Asylum 2009 Report Part Seven - Sunday Afternoon/Night - AKA The End!
So, this part came in at 4,176 words and while a part of me is a little sad it's finished, another part can't quite believe the person who's previous record for a con report was about a hundred words, has just finished one which ended up being 25,883 words long! Has anybody actually managed to read ALL of this thing???
Anyhoo, best get on with the final part I guess...
Amy, Matt and Sam were up again after Jared and Jason and Matthew was wearing a strange hat... Sam also seemed a teeny bit subdued (apparently she told someone later the jetlag had finally kicked in!) but they were still all three really charming and clearly happy to be there.
Someone asked Sam how she felt being away from her baby and I have to be honest, I thought that was a bit of a strange question to ask a person. I'm not judging it exactly but for a second there I thought 'oh my god!' anyhoo, as it was, Sam said she was quite enjoying the time and later on made a joke about her husband joining her that night and leaving the kid home alone :D Actually, she said something quite sweet about how lucky she is that her husband is a wonderful father so she felt 100% happy leaving him in charge.
So... I don't ask questions at conventions cause the very idea scares the buggery out of me (don't ask me to explain that - I can and will and do talk to absolutely anyone at any time, I don't get nervous and I am perfectly confident in myself. But put a microphone in front of me at a convention and something just HAPPENS to me...), but Cassie asked me to go up and ask a question for her so of course I said yes. The question was (supposed to be) something about 'did you (Sam and Amy) see anything of yourselves in each others performance... I hope that's what I asked but I'm not 100% sure... Anyhoo, they both had a think and said they didn't see anything specific but that they both really enjoyed each other's performance (Sam was especially complimentary of Amy) and then Amy mentioned that the casting director had told her she was up for the part not just because she LOOKS like Sam, but because they have a similar 'energy'. Sam also told a cute little story about how she'd had a call telling her Mary was going to be on the show but not played by her and she said "WHAT?" but then when she found out the new Mary was a youngster she was all "Oh, OK then..." and she then mentioned again how awesome she thought Amy was in the role.
Over the course of the weekend, all three of these guys made it really clear they'd had a great time working on the show, and I'm pretty sure they were asked if they'd like to go back and they all said yes. Also, when asked how it felt to have made such a big impact (i.e. been invited to cons and been taken into the hearts of fans) after only doing one episode, Matt and Amy both asserted again just how amazed (in a good way) they were by the dedication and LOVE shown by the fans.
Someone asked Matt how different he thought everyone's lives would have been if John had known about hunting, in particular if he would have still wanted to marry Mary and he said of course he would have, he loved her more than anything in the world. He just would have been a bit more careful... Also, he and Amy were both asked a question which Matt misunderstood and answered as John rather than himself (pretty sure the question was 'if you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?' and he said 'don't do anything you did!' and then when Amy pointed out the question was 'what would you tell yourself not your character' he said... 'same answer!'
Matt mentioned being raised by a single father and how he felt like that had made it difficult for him to be honest and open with his emotions, and that acting had really helped with that. It was very sweet and made it even more adorable when he was asked about his future plans later on in the talk...
A couple of times during their talk, Matt would mention Jared or Jensen and get a big cheer, so eventually he said 'I can just say Jared or Jensen and you'll love me for it, can't I?' (said with a big grin) so after that he kept saying one of their names at the end of every sentence :o) Eventually he said 'It's losing power' (or similar) and then said Misha instead *G*
So, Doug asked the panel if they had anything interesting going on in their real lives and Sam said her life is really boring outside acting! Amy teaches a dance class for kids and they have a recital a couple of days after she gets home, which she was VERY excited about. And then Matt said his main plan for the future was to marry his girlfriend! Everyone made suitable 'awwww' sounds.
I didn't actually stay for the end of their talk because I had a photo-op with them which I didn't want to miss and it was at the same time as Misha's talk, so I figured if I queued up early I wouldn't miss too much of Misha's talk...
Best laid plans and all that...
So the queue is pretty huge already and I join it at the back and ask someone if this is the right queue, she says it is. I could have SWORN the girl I spoke to was a lot younger than me and had long hair. You might be wondering why I'm telling you that... well... something AWFUL happened. AWFUL. Or, maybe not. Hard to say...
