#SWCO: Day 3

Star Wars!!!

As my eyes slowly opened, I stretched the length of my body with all the measured leisure of a tawny cat prepared for the prowl, muscles and joints popping a sweet orchestra of relief. The gentle exhale issued from betwixt my lips found solace in the four wall seal of pleasing temperatures. There were no glaring lights, no stranger neighbors occupying my sleeping space, no need to keep a sharp eye for those sneaky, minx line cutters. The sensation of rest was prevalent upon the trebling waters of my soul. For the first night in three days... I'd finally slept in a bed.

And my GOD did it feel good.

I woke up at a reasonable hour, assembled my rockstar clothing for the day, and headed down for breakfast. Morning hunger satisfied, so began the causal stroll in the warm sunlight down to the Orlando convention center for yet another day of Star Wars Celebration. The itinerary was pretty simple today.

-Make it into the Celebration Store
-Give my gift to Ashley Eckstein at the Ahsoka meetup
-Get in line for the Thrawn book
-Get the Thrawn book signed by author
-Hit a couple panels
-Find something cool to buy on the showroom floor

Like I said.

Simple.

Phase One: Initiated
We went the usual route, navigated the security gate, and continued the short trek over to the temporaey queue line. There would be no sitting on the floor, no stretching out in futile grasp for comfort, no Pokemon Go or Mario Runs to whittle the time away. No sirree. This was a reasonable day with reasonable timing (it wasn't, but humour me for the time being).

Doors opened and I went into Jedi-Stealth mode. Weaving at an accelerated pace, melting into the crowd only to reappear ghostlike on the other side, I was a hypersonic phantom speeding towards the Celebration Store to beat the crowd. My energy mounted, ego impressed at my fluidity, mind harnessing economy of motion to my steady, whispered breaths filling my own ears.

And then my train ran straight into a landmine.

The line was HUGE! Already! Granted, I knew there were a lot of people in front of us, but geez. Really?? Argh. The like itself was full and spilling out on other the showroom floor itself. Sigh. This was just what it had to be then- there wasn't time to come back later. I took my place in line. Surprisingly it progressed rather quickly and after about ten minutes, we were practically in the actual queue space, where we were apologetically informed that it was a 3 hour wait from that point.

Rubbish.

It was only 10:45 at that point and the line had been moving at a decent clip so far.

At that precise moment we entered what can only be described as a Molasses Time Warp. Conversation was held and the line appeared to be moving, but the time crawled at an infinitesimal rate. I almost couldn't believe it.

Almost.

Phase Two: Initiated
It was 1:50. The Ahsoka meetup was at 2. I made the tough choice and bailed out, leaving my requests and directions to call me if I didn't make it back in time. I rushed out and into the lobby, head swiveling all directions. Ah, security guard. I asked him where Lobby B was. In a moment less surprising than the time defying line, he had no clue where it was. Great. So this was to be an exercise of instincts then. I walked, spotted a couple of Ahsokas and tailed them, followed a few signs, stepped into a downward escalator annnnnd whoop there it is! I slid right into it. Ashley had yet to arrive, but the rest of the gang was assembled from flagrant cosplayers to plain clothes enthusiasts (such as myself), all gather for sheer love of the character and this iconic woman who had brought her to life for us.

About ten minutes later, Ashley arrived and the crowd went nuts. I'm not ashamed to admit that, even with having met and been recognized by her twice prior, I still felt a little thrill at seeing her this close. She truly is a class act. You can TELL she genuinely cares about people.

E.K. Johnston (author of the Ahsoka novelization) joined us as did Clone Wars/Rebels director Dave Filoni. We proceeded through the various pictures and shouting "AHSOKA LIVES!" And then the real party began. Naturally there was no way Ashley was going to be able to just leave. No, no whenever there is an encounter with the divine presence, a connection must be had, a glorious memory seared indelibly upon the annals of our minds. Pictures. Autographs. Hugs. Oh my gosh, Ahsoka means so much to me. Tears. Smiles. Love.

So much love.

My mission was temporarily abandoned, basking in it all. I felt the beginnings of what would become an in depth conversation with my oldest, younger sister later... a fountaining revelation on the power and necessity of female heroes who are truly devoted to good. I took everything in under a new light. I've met Ashley twice. This was about to be three times. This was an honor. Ashley and I will probably go on to become great friends... and it will be no less the honor! She is one of those rare ones...

I snapped back to myself. Time was of the essence. I kept scooching closer, but then I let a girl go ahead of me and an eager younger man slide in to get his picture. I was unwilling to yell her name, unwilling to shove those around me. I took the jostling and let myself get shuffled back and forth. Until the clock started. Warning. 4 minutes and then I'm coming to get Ashley out. A woman's voice squawked from the walkie-talkie of the body guard standing just behind me.

I was running out of time.

I tried to slip through, but there were no gaps. Ah, there she is a little higher on the stairs. Making intentional time for her Ahsoka cosplayers, as she should. Time was at a full sprint away from me. Her handler had arrived to escort her out. Her bodyguards had drawn close. I backed out, looped around, and ascended the stairs to come to her from above, since she was moving up in that direction now. The shirt unfurled on my hand.

"I don't need an autograph. Don't need a picture. I just need to give her this." I locked eyes with her bodyguards and repeated myself. "She knows me." Her handler had overheard me and looked at me with sympathetic eyes, hands extended. "I can make sure she gets it." I didn't miss a beat. I was clear on my mission. "I need to give it to her myself." Our little troop kept moving. We were running out of time. I trailed behind the handler, momentarily wilted. "Can- can you make sure she gets it?" My voice was pathetically low. She didn't even hear me.

