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Saturday, April 24, 2004

Convention Guests:

Please remember that any quotes are subject to my memory, and sometimes I forget to take my ginko biloba. LOL

We got up and got dressed for the convention. I had made a shirt specifically for walking around—it said "Loving ListMom of the LNEB" and had two pictures of Leonard (one as Spock, one not). Unfortunately, for some reason, our color printer had made the pictures purple/pink. LOL It was good enough, so I wore it anyway. We were really excited, but we knew we needed to eat something, so we had some croissants and hot tea. How very European. LOL

We left for the convention in high spirits, but when we were about halfway there, I suddenly realized I had forgotten my cameras!!! I cannot believe I did that. I knew I couldn't get many good pictures anyway--my seat was bound to be lousy, even though I was in Preferred Seating. I decided that I would survive, or buy a disposable camera there.

Parking was $9—and we asked the guys if there was a deal for coming both days. They said no, we pay $9 today, $9 tomorrow. They were kinda rude, but we tried to ignore that and went in search of a parking spot. Finding one near the back, we shivered our way towards a door. Some guy was walking ahead of us and asked us if we were heading for the convention—we confirmed this, and then he asked if we were Buffy and Angel fans. We said no way, and he moved on. The funny thing about that guy we saw outside is that once we were in line, I saw him get in trouble for passing out the flyers he had. He didn’t even have permission to be there, and was promptly escorted away. LOL

Ina was extremely nervous about the checking in process—she had ordered her tickets around the same time that Nollie had, and had NOT received all of them. I tried to reassure her that since she had called them and told her things were fine…that they WERE fine. Sure enough, when we got up to the table, we were all fine, and had no problems. We were looking at the schedule and saw that there wasn’t anything we wanted to participate in until Leonard’s talk at 4 something. So, I suggested that if Nollie was willing, we could run back to her house and I could get my cameras. We had run into Ina’s friend Eunice, so she decided to stay with her friend while we went.

As we were heading out of the gate, the guy we’d paid for parking was there and he asked if we were coming back. We said yes, and he told us that were could only leave and come back once, and after that, we’d have to pay again. Nollie and I headed back to her house, and she was able to set the VCR to record a Mavericks’ game. Oy. LOL I grabbed all of my film and we ran back. The guy at the gate wasn’t the same one from before, and we showed him the ticket that we’d paid for already, and that the other guy had told us we could come back once. He got huffy—"He told you WHAT?! Geeze...well...okay. But not again!" We were like, duh, it was a one time deal. LOL

We found Ina and Eunice—who had already spoken to Manu, Ina had her picture with him signed…so of course, I needed to go see him too. LOL I had blown up the picture of us from Indianapolis to a 5X7 size. When we got over to his table, I said hi and handed him the picture. And then he plotzed. LOL "My SHIRT!! Oh, that was my favorite shirt! I got stupid cigarette burns all over..." LOL Poor Manu...meanwhile, Nollie needed to pick out one of his pics he had on the table. She asked me which one to pick, and I said, "He looks pretty hot in that last one!" I just said that, right in front of him. And he LAUGHED! LOL And he said, "Yeah, I like that one too." And I swear he glanced up at me.

Once he signed both pics, and took our money--he nearly forgot!! LOL We got pictures with him. I wanna put our pic in my wallet and tell people he’s one of my boyfriends. LOL Anyway, he mentioned that his birthday had only been a few days ago, I wished him a belated birthday, and NEARLY kissed his cheek. But the lipstick was bright red and long lasting, and I didn’t think he’d want lip prints on his cheek all day. LOL He had just popped a Lifesaver into his mouth, so I came up with an idea to buy him a roll later, as a b-day gift. But we never actually ended up doing so.


Something that really bugged me was that they had Manu in a panel with all these other small-time people. I couldn't care less to see the others--no disrespect to them--but having seen Manu twice alone on stage, and knowing how funny he is, I was really sorry to miss out on that.

We stepped into the bathroom for a few minutes and I looked up to see a strange sight--on the top of the framed mirror, there sat a Hershey Kiss...Lord knows how long it's been sitting up there.


After wandering around and around, we went inside for the auction, and to sit. We sat right up front in Ina and Nollie's seats--Eunice and I had not-so-good seats--but if the seat owners wanted to sit, we would move. Ina had seat A7, and Nollie had A10. Poopheads. LOL During the auction, I had to stop Nollie from bidding about 3 times! LOL

When it was time for the bloopers/music videos, I went to my assigned seat—O 19. Told ya it sucked. They played a music video that I suppose was supposed to represent the passing of the torch to Enterprise--the song was "Wherever you will go". Then, as an introduction to Leonard, they played a Spock video—"I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For" was the song used.

Finally, it was time for Leonard. He came out, and got a standing ovation, of course, and I heard that voice. Unfortunately, there was a man and his wife who continuously moved their heads back and forth—so a lot of times, my view was blocked. This became even more apparent when I got my pictures back and that big balding head was in most of them. Anyway, shortly into his talk, he showed a video of bloopers. I love bloopers, and I was dying laughing—I even did my loud Hawk-like laugh!! LOL

Then Leonard actually began his talk. There was a lot of the usual questions, but surprisingly there were several decent ones. Ina was so thorough with her report, I'll just stick to my impressions. Leonard looked great, from what I could see. LOL He sounded wonderful too. He was very careful to look at the people as they asked their questions, and when he answered, he would look at the entire audience sometimes, but you could tell he was focusing on the one who’d asked most. Two kids asked question—the first about his favorite episode of TOS, the second asked him if he would sing the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. To my surprise, he sang the first two lines!!!! I about DIED hearing him sing in person like that. It was so awesome!

