Welcome to Comic-con!! Part 3

Went out to dinner Friday after two days of bulhorning with Geoff from New Hampshire... (talk about an accent---Pahk the cah near the hahbah...lol). Because of the vocal exercises of the past two days, I just pointed to the menu and grunted my order. Went back to the hotel around 11pm and crashed hard because of a 7:30am call the next morning (nobody said this was going to be easy but what the heck; free hotel, free transport to and from San Diego, free admission inside and I'm getting paid to do this)... After an extra large coffee and a tea with honey for my voice, we piled in the vans and made the trek downtown... got there on time and they gave the bullhorn to someone else (how dare they!) but I was kind of happy because my voice was strained and my noggin was hurting from the sunshine beating down on it. I was rewarded, however with an inside assignment in the main ballroom upstairs... I was supervising 14 people manning the entrance and exit doors to the ballroom where they were having a fanfest event... The casts and writers were appearing from the shows Chuck, Family Guy, Cleveland Show, Vampire Diaries, Futurama, and others to preview the new seasons and answer questions. So after posting my people around the hall, I pretty much mingled backstage with the celebs... (meeting Seth MacFarlane, Seth Green and Patrick Warburton from Family Guy was a blast). It was cool that half of my staff was Marines on loan from Camp Pendleton. They volunteered their time and their units received money as compensation. It was a great honor to be with these brave men and women and I made sure to thank each one of them for their help that day and for their unselfish service for our country... (God bless our servicemen and women). So that was pretty much my job for the day...watching cartoons and show previews, hanging with the casts of the shows and enjoying the cold, dark theater. I told you it was the greatest gig ever... Around 5pm a battalion of jacket and tie Marines came into the ballroom...(after the event a clean-up crew was preparing the ballroom for the "masquerade" party later that night. I deployed the Marines to replace my people and by 5:30 I was done for the day... I signed out and the boss asked me if I wanted to grab a burger with him...

Now I need to preface this part by saying that I haven't eaten a fast food burger (except when Craig came to visit and we went to the Heart Attack Grill) since 1999 when I moved to New York. The boss wanted to go to In N Out Burger and I told him I had never been and he quickly gave me the history of the franchise (all owned by the family that started it---no separate franchises). There is a limited menu (4 kinds of burgers and fries that are made fresh in each location). I ended up getting a double-double with fries and let me tell you, it was love at first bite... I cursed my boss for re-introducing me to fast food, but this was not the usual fast food. I have been able to resist seeking one here (haven't been back although they are all over Phoenix) but I know that won't last...the fries are killer!!

Sunday came and now I was promoted to shuttle driver (congratulations on my promotion). I told everyone we were leaving at 4:45am for a 6am call... after knocking on a few doors and dragging some people out of their racks (we were all pretty exhausted by now, but it was the last day) we stopped for coffee (executive decision---I had the keys) and drove downtown. I dropped the group off and proceeded to the off site parking area... (a hospital parking lot about 4 miles from the convention center). The shuttle van picked me up and brought me back and I went to command to sign in... just as I walked into the room the head guy asked if anyone had worked the bull horn and wanted a volunteer...(talk about timing!!). My hand shot up and he gave me my baby... I reported to my post at 6am and began a day of greeting and directing... was filmed again and then received an invitation to return for next year from the company running the event (whether or not I was with the security co.---they loved the way I handled the bull horn). Finally at around 3pm someone came to relieve me and Phoenix was finished with their service to Comic-Con. We drove back to the hotel and I passed out around 5:30pm and didn't wake up until around 4am... Went for a walk and a coffee and went back to sleep until it was time to leave for Phoenix. I will come back to San Diego now that I know my way around and the fact that it's only 5-6 hours away is great... (after all, it is the home of Torrey Pines Golf Course and isn't that what this is all about?)...