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Wow!!! What a great 50th birthday I had with my #SPNFAMILY!!!

A BIG shout out to STEPHANIE DIZON, for allowing me to have the best J2 picture ever; Stephanie, you are the best.

August 23rd was my 50th birthday and I had to decide; what do I really want to do to celebrate my life? There is a plethora of ways to celebrate ones birth: a party, dinner, with friends, with family, with hot guys or a concert. Well, I decided that I want it all. And the way to get that was to go to the Supernatural Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

A Creation convention always starts with getting tickets and photo ops. So in February, I got my Gold ticket and my J2 Sandwich photo op (their sandwich is always yummy). I made my hotel reservation and asked if someone would like to room with me. I got a response from Audrey. Audrey and her daughter Brittany became my new roomies.

Gold ticket ✔
J2 Photo Op ✔
Roomies ✔
a Supernatural Convention...Priceless

Fast forward to August, the beginning of my year long celebration of my 50th birth year. The month starts out with me, my friends Debbie, Rob, Chuck and 7,000 other Star Trek conventioneers. A week in Vegas is never enough, we had a blast and that is another adventure that will/is up on the site.

On Thursday August 20th, I head up to Minneapolis. Once at the hotel, my roomies; who were volunteering at the convention that weekend, had already made their way to the convention center for the start of their official duties. I unpacked and gathered my stuff to go down and sit in the registration line for the 6pm check in start.

At 4:30pm, I could not believe how short the line was; in Chicago, you need to be in line by 1pm to 2pm. I was about the 10th person in line. I talked with the girls in front of me, who were selling the SPN buttons, and I bought the all four. I also talked with the girls behind me and also got my “Always Keep Fighting” bracelet. Over the course of 90 minutes, I met (not in order) Amanda, Sarita (my Jonathan Frake’s girl), Rachel, Steffanie, Kelsi, Emily and more (so many names..not enough brain cells).

As we were getting closer to check in, I spotted my roomies. We said “Hello”. And talked ever so briefly as I was in line and they were getting more volunteer assignments. Check in began and I got my badge and lanyard, and then went over to turn in my photo PDFs for J2 and Misha, for hard tickets.

There is a story here. My J2 photo op PDF was number 412; which put me in the evening session on Sunday. This time slot was well after my actual birth time; which I was a little bummed about. Normally, when you turn in your PDF, they write your PDF number on the hard ticket; this is for tracking purposes. Well, there was a computer glitch; so however the PDFs were getting turned in, was how they were giving out the hard tickets. WooHoo for me; I got J2 ticket number 1. Yes, I was now in the 1st session of the J2 photo op, which was going to be during my birth time. The stars were aligning perfectly; this photo was meant to happen.

I go purchase the other photo ops I wanted for the weekend, and then go over and talk with my roomies a bit more. I then go and find the photo op room and the vendors room. As I have said in the past, vendor rooms are pure evil. I knew that I only had a set amount to spend, and I did keep within the allotted amount and did not spend it all in one night. After going through the room, I went back to the check in area to see Audrey and Brittany. And sat with Sarita and the gang and then headed back to the room. After Audrey ad Brittany got back to the room, we could final talk. They also surprised me with some very pretty and delicious cupcakes. THANK YOU!! I had also brought brownies and cookies; needless to say, we grazed all weekend.




Friday

We had a really late start, 2pm today. Audrey and Brittany needed to be there early in the morning. With Audrey and Brittany being volunteers; there was no struggle over the shower. I stayed out of their way as they got ready and headed over to the convention center. I then got ready, rearranged some of my stuff and then headed over to the convention and just hung out with the girls till the theater opened

When the theater opened, I went in and found my seat. I introduced myself to my seat mates. Savannah was on my left. She was also there alone. Interesting side note; about 90% of the crowd…it was their first SPN Convention; so many virgins in one room. I’ve never seen that before.

Technically, we only had two guest panels; Chad Lindberg and Gil McKinney, but Richard Speight Jr is our host for the weekend; also Louden Swain is the house band. The theater is huge and beautiful. Rob Benedict, Louden Swain’s lead singer was not able to make it on Friday, do to filming “Masters of Sex”. Richard filled in for him perfectly. Friday is Richard’s favorite day of the Con, because of all the “Friday People”. We are the people who are dedicated to the entire weekend and Karaoke.

Photos:
Richard and Louden Swain, Chad Lindberg, Gil McKinney and Karaoke

This is a picture of the middle of theater from in front of the stage.




Saturday

Okay, it’s Saturday. Today is a LONG day, with a 9:30am start time. The day does have a sad start. We were informed the Misha Collins was mugged the night before and that he would not be able to do his panel, but he did want to honor all the photo ops and the autographs. I will not be elaborating on this, since it is an ongoing investigation.

The panels for the day start with Tahmoh Penikett, Sebastian Roche, Gil McKinney (2nd panel), Mark Sheppard, Richard Speight Jr, Rob Benedict, Matt Cohen and the Saturday Night Concert. A star studded day.

