On Saturday morning I was lucky enough to wake up bright and early! (friggin stupid friggin earlyness) Around 7:30, myself, ChainLit and her hubby began lugging various RushCon items out of the hotel and into the car. That was... um... tiring? :-) Then we drove to the NTC, got everything *out* of the car, lugged it all into the NTC, and then lugged it all AROUND the NTC as we set up. That was... um... still tiring? :-)

The way to RushCon... Walk down the path, take a left at the yellow building, and you're there!
(these pictures were actually taken the Tuesday after the Con... but ya know, whatever...)

We got in, and immediately we (the various organizers) began running around the room and setting up. We only had about an hour and a half before the doors opened, so we were kind of in panic mode :-) Signs were made, things were hung up, tables were cloth-ed, things were placed in various strategic locations.... Eventually I made my way over to the contest table and met up with my volunteers. You guys all ROCK! :-)

The beautiful, banner-laden stage.

The ever wondrous registration table... (featuring Tim and Nicole)

The oh-so-cool and funky contest table (with Pipsey hiding his face... heh heh heh...).

Once I got my first "shift" of people set up, I decided to take a little break -- I took pictures and went shopping. I bought this beautiful Roll The Bones poster -- it's dark grey with "RUSH" in red and "ON TOUR" on white, and it's got these gorgeous black and white portaits of each one of the guys that I don't think I've ever seen before. Guhhhh... I also picked up some magazines and I got a couple of buttons from the Rush Backstage Club's table. I wanted to buy more stuff, but stupid me thought I needed to save money for food...

Guhhhh.... Ruuusshhhh stufffff..... (this was all at one booth!)

When I finished my little shopping spree, I came back to the contest tables and, well... I discovered that we were having a little bit of a crisis. Long story short, I unfortunately spent the rest of the day extremely busy with the contests. Sadly, I missed the acoustic singalong, Name That Rush Tune and most of JeoParody because I was too busy with other things. Although from the glimpses that I did manage to catch, and from what I heard after the fact, they all went really great! And I sang along as best as I could while I was occupied! That counts, doesn't it?! :-) I'd like to once again thank Mark and Romilly for being my second brain after mine shut off. LOL :-) I did manage to run and catch the last few moments of Rush JeoParody, though....

Lucky Rush JeoParody contestants Greg, Tony and David battle it out onstage. Host Jillian and judge Spicketeric are also pictured.

Spicketeric brings the guys a big ol' bag of Rice-A-Roni...

JeoParody winner Tony, centre, with his prize, an A Farewell To Kings poster. On either side of him, his fellow contestants enjoy their Rice-A-Roni.

The game is over -- Everybody clap!!!

Once the contests were finished for the day, I got to take in the Contest Finalists and Winners bit, which was very funny. Jillian was hosting a "tribute band audition", and LonelyHiker played "Randy", who tried out for everything, despite his inability to play an instrument. LOL. My favourite parts were the interpretive dance version of Jacob's Ladder and the "new" rap part of RTB :-)

Jillian and "Randy" doing their hosting duties for the Contest Finalists and Winners.

"Randy" shows Jillian and Spicketeric how guitar playing is really done...

"Randy" performs his interpretive dance version of Jacob's Ladder.

Ricky performs his parody, "Countdown to RushCon", with help from his "back-up band".

"Randy" raps for Jillian.

Once the prizes were handed out, the day was over, and it was time to get ready for the tribute concert...