So, it's been a while, huh? No, I'm not going to go back and try to completely explain the past… a lot of months. I've decided that would be too much work and too many words. Instead, I'm going to do a bit of a highlight recap and then talk mostly about this past week or so. Ready? Let's go!
Halloween was fun. We talked the kids into not needing to trick-or-treat again, so we just stayed home and watched a movie.
I got two jobs. The first and primary one is in the PetSmart PetsHotel. I basically play with dogs all day. I'll explain more if I need to when I tell stories I guess. The other is with Kasey at the Aji Network. I go in when I can around the hotel, helping do quality control work on their videos and now working camera crew for their conferences.
Thanksgiving was amazing. As everyone knows, I couldn't come out to Utah because I had to work. They have everyone in the hotel work a four hour shift on the 'big holidays' (Thanksgiving and Christmas) to make it fair. So, I was planning on just grabbing some Taco Bell or something on the way home and chilling by myself. When Kasey found out about that, he totally nixed it and very much insisted I join his family instead. It was a blast and a half. I have been very blessed two years in a row with wonderful friends who have helped me through a rough holiday season, and this is my 'public' and totally inadequate show of gratitude. Lorraine, Kasey, Laura- thank you. Thank you so much.
Christmas was almost everything I could have hoped for. While it would have been nice to have the entire family come out, who we got was enough to make it feel like home. I don't want to go into too much detail about this, either, since most people who might possibly read this blog were there, but just know it was awesome.
In January we had the shoot for 'Star Trek Continues' episodes four and five. Woo hoo! As usual, it was a crazy, exhausting, beautiful, annoying, intense, insane, gratifying couple of weeks. It was full of laughter, tears, sleeplessness, yells, cheers, dancing, and fighting. It was one of those experiences that you totally and completely hate and wonder why you're wasting your time while it's happening, but then it ends and you cry and can't wait 'til the next one. You know, pretty standard STC shoot. What set it apart, besides the fact that we filmed two episodes at a time, was the amazing gift we received afterwards. The cast and crew put a pool together to send Aubrey, Randilee, Hayley and I to Orlando! We drove down (the girls were flying out from there anyway) and stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights. The day in between we spent at Universal Studios! Harry Potter World? Totally awesome. Almost as much so as our STC family. Just saying'.
Behind the scenes, working' hard.
Oh so busy! Or so they want you to think. These guys are more the 'hardly working' types. ;)
Hogwarts!
Not much happened through February, March, and April. There were a few birthdays, a trip to Utah everyone already knows about, and a visit from Daddy or two. I love him so much! I fully enjoyed going to dinner with him. :) We did have a chance to go up to San Fransisco when Stacy and Tom (my sister-in-law's parents) came out. Tom and Ryan were working (and Ryan doesn't care anyway) so it was Stacy, Niccole, the kids and I hanging out in the city. I'll try to attach a pic or two from that. We walked around Pier 39; took a Bay ferry out past the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz; hiked (pretty literally) up to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream and chocolate; rode a trolley car; and visited the Dragon Gate of China Town. We didn't have time to actually go through China Town like Stacy wanted to, but we had kids that were tired and a couple of husbands to meet, so we left. Niccole and I also took the kids to the beach one day. Other than that, it's been pretty much work work work until this month.
The kids on the ferry. We were coming up on Alcatraz here.
Browyn loved the merry-go-round! All the kids were really dizzy when we got off.
Gettin' on the trolley.
Browyn and me at the beach! She's freaking adorable.
May was kinda crazy. I still worked a bunch, but I also house/dog sat for Kasey during a chunk of the month. Echo and Sadie are so sweet! They didn't like to let me sleep, though. Especially Echo. And she got some TERRIBLE gas from time to time, which she enjoyed sharing with me while hogging the bed and snuggling her butt up to my face. Yummy. I know that doesn't sound like a lot was going on, but it really was.
Echo and Sadie. Love these girls!
Then, there was this weekend! It was my favorite part of the month, and possibly the year so far. We went down to Phoenix Comicon to premier STC's new episode, "The White Iris"! I flew down on Thursday, got picked up by Becky at the airport, and checked in to the Sheraton. We checked out the convention center a bit while we were waiting for everyone else to come in. Aubrey and Hayley were driving and Michelle's flights kept getting delayed, so we tried to find ways to entertain ourselves. The con hadn't actually started yet, so there wasn't much to do, but we managed. Eventually we had more people to play with, and found some pretty neat stuff. Like the zombie shooting alley! That was cool. I liked shooting zombies. xD
Friday they asked Hayley and I to wear costumes from the show to help promote the episode. Most of us spent pretty much the entire day walking around trying to figure out where to put the little cards we had to advertise so people could know about the screening. We all met up about 5:30 for the 6:00 showing. The turnout was good, the episode was BEAUTIFUL, and the fact that they "couldn't turn the lights out" until ten minutes before the ep ended was only slightly annoying to me. After the viewing we had a Q&A panel where we also showed the bloopers from "Iris" and the teaser for our fifth episode, then an autograph signing. Chris had us go around trying to 'hype' the people in line, and eventually I went and talked to the people still waiting in the chairs too (They called people up in sections to try and contain the crowd better. I felt bad for the people that actually waited correctly for all that time, but they were troopers. And actually really cool when I went and talked with them.) That night, Hayley, Aubrey, Michelle, Abigail (one of the Kickstarter backers from this episode with whose presence we were graced most of the day) and I went back to our hotel room, ordered pizza, and hung out before going to bed. It was a good day.
A shot of the autograph line after the premier.
