SPNDC- My Ramblings on an Amazing Weekend

Last January I treated myself to a once in a lifetime trip to a Supernatural Convention in Jacksonville, FL. It was an amazing weekend (recap here). It was amazing, and much like everything else in my life, if it proves to be an awesome "once in a lifetime" kind of thing, I immediately begin to plot on how I can do it again. It wasn't even a month after SPNJax that I had my tickets to the convention in DC. I've already talked a bit about why Supernatural and this community is such a big part of my life (book review of Family Don't End With Blood), so I will resist the urge to rehash here, and instead just do my level best to recap an amazing weekend in DC. 

Last year Jacksonville was a strictly solo operation. I flew down for the weekend and made some awesome memories (and some new friends).

This time I went to DC with a friend from work and it was pretty awesome to not only get to have fun with a friend, but also see her witness the insanity that is a convention weekend for the first time. We got to DC on Thursday night and settled in to the hotel, checking over our schedule and making sure we had all of our outfits and ops set to go. We also started hashing out karaoke songs, which was a long process, but which totally paid off in the end. 

Panels: 

We pretty much saw every panel (except the gold J2) and there were some definite highlights. My favorite is always Mark Sheppard because he wanders through the audience as he answers questions. DC was one of his last conventions and the fans showed up for him, someone created signs that had some of Crowley's best quotes and Mark took some time reading the ones he went by, making the crowed cheer by simply saying "hello, boys". Mark is also that perfect combination of hysterical and terrifying, because you never know how he will react to a question, and it always leads to entertaining moments. 

Other highlights include Misha coming out with his friend Darius, which led to some great stories from their childhood as well as Jensen and Jared talking about Jared playing Jensen's leg guitar (which is remarkably not a euphemism for anything). It was also great to see panels by some of the actors who were not at Jacksonville, including Samantha Smith, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and especially Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster. They gave an amazing panel and are basically friend goals at this point. 

I did a Storify of my panel tweets and pictures- but for whatever reason it will not embed right now (it just shows as a big blank space)- So I'm linking instead. If you want to get the full recap of my panel thought, check our my SPNDC Storify! 

Karaoke: 

This was my absolute highlight of the weekend and I'm kicking myself for not handing someone my phone to snag some pictures or video. After much debate we settled on "Don't Stop Believin'" as our song selection and figured that there's no way they don't pick that song, it would just come down to whether we'd get picked or someone else. Karaoke was, as always, super fun. Rich and Matt hosted and Kim Rhodes and Emily Swallows joined in on the fun. Middle of the night they called for photo ops and Charity and I scrambled upstairs and back to the event as fast as we could just in case our song also got called. Our picture came out great and it will always be a reminder of what happened next. Last song of the night (Before Carry on my Wayward Son) and Matt called us up. I LOVE Karaoke. I love being on stage with an audience in front of me. I miss performing every weekend in shows, so I was completely in my element. I'm eternally grateful for my friend Charity, who is decidedly LESS enamored with karaoke, but who still allowed me to rope her into dressing up in corsets and crinolines and performing one of the most stereotypical karaoke songs known to man.

​The whole thing was a bit of a blur, but I do have some very concrete memories. Taking my mic from Matt and having a quick conversation about my tattoos before the music began. Spending the whole time looking at the audience instead of the monitor (this is why we pick songs we know, so we can really perform them). Looking over and seeing Charity and Kim palling around mid song. Looking over and seeing Matt just jamming out and smiling as we sang. Taking the run down Mooseknuckle Alley and high-fiving the crowd, including some young fans who had absolutely crushed "Footloose" earlier in the night. Getting a huge hug from Emily Swallow after the song ended. That absolute high after it was over. Performing live is a complete adrenaline rush. Getting to do it with a friend and some of my favorite actors was absolutely amazing. I immediately wanted to do it all over again! 

Update! The Amazing@BeanieJedi33 came through with some video clips over on twitter of Karaoke. I'm stupid levels of happy about this. I couldn't be more thankful that she snagged this video and shared. 

pic.twitter.com/hHwltecJvf

— Olivia □□□ (@BeanieJedi33) November 29, 2017

pic.twitter.com/cKplLgyXXX

— Olivia □□□ (@BeanieJedi33) November 29, 2017

Photo Ops: 

This is where I spend all my money at conventions. I love panels and karaoke, and the Saturday Night Special Louden Swain Concert is always amazing, but the thing I get to really take home with me in the photo ops with the actors. I spent the bulk of the year snagging a few Ops here and there, and by the time we arrived at DC we had quite the schedule laid out. We did some together and others were just for me. Overall the pictures were all great! I had a general theme for some of my pictures and the rest we just kind of decided spur of the moment! 

