Thursday, August 7, 2014

Pre SDCC- Friday

Whew! I feel like I have finally recovered from SDCC! Now, to be fair, I attended the convention sick. Not contagious sick, but more like organs failing sick. I had been having a lot of random pains and nausea in the weeks beforehand, and while my doctor tried to get me a diagnosis before my trip, it just didn't happen. So she sent me on my merry way with enough medications to make my trip not completely horrible, but it was still pretty uncomfortable. I figured I break my time in San Diego up by days, so you don't get bored :)

My husband and I left for San Diego earlyish Friday afternoon. We figured that traffic wouldn't be too horrible, and we would get into San Diego early enough to see some of the off site SDCC things before heading to the House of Blues for Kevin Smith's Hollywood Babble-On podcast. Wrong. So wrong. We hit L.A. traffic around 3pm, which didn't start out as anxiety inducing as it usually is, but quickly got that way. Our TomTom started alerting us to a traffic incident, and soon we were off the freeway and traveling through some very unsavory parts of various cities for about two hours. Come to find out, a tagger had been caught on an overpass and refused to come down, so the CHP shut the freeway down in both directions. Yeah. This standoff would end up lasting around three and a half hours, which was crazy. I mean, L.A. traffic. At getting off time. On a Friday. It was insanity (and thanks to KTLA, you can read about it here). Eventually we were able to get back on the freeway, and it was pretty smooth sailing from there, but the damage had been done to our timeline and we didn't get into Sad Diego until almost 8pm.

Since there wasn't too much time to do anything, we hung out in our hotel for about an hour then went to House of Blues to try to get something to eat before the podcast (the podcast taping started at midnight, way past my bedtime lol). I was feeling okay up until that point. Eating was a mistake. I couldn't finish my meal, but I took some of the meds I was prescribed and prayed I would make it through the podcast. I have been to other House of Blues locations, but I have to say that I really enjoyed the decor in the San Diego HOB. It was very cool. After dinner, we went outside and waited in line for the podcast. We weren't lucky enough to get seats, so we were part of the standing room only people, and at the time we thought our spots in line would mean something. It didn't. Anyway, we waited in the line for about an hour, then got inside. We were supposed to go to the ground level and stand behind the chairs down there, but they let some of us stay on the balcony, and my husband managed to get a pretty good spot there. I was standing a little behind him, because at that point I was feeling really sick and didn't want to be squished next to anybody. All of this is important because, I had a really shitty experience and I'd like to share it with all of you.

I didn't mind standing behind my husband. He wanted to get some pictures, and I didn't want to be pressed against a railing. Plus, I had a perfect spot where I could see everything between him and the guy he was standing next to. And I didn't mind when this obnoxious group of college kids stood next to me. Ugh, I should have known better. Almost right away, one of the girls steps on my foot. Hard. But she wasn't a bitch about it, she apologized, and I thought that was the end of it. Wrong. From there, it got worse. She was constantly pushing me and hitting me. At first I let it go, chalking it up to her probably being one of those people that is an animated talker and also doesn't realize personal space. During this time, I should also note that two guys took this opportunity to hit on me. Not to bring it up to be vain, I was honestly flabbergasted (I do not get hit on. Ever.), but its important because the last guy that did it returns later in the story. It should be noted that once he found out I was there with my husband he flat out turned and walked away from me while I was mid sentence. But I digress. So I text my husband and tell him that this girl has pushed me out of  my spot. He turns around to assess the situation and a few minutes later he texts me with a way for me to come stand next to him. I follow his instructions and almost immediately the girl who had been pushing me all night gets in my face. She starts yelling at me that she was there first and I can't just shove in and blah blah blah. I told her that I had been there before she was, that she had been pushing and hitting me all night and she knew it because she had apologized for it. She tried to deny it and then one of her other friends tried to join in. At that point, I really wanted to punch someone, but I'm not a violent person. My husband then let her know that she was full of it and they kindly needed to back off. Which she did, for a minute.

It would be nice if that was the end of the story, but sadly it isn't. From there, she and her group of friends were screaming about how they had integrity and how cool they were and how they were tall and didn't really need to see the podcast but they could because they were tall and rambles for days. I had hoped that once Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman came onstage they would shut up, but they didn't. They talked and yelled through the whole thing. I felt them tugging at my shirt and my pants, and I heard their phones going off, so I'm sure there are some unflattering pictures of me somewhere online. The last guy to hit on me tried to hit on them, telling them he'd do anything to have sex with them. So they told him about what I had done and they wanted him to do something about it. That only marginally backfired as I had already told him what she had done to me (you know, before he walked away from me so rudely), and he told her that I was nice and wouldn't do it. So instead he tried to fight with my husband and the guy he was standing next to. It didn't work, and the guy looked like an asshole. They also spilled a drink on my husband, screamed and yelled constantly in my ears and spit on me repeatedly. I had high hopes that Kevin Smith's warning at the beginning of the show about people acting a fool would be thrown out would actually be enforced, but the security guys at the HOB didn't seem to give a shit, which was really disappointing. There was one standing about three people away from my husband, and I know he saw everything that was going on, he just didn't care.

All that aside though, the podcast was amazing. I had never heard an episode of Hollywood Babble-On, so I didn't know what to expect. It was pretty standard Kevin Smith though. Everyone was hoping that Ben Affleck would make a guest appearance, but he didn't. Instead, he had Kevin Conroy, which was pretty bad ass. Kevin Smith also married a couple dressed like Thor and Jane Foster and showed the trailer for his movie Tusk. Ralph Garman was just there for looks. Lol, just kidding, he was equally as awesome. Click this link to hear/see the podcast (yes, their podcast had a ton of visuals) from July 25th.


Did any of you attend the Hollywood Babble-On taping? Or were you doing something else equally as awesome on Friday night?

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