So the queue is all the way round the corner and by the time it gets to the area in front of the door to the main hall there's a Red Shirt asking people to make sure they keep the door clear so I stop where I am rather than blocking the door. All of a sudden a woman (who I had thought was trying to get past into the room) stops in front of me! I tapped her politely on the arm and said "Er, what are you doing? I thought you were going in there?" and she said "No, I'm in the queue." So I said "Er, you weren't a second ago..." Now, I didn't raise my voice or anything, I was trying to be firm but I didn't want to cause a scene (even though queue-jumping is a pet peeve of mine, it's hardly the end of the world - the reason we'd had such a go at the jumpers from Friday night is cause of the people in the corner who had stood there for TWO HOURS, and were melting).
Anyhoo, the Red Shirt had seen the woman step in front of me, heard me ask her where she'd come from and came over to tell the woman to go to the back of the queue. The Red shirt was VERY polite (and nice) about it and the woman didn't get angry or anything but she did turn to me and say "but I was there, I was in the queue before, you spoke to me" and all of a sudden I thought 'shit'. Cause what if she HAD been there and I just hadn't noticed (although I DID see her step in front of me so she must have left the queue at some point). So I felt terrible and said to the Red Shirt "I'm sorry but I have no idea what's happened, I don't recognise her but I'm not even a little bit sure she WASN'T there so it's probably best to just leave it" and she said "Sorry but I can't do that, I can't risk it, I have to stick to the rules."
Now, in retrospect, I have a feeling the woman in question might have tried to jump to the other side of the corridor (there was a lot of that going on) and therefore get further on in the queue, and when it failed she tried to re-take her place but I didn't recognise her. OR, she went to the loo or something but didn't think to actually ASK me to hold her place. Whatever happened, there's a perfectly good chance I accidentally got a perfectly INNOCENT person kicked to the back of the queue and I felt REALLY AWFUL. Like, SICK AWFUL. Mind you, I saw her about 10 minutes later and she wasn't even really that far back so it's not like it was tragic or anything. But still.
ANYWAY. After all that drama I got chatting to the girl ahead of me and a couple of people behind me (including one of the 12 MEN at the con!), one of the girls said she'd worked in hotels and that they NEVER have air con in public areas - they have vents which just can't cope with so many people... which I guess explained that!
So. As we got up to the end of the corridor (the bit where the queue goes back on itself...and it is hotter than HELL) we were standing outside one of the doors to the main hall and could see Misha but couldn't hear him very well. And then the queue moved and just as we got past the door we heard lots of cheering.
Now, you may have noticed I am quite fond of Jared...
Well, someone told us Jared had joined Misha on stage and my gut just DROPPED. Because I'd been queuing for quite a while and didn't want to give up my place, and also didn't want to risk losing my place only to get back in the room and find out he was only on stage for a minute, and I just decided it was silly to even be thinking about it.
The problem is. I love Jared. A lot. And I was very very very tired, and had had a couple of things go a bit wrong and quite frankly I got really friggin upset for a minute. I didn't CRY or anything, but for a second there I kind of felt like crying. Mostly cause of the exhaustion, cause I'm not insane or anything (*G*) but it was a horrible moment and I mentioned to the guy I'd been chatting to that I was really gutted cause 'Jared's my favourite' and he said he didn't think he'd be on stage long so it probably wasn't worth going back in the room. He then pointed out that the coffee lounges were in the rooms we were queuing outside of and 'you never know, you might get lucky, he might have to walk past us to get in there'. Which we both knew wasn't even a little bit likely but it was really sweet of him to try to cheer me up.
Not quite as sweet as the next thing he did though! As we walked past one of the rooms the coffee lounges had been in, he looked in through one of the doors which was slightly ajar and then suddenly turned to me and said "Quick, over here!" and insisted I look through the door... and Jared was in there!
He and two security guards looked kind of like they were trying to break the wall down and then I realised it was one of those partition walls and they were actually trying to get into the next room (where Jared's coffee lounge was due to start)!!
I only looked for a moment, mostly because that is without doubt the weirdest and most STALKERY thing I have ever done, but I tell you what... it was worth it!
Eventually Jared just grabbed hold of the partition and basically YANKED it open! I would LOVE to know how that looked to the people at the coffee lounge! Assuming they were already in the room...
Anyhoo, that cheered me up quite a bit (which was very good because, no matter what had happened up to that point, I hadn't actually lost my enthusiasm for the weekend yet, and I didn't want to lose it at the final hurdle!). So then we got to the doors of the photo-op room and I remembered I had to let one of the Blue Shirts know about my ticket... you see, after Sam, Amy and Matt's talk the day before I had decided I wanted to turn my Amy/Sam op into an Amy/Sam/Matt op, figuring it wouldn't take up any more time and would therefore probably be OK. Paul agreed, so I paid the extra and he added Matt's name to the ticket.
