Note: See Part One for details.

 
Part Three: “The SQUEE Continues!” – Saturday August 29^th

So, we had to get up a little earlier on Saturday morning, but seeing as how we were in bed earlier too the night before, that wasn’t a problem. And besides, with the schedule being as busy as it was supposed to be this day, there’s no way all the events could’ve started anytime past noon anyway!

The first guest, Aldis Hodge, was set to go onstage a little after 11:00AM, and the convention would be rolling on from there all afternoon. As for Beth and I, once we rolled out of bed and got ready, we went down to the same little café we’d gone to the morning before, and got pretty much the same breakfast, LOL. What can we say, it was a sure thing. Can’t go wrong with a bagel! Fortunately there was no pre-registration to go through today, so once we were done with breakfast and made a quick stop in our room to get our stuff, we were able to come right down to the main theatre and get ready for Aldis to make his appearance. He did, and was a lot of fun. Almost immediately, there was some audience participation involved in Aldis’s session…I believe it went that he had received either a call or text message from his girlfriend, and when he’d tried to call her back, she hadn’t picked up. So Aldis decided to get all of us to leave a little message for her, LOL…he held up the phone to the audience, and we all shouted a friendly greeting to his girlfriend, LOL. That was cute. As for the questions, I’d say the majority of them were split between the subjects of his Supernatural role, traitorous super-strong psychic kid Jake Talley – who became quite the love-to-hate character for the short time he was on the show when he stabbed/killed Sam in All Hell Breaks Loose 1 – and his regular role on the popular TV series Leverage…or at least its popular amongst Supernatural fans, I know! LOL. He had quite a few amusing yarns to tell, including one where the cast of Leverage had made up a cheer for the show, only during the cheer, Aldis had accidentally spelled ‘Leverage’ without the second ‘E’…so apparently now, their official cheer is jokingly, “L-E-V-R-A-G-E! Lev-rah-gay, oo, oo, Lev-rah-gay!” LOLOLOL. That cracked me up. He was also asked the standard questions…what was next for his career, what was next for his Leverage character, if he’d like to come back to Supernatural if he could – answer to that was ‘yes’, by the way, because he’d had fun on the set…and I can see them working Jake in as angry spirit maybe, in a future episode – and of course, that old chestnut, ‘did Jared and Jensen pull any pranks on you’…answer to that was ‘no’, he wasn’t on the set long enough, LOL. (I think I’m remembering all this stuff right anyway…LOL) So far he’d been the first guest other than Traci Dinwiddie that I’d not yet seen before at the EyeCon conventions, and I really enjoyed his session.

Next up was another guest that I’d not yet seen before…in fact, NO ONE had seen him before because this was his first ever Supernatural convention. But despite that fact, Jake Abel, who played the long-lost – and as it turned out, tragically ghoul-consumed – third Winchester brother Adam Milligan in the Season 4 episode Jump the Shark, handled it like a natural. Whereas you’d think that all convention newbies would have some reservations and nervousness during their debut, Jake really had neither of those things. He was a riot, telling us some of the most hilarious anecdotes we’d heard yet…but more on those later. He was also asked some pretty good questions, to which he gave good answers. One such question involved the big twist that his character Adam had been a ghoul in disguise throughout the whole episode, and the reveal that the REAL Adam Milligan had been killed by said ghoul before we or the brothers Winchester even got to know him. Jake was asked if, with the pre-knowledge of this plot twist, he’d consciously chosen to play ‘Adam’ as a little shifty at any point, giving us glimpses of the ghoul hidden beneath his veneer…his answer was no, that he’d not wanted to give it away to any degree; when he was playing ‘Adam’, he was nothing but…all a part of the plan to completely fool Sam and Dean. And as an acting choice, that of course worked…sure fooled me! LOL.  A more grimly amusing inquiry concerned what it was like to ‘play dead’ in the scene where the real Adam’s mangled body was discovered…Jake said it was an experience! LOL. He had lain in the wooden box and the makeup people had then applied the blood and gore…he told us of how his mom had called him after seeing that, saying that’s something she never wanted to see again on her son! Can’t blame her there…that was some really disgusting stuff! LOL. He also told us that during his ghoul scenes, he was amazed at how trusting Jared – who was really COMPLETELY tied down immobile – was of him, especially when he really got into character and slammed a knife just above Jared’s head! LOL. We got a pretty good laugh out of that. And then there was the REALLY funny stuff, one of those things being Jake’s imitation of Jared and Jensen’s voices, LOLOLOL. He said it was a good thing he’d never really had to play their real brother because he couldn’t get his voice to go as deep as theirs, LOL…but if you ask me, when he tried, he did a pretty good and hilarious job! LOL. His biggest fascination was the ‘my brother is in trouble’ tone, so he mimicked a deep, forceful “SAMMY!”…”Dean!”…”SAMMY!” with a serious, stern expression on his face, LOLOLOLOL…it was hysterical. Especially because he kept doing it at random intervals throughout his session, LOLOLOL.

