But I Play A Hero

My husband and I boarded a train to Toronto, dressed as Wonder Woman and Superman, the 2 hour trip was fairly uneventful. Yes there were a few questions about what the heck we were doing dressed up, but mostly people said nothing other then exalting the occasional “Wonder Woman!” or “Superman!”

When we arrived at Union Station we went to our luxury hotel, The Fairmont Royal York, which had given rates to many a Star Fleet Officer or Vampire or some sort of fantastic Anime character. Not an eyelash was batted as Superman and Wonder Woman entered the elegant foyer. A few guests stared but that is probably because they hadn't looked down the street to the massive crowd of heroes, villains and fictional characters that was forming around the Convention Centre.

Over the past few months I have grown accustomed to being stopped to take pictures, wave to strangers and generally be whatever character I happen to be dressed as. Many people stopped us asking if they could take a picture. I of course, having had several months experience with embodying different characters held my hero pose and stood still for the pictures. I believe the ordeal was a little different for my husband who despite being often untouched by the joys of make believe seemed to enjoy being photographed.

I leaned over at one point and said. “Now do you understand why I love dressing up.” He quietly smiled. Not really an answer is it. Oh well, I'll take it as a yes.

Meeting Your Hero

I stood in line to see one of my heroes, Michael Dorn, who played Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation. As I stood in line I realized that I had watched this man for many years on The Next Gen and Deep Space Nine. I watched him develop a character with depth and complexity, that endured many to him.

I was excited and wanted to say something to him, something that he hadn't heard before. The problem is, I am a bit of a smartypants when it comes to most situations, when I get nervous one of two things tend to happen one I blurt out personal things or two I say inappropriate things that can be considered offensive by some.

So picture it, I am already dressed as Wonder Woman and what keeps on going through my mind are sarcastic little comments like (after seeing him shake a thousand hands) “Did you wash those?” I ended up not even shaking his hand. (good going) When it came time to choose my picture for him as I was looking through all the shots of him as Worf, I wanted to say “What? No I AM Weasel? No Sandman from the Santa Clause 2?” Thankfully the little voice in my head said, “Shut up Robin!”

“Choose any one that you like.” he says. I look around and see the picture of him from DS9 my favourite incarnation of Star Trek. I point to it, and smile, he flashes me a nice little smile. Much more beautiful smile with gleaming white teeth then the fake Klingon ones that he used to wear. “Whose this for?” he says. “Robin” I meekly say. “With an I or a Y?” he asks, its I damn it do I look like one of those perky Robyns? Maybe I do. “I just like the bird.” I say, brilliant, now I'm impressing him. He signs away, slides the picture to me and says “There you go sweety.” He looks me deep in the eyes with his what Tyra Banks would refer to as Smeyes (Smiling eyes) and lets face it blends me into the background of the thousands of people he had seen that day.

I have in my possession a lovely autographed picture of a man who portrayed a character that I absolutely loved. I excitedly went keyed in my phone to update my Facebook Status “Micheal Dorn called me sweaty” Send. Wait a second. Sweet is like candy sweat is like stinky. Just so you know when you write things via your phone on Facebook apparently you can't delete it. As usual, I have embarrassed myself but hey, at least it has cemented in my head what Michael Dorn actually said. I will never forget it now. But calling me Sweaty certainly makes it far more funny. Hey, he's Klingon, that would probably be more of a complement.