Wow, can you believe it's been a week since Celebration IV ended?

Before I get into my experiences about Celebration IV, let me tell you the story of my screen name, since I was asked about it a few times during the weekend. My friend and I used to work with youth and young adults that were part of Generation X. We took the X out and replaced it with a cross. My name is pronounced "Gen Cross."

Okay, now on with the report. Celebration 4 was one of the best experiences I've ever had. It's hard to describe the feelings that are felt when you see 1000's of people who are celebrating the 30th Anniversary of a movie that was the beginning of a saga that has had world-wide impact on millions of fans. To be able to talk to someone about Star Wars and not be thought of as weird was really cool.

I arrived in LA on Wednesday night around 9:30 pm and took a shuttle to my hotel where I promptly checked in. Since it was late and I wasn't sure if the buses to the con were running I decided to go to sleep, since I knew I would have a long week.

I arrived at the convention around 9:30 and took my place in line. While in line, I saw our own DJ Maul walking the line and filming. I figured I would introduce myself and told him I was looking forward to the Meet & Greet (M&G) and I would see him later. A couple of hours later, while I was waiting in line, Anthony Daniels came by to greet the fans. The doors finally opened at noon and my first convention was about to start.

Once I got into the con I decided to roam around the Exhibit hall and the Art Fair. I was in awe at the size of the Exhibits. It was incredible walking around the area and seeing what all the vendors had to sell. After walking around for a couple of hours, I decided to pick up my pre-order stuff from Official Pix and get some autographs. I was able to get most of my autographs done, with the exception of Carrie Fisher and Anthony Daniels and a couple of the other premier quests. From there I went to the Celebration Store to figure out what I wanted to buy. I had a Quick Path time at 7, but I figured I'd see what they had so I could get in and out later on that night so I wouldn't miss too much of the M&G. But since there was absolutely no line I made all my purchases and checked out. It was getting late and I didn't want to have carry a huge bag around so I decided to take the shuttle back to the hotel and drop off all the stuff and rest up a bit before the M&G.

The Meet and Greet was awesome. DJ Maul did a great job of hosting. It was awesome to be able to finally meet some of the people whose blogs I've read and enjoyed such as viagoangel2, anakinside1 and amidalooine. I finally met the one and only nob01 and his lovely wife pidluk. I met our own shoe artist, hansgirl3. I meet a few other bloggers, ewanandhaydenfan5 and MomOf2YoungPadawan, who I would end up hanging with a couple of days later. We were treated to two outstanding songs by our own Star Wars Celebrity, jedipricess77 and a stand-up comedy routine by the joke master himself, the stooge. After some technical difficulty, we got to see a sample of Amira's Slave Leia belly dancing. At the end of the night, we all gathered for a group photo. EDIT: I forgot to include Jedi Master Mina and Jedi Malinda Wolf, who I met while I was waiting for a drink. Sorry ladies

The next day I decided to sleep in a little bit and headed to the con around 10:30. Today was the day that I decided to check out some of the panels and other rooms and stay away from the Exhibit hall, but that didn't work out like I planned. I checked out the R2 builder's room and was amazed at the quality of those little robots. I sat in a panel that discussed the Art of Ralph McQuarrie. John Scollari, who was one of the authors, talked about what was going to be in the book, including some never before seen pictures that Ralph drew. I can't wait until that book arrives. I also checked out the Lucasfilm Archive room. I really liked this room. They had a couple of Padme's outfits as well as THE metal bikini and Boba Fett's suit. They showed a number of concept drawings from Ralph McQuarrie and included a couple of the originals. The amount of detail that Ralph was able to get in such a small space was amazing. After the archive exhibit I headed back to the Autograph hall to see if I could get Carrie Fisher's autograph. I was lucky in the fact I only had to wait for about 30 minutes instead of the hours that other people had to wait. Once I got her autograph, I headed to the line for the opening ceremonies, which was by far the LONGEST line I had seen in the two days that I was there. I finally got in after waiting for two hours.

The Opening Ceremony was really nice. We were treated to some cake celebrating the 30th anniversary for Star Wars. We got to see Steve Sansweet dance around the stage dressed as an Ewok. Unfortunately, George Lucas wasn't able to attend the Celebration, but he did give us video-taped welcome and then Steve had a conversation with a puppet version of Lucas. The postal service revealed that Yoda was the winning stamp from the Star Wars Stamps. Jay Lagaiia sang a song and everybody with a lightsaber waved them in the air, which was a cool visual. There were bunch more things that happened, but I can't remember any of them. After the ceremony I went back to the hotel. It wasn't until then that I had heard about the bomb scare that happened prior to the start of the ceremony.

Saturday morning was the day that I was going to get my friend's autograph. I told some people that I graduated with Mat Lucas, who was the voice of Anakin in the Clone Wars Cartoon and the ROTS video game. His reaction to seeing me in line was the look of shock. I had to give him a hard time because I had to pay for his autograph, but we were able to catch up after not seeing each other for a few years. I'm bummed, however, because I didn't get a chance to see him again, since he was only at the Con Saturday and Sunday. After walking around the exhibit hall for an hour or so, I decided to head over to the Fan Club Lounge and relax for a few minutes. I saw a bunch of the group from the M&G and decided I hang around them for the rest of the weekend.

On a side note, it was nice to be able to hang around with the group. I think the energy of the group helped to give me more energy. I felt more energized when I was with them then when I was roaming around the con on my own. There is a definite advantage. Thanks for picking me up you guys!

After we all had lunch, some of us went to see the Darth Vader helmet exhibit, which I had wanted to see earlier, but the line was too long. The long line was deceptive. I think we spent about 30 to 45 minutes in line. The exhibit was really cool. They gave about 60 helmets out to various under ground artists and let them decorate them in any way they want. I've included a couple of my favorites. After we were done with the helmet exhibit, some of us went to the Star Wars in Pop culture room, where they were showing parts of a video called R2-D2 Beneath the Dome. I have this DVD and I forgot how funny it is. It makes R2-D2 seem like a real person, which a girlfriend and a family. I'll probably do a review on that at a later time. It was time to get in line for the SW Celebrity show, in which JP77 was going to sing. JP77 was by far the best singer in the show, but for some unknown reason she didn't place in the top 3. After the show, we all got back in line for a Conversation with Carrie Fisher. This show was awesome! She told a bunch of stories about her life and being in the cast of Star Wars. She talked about her experience wearing the metal bikini. That marked the end of the day and it was time to go to the hotel. I walked amidalooine to her car and she was kind enough to give me a ride to the hotel.

Since this is turning out to be really long, I'm going to stop now and write my thoughts about Sunday and Monday later. Enjoy. Also, I'll post some more pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.