Day 2 (for me) of Dragon was a little tiny bit more active than the day before. I had 2 panels (there were more I wanted to go to, BUT DragonCon is lovely like that that they have the same panel more than once. In other words, if you missed one celebrity or a group of them one day, they'll repeat the panel another day...but they also scheduled a lot of the ones I wanted to go to at the same time as other ones, so I had to pick and choose), another photo op and I tried to explore a little bit more.
Today the first thing I saw was this cool exhibit of geeky cars (which I also saw at Orlando MegaCon and I am wondering if this is a new trend going on) and I got to take a few pictures:
Then I went to make the other very long (but very worth it) line for Saturday's Shazam panel with Zachary Levi and Cooper Andrews. This time Zachary was able to stay seated at the table during the panel...I think if he has company, he's able to be more still.
As much as I love Zac, I was a little annoyed that basically ALL the fan questions were for Zac and none for Cooper. I get it, Zac is hip and hot and all the cool h words you want to call him, but I feel like Cooper is hip and cool too, not to mention super fun and funny and sweet and was so incredibly patient with everything. He's a human being too and acted in the same movie as Zac, so it would've been nice. I have hearing issues (I wear hearing aids), so I don't ask questions because I will more than likely not hear the answer from the spot of the mic. Also, the speakers at DragonCon were INCREDIBLY low...at least for me. I've been to a lot of cons at a few cities and I have never missed more than half the panel because of the fact that I hear zero of what is being said. Anyway, despite all of that, Zac managed to include Cooper in as many answers as possible or would just ask him questions himself. It was a fun and energetic panel that we all laughed a lot at. Even cooper, as you can see from this picture.
I ended up having to leave a little early from this panel because I had to rush over to the photo-op section to go get my pic with the actresses who portrayed my two most favorite Doctor Who companions ever: Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) and Freema Agyeman. I was very, very excited for this picture and to meet them because I truly love them on and off screen. I also was excited for the pic with the most appropriate tee shirt ever:
They were so incredibly sweet and kind. I absolutely adore them! I later went by their individual autograph booths to have them sign the picture:
The sticky note you see there with my name is the one Catherine's handler wrote with my name so she would know who to make the picture out to. Once she was done autographing it (and saying that she thinks the picture came out really good since I had to actually retake it because the first one came out VERY bad), she stuck it there and told me to leave it there for Freema. And if Catherine Tate tells me to leave the darn sticky note on my picture, then it's staying on the picture! I told Freema the story and she just laughed and said, "Might as well leave it." More on my story of meeting Freema on Sunday's re-cap.
I ended up missing the second panel of David Tennant's because it supposed to start about half hour after the Shazam one and since I was downstairs at the photo-op section, I would've never made it on time. Not to mention I saw the HUGE line that was waiting for him when I left the Shazam panel to go to the picture. I knew I wouldn't make it ever.
After taking that picture with the beautiful ladies, I went over to the autograph booth because I wanted to see if I was going to be allowed to just come up to Zac to say hi and to thank him for all he does to help de-stigmatize mental health, since I'm a mental health therapist. I was told to speak with his handler, which I did and we ended up talking for a bit and having a good conversation. She said it would be fine and let me skip the incredibly, incredibly long line of people that were waiting to meet him (he was not there yet). I waited a few minutes while texting a friend of mine who lives outside the country, just chit chatting when I hear a sexy voice say "hello, how are you?" and I look up and it's Zachary Levi standing in front of me with a smile and saying that to me. Good thing I don't freeze like Black Panther when he sees Nakia! I said to him that if I could bottle his energy and drink every morning, I would never need coffee again. That made me laugh (and made my little heart so happy that I was able to make him laugh). Then we had a very pleasant conversation about mental health and all he does to help promote it. I, of course, told him I have a degree in the field and that I work as a therapist and that I appreciate that so much from him. He was so happy to talk about that. I thanked him and told him to keep up the good work and that I'd catch him later (I feel like we could've talked for hours, but I know he was worried about his fans, and I already felt kind of bad they let me cut in front of all of them to talk to him so I didn't want to take up too much of his time). There is no picture or video of this encounter because I would've had to pay for that and I had already spent the money on the professional photo shoot, not to mention all the other ones I had paid for and the other things I was going to get throughout the weekend, so I couldn't pay more.
I still had some time to kill before the Companions panel, so went walking around and luckily found a TARDIS, so naturally I had to go take a picture with it:
After this, I grabbed a bite to eat, then I went to make the line for the Companions panel. The amount of people present at this con today was like I have never seen before, so everything (even going to the bathroom) took a very, very long time. This means I made it late to the line for the panel and I was all the way in the back, so when we got in, the seats were not the best from where I was and I'm short and there were a lot of people blocking my view. Therefore, the only pictures I was able to get from the panel were of the screen:
Catherine is, as we all know, very funny since she's a comedian. She was lively and had great stories of their time filming Doctor Who. Freema was sweet and kind, just like Martha was.
Soon after, the con was closed (panels, vendors, etc.) and so I walked around the surrounding streets before heading back to my Airbnb and was able to see some very cool cosplays:
Wakanda for ever! Also, this lovely lady made this dress herself! Isn't it amazing?
This woman looked fantastic!
And that's a wrap on Day 2 of DragonCon!
More to come tomorrow for Day 3, Sunday (more Zachary Levi too!)
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