Parsippany, NJ Con?

[justTripn]

Alelou and Middleman. Note he has an Enterprise patch on his shirt:



The radiant Emberchyld:



This guy was a pretty good Archer!




Blurry Connor and John Billingsley:





The amazing Kate Mulgrew:

[justTripn]

Finalists in the costume contest:

[justTripn]

This nice friendly Bajoran was married to the scary Klingon.



The Bajoran chats with Emberchyld:



Emberchyld and the Klingon (husband of the Bajoran):

[Emberchyld]

First, I have to say in my hair's defense that it was hot and swampy in NJ last weekend! It usually looks half-groomed Even my spots (painted on with no-smudge waterproof eyeliner) were no match for the weather- my waist spots faded slightly on the drive in and had to be repainted in the ladies room.

It was sooo nice to meet up again with JT and to meet Alelou and her son! I came late (just in time for the Billingsley/Trineer talk) and could only stay on Saturday, so I'm soooo jealous of both of them.

I do have to say that JB/CT were probably my favorite speakers of the day just because they play off of each other so well. It started out rough when the first question of the day was on the finale-that-shall-not-be-named (*groan*), but improved an incredible amount after that-- if you ignored the Starfleet Jedi and his questions. John Billingsley had me in stitches as he kept PAYING fans for compliments. And I'm proud to say that I managed to stump these gentlemen when I asked: "You must meet so many interesting people in all of your travels and at conventions. If you had to pick, who is the most interesting person that you've met as a result of Trek?" JB bowed out of the question while Connor, after a bit, named three fans, two of whom were in the audience (one was right behind me in line for a question.) The two are smart and funny and I'm so glad that they contributed to "our" show.

Kate Mulgrew looked wonderful-- I agree with JT that she looks even better now than when she was on Voyager. (Alelou, you may have run too early-- did you miss the lady AGAIN introducing her son-who-she-named-after-everyone-and-parades-around-at-conventions?) Kate's obviously an old hand at conventions and her answers were very nicely detailed and delivered with a fun dramatic style. I kept giggling as she'd *swoon* every time she mentioned the ONE non-holographic real kiss Janeway had in the series.

I was disappointed in the small number of vendors... I think there were even less here than there were at Cherry Hill, now that I think about it. Two rooms, but less vendors overall.

Some of the costumes were AMAZING. The cardassian girl made her costume and prosthetic herself. The Klingon who won was such a ham on stage that you couldn't help but love him. "I think Ensign Rand is getting RANDY!" (as he grabs her for a pose)

For me, it was... strange... being in costume. The first time someone asked to take a picture of me, I looked at him for a second and went... "Oooh...kay..." By the end of the con, I had my pose down pat (MU costume photographed at the wrong angle= baaaaaaaad *shudder*)

I also did learn that I need to get double-stick tape for the next time I wear this. And, though some of my pant pockets were functional, putting anything in them is a bad idea. Low riding cargo pants made out of non-stretch cotton twill= wardrobe malfunction just waiting to happen.

Sadly, I didn't take many pictures and since I was back in the cheap seats, the pictures that I did take of JB/CT/KM turned out more like dark specks on a dark background. And I don't, surprisingly, have many pictures of me I do have almost identical pics with our Klingon friend.

Sorry for taking so long to report in... I've been a bit sleep-deprived thanks to sewing late in to the night last week.

[Elessar]

In the Klingon's defense, he wasn't living in his mother's basement. Alejandro and I watched in awe from our hotel window as he jumped into a bright yellow convertable and pushed a button and the roof folded up and disappeared somehow, really cool, and he peeled out. He was also married and had other hobbies!

I'll have you know that as you were describing this scene I couldn't keep the "License to Drive" flashbacks from pouring in:

GET OUTTTTTTTTTA MAH DREAMS!!! AND INNNNNNNTO MAH CAR!

[justTripn]

I was really HAPPY with the vendors and spent maybe 100 dollars, 70 of it on a model ship: A gleaming-but not too gleaming, hand painted, so you can see every panel ENTERPRISE NX-01!

I took it to work yesterday and proudly unveiled it from it's bubble wrap showing it to a coworker, who is every bit as nerdy as me, but won't admit it. He was going on, "Ha, ha, ha! Oh Ann, you've sunk to a new low." That kind of thing. I said, "And it's 1/1000th scale!" And he says, "You realize, it's 1/1000th the scale . . . of something that DOESN'T exist! Ha, ha, ha." So I'm taking all this in stride and then he looks over the ships on my desk and goes, so you've got two "D's" but you don't have Kirk's ship, what is it? A 1701?"

At which point I shout "Busted!" and he cracks up in guilty giggles.

I have to take a picture of my prize, but first I have to admit to my husband that I bought it and I haven't quite worked up the courage, lol . . .

[Aquarius]

Wow, it sounds like you all had a great time! I love it when you can meet friends you know from the web.

I have really missed the Trek con experience the last several years...though reading some of these reports I'd forgotten how "out there" some of the fans who come to these things can be! It's painful how out of touch with reality some people can be. I don't miss that, but it comes with the territory.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Nice pics and thanks for the reports, everyone!

And Emberchyld, you looked great as an MU Trill in the ENTverse. It makes sense for the Terran Empire to have conquered the Trill homeworld as well, so it's not really a break with "continuity".

[justTripn]

I found a few more good pictures:

Arachnia



Klingons!

[justTripn]

Emberchyld on stage

[justTripn]

Arachnia, Gynan, Yoeman Rand, ?, Archer

[Emberchyld]

(E and KTR, you make me blush)

Thanks for posting more pics, JT! Arachnia was GREAT-- and even better that Kate Mulgrew recognized the costume immediately when the woman wearing it was up to ask a question. You can't see it in pics, but she actually went to the trouble of putting black "gems" into the spiderweb collar around her neck... nice attention to detail. ? girl was some sort of scientist with a complex name who found a way to make tribbles "not so prolific in their reproduction"-- cute twist.

And maybe I was disappointed in the vendors since not one had earrings *sigh*...

[Alelou]

Yeah, I couldn't believe there wasn't even a bumper sticker that said, "My other vehicle is a Romulan Warbird." I was kind of keen to get one of those...

[The_Middleman]

Hi All:

Sorry it took so long to post here since the convention last week but the real world sucked up a good chunk of my time during the week. It was very nice meeting justTripn, Alelou and Emberchyld. This was my second NJ convention but the first time I had the chance to met Connor; both my daughter and I were pretty impressed at what a nice guy he is. Here are my pics of Connor and John from the convention. I hope I'm not violating ny posting guidelines here with the size of these Pics.

[The_Middleman]

And some more