Gallifrey 2013--The Weekend of A Lifetime

Yes, Gentle Readers, I'm gonna take the lid off the cookie jar & tell you about my favorite time of year. If you don't know what Gallifrey One (AKA Gally) is, the simple answer is that it's a Doctor Who convention held in L.A. every Spring. The more complex answer is that it is a place where I've met friends that feel more like family than you could believe. People who could just look at me & know what I'm thinking & finish my sentences who don't even know my last name. This particular year, my BFF since age 14 & her wife came for their first time & it was beyond magic to watch my  "families" blend so beautifully. I'm going to try to deliver a linear narrative, before it all fades into an impressionistic haze of elation-filled moments.

Day 0 (Thursday, Feb 14): I arrive at LobbyCon (the unofficial, ongoing party that starts whenever fans begin to gather in & around the LAX Marriott and keeps going til the last of us leaves) around 10:30pm Pacific Time. Please understand that during the week leading up to this I was absolutely manic with excitement over this event. I could hardly sleep, but fortunately I had a knitting project (a 4th Doctor inspired scarf for my Sistah, Roy) to keep me occupied, not to mention the never-ending late-night 1-man fashion-parade that I kept doing with all of my outfits. So you can imagine that I was positively buzzing with energy (not to mention those 2 double Bloody Marys I'd had on the plane) when United Airlines (FINALLY) let us off the plane & I was able to grab my luggage & get on the hotel shuttle. The 1st person I see is my friend Sal, dressed as Colin Baker & we share hugs & he gives me my 1st ribbons of the con. I head down to the poolside room that Josh & Roy (my Gally roomies) have already secured. My BFF & her wife & her cousin are already sitting round a table, chatting with some new friends they've made. Unfortunately, one of these ppl had already had too much to drink with rather dire consequences for some of the landscaping, so I briefly said "Hi, Hoes" & kept on trucking to the room, where I was able to give Roy his present, hug on Josh's neck & put down my bags. After fixing the 1st of many Grey Goose & essence of cranberry juice cocktails, my client, Jason Shepherd met me & I gave him the 4th Doctor-inspired scarf in velvet chenille that he'd commissioned from me:

Someone has a pic of me & him & Roy & Josh in our scarves...

Much joy ensued as I trucked up to the lobby area, distributing some Mardi Gras Swag to friends old & new. & PS No I didn't make anyone show me they titties. In fact, the few titties that were voluntarily shown I'd rather not have seen at all, but there you have it. Despite operating on very little sleep, I was awake & chatting the house down until 5am (AKA 7am to my poor lil body clock).

Day 1: Eyes pop open at 9am after a few hours of chaotic, clairvoyant dreams and I'm in & out of the shower & off to breakfast at Denny's with the legendary race-bending cosplayer, Quiana Howard & my Gally Roomies.

Beauties at breakfast

As many of you will know, I have had some financial setbacks the last couple weeks at the Art Markets, so my budget was restricted to autographs, meals & TARDIS console photos, so I headed straight to the Dealers' room where Classic Series companions Peter Purves & Debbie Watling were signing. They were both so lovely! When Peter found out I was from NOLA, he asked about how I made it thru the storm & when Debbie found out I had a tattoo, we had a lil talk about her tattoo (OMG Who knew Victoria Waterfield had a tattoo?!?!!!!) & its slightly taboo location.

I spent most of the rest of the day re-connecting with old friends & got my old home friends to join me for a quick picture with  the lovingly-restored TARDIS console prop from the 1995 TV Movie:

Hold on!!!!

Pretty soon it was time for the opening ceremonies, so we went into the hot, overstuffed big ballroom & welcomed the guests & Shaun Lyon, who is part of the team that's been running this con so successfully for the last 24 years, gave us a great surprise treat when he presented a screening of a classic series episode of Doctor Who, previously thought to be lost, Airlock, from the story "Galaxy 4." If you don't understand why this is a big deal to me, how in the hell did you get on this blog anyway????

After this was over, I went outside to the smoking patio in front of the ballroom area to find Big K (my BFF's wife) chatting the house down with legend of British stage & screen, Michael Jayston, who played the Valeyard (or, if you ask Kelli, the Valkyrie...sigh) during the Trial of a Time Lord season. Going into it, I thought these hoes were my entourage, but it looks like I ended up being their paparazzi instead:

Well, then we took a lil dinner break & it was time for more Grey Goose & essence of cranberry & crazy talk. We went into the MST 337 presentation of Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD (yes, like Mystery Science Theater but strictly for DW related stuff.) It was funny, although the sound wasn't great, & that room was too hot for me to sit in one place while half-drunk without falling asleep so we headed over to the Party Called Mercy for awhile, & then we hung out poolside til security say we had to leave the area due to noise complaints. We didn't let it slow us down though & before you knew it, Miss Stacey & I had made some new friends & gotten invited to their room party onna 5th floor. Great times had by all--I had my first taste of "Irish Kisses" (Chambord & Bailey's shots---!!!!! YUMMMMM)....in fact I had such a great time I'm not really sure when I made it back to my room....

