Friday, Day One of the Non-stop party.

So I’ve done my absolute best to remember every single detail of the most amazing weekend of my life. Let’s get started on part one, day one. Friday.

  My mother and I started out on our roadtrip at 3:30 AM. That was a bit eventful, but at least we didn’t get lost. We arrived in Scranton by 6 AM and went to wait for Al Roker to show. They had a fine ralley going on with cheerleaders, a leader who must have lost his voice after all that yelling for those hours, and many drunk college students, still awake from the day before. In fact, I barely saw anyone but college students there. As the Mayor said, this was the biggest thing to happen in Scranton, ever. It was extremely cold there, enough so that I couldn’t video tape until the sun came out because I was shaking so much.

  When Al Roker came, I easily blended in with the college students. I stood on a bench right near the fencing and taped Al’s first session. I haven’t a clue what he said or how anyone could hear him with all of us cheering so loud, but apparently he made out just fine. It was over quickly, but it was really fun to see the kick off and Al in real life. We didn’t stick around for all the activities and actor interviews though, because we were starving and had other things needed to be done (and we weren’t aware of what all would be going on, sadly). We went to McDonalds for a quick breakfast, then toured Scranton. We spotted the movie theater that welcomed us Con members (along with the other welcome signs, especially at Rocky’s, which was right outside our hotel window)

  At ten AM, we went to the Radisson and made great time – as we pulled in, we saw two familiar faces. It took us a few seconds to catch on to what we were seeing – Creed and Oscar! My mouth hung open while my mother waved and slowed. They spotted us and smiled big and waved – I just stared with my jaw dropped in to my lap!

 We parked, went inside and started bringing up our luggage. We came out of our 219 hotel room to spot someone with bright red hair talking to someone from the hotel. Was it Kate Flannery? We really couldn’t tell from our stand. When we went back downstairs to finish unloading, Kate (for it was her!!) was casually talking among a few people. We were passing along, not wanting to disturb her, when she turned to US and started chatting! She wrapped her arm around my mother and talked about how much fun the weekend would be and how great everyone was so far. I was wearing my team Dwight shirt (it has his head on it and the words) and Kate said she really loved it.  We didn’t want to take up too much time, so we told her how much we appreciated her work on the Office and how we loved her, then continued along.

Three actor sightings within twenty minutes. We were off to a great start!

After we were finished with the hotel (we sat in the lobby for a little while and I spotted someone with an MTT button, but I didn’t catch a name), we wanted to get out and see the town and locate where we were going. We hit Red Lobster at noon and made it back to the Radisson by one, where there was already a long line for ticket registration. We joined this, and glad we did. My mother and I were both interviewed for the Scranton Times and had a great time talking to people around us. Everything went pretty smoothly once inside and I was able to locate the merchandise table (something I couldn’t wait to get to) easily. There, I bought a blue ‘There ain’t no party like a Scranton party ’cause a Scranton party don’t stop’ Convention tee and a dundie.

 We sat in the hotel lobby after that and I checked on my computer, seeing how everyone else was fairing. There, we met OfficeFanatic and ScrantonBranch, where we talked about the Office until the Kick Off started.

  They held the kick off outdoors and didn’t say anything about the Office, so even though the bands were good, it was too cold to stay out. Plus, it was mainly a place to drink, and seeing as I’m under 21, there was little for me to do.

 On our way back to the room, we spotted a very large mob. Which only meant one thing – someone(s) were here. It turned out to be Phyllis, Leslie David Baker, Oscar and Bobby Ray Shaeffer. I got a picture with Oscar and my mother because he was on the outside of the crowd (He also spotted my shirt and thought it was great. I can’t take credit for it because I didn’t make it, but I sure was proud to be wearing it!!), but didn’t stick around for the others (it seemed like they were very overwhelmed.)

 After this we headed upstairs and ordered in Dominos (since by this time the rain was POURING and watched what very little they had on tv. We also got to see the cast leave in their vehicles and the Corporate people by the buses. By nine or so though, I was out cold, asleep.

 It was a fun start to an amazing weekend, but at this point, we still didn’t know how amazing the activities in store for us were going to be…

 (Continued in Part Two, coming soon)