halloween horrors

it's probably fair to say that halloween gives christmas a run for it's money in the 'favorite holiday' category.  i love everything about it; the costumes, the spooks, the (usually) chill in the air signifying the changing seasons.  and there is something eternally child-like about halloween.

conversely, october is typically a difficult month for me personally, because a heavy work-travel schedule means i don't have a lot of time to enjoy those things.  so, when an invitation came my way to join a group at the universal studios halloween horror nights, and i was going to be in town, i simply couldn't pass up the opportunity.

california does halloween right.  i've 'discovered' and loved other haunts during my time here, but had not ventured up to la la land for what i had heard, was a 'premiere' experience.  so, i took a deep breath and sucked it up to pay the exorbitant 'front of the line' ticket price (hopefully) ensuring quick entrance to the various mazes.

when saturday finally rolled around, i wasn't sure i was going to be up for it, having flown in from boston the night before, but i couldn't justify bailing when i had paid so much for a ticket.  thankfully, the financial commitment saved me from missing a truly fun-filled night!

me, rick, kristina, dean

my house was the meeting point and we split up into two groups to head north.  in my car were a couple of people i have 'sort of known' for awhile, and a new face (to me).  we intended to join up with the other group for a meal before heading in to the park, but wait times in local restaurants were long, so when we discovered they were behind us, we opted for a quick bite (which turned out to be delicious) at a citywalk creperie before heading in.

i was particularly excited about the walking dead infiltration at this year's event, and i got my first taste on the 'terror tram'.  while the other group ate, we were off and running!

or so we thought.

dean, kristina, me, rick

because we had made it on the tram quite speedily, we didn't need to use our front of line passes.  it wasn't until we met up with the rest of the group at the next ride that we realized i was the only one of our foursome who had been given the special pass.

ultimately what that meant was that we had to head back to the opposite side of the park to pick them up.  even though i had mine, i opted to stay with my foursome as i was really enjoying the company.

our 30 minute detour left us a little frustrated, as we hadn't yet realized just how much time those passes would save us (seriously, if you are going to do horror nights, spend the money), but we headed back from whence we came and began the serious business of ridin' rides and gettin' scared.

i turned out to be the obvious mark.  fortunately, new friend rick was a gentleman and offered his arm as my 'stress ball', while dean and kristina mostly laughed at how ridiculously easy i was to scare.  what can i say? i like to be scared, so i allow myself to be scared.  that's what makes it fun!

we gave up trying to meet up with the other group for awhile as we played in the lower half of the park, taking a small break from the spooks to try out some rides.  our passes were amazing and we walked right on to the mummy, transformers 3d, and jurassic park rides.

we did a little screamin', got a little wet, and decided to head back to the haunts.  the surprise hit was the texas chainsaw massacre maze, which may or may not have inspired a little pants-peeing action.  after finishing up the lower park, we headed up to try to meet up with the other half of the group.

on our way, we stopped at mazes and rides we knew the others had already done, and eventually the entire group was back together.  i was excited to go through the walking dead maze with the two organizers--sisters--who share my obsession with the show.  and it absolutely did not disappoint.

with only a couple of mazes remaining, we took the opportunity to take some photos, grab some treats, and slow it down a bit.

but, after eventually finishing with all the haunted festivities, our groups said farewell, and we slowly made our way out of the park. the evening was happily concluded with an in-n-out stop and some iphone app video making in the back seat on the way home.

i'm not often able to take advantage of social opportunities on home turf, so it's hard for me to accurately explain just how excited i get when i can.  while i don't know that i would do horror nights again (i thought knott's scary farm was better, and for less $$), the fact that i got to spend my night with a fellow native easterner (rick) and also discovered that someone (kristina) i've sort of known for a while is someone i really like, made it worth every penny.

the price, is most definitely, right

what i love most about my job is that every time i think things are getting a little 'routine' something comes along to shake things up.  in this case, a visit to a taping of the price is right.

my team has had an unprecedented amount of success this year.  we are collectively responsible for the company's traditional media, social media, and event presence, and we've hit some major milestones in 2012.  my boss wanted to celebrate, but with some restrictions coming from our parent company --the insurance company that is on the side of you, always (can't decode that? i'm happy to disclose in a less public forum), we weren't allowed to go to disneyland.

we were however, greenlighted for a trip to tpir.  admittedly some were more excited than others (i like disneyland!), but all were down to make it a positive experience.

the 12 of us met at a diner near the studio and enjoyed a delicious breakfast before heading over at about 10:30am. and thus began the waiting.

at 11:30, we were allowed inside the gates, sat down on benches, and handed some forms to fill out.  we followed instructions, being careful to stay highly energized and excited, as we had been told that 'they are always watching'.  we turned in our forms, did some more waiting, got a group photo taken (below) did some more waiting, were ushered to a different area, did some more waiting.  all the while being 'pumped'.

in this second to last 'holding area', we were told that the producer was going to come out and interview us in groups, and finally it was our turn.  we were pretty certain that someone from our group would be chosen. there were a lot of us, wearing cool matching tees, and we had a high enthusiasm level.  the only question was who.

this photo was taken in a
bathroom stall, since we
were supposed to have
ditched our cameras!

and during the interview, it was pretty obvious to everyone in my group that it was going to be me.  he started by greeting me as darlin' (which further proves that i am one of those people who strangers must refer to as honey, sweetie, sugar, darlin', etc.) and he asked me about a dozen questions when everyone else in my group got one or two.

usually when cool things happen to me, it's a total surprise. but i saw this one coming...or so i thought.