And all of that brings me to the story that I nearly died laughing over…I found it so freaking hilarious it gets its own paragraph! LOLOLOL. I think it started when Jake was asked that same old song and dance of whether or not Jared and Jensen had pulled any pranks on him while he was on the set. He too said no, they hadn’t, also not enough time on the set…but he told us of something else that had happened to someone else while he was there. It’s not hard to guess the guilty party even before you hear about the ‘incident’, LOL – Sasquatch-sized, puppy-dog eyes, luscious locks…and the humor of a grade school kid sometimes, LOLOLOLOL. As the season DVD gag reels have attested to over the years, our dear Jared obviously gets a big kick out of certain, err uh…bodily functions, LOLOLOL (and he’d fit right in with some of my family, let me tell you that! LOL. *facepalm*) Well, I don’t think any of us realized just how big of a kick until Jake told the tale of the infamous, the dreaded…“Fartacus”. LOLOLOLOL! According to Jake, one day they were filming, and little did a poor hapless crewman know that Jared had been…building up for the occasion, shall we say, LOLOL. Before the victim knew what hit him (literally), Jared’s, um…alter-ego, I guess you could call it...had taken over, putting his diabolical plan into action, trapping the defenseless crewman between an immovable surface and his own immovable massive frame…and letting it rip, LOLOLOLOLOL. Then to top that off, apparently after the foul deed was done, LOL, Jared pumped his fist high into the air and gave a resounding, celebratory shout of “I…AM…FARTACUS!” LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, OMG, I was DYING laughing, LOLOLOLOLOL. And apparently, also according to Jake, this is a recurring thing on the set! I guess this must be Jared’s personal made-up ‘character’, LOLOLOLOLOL. Oh my, that boy…*smishes him for his hysterical dorkiness while wearing a nose-plug* And for the record, congratulations Jake Abel, you win the award for most hilarious anecdote EVER. LOLOLOLOL. And it was only your first convention! ;-)

So after the laughter had finally died down and Jake had left the stage, there was another Supernatural trivia competition…and I couldn’t get up the nerve to volunteer for this one either. But unlike with the last one, in the case of this one, I ended up being glad of that! The format for this one was that three so-called ‘experts’ on anything and everything Supernatural, were chosen from the audience and went up onstage, where they were deemed a team. The competition was the whole rest of the audience, some members of which lined up to ask the three ‘experts’ any trivia question they could come up with, as long as the answer had no numbers in it. Well, as you can imagine, the audience came up with some doozies, LOL. Some of them I knew the answer to, some I didn’t. Quite a few times I raised my hand though, because the rules also went that if the three ‘experts’ couldn’t come up with the correct answer to a question, they lost their chance and anyone in the audience who knew could then answer, if they were selected to do so. Unsurprisingly, the three ‘experts’ lost the competition, LOL, but they still got a couple of prizes just for playing, as did anyone in the audience who’d either asked a question no one was able to answer, or had answered one correctly that the ‘experts’ couldn’t get. I was never called on, by the way, LOL. After that was over, Beth and I chose to go back up to our room and chill out there for a bit before coming back down for the next Q&A session, which we knew from previous EyeCon experience, was also guaranteed to be another riot.