Saturday was pretty non-stop. The first STC-related panels started at noon. Some of us went to Chuck's acting panel while others went to the 'Women of Trek' panel (I went there!). Then it was Vic's, then the producers' panel, then the make up demonstration. It may not sound like a lot, but it was back-to-back-to-back. I was on the producers' panel, but luckily didn't have to answer any questions. Apparently, according to Twitter and several people that randomly spoke to some of the con staff (that later told me) it was a lot of fun and really quite educational. The make up demonstration was Tim and Lisa turning Hayley into a Vulcan, so she was in uniform that day too. I almost dressed up with her, but really didn't want to be wearing the costume while on a panel. I'm not THAT big a geek- so sue me. They did an all-cast photo op Friday evening, though I'm not sure how that went 'cause we didn't get up there after the make up panel. That night we all went to dinner at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, which was also fun. I LOVE CHRIS DOOHAN! I just had to say that. He is an incredibly sweet man, and I had a really nice moment with him (until Kasey ruined it! xP). Finding out about Elder Perry put a damper on the evening, but other than that it was awesome.
Vic at his panel. Flashy pants, eh?
Hayley gettin' all Spocked up by Tim while Lisa shows off Todd's ear molds. Yummy.
(WARNING: Random name dropping ahead. If you want to be jealous, you can look them up. Haven't figured out if that's my point or not yet… ;P)
Sunday was much calmer. Our last two panels were at noon, which I was really sad about. I'd been excited to go to the make up and wardrobe one, but since the con scheduled the other one I had to be on at the same time I couldn't go. Chris White and I met up to strategize in the green room a bit before the panel started, then went through the maze of back hallways to get to the panel room. While we were slinking along behind the curtains, we passed almost all of the guests that were there. Charisma Carpenter was in the green room, and Karl Urban had stopped by for a minute, but the rest of them we saw everyone else. Alyson Hannigan, Alexis Denisof, Mary McDonnell, Veronica Taylor, Christopher Lloyd; I had to tell Chris who almost all of them were, 'cause he had no idea. It was fun to see them, though. After the financing panel, we hung around the autograph lines with everyone, saying goodbye as they left one at a time. Vic told me to wait in the green room to take Michele over to Karl Urban to say hi, 'cause Vic had to get back to his line, but Karl left before Michele showed up. So did Summer Glau's husband and ADORABLE baby. We did see Jason Momoa and his mom, though. They were grabbing some food before heading out, and Michele "said actual English" to him for the first time ever. Around 3:30, when Vic and Michele were the only cast members left, we all (Vic, Michele, Becky, Aubrey, Michelle, Hayley, and I) went down to the vendor hall- passing Katee Sackhoff and Jason again- and walked around for a while, then Vic went back up to finish signing. When he was done and Michelle was off to the airport, the rest of us hung out in the green room. Lexa Doig, Danielle Panabaker, and Jim Beaver were all there. Vic and David Morrissey raided the 'Jim Beaver BALLS!' centerpiece for golf balls, Vic threw a football and something else at my head, and I explained Periscope to David. (Also, we may or may not have gotten an invitation for dinner at his house… Girls? Thoughts on that one?) He's super cool, by the way. And tall. Danielle had an adorable little Maltese puppy named Bella that was hanging out with her husband. At first Bella was mostly asleep, but eventually started roaming the room and playing around. It was so cute! That night, dinner was originally going to be a nice, quiet evening with what we thought were the ten people left in Phoenix from our group. Turned out there were 17 of us left, and 16 ended up going to a really odd-but-intruiging-but-weird-but-yummy restaurant/club place named Hanny's . We'd gone there before, during the 'Pilgrim' premier two years ago, but with a much smaller group. This time it was a really long table of fun. We ate, took tons of pictures, laughed, prayed, and joked around with each other. Vic was told by our server that there was no karaoke at one point after he started singing to the song. It was totally the DJ's fault, though. If they didn't want people to sing, they shouldn't play those songs! I got Vic to sign my arm, completing the collection, and he went pretty crazy with it. I like my Snoopy and Enterprise, thank you very much. :) Almost all of us took turns in the weird mirrored-hallway bathrooms, empty glass-floored elevator shaft, and creepy-doll-filled basement before walking back to the hotel for a goodbye full of hugs. It's always so sad to leave them!
Vic signing my arm.
Michele was terrified of the glass floor.
The finished product! :D
This morning Becky, Aubrey, Hayley and I went to breakfast with Greg and Cherri Dykstra. Greg works for Pixar and came out for the shoot with his brother and sister. I'd met Greg, Adam (his brother) and Cherri a few months ago when Vic came out to show 'Fairest' to Pixar and Kasey invited me to have dinner with them all. Breakfast was a great way to round out the weekend before heading to the airport to come home.
So, that's pretty much it! Now you know all about what I've been doing these past few months, right? Playing with kids, playing with dogs, playing with Trek. Close enough, anyway. I'm going to try and start posting more often, but I'm not promising anything. I never have, and I never will. But we'll see. :)
I wish I had something profound to end with today, but the con stole all my brainpower. I'm not sure why it wanted it or what it will do with it, but I can't find it and I'm pretty sure I last saw it in Arizona. Sorry about that. I'll try to some up with something soon. Again, we'll see.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for sticking it out! I tried to add enough pictures to make it bearable. Let me know if it worked!
'Til next time,
-Megan
P.S. This took long enough that I no longer felt like reading through it like I normally do, so I apologize for any issues. Maybe I'll go back and fix things later. Now I'm going to go watch Fullmetal and go to sleep.