At nearly 4pm, we were finally taken in to the studio and the taping began shortly thereafter.  and lo and behold, it was not my name, but my boss' name that was called out to 'come on down' to be the third contestant.  for reasons i discovered later, my boss had made an unexpected connection with the producer as we were being ushered out, at which point, he was pretty certain it would be him.

i was of two minds. on one hand, my boss loves the show.  he watches it regularly and he's good at the games (which we discovered during our many hours of waiting as they played old episodes). on the other, of all of us, he was least in need of a new car.  i tried to push the thought about how much i'd like one out of my mind and celebrate the genuine joy he was feeling at having the opportunity.

and boy did he make the most of it.  he ended up winning a car in his game, AND in his showcase. and in fact, he was only $34 shy of winning both showcases.  he truly was an exemplary contestant.

and we were exemplary audience members!  in fact, sitting in the second row behind the bid podiums, you could see me in almost every audience shot there was.  and of course, the whole team had to rush on stage at the end of the show to congratulate him.  i got my drew carey hug, and all in all, it was a good day!

i made my own 'highlight reel' of the episode by videoing my tv with my phone, but if you missed it and you're interested, you can check it out here.

productivity

in the last 48 hours i've:

renewed my driver's license
renewed my car registration
taken a new passport photo (blech)
submitted my passport renewal application
and got my hair cut and colored

i truly dislike these 'administrative' tasks, but, i must admit, it's nice to be home for a bit to handle my biz-ness!

the comic-con experience in photos (and some words)

for the commentary, watch in full screen mode.

for the rest of the photos AND videos, click here.

the comic-con experience in words

every year 100,000+ people converge on san diego in a celebration of comic books, tv and movies based on comic-books, tv and movies that have turned into comic books, tv and movies that maybe could have been somehow related to comic-books, tv and movies that have nothing to do with comic books (glee, for instance?) and basically all things followed, interested in, or obsessed about by the citizens of nerdlandia.

since moving to california, attendance at said celebration has been high on my bucket list.  not only have i considered myself a nerd, for, well, as long as i've had a concept of what a nerd is, but i also genuinely wondered what it would feel like to be among so many like-minded people.  kind of like the olympics for nerds. 

it was a miracle that i even managed to secure tickets.  as i've previously mentioned, the tickets sold out almost immediately, and i consider it a testament to my nerdiness that i prevailed, since doing so required having multiple browser windows running with click through and copy/paste address bars simultaneously working hard to get me through to the 'purchase portal.'  in fact, that alone earned me my right to be there.  

my participation this year was intended to be a one time deal, but, what can i say? i drank the kool-aid, and the kool-aid was goooood.  

i won't play-by-play the experience,  but i will mention that i had done A LOT of research before making the southward journey.  when you by your tickets, you have no idea who will be there or when, and in fact, the schedule is only released a couple of weeks before the event.  it's a bit of a crap shoot, but i, being the planner i am, didn't want to leave anything to chance.  i can't even begin to count the number of forums and websites i've visited or the people i talked to, and fortunately, the research paid off.  

my #1 priority (after meeting nathan fillion and having him propose to me) was attending the firefly 10 year anniversary panel, and i was successful (on the panel, not the other thing)!  there has been a lot of wonderful coverage about that panel (i've also got some video on my smugmug) and it was a really unexpectedly moving experience.  my favorite encapsulation would be geek god joss' whedon's answer to an mtv reporters question: was there something extra special in the air for you this time around?

whedon: yeah there really was. i would describe it as 5,000 people all tearing up about the same thing at the same time. that's a little weird. one has fantasies of success but that isn't what it is, it's so intimate, that's a one-on-one, we had an entire hall full of people having a one-on-one experience, including us with each other. i looked over at nathan and i didn't know if i could look at nathan because i was getting too emotional

it was a genuine privilege to be in the same room as joss whedon and nathan fillion and to have that experience.  it required a 4am wake-up call, waiting in line for 4 hours, sitting through two earlier panels (though one of them included joel mchale - so that was fine), and it was worth all of it.

now to the rest of the highlights!

favorite moments of the weekend, in quotes:

random guy on bus leaving a message on his own voice mail:  “hello future self. this is a message to see if there is a cell connection. ps you're having a great time”.

me: words i never thought i'd say: i'll be on the lookout for tall skinny ghostbusters.

random guy in line to other random guy: you know how star wars is like a space samurai movie?  that's kind of like how firefly is a space western.

random girl in line (in reference to 'community'):  i love how we can refer to that as the first paintball episode.

joss whedon (answer to audience question: many of us in this room camped out last night to get into this panel.  i wondered if you've ever camped out for anything?): yeah. camping.

astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson: pluto had it coming.

me: i feel like i'm in line with my high school drama department.

sam huntington (on sam witwer's character in being human): maybe aidan can flash back to pirate days and he can be a vampirate.

my friend jamie (during a discussion in a hot tub with two random guys about stan lee's recent penchant for hiring young pretty girls): so what you're saying is, stan lee is hugh hefner now?

and that is just a tiny sampling of the many overheard quotes and conversations that made me so happy.  up next: the comic-con experience in photos!