Enter Travis Wester and A.J. Buckley, better known to Supernatural fans as those two goofy guys from Season 1’s Hell House, Harry Spangler and Ed Zeddmore, that later got a Season 3 episode named after them…The Ghostfacers. LOL. As before, they were certainly a dynamic duo and a laugh a minute, bringing back a couple of the most hilarious things they did and stories they told from previous conventions such as EyeCon, and doing and telling some new things and stories as well. Like their experience with meeting The Ghost Hunters, Jason and Grant, from the popular Sci-Fi Channel—oops, sorry, SyFy­ Channel, that is *eyeroll*, reality series while at this year’s Comic-Con. A thrilling experience that apparently included…a friendly nod and a wave as they walked past. LOLOLOL. Travis and A.J., fully in their ‘Facer’ mode, joked (at least, I think it was a joke) that they were going to send the Ghost Hunters ‘Ghostfacer’ t-shirts to wear during an episode of their show, LOLOLOLOL. Now THAT would be hysterical to see. Still in ‘Facer-mode, they also told us of interesting ‘hunts’ that they’d been on or would like to go on, what could be in store for them and their team next, and of course, what they really thought of Sam and Dean Winchester, LOL. It seems that the bitter rivalry, LOL, has begun to die down over the months and turned more into a sense of friendly competition instead, with, naturally, them still being the experts and the Winchester boys still being the amateurs, LOL. They proposed that Sam and Dean could come and hang out with them anytime…they’d show the brothers the ropes. LOL. And they also wrote them a letter which they left backstage for Jared and Jensen to read later, with instructions for the audience to inform them of the letter’s existence, LOL. When Travis and A.J. were being themselves, however, well…actually, they were just as goofy. LOL! Travis seemed to have a major fascination, as I remember he did at EyeCon as well, with the sound the microphone made when tapped against his or A.J.’s chest, so that was a consistent source of humor, LOL. And speaking of chests, they retold one of my favorite past stories, complete with both vocal and physical imitations which are always a must with these two, LOL, of the classic Ghostfacers! one-liner “chisel-chest”. According to them, this was completely ad-libbed and therefore unexpected, so when Travis as Harry (I think it was) first blurted it out at Jensen as Dean, they had to stop rolling film for a good while because Jared had apparently started rolling instead…on the floor…with laughter. LOLOLOLOLOLOL! LITERALLY, they emphasized, Jared was writhing around on the floor in a fit of hysterics, and to bring home the point, Travis did his own physical and vocal impression of this moment, LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Freaking HILARIOUS every time, LOL. He also did the reenactment of when he and A.J. first met Jared and Jensen, recalling how they were so in awe of the Js’ tall and intimidating physiques, LOL, and how Jared unwittingly furthered that feeling by casually picking up a crew member in front of them, one-armed, and ‘giving him a ride’ on his shoulder, LOLOLOLOL… and then how later on Jared also effortlessly picked THEM up, LOLOLOL. You can tell that Travis and A.J. are still sort of reeling from that to this day! LOL. As always, they made for a very fun and funny panel.

