Stranger In A Soggy Land

We have been visiting the fabled city of Houston, Texas.  Famous for being the home of NASA's Mission Control team, the Astrodome, outstanding medical center, and tropical rainstorms.
We didn't fully appreciate that last item until yesterday evening, when we got caught in a downpour on our way to meet the hotel shuttle.
My shoes and Matt's shoes were completely soaked by the time we got back to the hotel.
We are here for Space City Comic Con.  While the con organization leaves A LOT to be desired, it has been amazing fun catching up with friends and meeting up with celebs we sometimes connect with on Twitter.
OF COURSE we came to see Ron Perlman, and our favorite artist, Michael Ornstein.  I was so glad to get to see them again, and to collect hugs.  Gave a hug or two for absent friends, too.
One of the great joys of this trip is that we got to meet Doug Jones.  What a truly awesome guy!  So full of love for the fans, and so very kind to us all.  SO glad I got to "hug on Doug!"

Official Photo Op With Doug Jones!  One really awesome guy!

Me huggin' on and being hugged on by Doug!

We also had the chance to catch up with a couple of the stars of Star Trek Continues.  Michelle Specht and Chris Doohan.  Both outstanding actors, and very gracious and kind to fans.  Michelle is SO much fun!  Chris is so very nice, and a good lower-key person to come to a con with Michelle!  She has SO much energy!  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting them both!

Me with Chris Doohan

I am trying to add a photo of Matt with Michelle Specht, but Blogger is resisting this process.  I shall try again.

At last!  Matt with the very vivacious and totally sweet and fun Michelle Specht!




I also got to visit with, and Matt bought me a painting by, the totally cool Michael Ornstein!

Here's the official photo op with Michael:

Michael has been a good Twitter pal, he interacts often, and has been very supportive of my writing.  He isn't just an artist and an actor, he also writes, and his work is very visceral and moving.  Lots of flowing images there.

I also got to see Ron Perlman today.  Sometimes he seems like an extra brother.  He is closer in age to my brother Walt than to me, and he sometimes teases me about typos and stuff like Walt does.  I really love it when I get to see him.  He's so very kind to us fans, especially those he knows have been in his corner for the long haul.

Above is a picture with Ron and Doug because they were in Hellboy and Hellboy II together.  Ron was asking the photographer if the love showed enough.  I'd say so!  Love both these guys!

Here is the Hellboy picture they both signed for me, the joke is that I always tweet them when Can't Smile Without You shows up on my workout mix.  Doug always "favorites" those posts.

In case you can't read Ron's inscription, it says "Me Neither. Luv U" I think this is just about my favorite thing from the con. 

It was SO good to see him again.  Just love that guy, like a brother.  He's a keeper!

One more photo op with just Ron tomorrow.  Will have to say my quick goodbyes then, as we have to get to the airport early in case of security delays.  

I didn't get to spend much time with my friends.  We really enjoy those girls, but neither Matt nor I are really fond of going out to noisy places.  Besides, Matt can't drink, and never did drink much in any case, and I fall asleep if I have more than one drink.  I'm afraid I'm one of those bookish types who thinks a party is staying home curled up with a good book!  Or maybe hanging out with a few friends or just one friend and talking.  (Introverts don't party well.) (Don't know what my extroverted spouse's problem is with going out, except that he doesn't drink anymore.)

Wish we could hang out, just us girls sometime, but unless they all come to visit in my area, and even then, I can't very well just exclude Matt. (Well, I could, but he'd be hurt. Not a good thing.)

We did have a great time at dinner tonight, good food and good conversation, even if we had to shout across the table sometimes!

I've stayed up too late working on this.  I'll add more tomorrow.  Let us hope the trip home is uneventful, and the house is in good shape.

OK, I've been back in Moore, America (as some of the locals call it) for about 4 hours or so now.  All the unpacking is done, laundry to be started tomorrow. I have made myself a Lemon Chiffon Cake Martini. (Oh, so GOOD!) Recipe at TheMartiniDiva.com.

Yesterday we also got to see the latest episode of Star Trek Continues. Episode 6 "Come Not Between The Dragons."  Beautifully done, beautiful story, very true to the Original Series. This is one of the very best episodes of any Star Trek I've ever seen.  Wow.  Just wow.  We got a poster and had Michelle and Chris and Gigi sign it.  We shall treasure it.
This is one reason we couldn't spend too much time with the other Perlgirls this weekend, we were geeking out on our long-held Star Trek fandom.  Star Trek Continues is a loving tribute to the original series.  It looks and feels and sounds a lot like the original.  The production is all non-profit.  Nobody gets a paycheck for making it.  Talent and time is donated, the costs of production such as sets, storage of sets, studio time, materials, etc are what the crowdfunding   money raised covers, and the actors and others pay their own room and board and transportation during production.  The results are breathtaking.  You must see it!  If you haven't found it yet, go to startrekcontinues.com  You owe it to yourself to check it out, especially if you loved the original Star Trek.
Here's the poster:

We got to spend quite a bit of time talking with Michelle Specht and Chris Doohan, and a bit of time this morning with Gigi Edgley about the episode and the series in general.

