Not Really a SciFi Geek

I don't know what category I fall in, I'm not a super Star Trek, Star Wars or Babylon 5 junkie. I'm not all that jazzed to catch Avatar opening weekend (and I certainly wouldn't stand in line to see it).

But I am a geek of sorts.

I think I'm a supernatural geek. I'm all about the vampires, witches and hobgoblins. I enjoy watching shows about paranormal, supernatural and the all around unexplained.

I like Ghost Whisperer, Supernatural, vampire Diaries, Twilight, Harry Potter and The Craft (to name a few).

Not long ago our little trip around the country led us to our neighbours to the north. Canada. Vancouver to be exact. For a convention of Supernatural fans (the show, not the genre in general).

We had never been to a convention before, except for BlogHer back in '07 but that is a different animal entirely. To be clear, we had never been to a fan convention before.

Boy, were we in for a surprise.

Seriously.

Going into this we knew that the majority of fans are female. One fear that I had was that, at age 34, I would be older than the majortiy of the fans.

WRONG!

Scary as it is (and I can't imagine it from the actors perspective) the majority of attendees were in their 30's, 40's and 50's. One woman we saw was clearly AARP eligible and proudly wearing leather pants, sequined top and hair extentions in addition to her orthopedic shoes.

Okay, they were more like hooker heels and we had to give her props for being able to balance on them without breaking a hip.

Anyway, the occurance of normal people at this shindig was few and far between.

There was the girl we referred to as the Typhoid-Kiwi. She flew all the way from New Zeland to attend and seemed to have given up showering for lent back in the mid 90's. Her pungent aroma combined with a cough that sounded like it was coming from a teburculosis patient with a three pack a day habit was enough to make most of the sane people keep their distance. She was easy to find with her unique wardrobe, hot-pink dreadlocks and creative tattoo/piercing combinations. We think that her generosity with germs is what brought on Megs illness.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking her appearance. I've seen people with dreads and body art that are normal. However, when your hygene is lacking you are opening yourself up for criticism. Nothing excuses the lack of regular bathing and use of deoderant. Nothing.

In addition to the Typhoid-Kiwi and Granny-Glam there were the usual amount of super fans who admitted (yes, we had a discussion about this with a few of the attendees) to having escaped the boundries of their parents basements or guest rooms to attend.

As wide as the variety was, there was one woman we just couldn't figure out. She was seated in the front row center so we know that she paid well over $3000 for her admittance ticket at auction. Yes, it's obscene. We also know that she paid an additional $2500 for a backstage VIP pass and purchased private party tickets at auction (which sold for anywhere from $1500 to $250 per celebrity).

So she paid FAT bank to attend.

We think that she was somewhere in her mid 60's and wore the same outfit the entire convention. Ankle length black skirt, long sleeved white button up shirt, black vest. Her long iron grey and black hair was pulled back into a severe pony tail secured at the nape of her neck with a black band. She didn't wear any make-up or jewlery. Her shoes were servicable black flats and may have been orthopedic.

Who was she? Why did she spend so much money to meet the actors, up-close and personal? She certainly wasn't in the shows target demographic.

Of all the things that I remember about this convention, all of the awkward and disappointing, she will be the most interesting simply because she blew the expectations I had for attendees out of the water. Off the planet, actually.