My VidCon Experience

Hey there! So you might know that I was blogging everyday until VidCon. VidCon officially started on July 9, 2010. I had to leave off blogging a few days early because my computer got a virus and I couldn't do anything with it. Luckily, my friend Bill (Dr.Noise), who went to VidCon with me, is amazing at fixing computers and he fixed mine for me.

So, anyway. VidCon has come and gone and I've been home for nearly a week now. I wanted to write this blog sooner. I intended to blog during VidCon actually, but I was too busy during the conference and my head has been so full of awesomeness ever since I got home and also, trying to deal with a bit of PVCD, I just wasn't able to write anything until today.

I've tried writing this blog twice today. I think giving a detailed recap would be boring, so I am only going to discuss some highlights. VidCon officially lasted three days, but my friends and I arrived at the hotel on Thursday, the day before the conference was offically set to begin, so my story starts there.

Thursday
I got to the hotel with my friends Bill and Bobby (TheMeFund) almost exactly at 5:00pm. The awesomeness began immediately. We checked into the hotel and decided to go get some food. Going down the elevator, we ran into our friends Molly (sweetafton23) and Chris (ckwright) who were hanging out with Alex Day (nerimon) and some other British friends whose names I seem to have forgotten. They were going up, we were going down, but Molly and Chris said they would join us for food. So we waited in the lobby and ran into Tom Milsom (hexachordal). Molly and Chris came back down to join us and Tom ran off, but told us to wait, and a few minutes later he came back with John Green. I had to mention this because I thought it was adorable. When Tom came back he said "I brought you a John." We chatted for a bit, but then John had to go back to whatever it was he had been doing and the rest of us set out for food. Tom went with us, and I personally am so glad that he did. It was the most time I got to spend with him during the conference and he was just a sweet and awesome guy to hang out with. I just wanted to hug him for not being a jerk. :-)

After dinner we went back to the hotel and got in the registration line to pick up our badges and tote-bags, but someone pulled a fire alarm and we all had to move upstairs. It was irritating to lose our place in line, but it ended up being pretty awesome because EVERYONE was in the lobby. All of a sudden I was surrounded by familiar faces; Mickeleh, Karen Kavett, Todd Williams, Caitlin Sky, Kristina Horner, Luke Conard, Johnny Durnham, Craig (WheezyWaiter) and even Mystery Guitar Man. Oh, and I met Steve (footynutguy)! After a while we got the word that the fire alarm had been dealt with and it was okay to go about our regular business. Todd said he had to get things set up at the DFTBA Records merch booth and said he needed help. Chris and I both followed him and offered to help. My memory fails me at how it happened, but I remember that Molly and John (Johnzsinferno) were there helping us too. Somewhere in here was the first time I saw Hank since I got to the hotel and he was just walking around. I remember thinking "He should be in disguise! People are going to maul him!" He seemed to be alright, but busy. Anyway, I spent an hour or so helping out at the DFTBA Records merch booth, which was fun. It was definately a good place to be at the moment, because EVERYONE kept stopping by. John came over several times and Charlie McDonnell, Alex Day, Tom Milsom and Johnny Durnham were hanging out quite a bit too. At some point, Todd and Caitlin had to leave to go pick up some posters and Chris and I were left alone to guard the merch and then Chris left me too and I stayed to hold down the fort!

Eventually people came back and I got to go meet up with the rest of my friends (ie. the Classy Ladies!) We went up to our hotel rooms and just hung out until it was time to sleep.

Fiday (Day 1 of VidCon)
Friday was my busiest day during VidCon, I volunteered a bit, and ran into a ton of friends. I went to panels and meet and greats, and watched the main-stage shows. As far as this blog goes, I just want to talk about the evening. I have two absolute favorite moments from VidCon and my first favorite moment occured during the 'concert' on the first night. Michael Aranda was onstage. He started up some music and then Charlie McDonnell and Alex Day stepped up to sing Exterminate, Regenerate. I didn't know I was going to be so excited about that particular performance until it was actually happening and I realized how freaking excited I was to be watching those three guys onstage and to be in a room full of people who were all singing along to a song about Dr. Who! It was awesome.
After the concert there was a dance, but I found myself going to a party at the X-Bar in the lobby of the hotel with Bill, Craig (WheezyWaiter), Martha (martha_s) and Morgan (flawedartist) instead. There were several familiar faces hanging out at that party. I chatted with Mickeleh, Travis (sivartis) and his fabulous boyfriend, Rob, also, my friend Michael Midnight was there and we had a chat too. P.S. I can now officially say that WheezyWaiter bought me a drink! Thanks Craig!

