The 24th of May, 2015, was the best day of my entire life so far. On the Saturday, I spent the whole day finalising everything and then Sunday was convention day. It was such an amazing experience and the amount of how much I want to write probably won't fit anywhere else.
I bought the ticket the night before my birthday with my last paycheck. I was so overwhelmed with the fact J2 were coming back that I used my last pay that had come in that week. I didn't even think, I needed to go. I found out about AHBL right after it occurred last year.
Let's start at the beginning of the day...
I got up at 5am, I went to sleep at 2am. I'd gotten an e-mail saying it was delayed but everything was already organised by then...so I had to go with it anyway. I thought it would take me 2 hours to get ready when it only took me 40 minutes. I guess I prepared more than I thought.
I double-checked everything and then went to pick up my friend and head to the train station. Basically, all I did was watch the Hillywood's show SPN parody, over and over and over again. We met up with Moose (Moni) at Central and had breakfast that consisted of pancakes, donuts, hash browns and orange juice, the healthiest of options obviously. ;)
Then we figured we'd better get to the venue, so we spent ages trying to find a bus and we did thankfully. Except, neither of us knew where we were going so we hoped someone was going and we could just follow them.
So we got to the Uni campus and we had to walk across the whole freaking campus. It was massive. We had no idea where anything was so we just followed everyone else. We eventually arrived!
We sat down on a bench and wrote out a birthday card for Mark Sheppard and then proceeded to line up! While doing that, I found a lovely girl who sold me a Castiel-inspired trench coat for only $20! I've never seen one as cheap as that. I was totally excited!
My bags were super heavy because they were filled with food, coins and presents. So it was a bit tiring lining up in the beginning, but it was totally worth it! It started moving on time so I was really thankful!
We got close to the door and saw all of the merch inside! It was all so magical! I went straight and got all my tokens! It was really beginning to feel real at that stage - seeing names of people I've watched and admired for so, so long. I only got a couple of other merch things, I wanted to leave the money for photos, autos and emergency food.
After wandering around and asking for help, I found my seat! Yes! As soon as I sat down though, Jensen's photo's were starting. I hadn't even processed what was going on yet and I had to get up for my photo! I was totally, totally excited though. Jensen's been one of my strongest inspirations with his portrayal of Dean and then just Jensen himself. Moni and I lined up together. We could barely breathe, this was one of our biggest idols and she'd never met a celebrity before. I saw Clif - looking as awesome as ever - before I saw Jensen. I just got even more excited because it was real, something was happening that I thought wouldn't at all.
I was trying to be as polite as possible but I was nervous as well, so I'm not sure if the words that came out of my mouth were even English. We'd seen Mark Sheppard and a glimpse of Richard while waiting for Jensen, and that was exciting enough!
So you know, I stepped up and said hi and everything and then we took the first photo, and then for the second I asked, "Can we do the blue steel?" and he said with such enthusiasm and seriousness, "Yes." so, we did. That's definitely something crossed off my bucket list! I was meant to get the third photo with Monique but...I stepped out by accident and I didn't get in the photo, it was all so quick that neither of us knew what was happening. I started freaking out because I saved money for so long, not buying anything - for those photos. I'm super thankful for Jel though, she lent us the money (I paid her pack the next day) to get another one done. That time, I was still nervous to the point I felt my legs were shaking. I said that Moni would be jealous of us and I was just posing beside him but then he hugged me for the photo! I was just so happy and thrilled, I wasn't expecting it at all. I made sure that I thanked him for coming and we walked away to get our next photo.
I don't know why little things like that mean so much, but they do.
So next we ventured off to see my ol' pal Mark Sheppard! There wasn't that much of a line but it was still pretty brief. It was okay though, because I met him last year, I let the others talk and such. It was great to see him still though! We all decided to do the peace sign with our hands, I had to push Jel's hand out of my face so it wasn't covered in the photo. Hahaha! That was the quick photo with Mark.
So, Jel went to line up with her photo with Jensen, so Moni and I went to go get our photo with Matt! Now, I didn't really know what to expect from Matt because even though I've watched soooo many panels, I'd never honestly seen much of Matt (which was odd), but I still got a photo and auto anyway because if I didn't, I knew I probably would've wanted to. So, we went to Matt and the best part was, he had no line! I felt sorry for a minute but then excited because that meant we didn't have to rush through it.
So we went up and he was all like "How are you?" and all that and asked what we wanted to do and I was just like, "We have no idea or imagination." So after a second and turned to the photographer and asked, "Can we do a jumping photo?" and the photographer said, "I can try..."
