I met Joe Flanigan last week...

…and I am so in love with this man.

So. I don't about you all but I had the BEST SUNDAY EVER.

Shut up, I know he's married, and seriously, that doesn't matter. Not in the sense that I am a shameless tramp without morals who'll resort to unscrupulous tricks to get what she wants, but in the sense that regardless of his marital status, he's a sci-fi celebrity who's completely out of my social sphere, lives on the other side of the *planet* and is much older than I am [not that age is a barrier for me, but I'm thinking uni students might not be so appealing to him- though it didn't stop Hugh Grant from partying with them…]

So it doesn't matter whether I believe that he's spoiled me for any other man, now that I've had the glee-inducing pleasure of meeting him. I'm just playing in the flexible reality of my mind. Not planning a strategy to steal him away from his wife. It's not like she's going to believe I'm a credible threat to their marriage! How the hell would I ever attract his attention? Out of the millions of females that are crazy over him?

I suppose I could try swooning at his feet at some convention in the future, but it would be rather damaging to my dignity and I am not so far gone as to consider that devious scheme merely to maneuver myself into his arms. Though I have watched 'Echoes' a ton of times to see the scene where Elizabeth faints and he catches her before she hits the ground, which is awesome in itself, before he then melts my heart by picking her up in his arms and *carrying* her to the infirmary! I mean- romantic, much? [And it must be nice to be light enough for a guy to carry you in his arms] No wonder I love this woman ever so- I enjoy imagining myself in her place, mentally substituting myself for her whenever she's interacting with Sheppard.

Argh, Joe Flanigan. Why must you be so unattainable? And make me spend hundreds of bucks simply to get you to scrawl your signature on a picture and pose for a photo with me? Speaking of photos, I was so unspeakably happy to have a photo with him at the expo. [I really should have varied my expression, though. The photographer took two shots, and I didn't realize that we would have both shots, I thought he was being thorough and making sure it was all right. I look exactly the same in all the photos…how boring] It's a bit of a blur, I can't remember exactly what I said and what he said, which is lame. *slaps self* I should have shaken his hand. I saw someone else do it, but then, I can't remember the last time I shook hands and it would feel pretentious.

And it's not nice to copy people. Though if I could, I would totally copy what this Asian chick did. She brought fighting sticks with her. Okay, they looked impressive, like the ones used by Shep and Teyla and Ronon on SGA when they're sparring in their mock battles. She asked him to hold one, while she held the other, and posed with the sticks crisscrossed like they were locked in battle! FREAK. I would so love to do that. I mean, I even have a superficial resemblance to Teyla, I have brown skin and all…but it would be ripping off someone else's original idea and I shouldn't. I shouldn't. I won't. *resolve trembles* Will I? *ponders*

She was funny, though. As she packed up to leave, I asked if she was any good with the fighting sticks or if they were just for show, and she answered, 'I have glasses', as though the answer was totally obvious. I take it that's a no? How shattering. I wear glasses too. So I guess I can't learn either.

Actually, I'm being facetious. I knew from before that I would never be any good at wielding a staff, like Gabrielle on Xena: Warrior Princess, [cheeee-ya!] nor at swinging two fighting sticks as per SGA.

The first time I tried [oh, yes, dear readers, I was misguided enough to try], I whacked myself on the ear. Quite hard. I didn't see stars, I believe that's when you hit yourself on the head, but oh, how it stung. Not just my ego, but my ear. It was throbbing and possibly swollen too.

The second time I tried, as I need to learn a lesson a few times before it sticks, I simply used tree branches I picked up off the ground. Small, harmless, right? Nooo. Not realizing there was anyone behind me, I accidentally- shut up all you people who know of my feelings towards little people- whacked my little cousin. Quite hard, I believe. Poor kid. Lucky for me, he didn't start bawling because I have no clue what to do with crying kids. And he wasn't bleeding or anything, so it wasn't like I literally scarred him for life. I tried to be harsh and practical and put the blame on him, 'Why would he stand behind me when I'm swinging sticks around, anyway?' but I felt horribly guilty. Good thing this is the kid that jumps off staircases without any regard for his safety, runs full tilt into walls for no apparent reason, and generally does whatever he can to injure himself. Maybe he doesn't feel pain? Hmm.