Problem is, I noticed later he hadn't signed it or anything and it could very easily have been ME who added Matt's name! So when I got to the front of the queue I asked the Blue Shirt (who had asked us to wait for a sec to go into the room cause it was getting VERY hot in there!) if she thought it'd be OK and she obviously believed me (luckily) and said it should be fine and to just mention it to the Blue Shirt at the front of the queue who was taking the tickets. I'm 99.9% sure the Blue Shirt I was talking to was named Donna. I mention that because I was particularly impressed at how good a job she did all weekend (especially considering the pressure they were all under) and I very much hope someone she knows is reading this - if you are, please pass on my heartfelt thanks!
Where was I? Ah yes... so now I'm in the queue and I was witness to the answer to something I'd been wondering about... i.e. if they're all three in the room, how does it work with the different ops? Turns out they jump in and out of shot. And it was actually pretty entertaining to watch. A couple of times Matt got distracted and had to run back into the shot. And a couple of times they got confused and nearly walked into each other! But they were all smiling and looked to be enjoying themselves as far as possible (it was HOT in there!). Also, when they did the ops which were all three of them, they were standing with Amy and Sam standing either side of the photo-op-ee and Matt on Amy's other side. For the obvious height reasons I guess, but the whole time I was in the queue I was thinking 'do I really want to be in a picture with THOSE TWO either side of me!' I'll tell you this, I might not be able to look at that picture when it arrives! I'm not unhappy with the way I look in general, but stand next to two women who look like that and see how YOU feel! *G*
Luckily, they are both so completely adorable and sweet I actually wasn't even the teeniest bit nervous when it came to my turn. As I walked up they all three looked right at me and said "hi!" with big smiles and then as we were getting into positions I accidentally kind of grabbed Matt's arm for a second! He didn't seem to mind, or possibly he didn't notice!
So that done I pretty much RAN back into the room for the rest of Misha's talk.
As I was walking in I heard him talking about his mother's house being burgled but it turned out later he was actually talking about an April Fools trick he played on her! He hid all their stuff and trashed the place so she'd THINK they'd been burgled... I just... everyone on the set of Supernatural should probably pray he doesn't decide to start playing jokes on THEM!
At one point he suddenly apologised for what he'd said about slash the day before, but since he hadn't said anything bad I'm not really sure what prompted him to apologise!
As far as his talk goes... he really is someone who you have to hear for yourself, his talks were kind of like a stream of consciousness and there's no way I could do it justice, also, because of the way he goes off topic etc. it's kinda hard to remember!
I DO remember him getting told by some Italian fans that saying Eric Kripke's names means he's cursed... he thought they were saying THEY were going to curse him, and then he started referring to Kripke as 'he who must not be named' *G*
He had a LOT of fun with one of the Red Shirts Who Wasn't Wearing a Red Shirt (who I later found out was one of the ones who we'd been talking to all weekend! She was really nice and very helpful, as they all were), anyhoo, he kept referring to her as the crotch photographer but I'd missed the start of that so at first I really did think someone must have gone up there and started taking pictures of his crotch...
When he got asked about season 6 he spoke for quite a long time about how 5 comes before 6, and then he went off on a weird tangent about how they could manage to film 6 BEFORE 5 and it was both hilarious and very odd... he really does have a VERY quick mind.
Eventually, he got asked a question which he couldn't even BEGIN to understand. He kind of looked to the audience for help, but unfortunately none of us could really understand either (I still have NO IDEA what her original question was), but then she asked something about touching his hair for luck and he said he'd do it for a tenner. Or possibly twenty, I forget. Anyhoo, turns out she didn't have any cash on her so he said 'you've missed your window' and when he changed his mind a bunch of people in the audience said 'no! she's missed her window!' and there was much giggling. The thing is, she was still standing at the mic trying to ask her question! Eventually he said something along the lines of 'I'm going to answer some other question because I can't understand yours' but the tone of voice and his body language made that one of the funniest statements of the weekend. That is, until Malik and Gabe came on stage...
Doug had spoken to Misha a few minutes before and asked him to stay on stage for longer than planned because Jensen was still signing autographs and so wouldn't be able to do his final talk. Now, when Misha told US that, I assumed he was joking. Because he'd been joking around all weekend and I found it hard to believe they'd cancel the final (some might say HEADLINE) talk. At this point I had no way of knowing just how far behind the auto's had got so I just assumed it'd been delayed rather than cancelled. Anyhoo, eventually Misha had to run to the little boys room so Gabe and Malik came on stage to take over for a bit...