Saturday (VidCon Day 2)
Ewww... Saturday was a rough day. See, I never ate dinner on Friday, and then I had several drinks at that party on Friday night. So, of course, I woke up late with a hangover on Saturday. I didn't get out of the hotel room until nearly 12pm. I was dehydrated and tired most of the day. I really don't remember much of what I did during the earlier part of that day. I do remember that I went to a panel to see Molly, Hank and Julia Nunes talk about songwriting. The conversation they had just before the panel began was brilliant! Hank shared a nightmare he had that there was an earthquake and everyone at VidCon died. This led to a conversation about what would be written on a vloggers tombstone. We came up with some fun quotes; "Hank has unsubscribed from life" and the best one: "the body is in the dooblydoo".
Again, the evening was more eventful and noteworthy. My favorite bit at the concert was watching a live performance of the Double Rainbow song. After the concert, I skipped out ont the dance again and instead I hung out in the karaoke room for a bit. Later in the night I got some pizza with my friends Bill, MK and Will (actually there were two Will's). Will (Redd) introduced us to Tab, a diet soda that tastes like bubbles! Haha. Tab has a very unique taste that seems to disappear as soon as you taste it, so all I could say is that it tasted like bubbles. :-)

Sunday (VidCon Day 3)
Sunday was a good day. First, there was the brunch. I got to hang with my Classy Lady friends + John (johnzsinferno) and his awesome mom. After the brunch, everyone went to the 'big tent' to watch the final match of the world cup. This was my second most favorite moment of VidCon. Sitting in that room watching that game, surrounded by at least 400 nerdfighters, most of whom I know by name, it was just an amazing, incredible feeling. Not to mention, it was made even better because Tom Milsom and John Green were commenting during the breaks. It was just amazing to share that time with so many friends.



After the game, many of us convened in a smaller room to listen to Bill sing some songs before Hank hosted a live game of Truth or Fail. I always enjoy watching Bill perform. (That is how we became friends in the first place! Two years ago, we met because I was a fan of his band.) So that was fun. Then it was time to play Truth or Fail! Everyone in the room had to stand up and then Hank gave us our two choices. Everyone had to move to one side of the room or the other, depending on which 'Fact' we chose. Everyone who 'Failed' had to move to the back of the room before the next set of 'Facts'. We played two games and OMG!!!!!! I WON THE SECOND GAME!!!!!!!! It was amazing because there were prizes! That's how I won my new Flip camera with this fancy VidCon logo!



It is so much more satisfying to win a game of Truth or Fail when you are playing against a room full of people and you actually get something tangible as a reward! So much more fun than simply tweeting "Hey I got 5/5 on the new Truth or Fail!"

After Truth or Fail, it was time for Calvinball, hosted by my friends Molly and Chris. If you have no idea what Calvinball is, please educate yourself here. It just tickles me to remember that this actually happened. I love my friends for having the most awesome ideas, and speaking of friends with awesome ideas, we come to my final VidCon memory. During Calvinball my friend Bobby came over with Tom Milsom and Andrew Slack (from the HP Alliance) and they said they wanted to make a video to remind people to vote for the HP Alliance to win some much needed $$$. They said they needed a big crowd of people, so we opened the doors to Calvinball and everyone came out to help with the video. They recorded the video in one take and it turned out amazing. The HP Alliance went on to win the contest they were in, thanks to everyone who voted! It's an incredible feeling to be even a tiny part of something that is changing the world.



And that's it. It was time for us to leave the hotel after we helped film the video. The Classy Ladies stayed in LA for a couple of extra days. We went to Disneyland and had a blast, but VidCon was over. It is over. I can not wait for the next one. It was an amazing time. It's hard to deal with the reality now, waking up in my own bed, knowing that when I step out of my room I won't happen to run into Charlie McDonnell, there is no hope of sharing an elevator with WheezyWaiter, Hank Green is not sleeping just down the hallway from me. That was VidCon, but now I'm back to everyday life. There is definately a feeling that something needs to be done to make everyday feel more like a day at VidCon. I miss everyone's faces. Anyway, I'll just say goodby now or I'll keep rambling. Goodbye.



Have any questions about VidCon or anything else? Leave 'em in the comments.