Or maybe he just inherited the Defective Gene of Moronic Behavior from my uncle. You have to know my uncle. Then you will know that I am not being mean, but stating a fact. What a loser. I mean, he lets me use his credit card to order dvds off Amazon, but still. [And btw, I pay him back.] George says the cruelest things, and as an only child, I never learnt the art of banter, so while he's inflicting verbal cuts and bruises, all I can do is seethe with rage and ineffectively rant at him. 'Shut up, loser'. 'God, you're such a jerk'. 'You are so dead'. 'Your opinion is worthless to me, anyway'.

Yeah, we love each other. ;)

Uh, how did I get from Joe Flanigan to my uncle? Seriously, my brain is still addled from the expo. I'm still finding it hard to function normally. It's like I have nothing to look forward to anymore, now that JF's come and gone. *sighs* Come back…!

The photos. At the risk of sounding embarrassingly fangirly, the best part was that Joe obviously knew that the photo dude took two shots each time, so after the first shot, he kept his arm around me. YES, that is pretty damn exciting, I don't care how lame y'all think it is. He's probably thinking, 'Oh, god, not *another* one, how many more freaks do I have to pose with before I can have a break?' while I'm gleeing over here, but I'm going to block out that possibility. I'm still grinning foolishly at the memory of putting my arm around him.

Now, for a little segue into SGA. In the pics I've seen, there is a noticeable height difference between Shep and Weir, but not too much. Not, say, anything like the Mulder-and-Scully, or Ronon-Teyla height difference. Or the Olsen twins and their bodyguards, hee. Anyway, everyone I know who's ever met Torri says that she's tiny in real life, that they were surprised how small she was in person. So Netty and I figured that Joe must not be all that tall- not a midget, by any means, but still.

It was a little startling how much taller he really was. I could pretty much lean my head on his shoulder, without straining my neck, if I had been so inclined- I hadn't thought of doing that [reeks of try-hard], but would be too restrained to put myself forward like that, anyway. I'm looking at the photo of us on my wall, right next to my desk so I can be inspired when my spirits are low, and it's just so unbelievably cool. I have this little girly scream bubbling in my throat, but I'm trying to choke it down again. God, am I ever in a great mood!

I'm just so glad that Netty came with me. *loves* Even if she is ditching me for Samoa...it's lovely to be sitting on the bench outside the room for an hour, just dazed and giddy, and to have someone know exactly what I mean when I say, 'There was a fizz...not sparks, because that sounds cliched and has other connotations, but when Joe and I had our arms around each other *SQUEE* there was a fizz. It was just freakin' surreal to actually touch him, for him to be physically next to me. Like I staticked myself'- does that happen to anyone? It happens to me all the time and it *hurts*- 'but without the pain. Just...wow...' And she's on the same wavelength. Not laughing at me, like you guys undoubtedly are. But ah, she understands.

The lines were awful, Netty and I spent about four hours queuing up throughout the whole day. There were some pretty friendly people around, and I just randomly chatted to some of them. Netty tells me my voice carries- I have never been able to replicate that in public speaking tasks, sadly- so a few times when I said something to her, a person near us would turn around and reply! There was this cool girl who told me that my t-shirt was awesome. Yay! Validation! And another chick who was teasing me that I was so lying about not being nervous, that every female in the queue to have a photo with Joe was just a bundle of nerves.

I wasn't so nervous with Connor Trinneer. Michael the Wraith, aka Trip from Enterprise. Netty thought he was sleazy! I just found him funny. My mind resides permanently in the gutter [I was corrupted!] so maybe we operate on the same wavelength. I went first, had my photo with him, and then began walking back to Netty, forgetting that she was so starstruck and anxious that she had told me to come with her for her own photos. [No problems there, I'm such a camera whore] So I turned right back round to Connor again, and he held out his arms to us with this smirk on his face and went, 'Ohhh, two of you…' The inflection just about killed me. [Meanwhile, Joe's watching from the sidelines, thinking, 'Wow, is that girl conceited or what? Look at how many photos she's in!']

You know, the lining up was a pain, but it meant that Netty and I were able to have our autographs done in the morning- some unlucky people who had been queuing for an hour [as opposed to our two hours] would have to wait another hour just to buy their autograph tokens, then come back in the afternoon and line up all over again to get his auto. And they would miss his talk. *sighs* What a talk it was….

