So that was Jus in Bello - part 1

[dizzojay]

Well, it was a long time coming, but boy, was it worth the wait!

When I and my good buddy edina_clouds128 who I travelled with, arrived at the Rome Airport Hilton on Thursday morning, I just burst into tears. I was so overwhelmend with emotion, and when Daniela (the JIB organiser) walked past and saw me, we just hugged and bawled together!


 

The con was beset by setbacks before it actually started.  About a month previously, Richard Speight Jnr had pulled out due to work commitments.  He was replaced by the more-than-capable Adam Rose.  Then about a week before the con Jared pulled out due to work commitments.  Obviously that was a big blow, and we were all disappointed, but hey, these things happen and most people were very understanding of the situation (apart from one strange soul on Twitter who explained to the world that the font used for Jared's name on the JIB schedule proved that Daniela hated him and he hated her.  Yep, you couldn't make this shit up!!!)

Finally, once the con was underway, Matt was sadly ruled out as his plane from the US was cancelled, and the earliest he could make it to Rome was Sunday afternoon.

With all the unfortunate and unexpected changes, Friday at the con was madness, as Daniela and her team worked like  crazy to sort out contingencies, and there were queues for people just wanting to register, queues for people wanting to exchange Jared extras, queues for people wanting to exchange Matt extras and queues for people who just wanted to buy normalextras.  The anti-JIB social media was on fire, and you might have read some of the reports of how awful and horribly organised it apparently all was.  As someone who was actually there, unlike all those deluded drama-llamas, I can tell you that Daniela and her team worked miracles.  Yes, there were queues, but they did the absolute best they could under the circumstances, and by Saturday morning everything had settled back down to normal efficient JIB business.

It was Saturday morning when Jensen appeared on stage that we actually felt like we were back.  Yes - this is JIB!  We all knew that Jensen had made a Herculean effort to join us, but we hadn't realised quite how Herculean.  He'd flown in from Albeuerque where he was filming, and arrived Saturday morning.  He was flying back out Monday morning, 17 hours each way. Not once in the whole weekend did he let his professionalism slip or give the slightest hint that he regretted uprooting himself to be there, even though it was clear that he was exhausted.  When he mentioned on the Saturday morning that a week before it had been touch and go whether he'd be able to make it due to filming commitments, there were multiple heart-attacks around the main hall, but we just felt absolute joy and relief that he's gone above and beyond for us.  And we all made a point of letting him know personally in the autograph sessions how appreciated and loved he was for it.

JIB Newbies, Adam Rose, Jeffrey Vincent Parise and Ruth Connell, were wonderful.  They loved the unique JIB atmosphere and all dropped very unsubtle hints to Daniela in the closing ceremony about coming back.  We'd be happy to have them back any time!

I was privileged to spend the weekend with great friends, many of whom I haven't seen since before covid.  Friends such as amberdreams, heavenli24, sillie82, dean_hugs_sammy, stellamira, edina_clouds128 and tifaching among others.  tifaching has been one of my longest standing fandom friends - she was one of the first to introduce me to Livejournal, back in 2010/11 and this was the first time I got to meet her in real life.  We had twelve years of hugs to catch up on, and we did our best!

So, here are my mugshots from the convention, and what a fantastic weekend it was!


Arriving at the hotel - that 'ball' is the centrepiece of the hotel, and it was great to see it. Yes, I've never cried over a ball before!


Meeting up with dean_hugs_sammy after three long years!



First night dinner with the gang :)


Asking Ruth a question








So happy with my photo ops!


Post con group photo!



Autographed artwork.  Jensen grinned and said 'there he is!' 

Comments

[spikedluv]

What great photos! It looks like you're having a great time. Thanks for sharing this; it was fun to read about the experience.

[dizzojay]

Thank you - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[beelikej]

Thanks for sharing all the joy! I followed along from home (mostly on Twitter) and it made me so happy to know that y'all got to fangirl in Rome again, just like old times:)

[dizzojay]

It was wonderful, I'm so glad Daniela persevered through all the Covid madness. No-one could have condemned her for giving up after three cancellations!