One of my best friends, Kristy, works for an amazing horror t-shirt company, (Fright Rags) and has been going to horror conventions for the past few years. Every time she'd go, I'd get excited phone calls or texts from her, hearing her nerd out about meeting various horror celebs and she'd always bring me back something cool. Among those cool things: a signed Bill Moseley 8x10 where he signed, "Fuck Me? Fuck You!" ...I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty epic. Anyway, whenever she'd return home and tell me about the great time she'd had, I'd say "one of these days I think I want to go to one, but I don't know how much fun I'd have cause I don't know a lot of those people." And it's true. Unlike a handful of my friends, although I love the horror genre, I don't live and breathe it. But, Kristy always told me that I should go to at least one, and that I'd have fun no matter what.
So, one night, Kristy and I were hanging out at FR central, and she was telling me about all these people that were going to be at this convention the next weekend, called Horrorfind. I didn't have any real rhyme or reason, but I decided that this was it.
Fast forward to next weekend, we leave good ol'Rochester around 7am and eventually find ourselves in Gettysburg, PA. I meet some of Kristy's friends, Sean, Dave and Terry, who we room with for the weekend. It's still fairly early in the day and they're setting up, and Kristy (who's overly excited to find Ted Raimi) decides to take me to the celebrity room. There's no one around really, but I catch a glimpse of Bill Moseley. I start to get excited. Not much later, we check out the celeb room again, and Kristy (who's apparently pretty chummy with everyone at these things) introduces me to PJ Soles. Oh. My. Goodness. Now I was really excited (Halloween is my favorite horror flick of all time, so this was really rad).
Let's fast forward a little more, and this thing gets started. Kristy's busy selling at the FR table, so Sean and I decide to walk around together, and make our way back to meet some celebs. We go over to PJ Soles again, she and Sean chat for a bit, and we get photos with her. (In case you were wondering, she was really funny and sweet!)
(Me & PJ!)
We keep walking around, and I tell Sean about how I kind of wanted to meet Gary Busey. I mean, who wouldn't want to? The man was freakin' Buddy Holly! I'd heard from numerous sources that Busey wasn't very pleasant to a lot of people, and as we were checking out the 8x10's sprawled out on his table (and I was still going back and forth with "do I want to meet him? man, I don't know..."), we suddenly hear someone yell, "HEY! Are you from Texas?" I look up, and Gary's talking to me. I smile and tell him I'm from New York, and he tells me he's from Texas, and he saw that my shirt had 'Texas' written on it. That sealed the deal...I couldn't walk away now!
So I get to my turn in line, I opt to get a photo with Gary, I sit next to him and he puts his arm around me. I tell him how excited I am to meet him, we make a little small talk, he pulls me in, gives me a kiss on the cheek and we get our photo! He was very pleasant to me, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience!
(Me & Gary freakin' Busey! aka one of the greatest photos of me ever)
If I was excited before, I was overly excited after that! After that, we end up at Bill Moseley's table, who wasn't unfriendly, but wasn't too talkative. Eh, I can't complain...it's Bill Moseley!
(Me & Bill...what a fine looking gentleman!)
We make our way back a little, and we walk by Cerina Vincent's table. Again, I debate: do I want to? Or do I keep on walking? Sean tells me we should just walk over and talk to her. I'd bought one of Cerina's books, How To Love Like a Hot Chick, a few weeks before (but hadn't read it yet) and as we walk up, she greets us, she tells me she thinks I'm beautiful, and that I look familiar. Story of my life. I can't even begin to tell anyone how many times I get told that I look like someone, they feel like they know me, etc etc. I tell Cerina that I have her book, but it remained at home, unread yet. We make small talk, and I decide she's awesome. We take a photo together, which, unlike the Busey photo, is my worst photo from that weekend.
(The beautiful Cerina Vincent & me!)
I decide that this is all very overwhelming, and it's still only Friday night, so that's it for celebs until the next day.
Saturday was pretty great, and consisted of a lot of making the rounds with Sean again (who is my convention BFF pretty much), and I end up going to talk to Cerina again for a bit by myself. We chat a little about girly stuff, and she says some pretty amazingly nice things to me, which was overwhelming, and I ended up having to go up to the room for a bit after that to absorb it all (what can I say, I'm a girl!).
Later on, I go meet Reggie Bannister, who was very cool, and I had him sign something for me, as well as my dad. My dad is the reason I saw Phantasm, and he loves the movie, so I shared that with Reggie, and he wrote some very cool stuff on his photo. Amidst all this, I take photos of Sean with people, and met some other celebs. It was pretty great, and I was just trying to take everything in!
Later in the night, after the convention had ended for the evening, Sean and I end up hanging in the lobby, as he wanted to scope out celebs. I run into Cerina again, we make more small talk. It all seemed pretty surreal. Talking to her quickly became like talking to one of my best friends. Very cool feeling.
Then, its Sunday, the final day. This is the day Kristy and I decide to meet George Romero. We end up waiting in line for a bit, but not nearly as long as a lot of people did in the days previous. We get up to George, and I'm pretty speechless. I mean, what do I say to him? I end up introducing myself to him, and I don't remember much else after that. He was very nice, and it was quite surreal to meet someone as influential as he is.
(Me & George! aka the BEST photo taken of me ever!)
That pretty much summed up my first convention. Not long after meeting George, Kristy and I pack up, say bye to our friends and we head on home.
So how did this change my life?
Well, as silly as it may sound to some, meeting Cerina left a huge impression on me. We had some great chats, and she gave me some helpful advice. I immediately read he book as soon as I returned home, and bought her other two not long after. Say what you will about "self-help" books like that, but a lot of what's in those books struck a chord with me. All that combined has left me feeling more confident with myself and a bit more outgoing. Cerina and I remain in touch, I'm very appreciative of having her in my life!
The weekend also left me feeling greatly inspired. Days later, an idea popped into my head to start knitting horror dolls. A few weeks later, I end up at my second convention, Monster Mania in Hunt Valley, MD. I bring the two dolls I made and I sell them. Thus, Knit Terrors was born! This was also the weekend that I really met my boyfriend Chad. We apparently encountered each other at Horrorfind, but weren't really introduced, so I don't remember it. Plus, Horrorfind was a very overwhelming weekend for me anyway, especially emotionally.
A few weeks after Monster Mania, I end up really selling stuff at Rock & Shock in Worcester, MA. This was also the weekend things really started rolling with talking to Chad...even though it was just via texts (he wasn't at the convention).
I never would have thought that one weekend could leave me feeling like a new person. Hell, I never thought a horror convention would have that kind of effect on me! So, there you have it. A simple weekend in Gettysburg made all of these good things happen. I don't plan on stopping any time in the near future. Next up, I get to officially be a vendor with my friend, Jes Karakashian at Monster Mania in March. I can't wait, I feel like I have so much more to look forward to!
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