My day at the Scifi Expo

Yesterday, I was reminded there was a scifi expo or "con" in town. As I'd been catching up on my episodes of "Chuck", I discovered Adam Baldwin would be in attendance.  A big synapse fired in my head...would it be possible to get Mr. Baldwin to watch the show I just spent a year of mylife working on.

I rallied. I ran to work to gather any promotional materials. Disappointed to find they'd all been shipped to a conference.  Lucky for me, the art dept came to my support and created postcards and gave me a tshirt.  The tshirt seemed a bit bland, so i doctored it with a little creative Sharpie.

My mission, to put the show in front of Adam Baldwin. 

After spending $50, standing in the cold wind without a jacket (thank you texas for changing the weather on me overnight) for almost two hours, we finally get inside.  I gotta hand it to the folks at the con, they managed the flow of guests extremely well. But the nature of the beast means standing in line for a while.  After a quick meal at Burger King (had to get my whopper on), we made it to the Baldwin Q*A and had excellent seats.

Adam was funny,well spoken, and extremely gracious, other than being annoyed at the crappy sound system.  Normally, you just get in line to pay the 20 bucks, get an autograph and quick photo, but this time, they had a commercial co. shooting pics w/ the celebs for a nice $30.  After some internal deliberation, it came down to, we're here, lets  promote.

So, i'm the last one and i get my picture taken with Adam.  I am reeling from the diet soda with enough cafiene in it to wake a rhino, and i'm flushed from dehydration. I am sure i looked like i was about to pass out from lack of sleep. Mr. Baldwin posed with me, as I wear my Smash it t-shirt. Goal! No. one accomplished.  But my mission wasn't.

Back into another cumbersome group to wait the autograph room. More lines, more waiting. My bf is an angel. He busied himself with twitter and fb on his iphone, and never complained, and told me funny stories to pass the time and help me keep my courage.

I'm at the table. The guy before hands Adam a card about a military charity he's devoted his life to. Baldwin shakes the guy's hand and agrees further conversations. Oh man, how can i follow that.

I stood in line, rehearsing how or what i was going to say.  I had a plan, but after the soldier charity pitch, my surprise card gig was totally buggered.  Instead of complimenting Mr. Baldwin on a noteworthy career, or talent, or even speak about some of the writing of the show that particularly caught my attention, I blurt out "WATCH MY SHOW! I WROTE IT! I DIRECTED IT".  To my horror, i start babblying. I have NO idea what i was saying.  I'm standing outside my body telling myself in a loud whisper "SHUT UP".

I am mortified. What happened to my usually cool, networking prowess?  Gone. To make matters worse, he looks at the shows postcard and then looks at the picture i handed to him to sign. "Are your Taj?"
What? NO...I'm the director! I wrote it! I'm not the talent.

That's the second person who said that when i handed the card to them.  I digress.  He signs the picture. I babble about Ti and Chuck and geeks and he's just nodding graciously, probably thinking, "thank god each of these dorks is only here for 4 mins".  Or, he sneaks off in his mind to calculate the math of his take home. I would.

My boyfriend quickly redirects the attention by asking Adam about his political twitter posts.  They have a nice conversation.  I feel like a dork x 10.  but i'm grateful for the rescue. And as soon as they finish, i grab the picture and thank him. He slaps the card on teh table, promising me to watch it, as i ramble more about how it's free and i would be grateful.

If i could have run from that place i would have, but who's stupid idea was it to wear heals?

So i came home, and ate my way though a sleeve of Thin Mints and four pieces of hershey's chocolate nuggets.  no wonder my stomach hurts.

Will mr. baldwin watch my show?  Who knows. If i were him, i probably wouldn't. And who could blame him. All i hope for, is the glimmer of struggling film solidarity.

For Now...WATCH MY SHOW!
www.ti.com/smashit