As they got to the stage they both stood at the front, quite near us, and all of a sudden Misha stepped up to them with his mic, pointed to the Italian woman who was STILL standing there, and said "Answer that woman's question. I DARE YOU!" And we PISSED OURSELVES laughing! And THEN, Malik said "No, no, WE answer ALL questions!" to which Misha retorted "That's what I thought until I met her!"
I feel a teeny bit bad for laughing at the poor woman, but I really do think she was finding it funny too, and it REALLY didn't come across as though he were being mean-spirited about it; he was just reacting the only (and most entertaining for the rest of us) way he could to someone he just couldn't even begin to understand.
For the record, a few minutes later I looked to the side and saw him standing by the door to the backstage area talking to her, and she got to touch his hair for luck :o)
That was basically it. Doug came on stage and started the closing ceremony, at which point I finally accepted the truth that Jensen really wasn't going to have time for his final talk.
He DID, however, come on stage for the closing (Jared had not been able to, which was apparently why he'd crashed Misha's panel, and which also meant Burglar!Jared was the last time I saw him. Which is actually fine by me cause that is a cool little memory I am more than happy to have :D). Anyway, Jensen came on stage and was lovely and charming and absolutely meant every word he said, that much was VERY clear. If you want to know what he said, and didn't catch my previous post, here's the transcript -
"Thank you guys! We just wanted to say thank you so much for coming out, I know it's been a long weekend and a bit wobbly at times, (I) apologise for the autographs and how quickly we were getting some of you through, but we wanted to make sure we got everybody that paid for the autographs, so, apologies but I hope everybody was happy. And secondly I want to say on behalf of all of us, thank you for your support, for watching this little show that we love so much... we forget what we're doing sometimes when we're doing it for so long in such a little, small corner of the world, so to come here and to get this kind of feedback from people as gracious as you are, it really means a lot to us, all of us, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for coming this weekend, have a nice night!"
Which, strangely, made me not care so much about him not being able to do his final talk. In fact, I was totally over that by the end of the night.
The night which didn't end for quite a few hours...
We (me, Lucy, Cassie, Jodie and Claire) said our goodbyes, and I am very gutted I didn't have my camera on me and couldn't get a picture of all five of us! And then Lucy and I headed upstairs where I planned to fall into bed and never get up again. Unfortunately my Misha and Amy/Sam/Matt photo's weren't out yet so I had to pop back down to pick them up. So we went to the room and I plonked myself on the bed and watched the previous night's final of Britain's Got Talent (don't judge me - I LOVE Diversity and I wanted to see them win!), and then Jump The Shark (which I'd forgotten was on due to all the excitement of the weekend!) while Lucy went for a swim.
I popped back down to the lobby about three times I think, but in the end the girls behind the desk were saying it was probably not likely the Misha photo's would all get printed that night (they'd already told us earlier to leave our details for the Amy/Sam/Matt piccies - and how lucky is it I wore my 'gurkhajustice.org' T-Shirt, which will be easy to spot?), anyhoo, I got chatting to the Blue Shirt who I believe is called Donna again and she was STILL, at ELEVEN PM, somehow managing to be friendly and courteous and, can I just say, those girls looked DEAD ON THEIR FEET and if I could have bought every last one of them a drink right there and then, I would have. Actually, maybe!Donna mentioned being starving and I was sorely tempted to order a pizza or something but then realised I was sleep deprived and that that was a stupid idea :D
Anyhoo, I wrote up another description of my missing photo, and then went to my bed. Didn't SLEEP obviously, but still ;D
Of course, this means I have something to look forward to - eventually I'm going to get a couple of cool piccies in the post to remind me of my excellent weekend!
I guess this is where I should do the 'final thoughts' bit...
Hmmm...
Well, all I can say is this -
EVERY SINGLE guest at Asylum made everything that went a bit kabluey ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.
I had a really wonderful time, met some wonderful people, gathered some great anecdotes (the girls on my team at work particularly enjoyed hearing about the CRAZY girl from the Friday Auto Queue!), and came away with so many good memories that I am immeasurably glad my sister decided all those months ago that we should go to Birmingham.
