But first things first.
Let's start with the memory I'm going to forever treasure most. The one that hasn't quite sunk in yet. The one that made me dance and shake and get all tongue-tied and probably say even more awkward things than I usually do.
It went like this:
Agnes is more than a little hard to transport, so huge sections of Dragon Con were completely off-limits for her. After careful mapping and planning, though, John and I determined we could get Agnes to exactly ONE of Karen Prell's panels, where we hoped to catch Karen's eye and perhaps get a moment or two to say hello. (Karen is the original Junk Lady *and* Blue Worm puppeteer. She's also Red Fraggle, and more recently has worked with Pixar and Valve for Portal 2!)
I'll spare you the details of the Herculean effort it requires to get a large costume like Agnes anywhere at Dragon Con - especially on Saturday - but suffice to say it required four people, significant upper body strength, and a LOT of time and patience.
We budgeted plenty of time, but even arriving early, we were told the panel line stretched outside a few blocks (where Agnes could not go), and we had no guarantee of getting into the large room.
Enter my dear friend-and-Epbot-reader Renee, who in addition to being on Agnes detail that afternoon, also knew the stage manager for this particular panel, Wendy. A few frantic calls/texts later, and we were being ushered backstage.
I was in Agnes at the time, and with the crushing crowd and noise level, I had no idea what was going on. (Not all that unusual, come to think of it.) I figured we were being led into the panel room to get us out of the way, not backstage!
But then, just moments later, I heard someone say Karen was there. I peered through my scrims all around and spotted her standing several feet in front of me, the most delightful grin on her face. "Karen!" I called out, "KAREN! I AM SO EXCITED TO MEET YOU."
****
Maya Angelou once said, "People will forget what you said... but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I think about that a lot. I think about how much harder it is to project feelings than words - and how much more important it is to get those feelings right, and not so much a perfect script. It's something I'm always striving for, every blog post, every meetup.
So when I tell you I don't remember exactly what else was said at that moment, only that Karen made me feel happy and, weirdly, seen, I hope that tells you what an amazing woman she is.
I told her I was grinning on the inside. And I was.
Then I asked her to sign my junk.
:D
Since we'd sadly lost my Labyrinth book off the junk pile en route (a
minor heartbreak), John had Karen sign our saw blade:
We made the blade out of plastic poster board for safety.
There were quite a few people milling about backstage at this point - almost all looking at us - plus it was dark and I was, y'know, in a giant pile of junk. So when I heard another voice ask, "Oh, what's this?" I didn't think too much of it. The voice came closer, and I felt the energy in the people around me shift. There was an expectancy, an excitement. The man was too close and too tall for me to see his face, so as John introduced Agnes again I squinted through the scrim to see his badge... and slowly made out the name, "BRIAN HENSON."
