Monday, July 23, 2012

With The Huddled Masses, Yearning for Febreeze...

After arriving at the beautiful San Diego Convention Center Thursday morning at 6:45 am, there were already at least 300 volunteers in front of me. Found the actual line easily enough, but getting to the back of it made me feel like a salmon trying to swim upstream. I have been in crowds, but this was something else entirely.

"At least everyone looks happy to be here!" I said to a guy "dressed" as Aqua-man. Really nice guy, too.

The SDCC started in 1970 in a small downtown hotel convention hall, with all of 300 attendees.  Recently the organizers have had to cap ticket sales to 130,000, which doesn't include volunteers industry/VIP/celebrities, or staff/security. The Con has spread from the actual Convention Center (it is the only convention so far held in San Diego to occupy the whole building) into the Marriott Marina Towers and the Hilton Bayfront respective convention halls. It is slated to be in San Diego through 2015, when the city must renegotiate with organizers.  Locally for years we have had fierce debates in City Hall over funding either a new stadium for the Chargers/Super Bowl, or an expansion of the Convention Center for SDCC and other large Cons. I think y'all know what this fan boy feels about that!

After checking in, I was taken to a large holding pen where I waited for an assignment. I probably was the oldest one there, and as such, I honestly felt out of place. But it didn't take me long to get into the groove.

About half an hour went by before a coordinator called for people that could produce a booming, authoritative voice. I instantly jumped up and bellowed - "Where do you need me?" (I spent several years in the US Army, and if they taught me one thing, it was how to project my voice. I may feel like a jackass and sound like a wheezy humpback whale when I do it, but my voice PROJECTS, son!)

I ended up in a group of five, and we were given signs that read "THIS IS THE END OF THE LINE". My job was to stand at the end of the souvenir t-shirt line, and announce at the top of my voice - "THIS LINE IS CAPPED! YOU MAY NOT LINE UP HERE! THE LINE WILL OPEN UP IN ABOUT 30 MINUTES! PLEASE DO NOT STAND HERE1 PLEASE KEEP MOVING!"

This went on for the next 3 hours. I only opened the line one time, on orders from my boss. People were sneaking into the line left and right, which I tried to nip in the bud as soon as I realized what was going on, and was promptly ignored and was rudely told to go somewhere mythically really hot. I wasn't having a pleasant time.  I wasn't at all shocked by the bad behavior, mind - as I said before I am a veteran of Sci-Fi conventions, and I know how desperate fan boys and fan girls can be at the hint of the word exclusive. But I  stayed on post, and was so glad when they relieved me at noon. My replacement was a harajuku girl, (or anime babe, or tentacle porn star - I haven't a clue - Japan confuses me. Maybe one of you can enlighten me.)

After returning to the volunteer booth to turn in my "C" card, I was given Friday's assignment and then set free to attend the Con. Volunteers work 3-4 hour shifts, and when checking in for the day, you are given a sticker to put on your shirt stating "Volunteer on Duty" and a "C" card - which is used to track your shifts completed - signed off by the person you are reporting to. Easy to lose, easy to forget to turn in, these cards are the only way for the computer system to track your work. Lose them, and....(I asked, nobody could tell me what would happen, but they said it was probably something really bad.)

All in all, Thursday turned out to be my least favorite day. I was tired going into it (my own fault) and the job I was given was adversarial, and slightly soul crushing. But as the weekend progressed, it got better and better as I learned to go with the flow, and get the hang of the Con.

To be continued...


3 comments:

  1. So glad you did this!! Can't wait to hear more... PS Japan confuses me too!! lol
    Danielle

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  2. Ha... just figured out that the higlighed text had pics. WOW there were a lot of people there and for a man dressed as a psudo mermaid... Aquaman was kinda hot :)

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  3. Thank you so much Danielle! I just wish there were more hours in the day to blog! I am currently working on my next entry, so stay tuned...

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