The next item officially on the agenda was a ‘lunch break’, LOL, and, appropriately enough, Beth and I decided to head out for lunch at that point! I was kind of having a hard time finding something I liked in the little cafés and bistros, as I didn’t much feel like deli food that afternoon, so I made a quick stop in a nearby convenience store and bought myself two packs of Handi-Snacks – those little tiny breadsticks – with cheese dip! LOL. Beth had gotten something from our breakfast café, and then we sat down with Amy and the gang who were already eating at one of the little tables outside. We chatted there, made a quick stop in our room to re-retrieve our bags after we were done, then went on back to the Q&A room where another merchandise auction was going on, sitting with our Plurk/TSTSNBN crew in the front again and showing off our drawings some more by request. Gotta tell you, LOL, of course the huge wall banners of various Supernatural characters/actors went for prices way beyond my budget in the end, LOL, but there towards the beginning and middle of the biddings, I found myself having to kind of sit on my hands for one of the Jared/Sam ones, LOLOL. Being that it would’ve taken up an entire bedroom wall of mine, I have no idea what I would’ve done with it (covered my ceiling, maybe? LOL), but dang…it sure was pretty and tempting! LOL. Even when that was over we still had quite a bit of time left before the next guest, so we did a lot of talking before finally returning to our own seats to get ready for Supernatural’s favorite angel.

But in real life, it’s clear that Misha Collins is no angel, LOL. In a hilarious way, of course. The first of the antics he wrought upon the place was actually not of his own doing, though, but rather that of his so-called “Minions”, LOLOLOL. Well, no, to be accurate…it actually was he who started it, LOL. Apparently the night before, he had instructed his Minions through his favorite communication line of Twitter to bring three items to the convention with them – an egg, a piece of black construction paper, and a writing utensil. Random, yes…but never let it be said that Misha’s Minions aren’t obedient little soldiers! LOL. Only a few minutes into his session he started noticing the items in the hands of several audience members, and finally he asked for everyone who brought said items to hold them up…the result was impressive! LOL. Now all that was left to figure out was just what to do with these items, and not even Misha himself knew the answer to that! LOL. It’s almost like he wasn’t really expecting people to bring that stuff, but of course, he should’ve known better! LOL. A lot of the subjects addressed in Misha’s Q&A involved various ‘instructions’ and ‘summonses’ and even ‘land/property dealings’, LOL, associated with his Minions, along with his crazy world-travel ‘adventures’ as chronicled on his Twitter page, and the pictures that went along with them. It’s not every day you get to ask someone what it was like to be held prisoner by the Queen of England, after all…LOLOLOLOL. And of course there were more serious questions asked – questions on his career, questions on his wildly popular Supernatural character, the angel Castiel, and questions about his life in general. Then to all our chagrin, the same girl that asked that rude question of Alona Tal struck again, showing that her lack of tact hadn’t changed one bit, asking Misha that if he was ever to be in a horrible accident where both legs had to be amputated and his face was horribly disfigured, what would his career be instead of acting…see what I mean about this girl?! But Misha, to HER chagrin – and from what we later heard, outrage – wasn’t afraid to strike right back, smartly and smoothly (after a period of being understandably stunned and not knowing what the heck to say, at first) turning the question back around on her (I forget exactly how, but it was awesome), punctuating it with a statement to her when she was too flustered to answer that it “isn’t fun to be put on the spot, is it?” and soundly putting her in her place. We all gave him a big round of applause for that, LOL. I guess you could say that that girl got smote by an angel! LOL! Or at least a guy who plays one! And by the way, no, no one ever did figure out what to do with all the eggs and black construction paper…LOL.

