These people were not strangers, they were long-lost family,
brothers and sisters and moms and cousins and fathers I never
would have known if it weren't for the dream we shared and worked
to keep alive. The friendships I've found here will always be
with me, even if there is never another convention, BATB never
runs on TV again, or I never see them again face-to-face. They
are my family now.
I met Jay Acavone, a beautiful, funny, intelligent man with all
the charm and character of Joe Maxwell, and even more power of
attraction. :-) I was so nervous! I was shaking and words just
came pouring out of my mouth. I still don't remember what I said
to him. He was great, though. He asked me where I was from, and
when I told him Detroit, he asked me if I had ever seen a certain
restaurant that his cousin owned. It was unreal. My first
meeting with Jay was Friday night, and the next night, I had my
picture taken with him. He put his arm around me!!! I walked
shakily back into the banquet room, a huge, silly smile on my
face.
On Friday night, I gave a recital of three of the poems I had
written. I was very, very nervous. It went better than I could
have hoped, though, and everyone was very nice to me about it.
Even David Schwartz, BATB's producer, complimented me. I will
never forget those feelings, the wonderful sense of acceptance
and love from my BATB family. The most surprising thing about
the performance was how I felt doing it. As soon as I stepped
on stage (and after a little negotiating with Myhr \:-), I
suddenly felt as though I were talking to a small group of friends,
and not a room full of over 200 people that I'd never met before.
When I began my first poem, the words just started coming out on
their own, full of all the emotion I'd wanted to give them, and
it was such a joy. I did have a memory lapse on my last poem,
but with any luck, most of the audience interpretted it as a
dramatic pause. Yeah, right.
David Schwartz was hilarious. His somewhat racy sense of humor
had my convention 'moms' covering my ears at times. I was also
photographed with him, and I sure hope that one turns out! He
was so terrific. He described the BATB con as not being a
convention at all, but a family reunion. Amen, brother.
Which brings me to next con. I will be there, despite work, school, or any of that. You have to have your priorities.