August 9, 2003

Save the Children Benefit in Monrovia

After a delay that was more than twice the length of the actual flight, my peep string lights and I are finally home from SoCal. The lights are once more glowing cheerfully in the window and I'm happily sipping coffee that doesn't taste like diesel fuel.

The charity breakfast and everything else about this weekend were great! It was wonderful to see Dominic again! He was as charming and entertaining as ever. I particularly appreciated his candor when talking about ENTERPRISE, where it's been so far, where it is now, where it could go, and where he feels it should go. But let's go back to the beginning of the weekend.

FiTanna and I flew in Friday, and it was terrific to see so many peepish friends again! We simply don't get to see enough of one another between events. It was also fun to finally put faces to so many screen handles, and make "new" friends out of online friends from a variety of lists and boards.

Friday evening was spent hanging out and chilling with FiTanna, Laughing Muse, Kasia, and Arden. While we had a lot of fun catching up, we also got a bit of work done organizing the photos for the next morning's charity event. Those who saw them might not have realized it, but there really was a method to the madness of how the images were grouped.

Saturday morning, when we arrived in the ballroom to help set up for the breakfast, the people handling the auction items had already been hard at work for well over an hour. I would have felt like a slacker had I been awake enough to feel anything beyond a basic level of consciousness. We immediately set to work getting the table decorations—8.5x11" printed screencaps, pipecleaner chicks, squirt guns, marshmallow peeps, etc.—together. I must say it looked quite festive when all was said and done. :-) On a side note, Dominic has requested no more marshmallow peeps, please. It's been a fun joke, but I think we all can agree that it has run its course. So everyone can add them to the list of items on moratorium. On the other hand, there's been no moratorium on wine. Just thought I'd mention it. ;-)

I'd been asked to keep an eye out for Dominic's arrival, so I stood my post with FiTanna for a while, and we were joined later by Kyrdwyn, MJ, and Kasia. We passed the time chatting and trying to guess what Dominic would be driving. We were right—it was shiny, red, and sporty. :-) We greeted him and led him into the ballroom where we handed our charge over to the event's number one organizer, Gayle.

Breakfast was tasty and plentiful. We enjoyed an array of yummy food and then were treated to an outstanding presentation by planetary geologist David Williams of Arizona State University and NASA. We learned about the current Galileo and Cassini missions and about upcoming missions out into our solar system. He explained how patterns in the ice of Europa indicate there is a liquid water ocean underneath, and he told us how studying volcanic eruptions on Earth helps us understand the tremendous volcanic activity on Io. And, thanks to a question from Dominic, we learned how the features on Io are named. (They are named after gods and goddesses of war, fire, thunder, etc., by those who discover them, in case you were wondering.)

Next it was Dominic's turn. First, Kasia, DKFaye, and I presented him with a gift from everyone: a tin of chocolates, which we informed him was purchased before the "No more chocolates" decree; a bottle of Australian Shiraz, which we discovered he quite enjoyed while in Australia; and a picture of him with several of his "peeps" taken at Grand Slam in Las Vegas last year, complete with a mat which said peeps had signed for him. (We've all gotten his autograph, so it seemed only fair to return the favor. We just hope he doesn't look at the back of the picture frame. It was a tight fit, and our solution was rather low-tech. ;-) )

After the presentation of the prezzies, MJ, Kasia, and Kyrdwyn (The Peep Law Guild) presented Dominic with the charity donation checks that had been collected prior to the event itself. He looked pleased and impressed with what people had contributed for charity, and even joked as he handed them over to Gayle that she'd better take the checks before he ran off with them.

He answered a wide spectrum of questions ranging from ENTERPRISE and other television work, to his stage credits, to his cats. (There are two, btw.) Anyone who's seen him at a convention will tell you he's energetic enough to light up Paris for a week. Even exhausted from two very late nights of filming, he could still have powered the City of Lights for at least 24 hours.

I must admit that I didn't take any notes during Dominic's talk. I was too busy enjoying watching and listening to him give it. But here, in no particular order, are a few things that stick in my mind.

When asked which of the characters he'd played was his favorite, he said it was the bisexual ghost on ChromiumBlue.com. It took him a moment to come up with the character's name, Owen. Several of us confirmed this was correct, and then realized we'd tipped our hands. Now he knows who's seen it.

He told a very funny story about Anthony trying to use English slang when filming a kids' show in the UK. I won't go into details, but the slang wasn't the sort one ought to be using on a children's show. Perhaps someone should look into getting Anthony an English/American dictionary next time he visits London. ;-)

Dominic was very candid about the future of ENTERPRISE, saying he didn't see why it couldn't be written like any other hour-long TV drama. The example he used was ER. Just as ER is a drama about people who happen to work in a hospital's ER, why can't ENTERPRISE be a drama about people who happen to work on a starship? My impression of those present was that everyone agreed.

Once the Q&A was done, it was time to do our final bidding on the auction items while Dominic generously signed autographs and posed for picture taking.  I've been to large and small conventions and I've been to charity breakfasts for other causes in other fandoms. This was by far the best fan event I've ever attended. Many thanks to Dominic! Many thanks to Gayle and the rest of the organizational gang! I look forward to many more successful events in the future.