Just posted my After Action Report to facebook, excuse the copy/paste!
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Here it is, every little detail!
Friday, we leave at 12:30PM, which is early for us! We drive and drive and drive until finally reaching Calgary at 9:15PM.
We head straight to our hotel, The Marriott Downtown. We check into our room on the 18th floor, unload our stuff and get ready to go meet some friends downstairs. Our hotel is nice, like super nice. There was valet parking! haha
We go down to the lounge and meet with Andrew, Darren and Gareth, who are from the UK. Andrew is doing a documentary on ALIENS fans. Our visit is great, but everyone is tired from traveling so Mom and I end the night and go back up to our room.
Saturday, we wake up at 6:30AM, get ready and we head down to the restaurant where Mom had an awesome breakfast. I was too nervous about the day ahead so I never ate (I had been plugged in to my tube feed already though! haha)
We decided to take our time, so we headed back up to the room for a few minutes and earlier noticed there was a leak in the ceiling above the shower. Front desk said they might have to move us. We get to our room and the door is propped open by the cleaning lady's cart. We knocked on the door and it was hilarious. She never answered so Mom kept knocking. Then we hear the grouchiest, broken english "Coming!!" shouted across the room. We giggled and Mom knocked again and we heard an even LOUDER "COMING!!!" haha. When she got to the door it was kind of cute as she realized it was guests and not co-workers, she couldn't speak english but for a few words like "OK" and "Yes, yes" as we explained to her we needed the room for a few minutes.
We then made our way to the Stampede grounds and ran around the parking lot looking for which building we had to go into first. there was 4 or 5 different buildings the Expo was spread out across. We finally got into the main building and started our adventure!
First up we met Mark Rolston, who played Private Drake in ALIENS, the tall blonde guy with the big Smartgun. He was super cool! very kind! We got some photos with him.
Then we met Lance Henriksen who played the Androi... err... "Artificial Person", Bishop, he was also really cool. I had brought my ALIEN Anthology Bluray boxset to get signed on the "ALIENS" page for everyone to sign. He was like "Oh! right on!! Do you want to see something cool?! I love signing these!! I'm gonna sign it twice!!" He took a gold sharpie and neatly signed his name over the Alien on the cover's head. The Alien is holographic so you can only see the gold marker if you turn it just right, it looks neat! He then signed the inside as well. We chatted with him for a bit too, he was very interesting to chat with!
Next we met Paul Reiser who played the company man Carter J. Burke. (The bad guy, although he says he was "misunderstood!" haha). He came and posed for a few photos as well and signed the Anthology. It was funny cause I went in for a handshake and was denied! haha He was like "No! Sorry I'm sick! I'd hate to pass it on to you!" hahaha. He must have been pretty worried about it cause he kept our marker! haha
Right next to him was Carrie Henn, who played the little girl "Newt". Got to chat with her for a bit too! she came and posed for some photos with us too and signed the Anthology.
Then we made our way over to Michael Biehn. He played Corporal Hicks, as well as Kyle Reese in the original Terminator. He was also neat to chat with, and posed for some photos and signed the Anthology. Mom was like "That bad guy over there stole our marker!" hahaha!!!, He laughed and said we could have his, he had a whole box of them haha!
After that it seemed to be rush hour. We saw Manu Bennett signing at his table, he played "Crixus" in the latest Spartacus TV series, and has appeared in the recent Hobbit movies although I haven't seen them. He is also in "Arrow" but I don't watch that either. We went to get his autograph and his handler told us we couldn't because he was late for a photo op. We left understandingly and decided to come back later. When we left his table Mom seemed to get mesmerized by his manlyness cause she went camera happy, snapping photos of him haha. Turns out after we got chased away, a larger group came up and they were getting autographs!!
