The Richardsons: TwiCon Write-up--Part 1

I returned late Sunday night after a long, hectic, stressful, exciting, and fun-filled weekend in Dallas. There was so much to remember and not enough space left in my brain to recall it all, so I'm going to give the best run-down that I possibly can. Because of the amount of pictures and videos, I'm going to do this in two separate posts.

Day 1: Thursday

Thursday marked the beginning of our TwiCon experience. Well, technically, Wedesday did, since that's when I arrived in Dallas and met up with my roommate, Rebecca. We did dinner at a Macaroni Grill (or something to that effect), then spent the night getting rested and ready for the next day.

This is just a small taste of the registration lines that we faced. Think of cramming approximately 2500 people into a room the size of your average church gym. We waited in line for approximately two hours before getting our registrations finalized. We then made our way into the Vendor Hall, where there were tables set up with TwiCon merchandise, jewelry, Twilight Sweetheart candies, and some scrapbooking items.

Thursday culminated in a welcoming ceremony, which wasn't really anything note-worthy. If anyone is familiar with Evil Iguana Productions from YouTube, they debuted their new parody, which was pretty amusing.

It was at this time that we realized how terrifying it can be to try to find food in Dallas. Unlike anywhere I've ever been, downtown Dallas basically shuts down at 6:00. We went to try to find food at about 8:30, 9:00-ish, which was an endeavor in and of itself. Rebecca met a wonderful girl named Allison while in line at registration, and Allison offered to go with us to find food. While on our expedition, we ended up in a part of Dallas that nobody should go into. We made sure doors were locked on the car and that we didn't make eye contact. Our search for a KFC lead us to an empty, abandoned lot right in the middle of the Dallas ghetto, I guess you could call it. Needless to say, we eventually found a Wendy's ten minutes later. After that, there were no more expeditions for food outside the hotel, save for a Subway two blocks away.

Friday--Day Two

Friday was my freak-out day! I was supposed to donate blood that morning, but not wanting to be dizzy and light-headed for my presentation, on top of being stuck in a line all morning, my donation never was made. Rebecca and I waited in line to get autographs for 100 Monkeys, an eclectic-type band that is famous for their on-the-spot improvisation, and is also headed by Jackson Rathbone (Twilight's Jasper Hale). It was this first "big" thing that made us realize that things were not going anywhere near as smoothly as they should be. Jackson announced that he wanted to come sign autographs with his band, but when the head honchos of the convention wanted to charge $20 for his autograph, he refused to come out and sign. We did eventually get autographs from the other three members: Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson, and Jared Anderson.

*The line for 100 Monkeys autographs

*75% of the 100 Monkeys band (Ben, Ben, Jerad)

Immediately after getting out of the 100 Monkeys line, I retreated to my room to run through my presentation a few times. I got to the room where the panel was to be held and was shocked to see how many chairs had been set up. Now, of course, they were also set up for the 100 Monkeys concert that night, but still...it gave my heart a jolt. Thankfully, we were able to sit down for our presentations, or else I would have more than likely passed out on the spot. I was amazed to find how comfortable I was giving my presentation while sitting down. It went great, even though I was boo'ed at the beginning (Ok, so I said that "real vampires don't sparkle," which was the topic of my presentation...apparently it didn't sit so well with people. Thankfully it was easy to tell they were joking). The other two papers that were presented along with mine focused on shape-shifter myths around the world and also in the Native American cultures, and a paper proposing a theory about Jacob's imprinting on Renesmee (Her paper was entitled "There Is No Team Jacob" and talked about how the only reason Jacob and Bella ever had any chemistry or attraction between them is because Bella carried 1/2 of Renesmee's DNA. It was a really interesting paper, and I can't wait until she gets it online so that I can read it in its entirety). We also had a native Quileute story teller come and relate some of the stories passed down through her grandfather. I wish I were able to re-tell them with 1-1/10th the charisma and talent that she did, but I won't even attempt it. It was definately something you had to see and hear in person in order to appreciate it.

Me & Anita Wheeler, our Quileute storyteller

After my presentation, I high-tailed it up a few floors to the Sam Bradley, Marcus Foster, and Bobby Long meet-up room. For those who don't know who these young men are, Sam Bradley co-wrote, with Robert Pattinson, the song "Never Think" from the "Twilight" soundtrack. Marcus Foster and Bobby Long co-wrote the song "Let Me Sign," also from the soundtrack, and both performed by Robert Pattinson. They are all British singer/songwriters, and are incredibly talented. It was in this room that I had my one and only "fangirl" moment when meeting Sam Bradley, my favorite out of the three and my musical obsession at the moment. I had printed off 8x10's at home for them to sign, which seemed to take all three by surprise. Sam was surprised by the quality of the picture and kept turning it over in his hands and examining it. He took a bit to decide the perfect place in which to put his signature. Next, I met Marcus Foster. TwiCon marked his first tour in America, and it was obvious to see that he was nervous and flustered, especially with all the crazy girls around. He autographed my picture twice, once in black, then again in silver once he realized the black wouldn't show up. Bobby Long asked, very nicely I might add, if he could grafitti my picture as well as sign it.