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| 6:30 AM (Eastern)-3:30 AM (Pacific) I got to the airport two hours before my flight was scheduled to leave, just like they had advised. What do I find? An almost deserted airport. I could have gotten there ten minutes before my plane was supposed to take off and still have made it in time. Security was not buffed up in any sense of the word. It was the same as it had always been. Granted this was just Rochester, NY airport, but still! 8:30 AM (Eastern) - 5:30 AM (Pacific) Finally left Rochester, NY aboard American Airlines destined for Vancouver! There wasn't many people on board, but that's not suprising considering what today is. I'd say the plane is between half and three fifths full. I got a window seat on the left side, and sat alone. (15A) I had written down the chair of events that had occured this day one year earlier. I kept one watch on eastern time and changed the other according to the time zone. So at the anniversay of each major event I could have my own moment of silence. (8:46am, 9:03am, 9:45am, 9:50am, 10:20am, 10:28am, 7:15pm-candle lighting in NYC and DC, 9pm-POTUS addresses the nation) When we reached out cruising altitude the pilot welcomed us and thanksed us for our continued support of the airline and choosing to fly with them on this day. Though no one seems outwardly on edge about flying today. We fly over Niagra Falls, though I couldn't see it I wasn't disappointed. I only like about 90 minutes from it and can see it just about anytime. I did have great biews...mostly of the wing but I could make out a few things around it. (Like the Great Lakes) I almost cried when the pilot thanked us again for flying on such a day. 12:02PM (Eastern) - 1:02 PM (Central) - 9:02AM (Pacific) Left Chicago after a four hour layover! While at the airport they had ten minutes of recognition playing bagpipe music, "Proud to be an American" and "God Bless America". At exactly 12pm there was a moment of silence; everyone stopped and stood still. It was so qioet I could here the ringing in my ears. After the silence they played an instrumental version of our Nation Anthem, everyone remained still and quiet. 3:06PM (Eastern) - 4:06PM (Central) - 12:06 PM (Pacific) Left Dallas/Fort Worth and am finally headed for Vancouver!!! While the ride was supposed to be smooth there was some rather violent and unexpected turbulence. If shook me up a bit but I reminded myself what and who was waiting for me in Vancouver. It was cloudy for a while after take off but cleared up enough for us to see some wonderful sites and some sad ones. While the mountains were magnificant there were so many forest fires! Mt. St. Helens was just so much more in person then in pictures from textbooks. We arrived 45 minutes early, but not early enough for me to catch the coach to Sekh's Party. The man at the front desk was quite nice and called me a cab. I was in such a hurry I didn't really stop to get a good look at the hotel. I just checked in, dropped my luggage on my bed ran back down stairs and jumped into the cab. The can driver was quite nice as well. It cost $25 Canadian just like my Gategoer pals had told me. Though the driver had no idea where Maverick's was! I gave him the directions from Sekh's website and he headed to the Plaza of Nations. We couldn't see the restraunt from the street but I paid and he dropped me off in front. This worried me a bit but I found the map pretty quickly, I was a little flustered still so it took me a minute to calm down and read it. When I found it on the map I headed in that general direction and finally caught site of it! Yeah! 7:15PM (Pacific) - 10:15PM (Eastern) - Sekh's Party! So I walked up to, Sekh (who was feeling ill) sitting behind a table. I gave her my name and ticket info...but she couldn't find my badge! No problem though, they had blank ones and just wrote my name on it with a permanent marker. I wasn't mad or disappointed, I still got to get in and only loosing one badge wasn't bad considering all that Sekh had to do! (Also by this time I had been up for about 16 hours, a very long 16 hours, and was too tierd to worry about every little thing like I always do.) However I was faced with yet more challanges that day; finding my room-mates and somewhere to sit. |
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| Wednesday, September 11th |