After we got the slice from that, we just happened to be in the right spot at the right time, the cast of AMC's Hell on Wheels was just arriving to do a free signing of these little poster cards. After that, Christopher Heyerdrahl who plays "The Swede" was staying for an extra hour and taking donations for a charity. We were first in line and Mom had the camera, suddenly Anson Mount, who plays the main character Cullen Bohannon comes around the table and puts his arm around me for a few shots! I was so surprised!! hahaha
Then we made our way to Jenette Goldstein, who played Private Vasquez in ALIENS, the little latina woman (she is actually jewish! haha) that EVERYONE loves, with the big Smartgun! She was so cool too, we told her my nickname "Moosh" and she was like "HEY!!! I KNOW YOU!!" and turns around to her handler and was like "remember that petition I signed!?? IT'S MOOSH!!" hahaha! Posed for a few shots with her too!
Then we made our way over to Ricco Ross' table. We never even got up to his line and he had already came out from behind his table with his arms stretched out, "Moooooooosh!!! Hey girl!!!" haha! Got a big hug and a peck on the cheek from him, he posed for some photos and then I asked him about Arcturian Poontang hahaha!! Such a cool guy and I hope we get to meet him again soon!!
After all that we decided to get something to eat, we met up with Andrew, Darren and Gareth a few times throughout the day, and we all made our way to the Corral where the ALIENS EXPOsed Panel was to be held. As we were waiting some old guy latched on to chatting with Mom. The more he talked the more I wanted to smack him on top the head or just run him over... He was making a big deal about the prices of the cast photo and Sigourney's photo and her autograph. Yes they were expensive but we felt they were worth it. He then started talking about how Sigourney Weaver is dumb, and an airhead, but she was good looking. Cool, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Then he was talking about a few years ago when he met William Shatner, "He's an asshole!" and "when I lived in LA for two years you could get their autographs for free on the street!". I was thinking "OK this guy is getting on my nerves...". Then he was like "Who in their generation *points to me* even knows who Sigourney Weaver is!!??". I was like "I do, she is one of my biggest inspirations.". He was like "Oh well... you're a sci-fi fan!". Then this fucking dude starts cutting into "stupid Americans!", while there were two women standing beside him that piped up "We're Americans...". He was like "Oh, well you two must be the only smart ones" and "all Americans are, are black and white!". Mom was like "We are native", and he was like "Oh, well, you look white!" Then starts going on about "them black people"!, he was going on and on, until I had to cut him off and was like "Come over here Mom!" to get away from this dork... She was quite glad to haha. What a wiener!
We got into the Corral and found our seats. They were pretty much "ice level" but way far back from the action. We looked over and saw that I could actually get down onto the floor level, so we went down and asked a volunteer if we could sit at the front in an aisle. They waved us in so we got right in the front row!
The show was fun! It was so cool to hear about their stories and all the antics they were up to. I got lots of pictures and some video, my camera actually overheated once! haha
After the show we met up with Terran, the guy we were sharing our photo op with the cast with, he was cool! Andrew and Darren did little reaction interviews for each of us, and we had Kody with us finally! Always great to see him!
We get back to our hotel to our new room on the 22nd floor, and find a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, fine cheese and crackers with grapes, and ice water with a nice note. That was nice!
We ordered room service and went to bed!
SUNDAY
Got up early and didn't dick around, we headed straight to the Expo cause we had to meet Bill Paxton at 10AM. He was cool, I got our conversation recorded. We softened him up for his award presentation, he seemed pretty genuine!
After that, we went to our cast photo, We were waiting in line and suddenly a golf cart ripped by, almost hitting me haha, here it was Sigourney! She saw us and waved! When we finally got up to them, Bill was like "HEY MELISSA!!" hahaha!!, Ricco and Jenette were "Hey Moosh!!", Sigourney was like "You know, you have a facehugger on the back of your chair! I'd watch out!" haha, After our photo we left, Mom was like "Oh my gawwwwd she was touching your chair!!!" hahahaha!!
We got right back in line for Sigourney's solo photo and when we saw her again she grabbed both of us and said "That facehugger looks hungry still!" haha. When we left that time we both nerded out "She was touching yooooou!, No she was touching youuuuuu!!!!" haha
Our lovely xenomorphic friend Abe (Gareth) was super lucky! He got an amazing cast photo and solo photo with Sigourney! Sigourney even sent her agent after to find him and bring him back so she could get photos together with him on her phone! haha, couldn't have happened to a nicer xeno!! Also goes to show you that she was having a blast meeting her fans!