 We went with the other Perlgirls to get our photo ops with Ron.  Here's mine.

After that, we went about checking in with and saying goodbye to the folks we had met and visited with this weekend.  Stopped by Michelle's table, and Chris's and stopped to meet Gigi and get her signature on the poster.

We also went back to see Doug Jones one more time, and I bought a "Mother Ghost" figure from Crimson Peak, and he signed it.

Also collected more hugs and smiles.


  Went back to see Ron again, just to say thanks and goodbye.  Girl at the line entrance is all "Are you SURE he'll remember you?"  We said yes, he will.  About that time his booth helpers saw us and said, "Hey! Hi! Are you guys just coming by to say hi?"   THEY remembered us! Of course Ron came out for hugs and a little chat, and to wish us safe travels home.  I missed the opportunity for a group shot with the girls because they caught him later.  I also missed the panel discussions he was in on because they conflicted with the Star Trek Continues panel and with when we had to leave for the airport.  It's hard to be Torn Between Two Fandoms, you know?  I love Ron like a brother; but Star Trek, well, you'd have to be a fan to understand, I guess. REALLY wish I could've seen Doug's panel, too.

We stopped by Michael Ornstein's table again to say good bye, and show him that I'm wearing the "lucky shirt" on the flight home. (It cracks him up, every time!) We bought a painting of his, an original that he did just for this show.  We bought the painting on Friday.  I managed to get it back to the hotel without the rain ruining it largely because Michael painted these on a plasticized paper. (Also, I had bought a protective sleeve for it.)

This is my favorite of the ones Michael did for the con.  The expression in the eyes, the colors, it's all compelling. There's a story or three in there. It's going to hang in the hall, where we'll see it often, and so will visitors, if they look that way as they pass the hall.

I did mention the rain, didn't I?  Just briefly, I see.  This will be forever remembered as The Con That We Got Rained On. It POURED on us when we were walking from the NRG Center across the street to our pickup point.  We then got further soaked between the hotel lobby and our room.  On top of all that, the ceiling in our room leaked.  Right in front of the fireplace, there was water dripping.  Both from the ceiling, and down the front of the fireplace insert, between it and the actual wall.  Joy.
The hotel was very sweet about it, offered to move us, etc, but we didn't want to move our stuff in the middle of a howling thunderstorm, so we just asked for a bunch of towels to keep it contained, and learned to ignore the drip,drip,drip.  Luckily, the rain stopped after a couple of hours, and by the next morning, you almost couldn't tell the carpet had been soaked over there.  They cleaned it all up while we were at the Con on Saturday.
We did get one group shot of all us girls and the two husbands who gamely came along.  This was taken right after our photos with Ron.

From left, Matt, Mary, me, Kelly, Jana, Mal, and Lance.

So glad we got to meet Lance.  Glad I got to spend at least SOME time with my friends.  I made some new friends,too, and got to show appreciation to people who have done GREAT work and made many of us Trek fans SO happy.

On the way out the door, we stopped to say farewell to the artist Nicole Brune.  She and her husband and their young daughter were the folks we met on the way in on the shuttle from the hotel on Friday.  Her art is really beautiful.  Traditional pin-ups, but with more attitude.  We bought a couple of her prints, but also her book -

Her husband is a character, and their daughter is just delightful.  SO glad we met up, and VERY glad we bought those prints!  Her web address is:www.nicolebrune.com

The two prints we bought are on the upper left, The Last Teaparty and Pamela's Midnight Rendezvous. Just below it is the decorated, clasped, leather-bound journal of handmade paper that I bought.  Of course, you can also see the StarTrek Continues Episode 6 poster, and my portfolio of con photo ops and autographs.

By the way, the Star Trek Continues poster was free; I paid for the actors' autographs, of course, because hey, we want them to keep being able to come to cons and to make more Star Trek Continues!

Whoa!  I think I just about covered it all, except for getting lots of hugs from the other #Perlgirls who were there. Wish we could get more of us together.  I KNOW we'd hang out then, I'd just tell Matt he was tagging along like it or not! (Or maybe he and Lance or some of the other spouses could go for a night of their own...) Would greatly depend on where we were.
Just so much love this weekend, and I really needed it!  A great, relaxing, fun time.  Thanks again to Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Michael Ornstein, Michelle Specht, Chris Doohan, Gigi Edgley, and Nicole Brune and family for being so awesome and so kind to fans!
Extra hugs to Doug, always.  You have the most soothing presence of anyone I've ever met!  (And you're fun, too!  Bonus!)

I do hope this makes sense.  I have read over it several times, but it was written piecemeal, and on at least one extremely sleep-deprived night.  If it sounds too juvenile, or too "fangirly" , I'm sorry.  I AM something of an antiquated geek girl , after all.  Bear with me.