I hope the one person who's managed to stay awake long enough to get this far has enjoyed reading my little report, I know I've had fun writing it, and it's really cemented my memories (and will be fun to read back in years to come when I'm old and doddery and no longer know who Jared Padalecki IS). (LMFAO!!!!! Like THAT'LL ever happen!) *G*
I'm going to bed now. To sleep. I hope :o
Anyhoo, best get on with the final part I guess...
Amy, Matt and Sam were up again after Jared and Jason and Matthew was wearing a strange hat... Sam also seemed a teeny bit subdued (apparently she told someone later the jetlag had finally kicked in!) but they were still all three really charming and clearly happy to be there.
Someone asked Sam how she felt being away from her baby and I have to be honest, I thought that was a bit of a strange question to ask a person. I'm not judging it exactly but for a second there I thought 'oh my god!' anyhoo, as it was, Sam said she was quite enjoying the time and later on made a joke about her husband joining her that night and leaving the kid home alone :D Actually, she said something quite sweet about how lucky she is that her husband is a wonderful father so she felt 100% happy leaving him in charge.
So... I don't ask questions at conventions cause the very idea scares the buggery out of me (don't ask me to explain that - I can and will and do talk to absolutely anyone at any time, I don't get nervous and I am perfectly confident in myself. But put a microphone in front of me at a convention and something just HAPPENS to me...), but Cassie asked me to go up and ask a question for her so of course I said yes. The question was (supposed to be) something about 'did you (Sam and Amy) see anything of yourselves in each others performance... I hope that's what I asked but I'm not 100% sure... Anyhoo, they both had a think and said they didn't see anything specific but that they both really enjoyed each other's performance (Sam was especially complimentary of Amy) and then Amy mentioned that the casting director had told her she was up for the part not just because she LOOKS like Sam, but because they have a similar 'energy'. Sam also told a cute little story about how she'd had a call telling her Mary was going to be on the show but not played by her and she said "WHAT?" but then when she found out the new Mary was a youngster she was all "Oh, OK then..." and she then mentioned again how awesome she thought Amy was in the role.
Over the course of the weekend, all three of these guys made it really clear they'd had a great time working on the show, and I'm pretty sure they were asked if they'd like to go back and they all said yes. Also, when asked how it felt to have made such a big impact (i.e. been invited to cons and been taken into the hearts of fans) after only doing one episode, Matt and Amy both asserted again just how amazed (in a good way) they were by the dedication and LOVE shown by the fans.
Someone asked Matt how different he thought everyone's lives would have been if John had known about hunting, in particular if he would have still wanted to marry Mary and he said of course he would have, he loved her more than anything in the world. He just would have been a bit more careful... Also, he and Amy were both asked a question which Matt misunderstood and answered as John rather than himself (pretty sure the question was 'if you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?' and he said 'don't do anything you did!' and then when Amy pointed out the question was 'what would you tell yourself not your character' he said... 'same answer!'
Matt mentioned being raised by a single father and how he felt like that had made it difficult for him to be honest and open with his emotions, and that acting had really helped with that. It was very sweet and made it even more adorable when he was asked about his future plans later on in the talk...
A couple of times during their talk, Matt would mention Jared or Jensen and get a big cheer, so eventually he said 'I can just say Jared or Jensen and you'll love me for it, can't I?' (said with a big grin) so after that he kept saying one of their names at the end of every sentence :o) Eventually he said 'It's losing power' (or similar) and then said Misha instead *G*
So, Doug asked the panel if they had anything interesting going on in their real lives and Sam said her life is really boring outside acting! Amy teaches a dance class for kids and they have a recital a couple of days after she gets home, which she was VERY excited about. And then Matt said his main plan for the future was to marry his girlfriend! Everyone made suitable 'awwww' sounds.
I didn't actually stay for the end of their talk because I had a photo-op with them which I didn't want to miss and it was at the same time as Misha's talk, so I figured if I queued up early I wouldn't miss too much of Misha's talk...
Best laid plans and all that...
So the queue is pretty huge already and I join it at the back and ask someone if this is the right queue, she says it is. I could have SWORN the girl I spoke to was a lot younger than me and had long hair. You might be wondering why I'm telling you that... well... something AWFUL happened. AWFUL. Or, maybe not. Hard to say...
So the queue is all the way round the corner and by the time it gets to the area in front of the door to the main hall there's a Red Shirt asking people to make sure they keep the door clear so I stop where I am rather than blocking the door. All of a sudden a woman (who I had thought was trying to get past into the room) stops in front of me! I tapped her politely on the arm and said "Er, what are you doing? I thought you were going in there?" and she said "No, I'm in the queue." So I said "Er, you weren't a second ago..." Now, I didn't raise my voice or anything, I was trying to be firm but I didn't want to cause a scene (even though queue-jumping is a pet peeve of mine, it's hardly the end of the world - the reason we'd had such a go at the jumpers from Friday night is cause of the people in the corner who had stood there for TWO HOURS, and were melting).
