Saturday, Day Two of the Non-Stop Party

Day two started somewhat uneventful. The hotel never gave us our requested wake up call, so thanks to the amazingly comfortable beds, we didn’t wake up until 8:30. We rushed to get ready and went to McDonalds again, seeing that we didn’t have enough time to go in to a sit down place.

Skipping the street festival completely (the rain might not have stopped some people, but it stopped us from certain things) we tried to find where the autograph signings were. On the way, we ran in to the moved Ribbon Cutting ceremony. I stood next to the press in the back and taped the ceremony while my mother tried to dry out a few of our rather rain soaked belongings. This event was much better than anticipated. Even before the actors came out (about forty five minutes late) the crowd enterained themselves by chanting things like “Dunder Mifflin!” and “I declare Backruptcy, but not for real!” and other quotes like that. The U.S. Senante, the Mayor, the head of the Univerity (am I right about that?) and a rep from the Commerce came, talked a bit, then the actors came out. I loved Angela’s “My character….would not approve.” “A word from my character…try not to be whorish this weekend” along with acting the part when Ed Helms sang ABBA’s “Take a Chance on Me” to her, with the rest of the cast clapping and laughing along. It was here that Leslie David Baker requested for a picnic (with pretzles) for next year’s convention. I believe this was my first sighting of Darryl, who is one of my favorite characters and who absolutely rocked each and every event he attended (which was most).

 We headed down to the autograph place after this, but it was still really raining and the line was HUGE, so we passed it, knowing that we already saw so many in person and got to talk to them on camera, which was better than a signiture.

 Chosing to skip the Office Olympics, we headed out to the mall. I loved the indoor free parking that let you enter the mall from right inside – came in great handy with the rain. We went shopping, posed with the stand ups, got Dunder Mifflin certificates and ate at the food court’s KFC (they had the most amazing wraps and mild sauce.) There, we watched an episode of the Office, took pictures of the Welcome Scranton sign, and saw a train pass right outside the window. We stayed for a while to participate in the trivia contest and get our free green bags, then watched a bit of the skit just to film more of Craig and Andy.

 After this, we found our way to Poor Richards. It looks nothing like on the show, but it was very cool looking. I got a green shirt (by this time, they were sold out of almost everything and I had to request three different sizes because of how many were gone) and then left. On our way out, we met the man who made the teeshirts and was thankful that so many people were buying his work.

By four, we were watching the rest of the Scrantones concert while waiting in line for the Q&A. This was an hour early, but the line was super long already. Once the line started moving and the admitted people in, a lot of others that weren’t in line or was in line behind us started running to the front, line forgot. But once inside, the room was big enough to accomidate all of our numbers. We took a seat on the bleachers up high on the right. They were great seats for filming the stage, though my camera was running out of battery fast.

 The Q&A itself was really great. Beforehand, they ran a few videos on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, the chorus of U of S singing Aint no Party like a Scranton party, and a bunch of people featured in a really funny video about the Office. Also, the bloopers were a real treat, as I didn’t remember hearing anything about them before. When the actors came, they were really great. I loved how all weekend, while we were freaking out about them and getting our pictures with them, they were squeeing about and taking pictures – of US! They seemed to be just as excited to be there as we were and that was just perfect. The responses from the actors were often hilarious (Andy asking why someone would bring him a Kit Kat bar and singing, Craig kissing Mindy every few minutes, Creed pretending he really was his character, etc.) and the two hours really flew by, despite my aching back.

 Grabbing sandwiches from Subway (which were delicious) we drove to the Look-a-like contest, where we got lost just once while also admiring the very loud and close fireworks. We were quite early for this, so we sat in the very top of the left section of the gym in the front row bleachers, we ate our sandwiches and watched the improv skits while pointing out different people’s costumes. I loved how all the actors came to watch the look-a-like contest and stuck around to either jam out on stage or watch their co-actors do so. The concert itself was incredibly amazing, but I was appalled at the turn out. Less than half of the gym was filled, and people kept walking out. Which I didn’t understand at all, because personally, I thought this was the best event of the entire weekend. How many times do you get to see your favorite actors become rock stars and play along (or just jump around) to their theme song?

 After it was over, I ran to the outer room to buy Melora Hardin’s cd (she was so amazing on stage!) and get her personalized autograph that she made out to my mother and I. My mother, meanwhile, grabbed the stuff that I had left behind, then laid on the stairs so she could take my picture near Melora, seeing as they didn’t have time for everyone to pose with her. I told her I thought she was absolutely amazing, then was ushered out by an official who told me Congratulations. The concert was supposed to be done by 11, but it ran nearly forty five minutes over. They went over because they were having such a great time, which I thought was wonderful. And why it was so terrible that people blocked the Radisson’s entrance so that the actors were trapped in their limo. I did spot David Wallace out front having a blast and enjoying being in a place that people actually recognized him (seeing as he said only his family recognize him back home).

 So we made our way to our hotel room and took turns watching the crappy tv while waiting to take a shower. By the time I was ready for bed (and had downed an almond Hershey’s candy bar) it was past 1:30, and we had to get up, at latest, by 7:00, after having such an active, busy day. I was asleep quickly, but because of the amazing beds, I felt like I had five minutes of sleep before I was waking again…