I think JF would have made a great stand up comic if the acting thing hadn't worked out. He kept the audience laughing and cheering for about an hour! I am such a sucker for that particular brand of self-deprecating humor. Good job, Joe, make me love you even MORE. *despairs*

The funniest part had to be when someone said that he was known for being goofy and asked him to do a Wraith impersonation! OMFGSOFUNNY! I wish Netty had thought to record it on her camera. *nudges* Silly Netty. Joe thinks about it for a moment, then concedes that 'I can do my B-movie version. BLLLEEUURRGHHH, BBRRRAAARRR…' and he's thumping across the stage like a T-rex [where'd that come from], arms extended and his hands curled into claws [like a zombie, actually…uh, Joe, what were you *on*, dude?]. Then he kills us all by doing the 'life-sucking' part, and there are no letters to describe the sound he made. It was a hiss and a snarl and *something*. So we're all in stitches, and he reverts back to normal, a little bashful, shrugging, 'Yeah…I'm lucky I still have an acting job…' HA.

Actually, Joe *did* explain what he was on. 'I just got out of a plane, by the way, if I don't make sense, it's because I had like, three scotches and a sleeping pill…'

I don't know, I don't drink and I've never had sleeping meds, so I have to ask- does that make you easily distracted? Because people were asking questions, and a few times, something caught his eye, or he was all, 'I hear babies…ohhh, *there* they are…I feel quite at home!'

This woman asked if he'd ever take up snowboarding, and he said that he loves snowboarding, but he prefers skiing, he goes helicopter skiing quite a bit, 'Even though it's in my contract I'm not supposed to ski…it's a real secret now, isn't it?'

Joe mentioned that he had wanted to direct an ep and 'for some reason, they didn't let me, so that was a bit of a bummer'. Someone in the crowd asked, 'Should we start a campaign?' and he replied, "YES. Write in, send bottles of water to the production studio saying 'Go drown yourselves if you won't let him direct'…" So now he's actively encouraging people to start campaigns! Ah, the shamelessness…

[You know, I've told my cousin to get me the dvd of the expo for my Christmas present. I hope it's available. I just really want to see the goofiness all over again.

Anyway, he did get to have some creative input- he came up with the idea for the ep 'Outcast', and it sounds like a *much* better ep than the previous one he had story credits for, 'Sanctuary'. Just…ugh. Alien babe falls for him. Big whoop. This one is more focused on Shep's back-story, 'You meet my ex-wife…it's ironic, I'm the lead of the show but you don't know much about my back-story…'

You know what's cool? Someone asked him what his favorite color is. Apparently his son asks him that all the time and his answer? Red. Which is my favorite color too! Oh, it means something, yes it does, it's totally significant. Yeahhh. Hmm. Oh, give it a rest, I can be giddy if I want.

Anyway, when I'm writing fic, I like to use some real life inspiration for the characters- like my ep response to The Long Goodbye was inspired by Torri saying that she and Joe fight over PDAs all the time, so I latched onto that and went from there. Now, Joe's said his favorite color's red, and there was this romance I read where the character was trying to follow a list of rules to attract the notice of her crush- the first piece of advice was to wear their favorite color. Now, I'm not saying that Elizabeth is doing it intentionally, but come on, every ep she's wearing red! So if I were to impute the fact that Joe likes red to his character, then it would be interesting to speculate that Shep likes red because Elizabeth wears it all the time…

The only thing that I'm pissed off about? I paid $30 for an autograph and all he does is 'Annie, xxoo' and his signature. DUDE. Seriously. Don Davis wrote 'It was a pleasure to meet you' on the one I paid for, and then wrote me a *free* autograph saying 'All the best from Hammond of Texas'. Now *that* is how you do an autograph.

Meanwhile, Netty [the tralk] got 'Thanks for coming' on hers. Ugh, the unfairness.

Other than that, though, it was all cool. We are so looking forward to the next time he comes. AND we're planning on getting gold-class tickets to have dinner with him too! *glees* Dinner with Joe Flanigan would be so awesome.

After that, my world could only be improved by meeting Torri. *daydreams*