We start with Tahmoh, Seb and Gil’s panels; which are back to back. We have a short break and then Mark Sheppard came on stage. Now Mark has already tweeted out that he was not feeling well, so he was not going to do any hug photos in the photo ops. He didn’t want to infect anyone. Mark is known for roaming around the audience, so everyone can get an up close experience..

After Mark, we had a 2 hour break till Rich/Matt/Rob (RMR) were to hit the stage. So, I roamed the vendor room, got something to eat and rested a bit back in the hotel room. RMR hit the stage a little after 4pm.

After RMR, I had my photo op with Misha. I had brought my “Birthday Boa” from the room with me, so Misha could use it if he wanted to hide his stitched up lip. In his earlier photo op with Mark Sheppard, he was turning his head sideways; he didn’t want to ruin anyone’s photo. For our session, he borrowed someone’s Funko Castiel doll. He was holding that up in front of his lip. Once I got up for my photo, I asked him if he would like to share my “Birthday Boa”. He said “Yes”.

After our autograph session with Mark, Sebastian and Tahmoh, I went back to the room to rest and get ready for the Saturday Night Concert. I turned on the TV in the room and Nascar was on. WooHoo!!! I got to watch the race. Audrey and Brittany got a break from volunteering. They came back to the room to change and rest. About 9:30, we headed back over to the convention.

The concert was great. Those that made appearances were: Louden Swain, Richard, Matt, Gil, Mark, Sebastian, Alaina, Tahmoh, Chris (Photographer Extraordinaire), Adam Malin and Miss Stephanie. Check out a boat load of pictures here.

Photos:
Saturday's Panels and Concert Photos

Here are my duo photo op with Matt and Rich and then my ops with Misha.




Sunday


Here we are; the best day and the last day. The J2 Gold Panel started at 10am. We get them for 30 minutes of Q&A fun. Then we have nothing in the theater till 2pm. During this time are the photo ops for Jensen solo, J2 Sandwich and then Jared solo.

Like I said earlier, the stars were aligning for my birthday photo op to happen. When they called for my number (1 thru 50) to go to the photo op room, I did. I had all the props with me. When I got up to the front, right before going into the room; I explained what I wanted to do to the volunteers and they were cool with it. I waited outside the room, timing people from the door to the front of the line. It was taking about 5 to 6 minutes. These ops go fast. So I had about 20 minutes left, when Creation’s own Stephanie came out of the room and gave me a hug. I said that I was waiting till the right time to go in the room, to time the photo, so I could get it on or as close to 12:19 as possible.

She said to follow her; I said that I was good standing outside. She said follow me. She placed me at the bag table, the end that was closest to the front of the line. She went over to Jen, who was at the front of the line and explained what I wanted to do and that I was to go up to her at 12:18, so I could get my picture at 12:19; the moment of my birth, 50 years earlier. Some of my new friends were going thru the line, we smiled and waved. I will admit to feeling a little silly standing there with a Tiara, a Pink Boa and a cupcake. Was I 50 or 12?

Tada!! It’s time. I go up. Jen explains, I explain and then I try to light the candle, with the fans blowing. Yep, that did not work, so we just pretended to blow the candle out. I was giddy and smiling, just a little bummed, that I didn’t get a birthday hug. But then, I do have my Jensen solo photo op for Chicago in October coming up. Needless to say, that cupcake got trashed after the photo; I did keep the candle. Why trash it and not eat it? Well, I have had that cupcake since Wednesday and it is now Sunday, with Cream Cheese frosting, not chancing a stomach ache.

Then I just chilled till it was time to go back in at 2pm. We had Alaina Hoffman on at 2:30 and then Jared and Jensen, back on stage at 3:15. They do an hour set of Q&A. Then we have a break and I head over to the hotel to grab some dinner; then head up to the room to drop a bunch of stuff off. I head back to the convention about 6pm for Mark’s 2nd panel, my photo op with Alaina and autographs with Misha, Jared and Jensen. We finish up around 8:30 and I just hung out and talked with several different people. I had to wait on my photo with Alaina to get printed. Finally, I started to head back to the hotel about 10:15. As I was turning to leave, I thought I heard people saying “Bye Jerry”. I’m like “who ‘s Jerry?” I finished my turn and 5 feet from me is Jared. I smiled and said “bye”.

Audrey and Brittany came back shortly after that, we did some talking, but we were all exhausted. I set my alarm for 9am; we did not want to get up too early.

The next morning, we packed, checked out and headed to our cars. Low and behold; not only were we roomies for the weekend, but our cars were roomies for the weekend. We were parked right next to each other. The stars were aligned all weekend long. We stood and talked for quite a while, but then finally had to go our separate ways. But, we will meet again.

I do not know if I will make it to the MinnCon in 2016, as it is the weekend after Star Trek’s 50th in Las Vegas; plus the last Creation "Stargate" Convention is here in Chicago that weekend as well. Never say never.

AnyHoo!!! I had a great time and made several new friends. Thank you all for making my 50th very special!!!

Photos:
Sunday's Panels

Here is my photo op with Alaina and then my "J2 Birthday Sandwich".