Day 4 – TAMMER TIME!!!! Kittynh blog

It’s Saturday and I’m a happy camper skeptic at TAM.  Saturday is more selling of stuff!  The cool thing about having a little “volunteer” ribbon on your name tag is people ask you questions.  Usually I have to direct them to Linda or Jeff or Scott, but I’m also able to figure some stuff out on my own.  There is excitement in the air, as Adam of Mythbusters is coming!  And those South Park guys!  This is going to be THE cool day, at least that’s what Aynz the teenager thinks!  I see there are 2 copies of Reason magazine left and grab them for my daughter.  I’m glad I’ve brought a Sharpie. 

I’m taking a bathroom break when I see the  Adam and Torrie coming down the hallway.  Like a teenager with the Beatles I’m letting everyone know “THEY are coming!”  I think I almost force Lisa (a moderator on the JREF site) and her kids into a photo with Adam.  I know she wanted one, but I’m like “It’s Adam! Get in there!”  It was also my pleasure to take a photo of the ever elegant Boo with the boys.  Boo has a skeptic daughter named Sarah.  Sarah, a very young skeptic, needs PROOF that her mother actually met some Mythbusters.  See, train them young, that’s the skeptic mom motto. 

I  really am not going into how great all the speakers were.  This blog is really about how I experienced TAM.  I’ll just say that the second day was really rocking it for my daughter.  So the South Park dudes speak, and there is a rush for where they are after speaking.  They have a LOT OF FANS.  Everyone is doing the typical for TAM (but untypical for everywhere else) waiting nicely thing.  Except for ME.  Me, I’m being bad pushy mom, pointing to my teenager and then to Jeff.  Hinting doesn’t not begin to describe it.  Jeff says, “there are a LOT of people waiting”.  Jeff caves like a snowman in August, and my daughter gets her copy of her magazine signed before anyone else.  Thanks Jeff.  I owe you, add it to the BIG list.  Daughter does donate her sharpie, and happiness ensues for all the faithfull as signatures fly.  I get to do a little payback for another great skepchick, when I give her the second copy of the magazine I had taken.  TAM is not a time to be selfish.  More happiness erupts. 

The evening promises to be very full.  My daughter has a ticket to Penn and Teller that I won in a very silly contest on the JREF forum.  Another kind and wonderful JREF skepchick has offered (with her best friend and his wife and 2 other teenagers) to take her out to dinner with them, and to the Penn and Teller show.  By take her with them I mean “pay for dinner”.  I’m really beginning to be overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone.  Writing this out has me feeling rather guilty.  My child had a wonderful time.  I had a wonderful time.  And it was thanks to so many generous people that didn’t make me feel for a moment I was doing them anything but a favor accepting thier kindness.  Christians can just go eat thier hearts out.  They have nothing on these skeptics. 

I have time to take in the Elvis show and wonder just what kind of shrimp you get in a 99 cent shrimp cocktail.  Then it is time for me to take advantage of JREF generosity again. Scott said if I would take tickets to the Jamy Ian Swiss show, I could watch it for FREE.  Todd Robbins, another personal hero (check out his Coney Island site, the man is saving our national history and culture.  He is so much more than a man that eats cockroaches.) is also going to perform.  Loon, what a great guy, is also taking tickets so I know this is going to be fun.  Now might be a time to mention the person that shall only be known as Pool Boy.  He doesn’t post on the forum.  I don’t think he would consider himself a skeptic (UFOs and stuff are “not real and everyone knows it” he is so wrong..), he somehow hangs around a bit and Scott kindly offered to let Pool Boy also take tickets (even though he did not attend the conference).  Loon and I and Scott give Pool Boy simple directions.  “If they do not have a ticket, do not let them in.”  Sometimes directions are too simple. 

When Adam Savage shows up (did anyone else notice his thumb injury?) Pool boy PICKS HIM UP and TAKES HIM INTO THE HALLWAY while saying, “no ticket!  You can’t get in!”  he then adds, “This one looks like a trouble maker!!!” 

 

Loon, Scott and myself have turned white.  We are like Lotts wife, we are in such shock we are pillars unable to move.  He is TOUCHING ADAM SAVAGE.  He is manhandling HIM! 

And…

 

Adam is laughing his head off!  The man is NOT a celebrity.  When is he going to learn that he is famous!  He is supposed to be upset and shocked and freaked out.  A man he does NOT know in any way, is picking him up.

 

And he laughs!

The man is about perfect.

The show is all I could want and more.  Can I get enough of Todd Robbins, no.  Have I been practicing the “nuts” game.  You betcha! Can I be fooled more by Jamy, no.  I KNOW that Jamy is going to end up going home with his $100.  But Jamy deserves an academy award.  Because I dont’ KNOW it when I watch his show.  It should be the end to the perfect day, but there is MORE to come.

 There is the forum party. 

I have planned for this.  Rebecca has requested we ‘dress up”.  In Boston I found a leather skirt for $15 at a vintage clothing store.  I have a slinky top and some heels.  I’ve got black fancy stockings.  I feel HOT.  I go into a room filled with my favorite people.  I haven’t meet many of them in person, but it doesn’t matter.  In this case the person you have met online really IS the real life person.  The Marquise, a man with a lovely jacket, comes over and demands a photograph with me.  Why?  Because I made him stop hating Christians with a post I made that won a language award.  I’m blown away with the poeple saying “KITTY!”  though I am yelling their names right back.  I have a few moments to really talk to dear friends like Moe, and check in with Paul (who is as usual, putting comfort first).  I get to talk with Grayman, who I have to say is typical in that he is not only like his posts, he is BETTER in real life.  A new person to adore.  I also have something happen that makes me laugh and feel young, and makes my poor children cringe.  But that shall remain a poorly kept secret.  It was my Vegas over the top moment. 

Finally the teenager has seen enough, to at least know a skeptic party while a little crazy isn’t nearly as crazy as those fundie imagine.  Bedtime for us all.  So I pack away the leather skirt, and think of one last day in Vegas….

 

 

 

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