Anyhoo, the Red Shirt had seen the woman step in front of me, heard me ask her where she'd come from and came over to tell the woman to go to the back of the queue. The Red shirt was VERY polite (and nice) about it and the woman didn't get angry or anything but she did turn to me and say "but I was there, I was in the queue before, you spoke to me" and all of a sudden I thought 'shit'. Cause what if she HAD been there and I just hadn't noticed (although I DID see her step in front of me so she must have left the queue at some point). So I felt terrible and said to the Red Shirt "I'm sorry but I have no idea what's happened, I don't recognise her but I'm not even a little bit sure she WASN'T there so it's probably best to just leave it" and she said "Sorry but I can't do that, I can't risk it, I have to stick to the rules."
Now, in retrospect, I have a feeling the woman in question might have tried to jump to the other side of the corridor (there was a lot of that going on) and therefore get further on in the queue, and when it failed she tried to re-take her place but I didn't recognise her. OR, she went to the loo or something but didn't think to actually ASK me to hold her place. Whatever happened, there's a perfectly good chance I accidentally got a perfectly INNOCENT person kicked to the back of the queue and I felt REALLY AWFUL. Like, SICK AWFUL. Mind you, I saw her about 10 minutes later and she wasn't even really that far back so it's not like it was tragic or anything. But still.
ANYWAY. After all that drama I got chatting to the girl ahead of me and a couple of people behind me (including one of the 12 MEN at the con!), one of the girls said she'd worked in hotels and that they NEVER have air con in public areas - they have vents which just can't cope with so many people... which I guess explained that!
So. As we got up to the end of the corridor (the bit where the queue goes back on itself...and it is hotter than HELL) we were standing outside one of the doors to the main hall and could see Misha but couldn't hear him very well. And then the queue moved and just as we got past the door we heard lots of cheering.
Now, you may have noticed I am quite fond of Jared...
Well, someone told us Jared had joined Misha on stage and my gut just DROPPED. Because I'd been queuing for quite a while and didn't want to give up my place, and also didn't want to risk losing my place only to get back in the room and find out he was only on stage for a minute, and I just decided it was silly to even be thinking about it.
The problem is. I love Jared. A lot. And I was very very very tired, and had had a couple of things go a bit wrong and quite frankly I got really friggin upset for a minute. I didn't CRY or anything, but for a second there I kind of felt like crying. Mostly cause of the exhaustion, cause I'm not insane or anything (*G*) but it was a horrible moment and I mentioned to the guy I'd been chatting to that I was really gutted cause 'Jared's my favourite' and he said he didn't think he'd be on stage long so it probably wasn't worth going back in the room. He then pointed out that the coffee lounges were in the rooms we were queuing outside of and 'you never know, you might get lucky, he might have to walk past us to get in there'. Which we both knew wasn't even a little bit likely but it was really sweet of him to try to cheer me up.
Not quite as sweet as the next thing he did though! As we walked past one of the rooms the coffee lounges had been in, he looked in through one of the doors which was slightly ajar and then suddenly turned to me and said "Quick, over here!" and insisted I look through the door... and Jared was in there!
He and two security guards looked kind of like they were trying to break the wall down and then I realised it was one of those partition walls and they were actually trying to get into the next room (where Jared's coffee lounge was due to start)!!
I only looked for a moment, mostly because that is without doubt the weirdest and most STALKERY thing I have ever done, but I tell you what... it was worth it!
Eventually Jared just grabbed hold of the partition and basically YANKED it open! I would LOVE to know how that looked to the people at the coffee lounge! Assuming they were already in the room...
Anyhoo, that cheered me up quite a bit (which was very good because, no matter what had happened up to that point, I hadn't actually lost my enthusiasm for the weekend yet, and I didn't want to lose it at the final hurdle!). So then we got to the doors of the photo-op room and I remembered I had to let one of the Blue Shirts know about my ticket... you see, after Sam, Amy and Matt's talk the day before I had decided I wanted to turn my Amy/Sam op into an Amy/Sam/Matt op, figuring it wouldn't take up any more time and would therefore probably be OK. Paul agreed, so I paid the extra and he added Matt's name to the ticket.
