"TOYS FOR TALKERS"
Christmas Comes Early
By Patricia "Vulcana" Wright
Edited by Robert Jung, Douglas W. Dlin, and Philip N. Zeman
Additional material provided by Philip N. Zeman, et al.
Photographs by Patricia "Vulcana" Wright

Part 3

Monday morning dawned without rain. This was a good thing. I managed to get the two laundry baskets full of toys and my father's camera in the car with little effort. I went out wearing black jeans and a nice burgandy sweater, resulting in a casual, yet professional, attire, as I wanted to make a good impression to all involved.

At work, I suffered through a slow-moving day, anxiously awaiting 11:15 AM, when I planned to leave for downtown Vancouver. For those who don't know downtown Vancouver, the area near the Cambie Street Bridge is full of one-way streets and can be a navigational nightmare. Fortunately, I had a map in my car, and I was able to find out which direction Homer Street ran and how to get there.

Soon 11:20 AM rolled around. I sorted out driving directions and started heading towards downtown. Off I went over Knight Street Bridge and found myself stuck behind someone who was terrified of the gas pedal and didn't know how to merge. When he figured that out, I passed in front of him -- and immediately ran into gridlock.

ARG! It was only 11:30 AM -- there shouldn't be any gridlock north bound on this bridge until four!

Dodging a traffic accident, I made it over the bridge onto Southwest Marine Drive, and it was relatively smooth sailing until I reached the other end of the Cambie Street Bridge and turned left on to Pacific Blvd. I cruised around until I hit Homer Street.

At this time I figured I was home free.

WRONG!

Two blocks into Homer Street (which is, indeed, one way) I ran into a blockade. The entire street was torn up, and I had to detour around it. I headed two blocks west, one block further north, and then two blocks east, hoping I was past the blockade and at the studio location.

I wasn't.

After some additional dodging, I wove past some more barricades and ended up a block beyond where I wanted to be. I found a free parallel parking space, dropped in a quarter -- which bought my car six minutes of life -- and hotfooted it to the studio.

I talked to the receptionist and introduced myself; when she heard that I was off to feed the meter, she offered to let me park in the parking lot. There was one spot left, and I could park there so long as I was willing to move the car.

I had been warned about this parking lot by Barbara Zelinski that it was small. No kidding. With a lot of effort, I squeezed into the spot. Anyone trying to park in this space had to be extremely careful opening and closing the car doors because he or she would have roughly six inches of free space. Needless to say, the spot was crammed. I was glad the presents were in the trunk and not in the back seat, for I would never have gotten them out of the back seat.

After parking the car I brought in the camera and the two baskets of toys, prompting lots of Christmas comments from onlookers. I was instructed to take a seat and wait for Barb and Ace. While I was waiting, who should show up but Jim Byrnes (Inferno). I left him alone; he needed to use the phone and I needed to get the camera assembled.

Barb came in and told me that the voice actors would be out in a minute and having lunch in the other room. Then, Jim mentioned that he was leaving. Panicking, I told him his present was in the basket. He replied that he still had to get his coat.

Then out came Barb, Ace and Susan Blu. Sue came up to me, smiled, and introduced herself as the voice director.

I said, "I know; I met you at BotCon."

She then remarked that that was why I looked kind of familiar.

After some brief introductions, Ace asked Barb to take the pictures for me. Barb replied that she would do her best, but she was used to the point-and-shoot type, not a manual camera like my Dad's. Meanwhile, the voice actors were heading into the lunch room.

After a few instructions, I started digging out the Inferno present just in time for Jim to show up and get his picture taken with me. That was Ace's idea, though I admit I didn't fight all that hard. I had originally intended to take the pictures while Ace or Barb handed out the toys, but as it turned out, I would be in almost all the pictures -- and I'm rather camera-shy.

The actors started digging into their lunch. I had been offered lunch, but I refused, since I really didn't want to crowd them, not to mention I was a bit nervous. Then I realized that Jim hadn't left yet, but rather he was saying goodbye to all the other actors. Hmmm.... Group shot?

YES!

I managed to get two shots of the cast and support crew together, then Ace sent someone out to grab the camera while I was put into the next picture.

After that, I sorted out the presents into separate piles for each of the actors, as well as an additional pile for all those who weren't there. Barb assured me that she would give the presents to the actors' agents, and they would eventually make it to the actors themselves. While all this excitement was happening, I had to continously explain that I was just the delivery person. These gifts weren't all just from me, but there were about twenty people involved in this.

Go to the next part to look at the toys each person received and his or her reactions.

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6

Patricia Wright can be E-mailed at pawright@eyrie.org.
Robert Jung can be E-mailed at rjung@netcom.com.
Doug Dlin can be E-mailed at apcog@hotmail.com.
Philip N. Zeman can be E-mailed at asm_zeman@skyjammer.com.

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