Day 2: Eyes wide open again at 9ish AM & I got to meet up with my long-time Gally Gal Pal, J'-enne D'amian & her son Kai (whose outfit kinda matched mine):

I swear we didn't plan this

Josh (aka Roommate Prime) & I had breakfast at Denny's on our own & it was nice to get a lil 1-on-1 time with him as I ate the hell outta my Breakfast skillet.Then I was off for more adventures. The day's big highlights included: running into Anjli Mohindra in the hallway, sharing an elevator with Sylvester McCoy before getting his autograph, as well as talking at some length with the incredible Freema Agyeman about her work on Law & Order:UK, as well as the new hit show here in the US, The Carrie Diaries.

She's even prettier in person!!

Then I felt the time was right for a costume change & I headed over to that TARDIS console for my 2nd photo with it (yes hoes, planning this was like working on my own personal press junket. You would think I was Rihanna):

My scarf looks even better in person too, & it looks Fierce here....

We were going to try to watch the Masquerade of Mandragora (the cosplay contest) that evening, but since the room was so packed, we decided to hang out some more, mostly with Michael Jayston. I may have attended a somewhat infamous party at some point, but I can neither confirm nor deny these rumors.......

Day 3: last official day of the Con, and guess who's once again up before 10AM. This day I was moving slowly in the AM & kinda stumbled around a bit til my roomies grabbed me & we headed down the road for our last breakfast skillets....This was the day I was closest to feeling hungover, although mostly I was just dehydrated, but still lookin' cute & feelin cute enough to be photographed once more by that TARDIS console, this time dressed in my TARDIS drag:

Time Ram!!

By this point in the con, I'd gotten all the autographs & pics I'd hoped for (and then some) and I once again, spent my time to its best advantage by catching up with the other Legendary Gally Children like Handsome Timmy D, Taylor Deathray, Eva "Rogue" Monahan, Heather Riggs, & oh so many more....I even made some plans with a certain cosplayer to do a lil gender-bending cosplay next year, but I'm keeping that secret til the time comes.

You may notice that I attended no panels this year. It was not from lack of interest but rather lack of time between my punishing schedule of pictures, signings & socializing, not to mention the sheer number of ppl in the rooms. This year Gally limited tix to 3200 & I can tell you it was still too crowded for my liking in the main room at least. This is not a complaint by any means, I don't feel I missed out on the Gallifrey experience in any way (this is my 5th, after all). Also, the programming was very cleverly arranged so it never felt like 3200 ppl in the hallways. Mad props, as usual to Shaun Lyon, Robbie Bourget, Dan Sandifer, & all the other volunteers & staff who made this the best Gallifrey yet. I apologize to anyone I forgot to mention in this post, I haven't forgotten you in my heart, I was just trying to keep this a reasonable length.

Anyway, so there was more boozing more fun, & more time with Michael Jayston poolside on Sunday night. I swear, my gals & I were the envy of many as Mr Jayston held court at our table, talking over topics ranging from working with Petula Clark in Phantom of the Opera to Lalla Ward's lesbian affair after her break-up with Tom Baker. Michael Jayston was a real class act. Even though I'm sure we'd all have just been happy to listen to him talk, he actually asked us questions and let us tell our stories as well. Of course there was always that lil fan voice in my head saying "OMG we are partying with the Valeyard!!!!!!!!!!!!" but I think I was cool most of the time. 

My Grrls eventually went to bed & I twirled out to LobbyCon with a sparkly, flashing wand, that I later gifted to my amazingly talented cosplayer friends, Mette & Bryan. I know a buncha ppl took pics of me with this damn thing, so I'd appreciate it if you posted them......

The only mistake I made all weekend was actually going to bed on Sunday night when I should have just stayed up, bc I missed my direct flight home by *that* much & had to get re-ticketed for a flight with a layover in Houston. I had such a marvellous weekend that this setback didn't even bother me. I just kept going back to the Con in my mind, thinking of the surprise french kiss I'd gotten (oh you know who you are, you naughty, tall thing!!) or how I literally rolled on the floor laughing with my UK sister, Ali Pearce, or any number of infinitely joyful moments that no single blog could ever hope to capture. 

I know many of my fellow Gally members are having some post-con depression (as I usually do) but this year, it feels different somehow. Instead of being sad that it's over I'm still as happy as hell that it happened at all & really looking forward to doing it again next year.....

Build High For Happiness!!!