Fanboy Expo – Day Three – The Best Ending

If you haven’t read my previous posts about this weekend, go check them out first!

Sunday was the last day of the Fanboy Expo and it was probably the least sad I’ve ever been for the end of a convention.

Usually post con depression hits me and my friends pretty hard, but this time it didn’t. None of us really felt sad for the con to be over. For Bryana and Hannah, it was mostly because this was their first con as vendors and they were pretty tired. For everyone else though, I think it was because the con was rather crowded this time around and it didn’t feel very organized at all.

For me, it was different. I didn’t feel sad at all. And by all means, I should have! This past weekend was when I finally got to meet my favorite actor! I should’ve been sad that that part was over! Here’s why I think post con depression didn’t hit me much at all:

At one point on Sunday, I got pretty bored and just sat behind Bryana and Hannah’s booth just staring into space. I kept thinking about two days before when I met Ralph Macchio. I didn’t like the way I left that moment. There was so much I wanted to say to him that I didn’t say. I so badly wanted to thank him for being such an inspiration to me. Eventually, Bryana needed to get up so I asked her if she would come with me to talk to him again.

It took me a while to actually get to talk to him because there were others who were getting autographs and pictures. And they let one person get a picture with him for free while I had to pay $40 for two cell phone pictures on Friday!!! I’m still really upset about that! But I did finally get up to talk to him and I told him all I’ve ever wanted to say to him. I told him that The Karate Kid has been my favorite movie for years, how I watch it whenever I’m sad, happy, anything. I watch it all the time. I told him how much he’s inspired me over the years and how he’s the only actor I have ever wanted to meet.

And then the best thing happened.

He told me how much he appreciated me coming back to tell him those things. He said that he hears people say that to him like online and such, but it meant a lot to him that I came back just to tell him that. “This is a weekend you’ll remember for the rest of your life.”

I know he’s right.

Fanboy Expo – Day Two – Con Family & Disappointments

If you haven’t read my first post about this convention, go check it out now! It informs this post!

I absolutely love how conventions can bring people together! It’s just so awesome how two very different people can start a conversation with each other through one common interest! And at conventions, the quietest people become the loudest! It really brings people out of their shells!

Back in February, Bryana, Hannah, and I went to another con and met the sweetest couple ever selling some Walking Dead stuff and a few other things. We got into a long conversation with the woman about all kinds of things and we kept finding ourselves going back to their booth just to talk to them. She was so sweet and gave all three of us bracelets she had made! We even ended up becoming friends with her on Facebook!

And you’ll never guess who we saw at the con today! Of course she was there! We saw her in the crowd and tried to run after her to say hi, but we lost her. So then we split up to go find her and when we did find her, she hugged us and treated us like family! She asked how we were doing, how school was, everything. She just wanted to catch up like family does!

I even got to see some guys that I haven’t seen since graduation two years ago!

Most of today, though, I hung out with Reagan (a friend I’ve had since middle school) and Isaac, a guy I only really met a few weeks ago. I had known this guy, but we were never really friends. Just someone I passed by every now and then. But now, I’d consider us pretty good friends. Because of this convention! It was so fun to get to know someone new and actually become friends! Hopefully I’ll get to hang out with him more. Even though he decided to give me a physics lecture, but I’ll ignore that for now…

And now let’s talk about the disappointments today…

I was very upset with the Fanboy Expo in general earlier today. If you’ve ever been to a con before, you know that Saturday is always the busiest day. It was just so hard for me to really have fun today because of how many people there were. Now, I know that’s not the staff’s fault, but this is just the beginning of why today was one of my least favorite convention days.

In my last post, I mentioned going to see Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and C. Thomas Howell in the Karate Kid and The Outsiders panel. That is what I was really looking forward to today. But when I got to the convention, I found out that they had moved the time for the panel. I had to go around and ask 4 different staff members before I could find out when and where the panel would happen! Four! None of them could answer me!

So then the time for the panel actually came around and the line was soooooo loooong and we got there 10 or 15 minutes early! (Again, not the staff’s fault, but still annoying.) The panel was supposed to start at 5 but they didn’t let us in until 5:15 and they had so few chairs that there was only standing room! And then it gets more annoying… The actors didn’t come out to talk until 5:30! The panel was supposed to start at 5!!

And guess what… It gets even more annoying… The dealer’s room closed at 6! On Saturday!! And I needed to go down there to grab things before they closed! So the one panel I wanted to go to today, I only got to stay for 15 minutes!!

In short: I’m very upset with Fanboy this time around…….

Stay tuned for another post about the next day!

Fanboy Expo – Day One – I met The Karate Kid!!

Do you ever have those days where you get to meet your favorite actor? Me neither. Until today!

Today I went to the Fanboy Convention in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was so much fun! I absolutely love going to cons! Bryana, Hannah, and I try to go to all of the ones we can. And all three of us love to cosplay! This time around, we went as Markiplier’s different personas: Darkiplier, Googleplier, and Wilford Warfstache. In case you don’t know who Markiplier is, he is a gamer on youtube and you should check out his channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7_YxT-KID8kRbqZo7MyscQ He is so wonderful and all three of us love him! Here’s a pic of us in our cosplays, about to shoot a video!

It’s so wonderful to walk around cons and talk to all kinds of people! Today, I went up to someone’s booth who draws different characters as cats! It was so awesome! I’m hopefully going to get their picture of Freddy Krueger Cat! I also ran into people who made their own charms for bracelets and started a looooong conversation with them about so many things that I can’t even remember.

My favorite person I met today: Ralph Macchio! A.k.a. The Karate Kid!

The Karate Kid has been my favorite movie for years! I’ve wanted to meet Ralph Macchio since the day I first saw the movie! And today it finally happened.

I was so nervous when I first got in line to get his autograph and get a picture with him, I was crying before I even got to the front of the line! The guy who took my money and handed Ralph the things I wanted him to sign told him “This is Natasha and she’s very nervous.” As soon as Ralph looked at me and said “Hi Natasha!”, the tears started flowing! Then he looked over at Bryana and Bryan and said “Oh no! Now she’s gonna bail!” Then he gave me a hug! When he saw that I was still crying, he gave me another hug! He was such a great guy!! When I told him that he was my favorite actor, he seemed so surprised!

I wasn’t ready for my experience to end! I kept crying after I left. He told me to “come by and wave” these next two days. Tomorrow there’s a Karate Kid and The Outsiders panel with Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and C. Thomas Howell which I will definitely be going to!! So I know I will get to see and talk to him again!

Right after I met Ralph Macchio, I went over to see William Zabka. I met him about 3 years ago at the same convention and so I just wanted to go see if he remembered me. And he did! He is so nice as well! He got up and gave me a big hug and kissed me on the head! “Don’t tell anyone about that because I’m supposed to charge a lot of money for that.” Sshhh…. Don’t tell him that I told you…

Here’s the picture from years ago when I first met him:

I plan to make this a three post series so stay tuned!!