I’m so proud: Nollie asked a question, and she wasn’t too nervous-sounding. I’m so amused: the person before her asked what he was up to lately and what his future plans were—he said that he was very busy and fulfilled by his photography and how much he loved his wife and family. It was very touching. Then Nollie was up. She started well—saying Shalom, holding up the Vulcan Salute and getting Leonard to challenge her to do the Vulcan salute with BOTH hands. Somehow it came up that they'd met before--Nollie said, "We met in Vegas." And he kinda looked at the audience as some people whistled and laughed. "We met in Vegas?"--I of course pictured Spock raising an eyebrow and refusing to say anything further. LOL


He was in one of those teasing moods, which became very apparent when she finally asked—"What kind of things do you want to do in the future?" He let his hand that held the microphone drop, staring at the audience in dumbfounded amusement. "Where were you when I—?" and he gestured at the stage area (implying the previous question, which was nearly the same as hers! LOL). LMAO It was so funny, she said she didn’t hear him because she was so close to him. He explained this was a phenomenon called "emotional deafness", then summed up what he had just said.


Something that truly—pardon the term—fascinated me was when Leonard spoke about his own death. He said he knew the exact amount of time he had left (over 5,000 days), provided by his insurance company. The thing that got my attention was the way in which he spoke about death. It’s the natural end of life, it’s not something to be feared or cursed. I’m not eager for him to die, of course, but he seems to get that there isn’t a reason to freak out about aging, and dying. He also said that he looked forward to spending forever with his wife, which I found moving.

The lady sitting beside me was amused (I hope! LOL) by me during his talk. She had to put up with me giggling and grinning, and not sitting still at all! Afterwards, as I tried to collect my wits from all over the floor, I explained to her that I was the ListMom of the LNEB. I gave her a business card and as I looked for my friends, I wondered if she had really cared, or just been wondering what the heck was up with me. LOL

Far, far too soon, his talk was over and I went in search of the others. The photo op session had a long line, but I found them. Eunice and I didn’t have those tickets either, so we just kinda tagged along. Once we were inside the doors of the small room, Eunice and I took all of Nollie and Ina’s things and stepped to the side to watch and wait. I could have stood there just to watch him and see him interacting with fans...but I settled for seeing him look at my shirt and then up at me. I just smiled at him, but I'm sure he was wondering..."why am I purple and pink on her shirt?" LMAO

We went back to the front row of seats, as they did the trivia contest. The audience asked some guys questions--far too EASY questions—and I have no idea how they even picked those guys to play, but it was terrible. So we talked instead. LOL Once the Photo Op session was done, they started the autograph line. Since Nollie and Ina were in row A, they were first. Eunice and I did the same thing—tagged along and held their things. This was the closest I got to be to Leonard, but they were moving the line along so fast that before we blinked, we were out.

The 4 of us made our way to the hotel lounge. We couldn’t shut up!!! LOL After a little bit, I spotted Manu walking by and called a greeting to him, he gave me a nod and a smile and said "Heya" as he went by. When we were sitting there, we started talking to a nice lady named Dee. She had bid on, and won, a GREAT item in the auction (pic of the TOS cast, signed by all!!). It turned out that she was a great Leonard fan too, so I explained my shirt to her, told her about the LNEB, and gave her a business card. She seemed really interested, and remarked that she hoped Leonard would walk by. Within two minutes, we all stared as Leonard went by!!! LOL We asked her to say it again, and like 20 minutes later, he DID!!! We declared her to be our good luck charm. Hehehe


Finally, a few minutes late, it was time for the Shekhina event. We headed back to the ballroom and as we entered, there was a man passing out pictures of Leonard--the SAME one I had been telling Nollie I wish was bigger online!!! WOO!!


I really enjoyed the Shekhina lecture the second time around. Maybe it was because the people there were not just Trek fans, but Leonard fans--people who were not necessarily Jewish--they could view his photography from a different angle, I think. My seat for this event was 2 rows closer than his earlier talk (M20 this time!), and there wasn't anyone directly in front of me, so I could see fairly well. A few minutes into his talk, he asked that the photography be held off for a little while, which was fine, since when we saw him in Indy, it wasn't allowed at all!

This time, Ina asked him a question--"Will you be doing any more photography books in the future?" A GREAT question--my LNEB gals are fabulous, especially since I am a CHICKEN and never ask questions. LOL He replied to her that he had been working on an idea for a long while, but was just starting to actually do it--a series of photographs exploring himself as a person, artist, actor, etc. He also used that opportunity to plug his photography site.

At one point, someone asked if he was a Conservative or Reformed Jew, which lead to him speaking of those "revolving door Jews". And he described how his faith changed when he discovered the belief of Shekhina.

Before I knew it, the day was over. The three of us started to the car--our things clasped firmly in hand. It was raining, so we walked right next to the building under the small overhang, and got to Nollie's car. Once we were away from the excitement, our extreme hunger made itself known!!! But when we got back to Nollie's house, her mom said there was shrimp and fries in the fridge! I took over the microwave and soon we were scarfing all of the food down.

We decided that we needed more Leonard (of COURSE), so we ended up watching Patterns of Force. Half of the episode has Leonard (and Bill) with no shirts. WOO! Hehehehe Then, feeling tired, and emotionally high, we eventually went to bed and tried to sleep. Nollie and I stayed up talking again, while Ina retired to start writing her report down while it was fresh in her mind. I'm not sure how late we were up chatting, but we knew we didn't need to be at the convention too early the next day, and could sleep in longer.