The theme! Christmas cards. Some cute, some just down right awkward!

Rich, Rob and Matt: This was one of the ops that I didn't get at Jacksonville and ended up regretting, so it was one of the first that I got for DC. I also knew pretty early that I wanted two pictures here. I see a lot of people posing with Matt while Rich and Rob seem put out, so I thought it would be funny to start there and then flip the script and take one with Matt looking upset at being left behind. I think the pictures came out great and I'm constantly reminded that Matt is almost completely unable to make a normal face in a picture and it almost always makes the picture that much better! 

Rich, Rob & The Kings of Con: These were our first and last photo ops of the weekend. Like I've said in other posts, I initially got hooked on Supernatural and went to my first Con for Jared, Jensen and Misha.... but I stuck around for these guys (and Matt). They were some of my best ops and experiences at Jacksonville and that trend continued in DC. I LOVE these photos and both Rich and Rob are just really good guys to boot. 

Louden Swain and The Wayward Sisters: Louden Swain is one of my all time favorite bands. I love seeing them live at the Saturday Night Special concert at the conventions and I never pass up a chance to get a picture. I just went for the group hug because by this point on Sunday I was fried, and who doesn't want a group hug from these guys. For Kim and Briana we went for a Charlie's Angels pose and I absolutely love it. It wasn't until after that we realized that we somehow managed to pair ourselves off with the two brunettes with our tattoos, mohawks and black outfits on one side and the blondes with their fierce red outfits on the other. We couldn't have planned it better! After the picture we got hugs from both Kim and Briana and I continue to be jealous of how awesome they are. 

Misha and Jared Part 1: I also had a Mishalecki op later in the day, but these were some of the Ops I was most looking forward to, if only to rectify the not so amazing Ops I got with Jared and Misha in Jacksonville. While neither picture at the last Con came out great, they both had good stories to go with them, so I was mostly out just to improve on the situation this time. Instead of trying to come up with some great photo op pose I decided to just go with the classic hug pose. Sure it isn't nearly as exciting, but I figured we'd be less likely to mess it up. With Misha it was quick and easy. With Jared I nearly died (only a slight exaggeration) and that's why there are two pictures. With the first one I made the horrible mistake of asking for a huge hug. Jared gives great hugs. His normal hug is perfect. I upped the ante by asking for huge and it nearly cost me my life (or at least my ribs). On our first go Jared's scarf got pressed directly into my mouth and because he was hugging so hugely I had no where to go. I believe when he let go I said something like "So you're scarf nearly suffocated me. Apologies if it has lipstick on it now!" and walked off resigned to having another awkward Jared picture. Luckily Chris Schmelke called me back for another go. This time I said "apparently we hugged to aggressively, try again" and I put my hand on his scarf to hold it down. Jared then announced "nobody can stop my hugs" and proceeded to hug me hard enough that I came up off the ground. Which is why I making a completely surprised face. Initially I didn't like this picture either, but the more I saw it, the more I really loved it. 

J2, Mishalecki and JDM: So here's a mixed bag of pictures. For J2 we showed them an example picture in which the two couples were looking at each other. So we pose and I notice Jensen look over my shoulder and then at the camera, at that point I was  thinking to myself "If I move I'm going to mess the picture up" so I just kept staring at Jensen. So the result is everyone but me looking at the camera, but who cares. I'll just keep on staring at Jensen, because who wouldn't want to just stare at his face? For Mishalecki I showed them the two hats, the bow and an example picture and Misha asked who was going to be in the middle. I said "generally me, but technically whoever gets the bow", and he immediately grabbed the bow. That out of the way Jared snagged the Naughty Hat and said "Double kiss face" I have exactly zero idea how it went from double kiss face to Jared having a fan girl moment and Misha going with the "someone save me face", but the picture is hysterical, so I'm happy with it! JDM was an easy one (once we made it through the ridiculously long line), we asked for a flex pose and he complied. I think that picture came out great as well! 

Overall it was another great weekend with the Supernatural Family. I took several videos over the weekend, including a great one of Louden Swain's merch room concert. You can find all the videos, including some Saturday Night Special Songs, Jason Manns singing and Misha & Darius telling stories on my SPNDC playlist on Youtube (found here)

Oh, and much like last time, it didn't take long for me to start planning my next adventure. In a short 11 months I'll be hitting my 3rd convention in Cleveland this time for the Give Back Tour Event! I can't wait for another convention, this time with the added bonus of having the opportunity to give back to the community! 

Panel and Merch Room Photos

Karaoke and Saturday Night Special