And so it begins…Monster Mania without Ben, starring Tim and Kristy

Tim and I started out on a very intimidating voyage this morning. The voyage? To attend arguably the greatest convention on the East Coast, without our fearless leader, Ben. We somehow managed to keep eachother in conversation the whole way there. I even managed to take some lame videos of us driving, which should never see the light of day. We set out around 10:30am to make it to Cherry Hill, NJ around 4:45.

The Totals:
-Number of rest stops:2
-Number of minutes spent talking about serial killers: Approx.30
-Number of times we sang off-key to oldies: Too many to count
-Number of energy drinks consumed: 2 each (Tim-Monster, Myself-Starbucks Dbl Shot Espresso). Plus Tim had 2 Mountain Dews, and I had a Coke and a bottled water…how did we get away with only 2 rest-stops?

Now, Thursday is really just the pre-cursor to all the glory that follows. Everybody is antsy and excited about the festivities that will commence the next day. It’s a “Hurry up and wait” situation, but that’s the fun of it.
In actuality once you get in, take your bags to your room, and eat dinner, it’s people watching time. Convention set-up doesn’t begin until Friday at noon, so all that time  is prime time for Celeb Watching. For this endeavor, we had the opportunity to sit and people watch with Mike Kenny, one of Fright Rags biggest supporters. In the span of a couple of hours we saw:

-Dick Miller
-James Duval
-Kelly LeBrock
-Derek Mears
-Miguel Nunez
-Felix Silla
-Erin Gray
-Shavar Ross
-Michael Biehn
-Jennifer Blanc

Now the greatest of all of these sightings, was actually a meeting. Thanks to a chance encounter that Mike had with him at Fearfest, Ron Sloan (Friday the 13th:Part 5) stopped by to say hello as we all sat around. I will be honest, while Part 5 is my favorite, Ron Sloan’s character is one of the most annoying in any Ft13th ever. He was overly gracious for any fan recgnition of the film.  A genuinely nice guy, and his wife was sweet too.  He was even in an episode of Tales From The Darkside, he was telling me, which I found infinitely cool too. He was a great guy, and I can’t wait til tomorrow when I get him to autograph my Part 5 laserdisc (yes, I am pushing up my nerd glasses right now).

I have met Derek Mears a handful of times, and he always remembers my name, which is flattering to some merchgirl who spends most of the Convention behind a table. I have a bit of a past with Derek, and no, we never dated, he’s happily married to a beautiful woman, and he doesn’t wear glasses, so I’m not interested. I had the chance to interview him on my radio show on Friday the 13th this year, the day that the new Ft13th film came out (if you’re interested in hearing the interview, I can send you an mp3 of it! Just email me). To make a long story short,some communication got mixed up betwixt myself and his p.r. people and I missed my timeslot to interview him. Not only did Derek stay to do my interview, fitting it in after his last one, but he almost missed his plane to do it. He is a class act in more ways than one. If you have ever met him you know what I mean, but if you have never met him, definitely go up to him at the next Con you see him at, even a brief interaction is worth it.

Bill Philputt is an awesome guy who manages a lot of people at these Conventions; Derek Mears, John Landis, PJ Soles, the list goes on and on (re-evolutionmanagement.com). He stopped by to give me the scoop on some guests about to be added to his Festival of Fiends in Indianapolis..which makes me want to go more and more each day

The sad thing is, Tim missed all of this, he conked out at 9:30, and like clockwork, as soon as you go to bed, all the fun stuff happens. Impromptu celeb spottings, meetings/greetings, boys from VHSPS.com calling to see if you want to gather a mob to go see Inglourius Basterds at midnight (I wanted to go, but I nearly blood-oath promised my best friend I would see it with her as soon as I got back home). Everything happens when you let your guard down. Poor Tim, as I am sitting here typing this, I am telling him about everything he missed, and he is kicking himself now

I guess the final icing on the cake, was the most unexpected of all. If you have learned already, I am a huge fan of Return of The Living Dead. Miguel Nunez has been walking around the lobby on and off talking to fans. And for some reason, I cannot gather the nerves to just say hello, and introduce myself. Sitting next to me is my FT13th 5 laserdisc, and my never been opened Return of The Living Dead vinyl, just waiting to get his ink on it. As I walk to the elevator, he walks next to me, and we end up sharing it. I suck it up and introduce myself and he shakes my hand, immediately noting how awesome my Limited Edition Stripe shirt is. And he tells me he has a vintage one. Then I tell him I’m bringing him an awesome shirt tomorrow ( a PartyTime shirt, of course, from ROTLD). And he smiles and Thanks me in advance. He talks about a Con he’s doing in Tulsa, I’m dying to go…Thom Mathews will be there…aaaaaahhhhhh. Random meetings…one of my favorite things about Convention life…I love being starstruck by people I grew up watching.

So, thoughts? I can’t wait til we unpack all the merch, and get set up. Zornow comes tomorrow, and that should be an adventure…just know last time Jeff and I were together he accidentally gave me a concussion, so let’s see what he does to me this weekend.

To top everything off, I became a great aunt again today. Violet Marie was born at 6pm tonight. This weekend rules so far…

I cannot wait for all the real fun to begin…wake up Tim.

-Kristy (1:12am Friday morning)