Comic-Con 2012: Part 2 - Camping Out

The thought of camping out for another Twilight- or Twilight cast-related event always brings mixed emotions. I've camped out on street corners (Today show and Regis & Kelly), in a monsoon (Water for Elephants premiere), in city centers (BD1 premiere in LA), in too-few layers during the winter (outside the Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver), and in numerous other sleep-deprived situations. However, no matter what kind of crazy things I've experienced in the name of Twilight, I still end up going back for more. I've learned that it's always worth it. No pain, no gain - right? This time around I found myself camping out for the Breaking Dawn Part 2 panel at Comic-Con...


I have to give credit to two awesome friends, Sandy and Mary Lou, who plopped their tushes down in line over 4 days before the panel was scheduled and who saved a lovely spot on the grass next to them for me :) As I was counting down the days and hours till I'd be in San Diego, I received this photo message from Sandy while I was at work:

"Your space my dear"

This picture is what got me through those last few long shifts at the hospital and made me even more excited to start the whole camp-out process all over again. 

I'm on my way...!

Fast forward to San Diego. Ah, beautiful, no-humidity, lovely San Diego. I miss you just writing this blog entry.... Anyway, when Sandy and Mary Lou brought me over to the campsite from the hotel, I was so surprised by how small the area was and by how few people were there. I expected that the fans would have come out in droves to camp out, but not so much. There were probably, at max, 200 people there and most of them were lined up behind us. 

Keeping the pool float industry in business

I quickly got settled into my little piece of grass and made my bed on a pool float. You've gotta be resourceful in these situations, and pool floats work just fine as air mattresses. After talking to several of my new neighbors, I dozed off to sleep for a few hours only to wake up - wide awake - at 2am. Taking the easy way out, I left a note for Sandy and Mary Lou: "Went back to the hotel at 2am. I'm a loser. -Sarah." I just couldn't see myself getting any more rest outside and hoped that I'd be able to back at the hotel. So, I walked back to the hotel and sunk into a deliciously comfortable bed for a few hours of blissful sleep.

The next day (Wednesday) was a busy one...

This was the first day I saw the inside of the San Diego Convention Center -- massive! 

I became the proud owner of a 4-day with preview night badge :)

After getting our badges, my lovely new group of friends and I strolled around the Gaslamp Quarter, grabbed some food, and headed back to the campsite to relax for a while. We had heard that we'd need to be at the campsite that night by 9pm for a surprise of some sort, so that evening I decided to quickly check out the Exhibition Hall - aka the craziest place I've ever seen. I made my way into the chaos of the Hall by myself, thinking I'd just see what it was like and then go back to the campsite. I had wanted to go to the Shotime and Summit booths to see what kinda swag they were giving away. Well, it took me about 20 minutes to actually find these booths, only to be told by Summit that their booth was closed (what?!). 

I jumped into the Shotime line adjacent to the Summit booth hoping to snag a Dexter bag. No luck there, either. Even after getting in line 3 times. By this point, I was overwhelmed and disappointed and decided to hightail myself outta there and go back to the sanity of the campsite. 

Once back there, I caught up with Kara from MTV. A fellow HBG fan, she chatted with Sandy, Mary Lou, and I about her awesome interview schedule the next day (jealous!). I swear, I'm gonna have that job one day :) 

As the light of the day started to fade, we were all getting more and more anxious to find out what was in store for us that night at the campsite. Never in my wildest dream could I have imagined a more fabulous surprise than what was about to come....