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| I stood near the entrance looking around, I knew what Brianna looked like because she had emailed me her picture. But there were so many people! I headed upstairs to the balcony to get a better look or at least find an empty seat. Thank goodness she saw me and came upstairs. She brought me down and introduced me to Jo my other room mate. I remember saying I didn�t know how I was going to find a seat. Then Mike (another person sitting at the table with Jo.) told me to pull up a seat. They were right up front! Normally my conscious would have said no, since there were tons of people who got there before me and didn�t get a good seat. But I�m a Supersquad! This was as good as I thought it was going to get the entire weekend. So I pulled up a chair, only to find that Jo had quite the story to tell! I won�t go into too many details here because it is her story but here�s the really short version: she met Colin Cunningham in a coffee shop and even got a ride in his car!!!!!!! Okay back to the party. JR, we were told, was going to be late and Colin couldn�t come because of his play. But I wasn�t too disappointed. (You�ll find I�ll say that a lot, I tried very hard to not expect anything so that disappointment wouldn�t ruin a weekend that was meant to be unforgettably fun!) Anyway the lists mums made some announcements and stuff�sorry but my recolection of that night is a little hazy, I was too tierd to remember much. Though I do remember finally getting to eat a real meal! My table was quite interesting to say the least. There was me (probably the most normal/boring person) and Jo, who didn�t seem like the type of person who would travel all the way to Vancouver from the Netherlands for any type of convention. Mike had been to all the Gatcons so far I believe, don�t know how old (a bit older then me) but he seemed a little too willing to drop a lot of money at the auction. Then of course there was Darren, also a Gatecon virgin I believe. There were two other people but with my memory I couldn�t remember their names if my life depended on it. (this you�ll find is a continuing trend throughout the weekend) But I remember the one sitting closest to the stage was a HUGE Martouf fan. (Sorry just remembered, someone got engaged at the party too. Don't remember who they were but congrats!) When JR finally got there I was in awe. He has a real presence on the screen but is nothing compared to what he�s like in real life. He really looked happy to be there and the entire time appeared to be enjoying himself. Again I don�t remember many specifics except parts of the auction. Like how Darren bid on Amanda Tapping�s shirt, calling out odd numbers and cents! It was hilarious, but when JR started to catch on he switched back to even numbers with no cents. I was laughing so hard at the whole situation I could barely breath. Well he got Amanda�s shirt! Then Mike took his hand at bidding on a script, he really wanted it but unfortunately it got a little to high. Then there was the moment I remember most vividly. JR was telling us about this movie he was going to start shooting in October where he plays a drug addict. He said he had to loose weight and grow his hair out for the part. Then of course we all wanted to see his hair, which he was hiding under a black knit cap with NYC in white lettering. He tried changing the subject a few times because he just didn�t like the way it looked and didn�t want us to see it. This of course just made us want to see it even more. Finally he decides to end the entire conversation and says something so the effect of �I�m not taking this off unless someone bids AT LEAST a thousand.� Then he laughs and says �Ya cause I know no ones gonna bid that much-� Then a girl in the back bid a thousand! He wasn�t sure if she was serious at first. She said it again and he just looked...I've never seen anyone look so genuienly shocked in my life. He still didn't completely believe her until she came down front and started getting her payment out of her purse. He kept telling her that he'd wash it for her and asked again and again if she really wanted his dirty hat. He said something about there being skin flakes in it too, and that she could clone him. But he said he didn't know why anyone would want a bunch of JRs running around. At this every girl in the place started screaming. A little while after that the auction was over so was the party, JR began signing the auction items for the people who won them. Brianna and I headed for the buses both exausted. (I had been up for about 22 hours by then-but I didn't get to bed until 1am so I was up 23 hours total.) When Jo finally got back to the hotel (she had gotten a ride from Mike) she told us how she got to have a quick chat with JR and even got a hug! I'm a little disappointed that I never got a hug from JR...but there's always next year, as long as he attends... Oh ya I also called home just to let them know I got there okay. I had tried calling from the airport, the hotel and the party but just couldn't get a signal. LOL, it was 3:30am (12:30am Vancouever) there in New York. I didn't expect anyone to answer I just planned on leaving a message, but they did pick up...sorry! |
| Related Links: Sekh's Party 9-11-2001.org |
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