Problem is, I noticed later he hadn't signed it or anything and it could very easily have been ME who added Matt's name! So when I got to the front of the queue I asked the Blue Shirt (who had asked us to wait for a sec to go into the room cause it was getting VERY hot in there!) if she thought it'd be OK and she obviously believed me (luckily) and said it should be fine and to just mention it to the Blue Shirt at the front of the queue who was taking the tickets. I'm 99.9% sure the Blue Shirt I was talking to was named Donna. I mention that because I was particularly impressed at how good a job she did all weekend (especially considering the pressure they were all under) and I very much hope someone she knows is reading this - if you are, please pass on my heartfelt thanks!
Where was I? Ah yes... so now I'm in the queue and I was witness to the answer to something I'd been wondering about... i.e. if they're all three in the room, how does it work with the different ops? Turns out they jump in and out of shot. And it was actually pretty entertaining to watch. A couple of times Matt got distracted and had to run back into the shot. And a couple of times they got confused and nearly walked into each other! But they were all smiling and looked to be enjoying themselves as far as possible (it was HOT in there!). Also, when they did the ops which were all three of them, they were standing with Amy and Sam standing either side of the photo-op-ee and Matt on Amy's other side. For the obvious height reasons I guess, but the whole time I was in the queue I was thinking 'do I really want to be in a picture with THOSE TWO either side of me!' I'll tell you this, I might not be able to look at that picture when it arrives! I'm not unhappy with the way I look in general, but stand next to two women who look like that and see how YOU feel! *G*
Luckily, they are both so completely adorable and sweet I actually wasn't even the teeniest bit nervous when it came to my turn. As I walked up they all three looked right at me and said "hi!" with big smiles and then as we were getting into positions I accidentally kind of grabbed Matt's arm for a second! He didn't seem to mind, or possibly he didn't notice!
So that done I pretty much RAN back into the room for the rest of Misha's talk.
As I was walking in I heard him talking about his mother's house being burgled but it turned out later he was actually talking about an April Fools trick he played on her! He hid all their stuff and trashed the place so she'd THINK they'd been burgled... I just... everyone on the set of Supernatural should probably pray he doesn't decide to start playing jokes on THEM!
At one point he suddenly apologised for what he'd said about slash the day before, but since he hadn't said anything bad I'm not really sure what prompted him to apologise!
As far as his talk goes... he really is someone who you have to hear for yourself, his talks were kind of like a stream of consciousness and there's no way I could do it justice, also, because of the way he goes off topic etc. it's kinda hard to remember!
I DO remember him getting told by some Italian fans that saying Eric Kripke's names means he's cursed... he thought they were saying THEY were going to curse him, and then he started referring to Kripke as 'he who must not be named' *G*
He had a LOT of fun with one of the Red Shirts Who Wasn't Wearing a Red Shirt (who I later found out was one of the ones who we'd been talking to all weekend! She was really nice and very helpful, as they all were), anyhoo, he kept referring to her as the crotch photographer but I'd missed the start of that so at first I really did think someone must have gone up there and started taking pictures of his crotch...
When he got asked about season 6 he spoke for quite a long time about how 5 comes before 6, and then he went off on a weird tangent about how they could manage to film 6 BEFORE 5 and it was both hilarious and very odd... he really does have a VERY quick mind.
Eventually, he got asked a question which he couldn't even BEGIN to understand. He kind of looked to the audience for help, but unfortunately none of us could really understand either (I still have NO IDEA what her original question was), but then she asked something about touching his hair for luck and he said he'd do it for a tenner. Or possibly twenty, I forget. Anyhoo, turns out she didn't have any cash on her so he said 'you've missed your window' and when he changed his mind a bunch of people in the audience said 'no! she's missed her window!' and there was much giggling. The thing is, she was still standing at the mic trying to ask her question! Eventually he said something along the lines of 'I'm going to answer some other question because I can't understand yours' but the tone of voice and his body language made that one of the funniest statements of the weekend. That is, until Malik and Gabe came on stage...
Doug had spoken to Misha a few minutes before and asked him to stay on stage for longer than planned because Jensen was still signing autographs and so wouldn't be able to do his final talk. Now, when Misha told US that, I assumed he was joking. Because he'd been joking around all weekend and I found it hard to believe they'd cancel the final (some might say HEADLINE) talk. At this point I had no way of knowing just how far behind the auto's had got so I just assumed it'd been delayed rather than cancelled. Anyhoo, eventually Misha had to run to the little boys room so Gabe and Malik came on stage to take over for a bit...