So Matt turned back to us and said "Okay, we'll all hold hands and on the count of 3, we'll jump."
So, he grabbed our hands and we did just that. His kindness and energy was amazing. We wanted another photo so badly, so Moni and I scavenged our wallets for any money we had left and we bought another photo. He was about to finish, so we had to run back.
He was like, "You girls again?" and I replied, "Sorry, we couldn't resist." (we couldn't) and then he replied, "Well, I can't resist either. What do you girls want to do this time?"
I was like..."Can we just hug?" pretty quietly, I know we weren't supposed to ask for hugs xD but alas, he heard me, and said "So we just want a big squeeze? Okay come here." so we got to hug Matt for our second photo. I thanked him as well.
We went back and sat down for a little while after that, until I was called up for the Richard and Tim photos.
I grabbed the POP! figure I made for Gabe last year and went to go line up for Richard. I showed him the figure and he thought it was super cool. I think he was really flattered :D So he took and he said "Well, we have to make sure the little guy's in the photo." So, he held it and I was freaking out because I never thought he'd see a picture of it, let alone hold it in his own hand and compliment it! All jokes aside, Richard was really nice and sweet and extremely thankful. I got one solo with him because I was getting a group shot later.
Then I went to see Mr. Timothy Omundson. Now, I wasn't too familiar with his con style either, but after I saw the parody clip I knew he'd be hilarious.So I went up and he was significant taller so he leans in and gets super close to my face and is like, "What's up, what are you doing?" and me being nervous as hell says "Nothing..." So he says, "You have two photos, correct?" I was like.."Yeah." So, he asked what I wanted to do for the first one and I asked if we could do an evil stare and he was like, "Evil? Yeah, I can do evil." And he combs his fingers through his hair dramatically. Then he's like, "What do you want to do for the second photo?" I had no ideas so I was like, "Do you have any suggestions?" and he directed me and said "Okay, you stand there and be really serious...and I'm going to fan girl over you." It was really hard to be serious because that idea made me want to laugh so hard. I thanked him as well and went back to my seat. Timothy was awesome - you could tell he was putting his all in to everything, which continued throughout the whole day.
After Tim, I went back to my seat for a little while because Osric photos hadn't been called yet. They were playing some fan-made YouTube videos on the giant screen on the stage and when I sat down, they started to play the Hillywood show parody - the whole place stopped, stared and screamed. Everyone that had seen it before sang and danced along and the others who hadn't seen it - thought it was absolutely brilliant!
Last of my individuals was the one and only, Master Chau! I was so extremely excited to meet Osric, mainly because I was a huge fan of his cosplay and his massive effort for his fans and making them laugh outside of things to do with the show as well as things related (Castiel goes to Hot Topical for example :P) His line was pretty massive but it moved rather quickly. I had a plan to walk up to him and say "Senpai?" and I actually did it and I was proud for not forgetting - I made him giggle a little bit too, so that was definitely a plus! Osric basically hugged everyone - like every single person, unless you asked for another pose. It was nice though and Osric is definitely as awesome in person as he is on the internet.
I sat back down for a while because then I had no idea when anything else was happening - the schedule wasn't going as planned so I took this as an opportunity to have lunch - apparently there had been an announcement to eat lunch if you could while I was with Osric, anyway.
We finally got called to have our group shot with Osric and Richard! This line probably took the longest because there was different stars in each photo most of the time, there was the choice of five of them. We were full planning to do a Karate pose with them but they were sitting down so we just took a fairly normal picture.
Well - photo's were over. Now it was time for panels! It felt like absolute ages before they started but once they did - they were on a role!
First panel: Osric and Timothy. I didn't expect them so be as absolutely hilarious as they were. They made a great combination. Osric ended up in Tim's lap while Tim sang a lullaby from Galavant - it was definitely a site to see. They brought people up, they had entertaining answers, they were just so interesting and entertaining to watch. It wasn't my first SPN panel - but it was my first one with more than one guest and the more the merrier!
Second panel: Richard and Matt! I was waiting for this panel because I can't explain how many times I've watched Richard panels online. I loved their enthusiasm and their movement -it made it very engaging! I love how Matt and Richard picked whose questions they were going to answers themselves and then ran up to the person - it added more control to the panel because they could get through questions so much faster - they gave pretty short answers expect if it was an answer they knew would be popular. They walked past me so many times and I thought they were going to pick me for a question but sadly, they did not. Overall, I liked the structure of their panel the best.
Okay- time to go to sleep!
I'll write the rest up tomorrow and add the pictures!
xoxo - Aden <3
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