hey gang, guess who I met last month? C'mon, guess guess guess! :)

While most may think."Hey, that's cool!" it was a bittersweet day. Ready for some storytime?

Went to Fan Expo in Toronto with 2 friends (who will remain nameless unless they wish otherwise) Gonna spin it short, no embellishment, just the facts.

Walk from place we're staying to subway, get off subway and walk into Main train station, walk through there and onto the skywalk. Walk, walk, walk until we get to building that Fan Expo is *usually* in...but not this time. Continue walking around the *rest* of the building until we meet up with the massive lineup. They mention that they have reserve tickets and we have to go DOWN THE BLOCK to get into line for day passes. Walk walk walk, and wait in line to get in. (remember this is a convention center, walked around it almost twice)

(walked past the actor that played Chewbacca, with his lightsaber cane of pimpness)

Get in building, wait about an hour for lines to diminish. get ticket. Stan's signing autographs right now, rush through crowd to get in line. Oh, the line's a little longer than expect-holy, it wraps halfway around the building. We get in line. I'm doing this, i came all this way, i'll wait. then short guy with staff t-shirt gets in front of us, claims that the line stops *here* for the morning session. Come back later at 2 pm (it's about 1130 am by now) Staff comes by and says we can buy tickets for a photo op at 2 pm, i pick one up ($40)

He walked past me once in the crowd, guided by mooks, saw him at his table again close to 2pm, as we approached to wait in line, he's hurried out a side door and disappears. Bleah. :P

Okay fine, walk around enjoy convention, get some WOW art from the artist alley and see/chat with some famous artists (DC, Marvel) 2pm rolls around, we go downstairs to do the photo op. a sign on the door says it's *cancelled* until the very end of the convention (7pm). Fine, let's go back upstairs. it takes up 40 minutes to do it because they only let a few people up at a time. We finally get up and grab a snack. by this time we're down to 2 people. We find out it was a good thing we didn't try to get outside (and wait in line again) because the fire marshal tells staff that if anyone leaves, close the door behind them because there are too many people in the convention area already.

so we gotta blow the rest of the time in the con, no cheap food (or even water fountains) for us. :P get some art and chat some more.

630pm rolls around, let's go and wait in line for photo op. we see the room, the line, go to wait-holy, it wraps halfway around the building again, on both sides of the hall. Came this far, gonna wait. Chat with fellow fans in line, show each other some art and blab until Stan shows up. (in the meantime, a little dumpling of a staff woman is barking orders through a megaphone, threatening to bite us all, her and the building security screw the lines up royal as they figure the mess out. we finally move.

745pm I arrive at the room, the Stan room. gonna meet one of (my) most influential persons in recent history. I get into the room, see the camera crew and general mooks(guards), I pull the picture out (on right, I should note I worked 2 days on it (11x17) and didn't get a scan, just a photo of it, it was in a nice frame as well)

So i see Stan, hes sitting like in the photo, So i pull the picture out, about to pass it to him and shake his hand...*NOO!!* all of a sudden the camera guy and general mook pulls the frame out of my hand and places it against the wall, instantly directing me to stand next to Stan and *don't touch him*, pose, smile, *flash* done, get out. All i could do is turn to Stan, sorta weakly point at the picture, laying next to the 2 other 'gifts' people left him and say. "Uhm...enjoy?"

4. fucking. seconds. All that waiting, the time spent on the picture. Done in 4 seconds. Didn't even get to say hi. I walked out so totally depressed and I talked to the fans I was talking with in line, they were pretty beat down too. No one blames Stan, of course, just that feeling you get when you feel beaten. But the story is not over.

coming back to the Stan room door, i wanted to ask about my picture. the ladies were at least kind enough to answer my questions. but when i asked if Stan will see these gifts or if they just throw them out after the photoshoot, she got a pained look on her face and weakly said "I don't know." *You don't KNOW?! I spent 2 days on it and you don't know.* by the time I finished questioning the ladies, the line was about done , so i decided to wait, maybe I can get a 'hello' in as he passes by, never know.

So Stan finally starts walking out with the mooks. All i could do as he approached was say"I just wanted to thank you for coming." He looks at me, pats me on the back twice, nods and smiles. Saying nothing, he's guided off by the guards into the crowd.

Despite all the waiting, the disappointment, the inability to present my gift or even talk to him. That one thing made it all better...

...well, not *ALL* better, I still would like to know the fate of my picture. I'd like to have heard Stan say something about it, good or bad. I was just tired enough I didn't feel like going back to retrieve it or anything. that was it, i met him. (sorta) time to go home.

So that's pretty much it, there and back. I've never really drawn Spiderman before so don't judge too harshly, got some practice with the color brushpens and got me some art of my wow girls and got to meet an icon. not too bad a way to spend a Saturday. :)