My Weekend with The Walking Dead Cast!!!!!!!

Day 1!

I’ll be honest. Day one sucked until I got inside. The convention opened at 4 that evening and ended at 10. The staff had no clue what they were doing and they sold over 4,000 more tickets than the building capacity. Meaning the building could only hold about 9,000 people and they sold over 13,000 tickets and they weren’t supposed to do that.

I waited in line from 2pm and by 7pm I still wasn’t inside nor was I even close to getting in the door. Around 7:15 a volunteer started going around the building and screaming “Anyone that has the 7:30 Photo Op tickets for Norman Reedus follow me!”

I was mentally thinking “well thank you Norman for getting me on the inside.” I get inside and go down to the photo op room. There’s a huge line. As I’m waiting the photographer comes running through the hallway screaming “Clear the way! Move! This area needs to be cleared!”

No one really had any idea what was going on. I was on the phone with my friend and all the sudden I heard “Yeah, that’s right Sean Clark is coming through.” Sean Clark was literally right next to me dancing through the hallway. Everyone was so entertained with him that no one noticed Norman was right behind him. I don’t think I’ve screamed any louder in my life. Sorry to my friend who I was on the phone with.

After standing in line for another 30 minutes or so, I got into the photo op room. My mom was with me but ditched me before I went into the main room because she didn’t want to muck up the photo op line. She stood by the exit, and Norman was a few feet away taking pictures with fans.

As I’m going through the line I’m starting to freak. I was so nervous to meet him even if it was for a split second. The photo ops are literally seconds. You say ‘hi’ pose, click, ‘bye,’ gone. Everyone was freaking out because of my shirt I had on for the op.

It said “Horrorhound fangirl invasion’ on the back in said “Reedus Stalkers” but stalkers was crossed out and was replaced by “Security” I’ll post a photo on my fan twitter! Finally I’m the next person to go. I seriously thought I was going to pass out.

I walk up to Norman who’s shifting back and forth being….well Norman. I held out my hand and said “Hi I’m Jessica” Norman put on his typical smirk and said “Jessica, Hi sweetheart, I’m Norman.” I could’ve melted into a puddle of goo right there.

Norman put his arm around me and pulled me in close. I seriously felt like the luckiest girl in the world. After the photographer took the photo we had to stay where we were to make sure that the photo turned out fine. I wasn’t complaining. I mean Norman’s arm was around me.

Norman took his hand and ran it up and down my arm and whispered. “You’re shaking, stop that,” I giggled nervously and he squeezed me a little. The photographer shouted ‘next’ and I knew it was time to move on. As I was walking away I called back to Norman.

“I have presents for you later!” Norman’s eyebrows arched behind his sunglasses and he smiled, like teeth and all, wish I had a camera but we weren’t allowed to take photos in the photo op room with our cameras and phones though some people do.

He said “You do?” I told him I did and he let out this “Woohoo!” while doing a little dance. I walked out and my mom was grinning from ear to ear. She told me I was shaking and believe me I was well aware. That’s when my legs gave out. I sunk against the wall and didn’t move for a good 10 minutes.

Okay now I’m going to make a list of people I met on Day One and tell you what happened :)

Michael Rooker (Merle) – Michael is really the exact opposite of any character he has ever played. He is such a sweetie and really good looking. I don’t care if he’s 58! The man looks damn good for his age! The convention was March 22-24 I knew Rooker’s birthday was April 6th so I brought him a present!

He signed my TWD poster (First one to sign he felt special) and wrote a small note to me in my notebook which he did for free. If anyone doesn’t know how autographs and such work I’ll give an example. It is $40 to get a picture and autograph from Michael.

But it’s not a $40 flat fee. If you have multiple items that you want them to sign you have to pay $40 or however much they charge per item. So technically I should have paid $80 for the poster and notebook but Rooker was nice enough to do it free of charge.

His present….the bag was blue and I decorated it. I found a picture of a cake with pink frosting and wrote the line Merle says to Glenn underneath. “I’ll bake a cake, with pretty pink frosting, would they like that?” Michael chuckled when he saw the contents inside.

“Chocolate covered pretzels,” he said with a laugh. If anybody doesn’t get it go google “mall rats chocolate covered pretzels” it was a movie he was in and the chocolate covered pretzels were a very sick joke. Michael was nice enough to take two pictures with us.

I walked over to him and he wrapped his arms around me. I said “wait, my mom wants in on the picture.” He said “No this is going to be just us.” Well okay then. After our picture Rooker opened an arm and said “Ah, come here mom,” so she got one too!

Lew Temple (Axel the prisoner) - Lew Temple was also very sweet!! And his mustache is wicked awesome!! He also signed my notebook free of charge! He was very sweet to us and took three pictures!!! I told him he had a sweet hat and he let me wear it for one of them!

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori) - I met Sean Clark while standing in line to meet her!! He walked right past me again! And when I called out to him he came back and took pictures! Okay onto Sarah. I really wasn’t wanting to meet her. Well I did but I didn’t.

I wanted to meet her for the sake of saying “Yeah I met this person from the walking dead.” I really had nothing planned to say to her besides “Hi im Jessica please sign this” I got up to her and handed her my poster to sign. I wasn’t expecting myself to tell her that I cried when Lori died.

No I didn’t because I was sad to see her go. It was time for her and her character to go. Lori was really starting to tick me off. I cried because of Chandler’s emotion behind the scene, but I didn’t tell her that. I let her believe that I cried over her. Yeah, right.

I will tell you that I was sort of disappointed. I watched her sign 5 photos for one girl in front of me who only paid for one photo.  But when I asked her to simply sign my notebook, the handler said no she could only sign one and Sarah told me “She’s the boss.”

I was really upset but I didn’t let it show. I mean really you signed 5 photos for the girl in front of me who didn’t pay for all 5 but yet you won’t sign a notebook that I had. Really? Anyway, to me she seemed prettier on the show if that is even possible.

She has a dry sort of attitude to her too. She acted like she wasn’t really that excited to be there and that her fans really didn’t mean that much. Maybe it was jet lag or something, I don’t know but I just wasn’t really happy with her by the time it was over.

Jon Bernthal (Shane) – Ah, Jonny Bernthal! Such a sweet man and so soft spoken compared to his character. Of all people I lost my train of thought with him. Maybe it was because he was shirtless underneath his zip up hoodie. Maybe it was because he is very attractive but jeez!!!

He goes “hi sweetheart Im Jon” I shook his hand but my brain went blank then I said “Uh Jessica” he could totally tell I was nervous. I told him about seeing “Snitch” which if you haven’t seen you need to watch it! It’s such an amazing movie!! Jon signed my notebook and poster and took pictures with both my mom and I.

(videos of meeting Jon, Michael, Sarah, and Lew are on my youtube!! Bakerjessica!)