As they got to the stage they both stood at the front, quite near us, and all of a sudden Misha stepped up to them with his mic, pointed to the Italian woman who was STILL standing there, and said "Answer that woman's question. I DARE YOU!" And we PISSED OURSELVES laughing! And THEN, Malik said "No, no, WE answer ALL questions!" to which Misha retorted "That's what I thought until I met her!"
I feel a teeny bit bad for laughing at the poor woman, but I really do think she was finding it funny too, and it REALLY didn't come across as though he were being mean-spirited about it; he was just reacting the only (and most entertaining for the rest of us) way he could to someone he just couldn't even begin to understand.
For the record, a few minutes later I looked to the side and saw him standing by the door to the backstage area talking to her, and she got to touch his hair for luck :o)
That was basically it. Doug came on stage and started the closing ceremony, at which point I finally accepted the truth that Jensen really wasn't going to have time for his final talk.
He DID, however, come on stage for the closing (Jared had not been able to, which was apparently why he'd crashed Misha's panel, and which also meant Burglar!Jared was the last time I saw him. Which is actually fine by me cause that is a cool little memory I am more than happy to have :D). Anyway, Jensen came on stage and was lovely and charming and absolutely meant every word he said, that much was VERY clear. If you want to know what he said, and didn't catch my previous post, here's the transcript -
"Thank you guys! We just wanted to say thank you so much for coming out, I know it's been a long weekend and a bit wobbly at times, (I) apologise for the autographs and how quickly we were getting some of you through, but we wanted to make sure we got everybody that paid for the autographs, so, apologies but I hope everybody was happy. And secondly I want to say on behalf of all of us, thank you for your support, for watching this little show that we love so much... we forget what we're doing sometimes when we're doing it for so long in such a little, small corner of the world, so to come here and to get this kind of feedback from people as gracious as you are, it really means a lot to us, all of us, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Thank you for coming this weekend, have a nice night!"
Which, strangely, made me not care so much about him not being able to do his final talk. In fact, I was totally over that by the end of the night.
The night which didn't end for quite a few hours...
We (me, Lucy, Cassie, Jodie and Claire) said our goodbyes, and I am very gutted I didn't have my camera on me and couldn't get a picture of all five of us! And then Lucy and I headed upstairs where I planned to fall into bed and never get up again. Unfortunately my Misha and Amy/Sam/Matt photo's weren't out yet so I had to pop back down to pick them up. So we went to the room and I plonked myself on the bed and watched the previous night's final of Britain's Got Talent (don't judge me - I LOVE Diversity and I wanted to see them win!), and then Jump The Shark (which I'd forgotten was on due to all the excitement of the weekend!) while Lucy went for a swim.
I popped back down to the lobby about three times I think, but in the end the girls behind the desk were saying it was probably not likely the Misha photo's would all get printed that night (they'd already told us earlier to leave our details for the Amy/Sam/Matt piccies - and how lucky is it I wore my 'gurkhajustice.org' T-Shirt, which will be easy to spot?), anyhoo, I got chatting to the Blue Shirt who I believe is called Donna again and she was STILL, at ELEVEN PM, somehow managing to be friendly and courteous and, can I just say, those girls looked DEAD ON THEIR FEET and if I could have bought every last one of them a drink right there and then, I would have. Actually, maybe!Donna mentioned being starving and I was sorely tempted to order a pizza or something but then realised I was sleep deprived and that that was a stupid idea :D
Anyhoo, I wrote up another description of my missing photo, and then went to my bed. Didn't SLEEP obviously, but still ;D
Of course, this means I have something to look forward to - eventually I'm going to get a couple of cool piccies in the post to remind me of my excellent weekend!
I guess this is where I should do the 'final thoughts' bit...
Hmmm...
Well, all I can say is this -
EVERY SINGLE guest at Asylum made everything that went a bit kabluey ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.
I had a really wonderful time, met some wonderful people, gathered some great anecdotes (the girls on my team at work particularly enjoyed hearing about the CRAZY girl from the Friday Auto Queue!), and came away with so many good memories that I am immeasurably glad my sister decided all those months ago that we should go to Birmingham.
I hope the one person who's managed to stay awake long enough to get this far has enjoyed reading my little report, I know I've had fun writing it, and it's really cemented my memories (and will be fun to read back in years to come when I'm old and doddery and no longer know who Jared Padalecki IS). (LMFAO!!!!! Like THAT'LL ever happen!) *G*
I'm going to bed now. To sleep. I hope :o