Nerds and Geeks: Part I

This weekend, Hawk and I went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo.


Neither of us are particularly geeky, but if you've seen this blog post, you know I'm a Next Generation Trekkie.  This past winter, I re-watched Star Trek: TNG from start to finish for the first time since I was young and it was on the television (new episodes were Saturday evenings at 8:00, right after church, and older episodes were at 4:00, after school).  Bearded Commander Riker was my first crush.


TNG taught me Mark Twain's real name, all about small talk, that you can be a smart, beautiful lady and still be a boss, and it gave me hope that in the future, humans will still be curious.


Now I'm grown-up and it makes me sad that so many of the social issues that TNG tackled are still issues today (even if the tackles were sometimes ham-handed, like the one where Riker fell for the androgynous lady and it turned into a ridiculous gay rights speech that was unbelievably cringe-worthy).  Oh well. The stories are still SO COOL and, since ladylike ladies are still struggling to be bosses without turning into manly men, I guess it's still relevant.


So when we heard that the entire original cast of TNG was regrouping for the first time in 25 years at Comic-Con, Hawk and I decided to go.


It wasn't without some trepidation.  I was worried about the masses of geeks with their costumes and, possibly, gawk-mouths.  And, to be fully truthful, I was scared of catching geek cooties.  I'm not into counter culture.  I'm into being your genuine self, while still accepting the reality of mainstream society.  I didn't want to get caught up in what they were promoting as "Full-Frontal Nerdity".


YES! I love TNG and yes, the only other formative show of my youth that I can remember at the moment is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  But, as an adult, I loved watching Hannah Montana and 6teen after work with my sister.  That's not geeky.  That's just weird.


Luckily, Hawk and I made it home safely, sans cooties.  We had some great adventures, and, given how long this introduction is, I think I'm going to have to change the title of this post to PART I, and split the stories up.


ALL ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHT
We rolled into Calgary on Friday afternoon later than we thought we would, because we wasted a heck of a lot of time leaving Edmonton.  That's what Hawk and I do.  It's fun.  I messaged my Calgary-residing cousin, NightMare, and made plans for a late dinner after a preliminary scout at the Comic-Con.  Hawk and I were pumped.  We'd check out the lay of the land, get a schedule and plan out the next two days, and hang out with NightMare who is uber cool, before crashing at the Westin, which we got for an amazing deal on Hotwire.


Friday night pretty much went according to plan. Except, I didn't plan to meet someone amazing at Comic-Con on the very first night.

Christian Potenza, Jude (in cardboard form), and me!

Okay so Christian Potenza is someone everyone who is reading this blog knows.  I walked past his booth and made accidental eye contact with him, and he said "Hey lady!" or something to that effect so I said "Hey!" and walked on.  Then I was like "WAIT A SECOND!" and Hawk and I headed back.  I wanted to meet him!


You see, he voiced Jude, the best character, on 6teen, a wicked cool cartoon Magpie and I would watch all the time when we lived together. And I didn't realise this until afterward, but he is also a super famous actor from commericals. I emailed Magpie to tell her I met him and she did some research for me to make sure he was exactly who I thought he was, and that this wasn't just some weird look-alike coincidence. 


Before I get to that, Mr. Potenza is an awesome dude. He's unbelievably nice and chill and gave me his autograph for my photo album, and let Hawk take two pictures of us. He called me Rawkabecca.


And now for the amazing part.  Not only is he the voice actor for Jude from 6teen, BUT he is the toothbrush in the Listerine "Evil Gingivitis" series of commercials, AND he's the guy from the Tostitos commercial (a million years old now) where he's daydreaming on the subway and goes "Let's get NA-KED!" Basically he's the reason my family eats Tostitos and uses Listerine.


Anyway, on Friday night we also ...

Found Waldo!

Beamed me up!

Sat in the captain's chair!

It was pretty fun.  More to come ...