We met Kody, Tyler and Marla after again and we went back to get Sigourney's autograph at 3:00... Here's where shit went down!
It was 3:30 and she was still signing for the 2:00 session! The line ups were huge! I traded Andrew my 2:00 ticket for his 3:00 ticket because the plan was Andrew would meet her first and let her know I was coming to present this award, and show her a lovely video fellow cast member Trevor Steedman recorded from his hospital bed asking her if she would accept the award. Andrew had sent it to her people but as we suspected, they never showed it to her. It ended up that Andrew got paired with Mom and I and we would be bumped to the front of the line because of my wheelchair.
As we were waiting, a short and very rude guy approached us and told us we could not film or if we even asked we would be kicked out. Then 3 seconds later another guy wearing a staff badge told us politely that we could present the award, and maybe get a photo of her with the award, but no filming. We were OK with this.
We get to the table and a volunteer asked Andrew to give up his DSLR camera, which he did right away. We met Sigourney and she was amazing! She really listened and held on to everything we told her, and graciously accepted her award. We politely asked if we could get a photo of her with the award for the Wall of Honourees for the ALIENS LEGACY website, and she was like "Oh Yes! Of course you can! *points to the volunteer holding Andrew's camera* Get your camera!" AND SHE LITERALLY GOT UP, WALKED AROUND THE TABLE TO OUR SIDE, WRAPPED HER ARM AROUND ME... AND POSED FOR PHOTOS! I tried not to nerd out so bad... I shook her hand and thanked her, she thanked us, and said she was going to treasure the award, and we made our way to the exit line...
As soon as we got to the exit line, the little rude guy FLIPPED... he cut us off and was like "I'm the director of this show! I told you no filming, not to ask and you went around me! You are out of here, give me your badge! You will never attend another Calgary Expo again!". Mom said we didn't do anything wrong, and that it was for the fans, much like the whole show was supposed to be, and if he was going to act like that, we would gladly leave and that we did what we came there for. He was very rude to Mom, making a scene. I was getting pissed at how he was talking to her but we all kept calm. He then had security lead us out of the building!
It was funny, we got to the end of Sigourney's exit line to a woman at a table selling certificate of authenticities, she tried to stop us so she could get a look at my ring I was wearing (my facehugger ring I designed) and all I could say was "Sorry! We are being kicked out right now!" hahaha, the look on her face was hilarious, she was so confused, she was like "oh... Okay..." and slowly sat back down haha!
As we were leaving the area Kody and Darren joined us in our parade with security out. There was 5 of us, including my wheelchair, plus 2 security guards and the little guy. We got to the tiny elevator that went down a half level to the doors on the ground floor. The elevator is meant for one wheelchair and one attendant. They tried to cram all of us into the elevator! We couldn't all fit, not to mention we would be way over the weight capacity!
Instead of trying to squeeze into the elevator, Kody went to walk down the 5 steps to wait at the bottom for us and one guard physically grabbed him! Kody warned him not to touch him and the guard backed off but hollered at his buddy at the bottom who blocked Kody off. Mom echoed that he wasn't going anywhere, that he was just going to wait at the bottom.
The elevator finally came up and me, Mom and Andrew piled in, as soon as I rolled out, the little guy grabbed my wrist and cut off my wristband with safety scissors, and did the same to Mom and Kody.
Once we got outside I started pulling a Hudson... I was shouting "I AM AN ULTIMATE BAD ASS!! STATE OF THE BAD ASS ART!! YOU DO NOT WANT TO FUCK WITH ME!!" hahahaha!!
Mom and I went back to our hotel and rested up, then headed over to Andrew, Darren and Gareths hotel for some bluescreen interviews about our day and I was also presented with the same award! I still don't know why I got one or why what I have done is so special, but I am very humbled and honoured!!
We said our fairwells and went back to our hotel, and came home on Monday. We stopped in Lloyd for 2 hours and hung out with Jon which was nice! we sure missed him!
There it is!
Thanks for reading!