After Misha’s Q&A was over, Beth and I decided to make the most of our long break time by first going back up to the room and taking a much-needed nap, LOL. Very much refreshed by that, we then headed back down to the main theater at around 6:00 for the start of our next autographing session with Misha, Jake, and Travis and A.J. Upon a fair amount of time into this though, they’d barely gotten past Row B, and Beth and I realized that we were pretty much wasting time just sitting in there waiting for all the way to Row P to be called, LOL. Plus, I’m not sure how everyone else felt about her, but to me, the woman who ran the convention was getting REALLY annoying, LOL. I was just tired of hearing her voice, because for one thing, it was a common occurrence for her to smile out at us and then turn around and tell us things that we either didn’t want to hear or didn’t need to hear – such as, “There will be NO autograph personalization on Sunday, no exceptions!” or “You people need to move through that line faster, come on!” (yelling this at us people that were still freakin’ waiting in our seats so how can WE move faster when we’re not even IN line yet?!) – and then she’d smile again! Like she enjoyed it, enjoyed the power trip it gave her. Shrew. LOL. So anyway, yeah, Beth and I decided to go ahead and get ourselves some dinner, especially since we weren’t sure where we were going to eat yet and therefore needed some extra time. No one accompanied us this time, and after what was probably a good half hour of walking up and down the nearby streets looking for a place that was both in our budget and had something I liked (picky eater here, LOL), we decided to go back to the Pacific Pizza Kitchen since it was a sure bet, and get something other than pizza this time. That ended up being a big plate of pasta, with angel hair noodles and Alfredo sauce, which we split between us. In a funny coincidence, we ended up being seated at the same table we’d been at the night before! LOL. Different waiter (waitress, actually) though, darn. LOL. The food was good again though, with the same pretty reasonable price. We then went back up to the room for our bags and drawings again and came back down to the Q&A room, where we once more settled in at the front with the rest of our gang and chatted some more. This was also when one of the more friendly convention handlers came by, one that Amy nearly ordered to come over and see our drawings, LOL, which we gladly showed her. I took that opportunity to ask her if she thought there would be a chance with autograph personalization at all come tomorrow with my Jared drawings, and she assured me that if it was Jared, I had nothing to worry about, because once he saw those he’d take as much time with me as he was allowed to. That definitely made me feel good! LOL. And I knew from previous EyeCon experience of course, how much Jared does appreciate and love to see artwork, so I believed her!

Finally, after a substantially long wait, it was Row P’s turn, thank goodness. First up were Travis and A.J….I told them that it was nice to see them again and that I really enjoyed their Q&A session, and then made a comment in support of the “’Facer Nation”, as they called it, LOL, which they of course were amused by and, slipping briefly into their characters’ personas, gloated over. LOL. Next up was Jake Abel, and I told him he did a really great job for his first ever Supernatural convention, which he appreciated, and that his was another character I was sad to see go even though we never really got to know him! LOL. Turns out he’s already got the standard response of just about every actor whose character has died on Supernatural down pat…that we never know, he could be back one day! LOL. Because it is Supernatural, after all! And he’s really quite a cute guy in person, if I do say so myself…a good choice to have played a third Winchester brother! And finally, there was Misha. I told him he was doing a great job in the role of Castiel, for which he thanked me kindly…and then he offered me a small, thin object wrapped in brown paper out of a box…he called it an “After Five”. And I will embarrassedly admit to having absolutely no knowledge as to what an After Five was at that moment, LOLOLOL. *facepalm* He must’ve realized that too, after a few seconds of my hesitation as I tried to figure out what it was, because he then smiled and chuckled and promised me it wouldn’t bite, LOLOL. And I FINALLY figured out that it was a mint, LOL, an after-dinner mint and “After Five” was the either the brand name or just what they were commonly called, LOL. I then accepted the mint with a blush and a laugh, and he laughed too, not at me but with me, LOL. Very funny and memorable. And the mint was pretty good too…LOL.

For Beth and I, that was the end of the night. There was a dessert party going on at 10:00, but unfortunately that was another one of those things we didn’t have access to with our Silver tickets, so we just headed on up to our room, stopping briefly on the third floor first to grab some Q&A forms to fill out for Jared and Jensen. We spent around an hour thinking of and composing our questions – I FINALLY got the one I was planning to ask Jared to flow just right, after much laboring, LOL – and with that done, we officially hit the sack. For we knew that tomorrow was the big day, and we wanted to be wide awake – as if we ever couldn’t, LOL – for our beloved boys come morning! :-D

Coming tomorrow: Part Four, covering the final day of the convention, Sunday August 30^th.