Just dropping in to give an update on my time at Can’t Stop the Serenity 08 in Minneapolis/St. Paul this past weekend.

Saturday afternoon we went to the “shindig” which consisted of a parasol painting party and catered lunch. Steph had a great time painting her parasol. Me, I’m artistically challenged so I had really 2 sets of swirls on mine instead of 1 set of long ones. They asked me if I wanted to do another one since they had way extra parasols, so I said sure. And I painted the panels on that one green & yellow *s* They played the first disc of Firefly during the luncheon (they had the disc there because it contained the episode with the scenes of Kaylee holding said Parasol) and we were serenaded with the soundtrack from Serenity during the 3 hours we were there. There were some very artistic people there. One guy painted Snoopy on his dog house on his parasol. It was cute (I’m a *huge* Snoopy fan). Another guy painted “symbols” on each panel – a leaf for Wash, the parasol spirals for Kaylee, the hat for Jayne, etc. It was very fun to see. Steph’s turned out very nice.

After the luncheon, Steph found a theater where Sex and the City was playing and we went to see that. Very glad I saw it, even if I had to shell out $17 for tickets between the two of us (I’m spoiled in Fargo, tix aren’t that expensive here). The theatre wasn’t too packed, and there were only 4 men in attendance. Other than the woman sitting behind us criticizing the entire movie, I enjoyed it. I was beginning to wonder why she was even there because clearly she wasn't a fan. Carrie's hat wasn't right, Big wasn't behaving right, an embarrassing scene involving Charlotte wasn't funny at all - on and on she went.

After Sex and the City we head over to Riverview Theatre where Serenity was being shown. The package for the amount I’d contributed included 2 T-shirts, 2 posters, 1 keychain, and raffle tickets. My name was also in the program as a companion *heh* If I’d been a business (or had a published book) I could have had an ad, too. We also got a little goodie bag for being one of the first 100 through the door. These bags included a pen, a EqualityNow wristband, a granola bar and a couple of stickers. We were greeted when walking in by one of the women from the shindig playing violin. She played pretty much the entire time up until the movie started at 11:30pm.

While we didn’t win anything with the raffle (there were some pretty neat prizes, too, including a Spike puppet) we did win the auction for a MN Firefly CSTS T-shirt autographed by Adam Baldwin. Stephanie was kind of excited about that. They also had a Firefly DVD set autographed by Adam.

I’ve never seen Serenity in a theatre full of Joss fans before. Seeing it here in Fargo, I don’t think many of the audience knew it was anything but another sci-fi movie. So, some of the backstory went over their heads obviously. So, it was fun to laugh with an audience (and interesting to hear where there were a few laughs with no others or where you laughed and others didn’t). And it was fun to cry with an audience and know that even though we knew what was going to happen to Wash it was still shocking. There was a theatre full of gasps at the scene. As if we all expected that THIS time it wouldn’t happen. And the theatre was full. It was great to see that many people coming out.

There was a funny little introduction by Nathan, thanking us. There was a short movie with a browncoat dressed as Mal explaining just what Can't Stop the Serenity and Equality Now is about. And they showed Joss' speech from ’06 with an introduction by Meryl Streep. Kind of a punch in the gut to hear him being introduced as the guy who was going to be bringing us Wonder Woman. There were lots of groans from the audience at that.

We had a late breakfast with a college buddy of mine and his wife Sunday morning and then we were on our way back to Fargo. Overall, it was a great experience. The people I met and talked to were fun. It was fun, too, to see the different “types” of people that were there. Young and old, geeky and not so geeky *s*. It was fun.

Discovered at the shindig luncheon that there actually are people who like Firefly & Serenity who haven’t given Buffy and/or Angel a shot. One of the volunteers asked if anyone wanted to hear Once More With Feeling after the second play through of the Serenity soundtrack.

It was a relatively costly weekend, but well worth it. Equality Now is an organization I contribute to anyway, so I got to have some fun and get some goodies out of the deal while supporting it. Interestingly, according to 2007 number-crunching, Minneapolis contributed the most of all the cities listed.

Steph had a good time. When I told her what we were doing she just kind of rolled her eyes and didn’t seem too thrilled. Of course doing something geeky with her mother is beneath her at 17. But once we were there, she had a blast. Even Lee commented on how good her mood was last night when we got back.