensen...!!!

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

You didn't spoil anything, you look great in the picture - especially that third shot; I don't think I'll ever not look at that and smile :)

And I can't believe we got three J2 squeezes - can't be bad!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

The third photo has made everyone laugh, so I'm equally pleased and embarrassed about my wide, wild eyes!

And three J2 squeezes - couldn't be better! And Jared's hands on you and Jensen look very lovely!

[wings128.livejournal.com]

He'd be my priority too! :D
Gorgeous pics, hun.

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pics and thank you for sharing the experience with us! I'm really enjoying reading all these posts. :D

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

It was such a fantastic weekend; the guys are so special :)

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you had a wonderful time, despite the Rogue-Itus ;)
Those photo ops are as always wonderful and gorgeous and fun!!
Thanks for a lovely weekend, one I will never EVER forget! ♥

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

It was epic wasn't it :D

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

A little too epic, I think I'm still recovering, but it did give me a massive case of the grins at work on Wed and Thurs night :D

[sasha-dragon.livejournal.com]

What great pictures and such a perfect summing up of A16! I'm not surprised Jensen's picture was your priority, it turned out rather gorgeous.

Thank you for a fabulous weekend, and for putting up with me as your roomie, you were very brave.

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Nah, you were a perfect roomie; we had a ball, didn't we :D

[sillie]

Those ops are wonderful. <3 And omg, Ruth is so tiny!!

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

She is very petite ... I felt like a beached whale standing next to her!

[big-heart-june.livejournal.com]

These are just absolutely WONDERFUL!! thanks for sharing, BB, soo glad you had such an awesome time ♥♥

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

It was awesome; the only thing that would have made it better would be if you had been there x

[be-my-precious.livejournal.com]

i'm glad that you had such a good time! those photos look awesome!

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

I had a wonderful time - thank you x

[metallidean-grl.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos, all of them. I would love to get a pic with Mitch. I wish they would invite him to more Cons in the States. I loved your comment about Ruth. That is exactly why I don't get pics with the female stars anymore. I have a pic with Alona and Felicia, and I definitely look like a brickhouse next to those petite women. Never again. The men are much easier to hide in.

So glad you had a fun time. I saw some rumbles on Twitter about the snafu with Rogue. Lots of complaints were tweeted. Glad they figured it out, eventually.

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know what you mean; I felt like a beached whale standing next to Ruth.
To be fair, the snafu wasn't all down to Rogue; a lot of it was down to the venue not preparing properly. They had no concept of what they were letting themselves in for!

[metallidean-grl.livejournal.com]

I wonder if any new venue hosting an SPN Convention has an idea what they are getting themselves in for. VanCon is at a new hotel this year, I wonder if they have a concept of what's going to descend upon them in August.