I woke up this morning and after finally getting my uncle awake, we went out for a delicious brunch at some place in Santa Monica. Great omelette, and I don't normally like omelettes.

Made it back to the hotel slightly late for the Seventh Doctor Era Roundtable, but caught most of it. I know you may have heard this once or twice before, but I'm madly in love with Sophie Aldred. She had her son with her all day, and, again, just made her more amazing in my eyes.

Then I bumped into Mike (MJ's Mike) and he was going to the Doctor Who Restoration thing, so I went with him and it ended up being really great. Interesting stuff.

Wandering etc. while I was killing time before the "Dragonfire" live commentary, except it ended up being "Ghost Light" instead, because someone forgot to bring along a VCR. The panel expanded to include Andrew Cartmel and Mark Ayres (who did incidental music for the series back then). Unfortunately, I don't think the actors were as prepped, and Mark Ayres talked a lot, and I was a bit disappointed. But there was a Tipping the Velvet reference.

Why, yes, I will talk about it. Ace and another female character (token girl Ace has to bond/fight with) dress in men's clothes for a bit of it, and Andrew Cartmel said something about how that was a pretty common thing, and they did that on purpose as a shout out to the stuff in the era. And then he mentioned Tipping the Velvet, and the BBC adaptation and how it did stuff that Doctor Who couldn't. Word.

It's just not a day in Sam World without lesbians.

Then there was a New Who year in review, but I wasn't too into that. And then the closing ceremonies. When Sophie Aldred walked off stage, she was within TWO STEPS of me. Now, I know I sound like a broken record, but I think she's great. And, you know, I just want to move into her house and be her part time snuggle buddy. S'all.

Then out to dinner and some nice chatting about sci-fi. Then back here and a chat with a teacher from a college in Pennsylvania about gender and sexuality, and then we offered to buy Sylvester McCoy a drink, which he declined. Alas! I also offered to move in with Sophie Aldred and be her snuggle buddy, but she wasn't there. And I didn't say anything out loud. So let's also consider that declined.

For now!

And now Gallifrey is over, and it's bittersweet. On one hand, I wish I could go back and be less shy and just sort of chat with the guests. But I'm glad I did it. I came here to see Sophie Aldred and I got to! And meet her! And everything else was delicious icing on my Sophie Aldred cake.

In case I've never mentioned it before, I'm madly in love with Sophie Aldred.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I went to the Sarah Jane panel first thing, which was okay. Nothing spectacular. It started a bit late, and I left earlyish to go to the Sophie Aldred interview. I managed, therefore, to get a seat in the front row. Which brings me back to my first sentence. I get that she's a devoted wife and mom now, but for some reason that just makes her more attractive to me. I must be getting older, since my values have shifted. Domestics. Who knew?

After that I sort of wandered around a little. It's sort of fuzzy in my head, but I know I eventually ended up at the internet/LJ/forum meet up, where I met a couple of new people. At this point, I was getting a bit kerfluffled about planning and things, which happens.

We went down to the live "Human Nature"/"Family of Blood" commentary with Paul Cornell. It was packed. I heard the Moffet "Blink" one was packed earlier in the day. Sophie Aldred (I'm sorry, it's weird for me to just use first names for someone I don't know, but Ms. Aldred is also weird) is a big fan of New!Who and [jokingly] said she was annoyed they'd scheduled it against her interview. Heh. The commentary was great, and I'm really bummed that I'm going to miss the Gender and Sexuality panel today, because Paul Cornell really hinted at its interestingness, but there's no way I'm missing a live "Dragonfire" commentary. Plus MJ and Wendy (new LJ friend!) said they'd go and take notes/records/whatnot.

After that, there was some more planning kerfluffle, but MJ and Hilary were kind enough to buy me that ninth Doctor action figure. I don't have a lot of action figures anymore (or graphic t-shirts or posters, which is why I've spent relatively little in the vendors' room), but he'll go on my desk next to Homer Simpson.

Then, I ran over to see Sylvester McCoy's interview, which was fun. He's a funny funny man, and it's cool to see him just doing his thing. It was also neat to hear about his experiences on the TV movie and how he loved that TARDIS set and stuff.

Then I sort of frantically ran upstairs to pack my bag so I could meet my Uncle. I'm sure I rushed everyone, which I feel bad about, but I also felt bad making my Uncle drive out to get me, so I was in a hurry to be punctual.