I defaulted to the only tactic that seemed to be working this trip- I looped around and darted through several small bands of cosplayers to get ahead of the crew. Ashley was signing and doing moving selfies the whole way through. The doors to the showroom hall loomed before me. I was out of time. Four steps away from her. "Ashley!" Nothing. "Comics inspire!" Her head whipped around and we locked eyes. I held the shirt for her to read and then extended it to her. "I brought this to give to you." She reached out and clutched it to her chest. "You brought this for me?" I nodded. "Yes." She smiled the sweetest, most grateful smile that I've perhaps ever seen as she let herself be rushed away out of our moment. "Thank you, thank you so much," she said softly.

I smiled and waved. Her handler muttered an apology to me, but it almost didn't register. I was happy. I'd done what I'd came to do. And, even better, she'd been touched by it.

Phase Three: Initiated
I mad dashed at a respectable pace to the Del Rey booth. They'd run out of the Celebration issue of Thrawn the day before, but announced on their twitter that they were holding a raffle for their final 75 copies which we could sign up for at 3pm. They asked that no one begin lining up before then or linger around until then.

So, naturally, when I strolled up 15 minutes ahead of time, there was a dense mob milling about. My face fell. Are you kidding me? Does nobody here follow the rules? I approached the swirling madnesss tentatively, a young woman beside me looking just as crestfallen. Our eyes met and we shook out heads. Disaster. We began chatting about the chaos of it all, joined by a few others. Allegedly there was line, but it was invisible. Undetectable. But, still, we lingered. At this point we'd been conditioned for lines (sadly), so staying was so much more instinct than actual will.

I checked the time. Yikes. The panel I wanted to hit was starting in 15 minutes. Teeth gritted grimly, I slid my phone back into my pocket. One girl bailed. Still we waited. The mob slowly disintegrated into a line of sorts and we began to move forward. Long loops of people spiraled out ahead of us. Conversation spilled out like water from a wounded sieve, desperate to make these senseless moments carry some sort of worth. We talked at length for sheer survival.

Phase Four: Initiated 
I checked the time again.
Dangit. I knew I wasn't gonna try to catch that panel. Not after standing in this line. As one girl had said- "I just have to try."
Argh.
Phase Four Terminated.

Turned out that the one loop I thought the line made was actually several. 

Commitment really sucks sometimes. Ha

We looped and looped. Learned that we were drawing cars with colors. Blue meant we'd gotten the book. Yellow meant, sorry about that bub. The twist was, they kept putting the yellows back in the draw pile. Yay. Walking, walking, walking... impossibly it was now my turn and there were still books available! I took a breath and locked eyes with the man holding the bag of cards (in hindsight I see this may have been awkward for him, lol) and stuck my hand inside. I swirled them around, fingers matriculating the cards across my palm, until some strange motivation had me seize upon the card presently in my grasp.

I pulled it out.
It was folded in halfway.
In a disconnected daze, I cracked it open.

...

It was blue!

The woman directed me around the corner. I barely registered what had happened. "Did I get it?" She affirmed that I did, quietly pleading with me to stay cool about it, presumably for sake of crowd control. I nodded silently, eyes wide, trying to display understanding, but probably looking like a kid who just realized he'd tricked his parents into thinking he'd taken a bath even though he really didn't. My line mates materialized beside me- I was the only one who had won the book! We shared an awkward moment of celebration, before they smiled tightly at my already slightly embarrassed and too tight smile and then slunk away to indulge their next ventures. I flowed over to the purchase line, trembling with excitement. The woman behind the register smiled brightly at me, congratulating me. I nodded, handed over my money and received my book along with the accompanying exclusive pin inside of a black tote bag that read "I find your lack of books disturbing," in white letters.

Phase Five: Initiated
The line for the Timothy Zahn autographs had already begun to form. He was signing at 5'o'clock. Perfect! I checked my band to find out the time of my next panel. 4:30. Didn't sound to bad, and oh CRAP. It was 3:40 already. I could make it if I rushed, but then I wouldn't get the signing and that was really one of my primary goals. Get the book. Get the signing.

Phase Six: Initiated
Sigh. I knew what I had to do.
Phase Six Terminated

I made my way over to the line and hunkered down for the next hour. By now, an hour in line barely felt like 5 minutes, thanks to my regular 8+ hour stints I'd been pulling this week. In due time, we rose and filed by the authors (there were two others signing alongside Timothy). My turn came. I handed the book over and requested a cover autograph, rather than an internal one. As he wrote, I told him that Thrawn is one of my favorite characters and that his work is brilliant writing. As he finished up, I noticed his snazzy looking watch and commented on how nice it was. He made his final swoosh, then looked up and smiled at me, extending his hand for me to shake. Which I did. Kind of shocked. Because I'd watched him barely grimace (much less smile and shake hands with) every other person who'd come before me. Another wonderful touch to my day. I shuffled down and collected a few posters and autographs from the two remaining authors and then went about my day.

It was 5:30.

My feet told me what time it really was though.

Time to get the heck outta here.

Another full day knocked down. I'd set out to do six things, but had only done three. But, as with the first day, I'd done what mattered. I was fully in the space I was supposed to be in.

Completion.

The final day is nearly upon me.
May the Force be with you.

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