And then I spent the rest of my evening with my Uncle. We ate dinner and saw Cloverfield, which I will discuss in another post. Sneak preview: it sucked.

And now day three, the last day! Sniffle. So I have about 12 hours to convince Sophie Aldred to let me move in with her and/or bump into Sophia Myles and woo her.

No problem, totally doable.

I don't have pictures yet. I'll post pictures after I get home, because I forgot to bring the cable for my camera, and forgot that this laptop doesn't have a card reader. I think. Hang on. Nope, no card reader. So pictures later. I'm a bit disappointed with how some of them have come out. When taking pictures of the stage, they come out dark if I use my flash and blurry if I don't. There's a setting I found last night that I'm going to try today, but we'll see.

Though the picture of me with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred came out just fine. Eeee.


So, anyway, woke up, registered, got my name fixed on my badge (as I've never been to a con or really known anyone who's been to a con, I didn't understand that the badge is actually an important thing). Grabbed a quick bite from Starbucks, then wandered to a "Why Martha Jones is Awesome" panel. It's called something else, but that's what it was about. It was basically like chatting with people online, but in person. The discussion skewed a little towards Rose vs. Martha which, meh. But otherwise it was cool. And also Paul Cornell added his two cents from the back. Rock on.

Took a bit of a break and wandered around the vendor room. I managed not to buy stuff I don't need (which is to say I bought nothing, even the ninth Doctor action figure which was $15 [!!!!]), though later in the day I went back and bought the Scream of the Shakla novelization for Paul Cornell to sign. I'm probably also going to buy a Benny audio for Lisa Bowerman to sign. Sylvester McCoy was hanging out in the corner, so I squeefully went up (after some prodding from MJ) and asked to have my picture taken with him. His son, Sam took it. I was in high dork mode a that point and I'm sure I came across like a moron, which I'm also sure was not the first time he's had to deal with a weird fan. (Speaking of weird, convention goers make me look well adjusted. This isn't a judgment of them, per se, so much as an in-your-face to my sister.)

We wandered to the signing room for Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy (also other people). The first thing I can say about Ms. Aldred is that she's short. Much shorter than I expect, which is probably because Sylvester McCoy is also short. The second thing I can say is that she's really really beautiful in person. And very stylish. We all know how I'm judgmental about that sort of thing. I'm still trying to convince her to leave her husband for me, or at least just move me into their house in a spare room, but no luck so far. She let me get my picture with her, for a small donation to charity, which I happily paid. Have I mentioned that I'm madly in love with Sophie Aldred? I am. She looks better now than she did twenty years ago. I got my stuff signed, went down the line and bought a copy of Rob Shearman's book (calapine suggested it) and then left and managed to not pass out. Go me!

Let's see, then I went to the Lisa Bowerman interview. She's very funny and charming, and it makes me want to buy every single Benny audio and listen right now, but I don't have the money. Alas. I felt bad because we sort of didn't have a lot of question for her (and, btw, I saw her later that night in the lobby, just checking her email or something... neat!).

After that was the Sophie/Sylvester Q&A, which was cute. Sylvester McCoy's a dirty little man. In a funny way. He said he would travel with Leela if he had to pick another companion. And then waggled his eyebrows. Heart. It's very surreal for me to be around actors and see them being themselves, so I just sort of sat there and stared happily at them the entire time.

Then some dinner (after some haranguing we ended up an In N'Out burger, so people who'd never had it before could have the experience), then back to swim - my stomach was bothering me from all the fast food I've been eating, so I didn't - and watch "The Mind Robber". I made it until midnight and then had to crash. I'll watch the last two episodes some other time. Also, Sophie Aldred's room overlooks the pool, and I spotted her in her PJs, sipping a glass of wine and chatting with (I imagine) her husband. She wears a rugby shirt and spotted pants. I'm pretty sure I want to marry her.

Okay, off to get breakfast and head to a panel on The Sarah Jane Adventures, and get things going again. Apparently today's the busy day. Glad I got the big signings out of the way yesterday.

Heated pool. It's 55 and awesome and we swam for nearly an hour and sat in a jacuzzi and talked to Whovians from Fairbanks and now we're going to eat.

DORK.