Willow's Adventures at Galaxy Ball 2000

by: Willow Ann Scott




It's Sunday evening and I just got home a little while
ago, dropped off the all important film for
processing, relaxed, unpacked, and well now it is time
to share my experiences of this weekend. So here it is
the good, not so good (the ball itself was all good)
and the funny.

It all started for me on Friday, I had a 7:00 P.M
flight to L.A. so I didn't bother to take the day off
from work. Big mistake!!! Even though I worked from
6:00 A.M and didn't do overtime so I got of at 2:00
P.M., I found things to be quite rushed. I got myself
packed and managed to make my flight. Getting to the
airport was stressful as two busses in a row did not
come and I was getting quite concerned. One finally
came and I made it to the airport 15 minutes before my
flight, yikes!!!  I made the flight though.  My knee
was really cramped on the plane as I could not stretch
my legs. By the time I made it to LAX my leg was very
sore and I hadn't eaten in almost 12 hours. I made it
to my hotel checked in, got unpacked and decided to
splurge on room service as my knee was really hurting,
and I didn't feel like walking to one of the fast food
places. I was too starved to worry about how much it
cost. I then relaxed, watched a little t.v. and went
to bed. I just wasn't up to meeting Laura K and others
at the lounge like I wanted to, sorry. 

The next morning I got up early to make myself
presentable and made it the breakfast with some of the
people from the RBEB and ORB MB. It was nice to meet
you and put some faces with the names. Breakfast was
nice and relaxing and I enjoyed it very much.

We then made our way down to the ball events; it was
packed which was wonderful to see so many supporting
Robert and the DSALA. 
Robert came on stage and welcomed everyone and then
introduced Michael Dorn, everyone clapped and did a
little yea!! Then he introduced Jonathan Frakes and
the crowed roared with applause. You should have seen
the look on Michael's face at the difference in the
level of applause. 

Michael and Jonathan talked quite a bit about their
experiences on The Next Generation and some of their
other works. When it was mentioned that Patrick
Stewart's pants were there they made quite a few jokes
about how Stewart likes to get naked all the time.
Dorn and Frakes also wanted us to do a couple of
petitions for them on Stewart's pants. They made some
jokes about Marina Sirtis's dog, which they say looks
like a little rat. 

Someone asked them the question of who they thought
would win if Worf, Riker and Chakotay were in a fight.
They were told that the same question had been asked
of Robert at one point and that Robert had said that
Chakotay would kick their butts. That seemed to make
an impression on them and they cracked jokes about
kicking Chakotay's butt. Dorn and Frakes also made
several jokes about getting old and commented on how
Robert still has a full head of hair. When Robert came
back up on stage they inspected his head looking for
bald spots. They didn't find any. Robert made a
comment about how his hair has even gotten darker. The
woman in front of me said that he used Miss Clairol.
Robert asked her what she said and she repeated it,
reluctantly. He grinned and corrected her to the fact
that it's Just For Men.

Robert then had the stage to himself as he waited for
Bob, Robbie and Garrett to show up. Robert joked about
how he was not only alone but that he didn't even have
water. Someone said that there was some right behind
him, he got some saying that it was L.A. tap water.
Several ladies volunteered and got him several cups of
spring water. He stood there and said that this one is
mine and this one is Robbie's as he pretended to spit
into it, he asked us not to tell Robbie. When Bob
showed up he had Bob pretend to spit in it, telling
him that it was for Robbie. Robbie showed up and
Robert offered him the water. Everyone started to
shout "don't drink the water, don't drink the water."
Robbie listened to us and didn't take the water. When
Garrett showed up Robert offered him the water and the
audience repeated the "don't drink the water" chant.
Garrett also turned down the water.

The guys joked around a a lot about Voyager and did
impersonations of each other and some of the other
cast. The impersonations were great. Garrett really
does a good job of them. Someone, I believe Gloria,
offered them a $200 cash donation to do the River
Dance. They didn't turn that down so we got the treat
of seeing them perform it.

During the Q&A session, Quismit came up and asked a
question. Afterwards, Robert mentioned that she had
had surgery and asked how she was doing now. I was
very impressed with that. It shows that not only does
he read the board but he cares about us that post
there and remembers things about us. That was very
touching and shows what kind of man Robert is. He is
truly special.

Next came the autograph signing. First up was Bob
Picardo. He was absolutely charming and chatted for a
couple of moments while I was waiting to make my way
to Garrett. Bob mentioned that he had never been to a
convention with so many women and so few men and asked
me if that was because of Robert. I answered what I
believed to be the truthful and correct answer which
was YES!!! The woman right behind me said no at the
same time. I just looked at her. I made my way to
Garrett and he asked me my name, I told him Willow. He
asked me how to spell it and I replied just like the
tree. He started to write it and got stumped so I had
to tell him how to spell it. Next, I got my autograph
from Robbie. Nothing interesting happened there.

Next came Robert. I walked up to Robert and said "hi
Robert I'm Willow." Robert looked at me and said "Oh,
so you're Willow." I could tell that he recognized my
name and then I stuck my foot in my mouth by asking
him what did you expect someone with more of a limp.
Daaaa!!! He just said that it was nice to put a face
with a name. Robert then asked what my real name was
and I looked at him and said "WILLOW!!!! My real name
is Willow." 

I further stuck my foot in my mouth all the way up to
my knee (my bad knee) by babbling on about how my
parents named me after their favorite tree (actually
there is a story behind that). He just graciously told
me that it was a beautiful name. I'm not even sure if
I thanked him (if not Robert, here is a belated thank
you). Robert was sweet the whole time I was making an
idiot of myself. The funny thing is that I was hoping
not to get brain freeze while talking to him. I walked
away wishing that I had. I would have said less and
kept my foot out of my mouth that way. Hey it was
Robert, I was in pain and on pain medication. That's
my story and I'm sticking with it, LOL!!!!

I truly am impressed that he recognized my name. Again
it shows how he cares for his fans. Thank you Robert,
you are wonderful.
I made my way back to my hotel to get ready for the
evening, feeling a little like a jerk. 

Outside of the dining room I walked by Robert, on my
way to the ladies room, and he smiled at me and I
smiled back. On my way back he was still sitting there
by himself. Someone had asked me to give him a hug on
her behalf and so I took that as a good opportunity
and approached him. I explained that someone who
couldn't make it wanted me to give him a hug for her
and asked if I may. He smiled, stood up and I gave him
a hug telling him who it was from and then gave him
one from myself. Both were very sweet and gentle.

The dinner and entertainment were wonderful. Tim,
Robbie, Bob, Roxann and Robert sang and all did a
wonderul performance. Bravo!!!!! There was a
performance from Romeo and Juliet by Luke Zimmerman
and Andrea Fay Friedman. I remember her as Corky's
girlfriend from one of my favorite shows "Life Goes
On." Their perfomance was wonderful and I enjoyed it
greatly.

Next came the auctioning off of some items and I must
say the shirts was the highlight of that. Tim did not
have a tee-shirt on underneath and he did take it off.
Garrett came up behind him and pinched Tims nipples,
damn I didn't catch that shot on film.

The evening continued with music from Louie Cruz
Beltran, who is very talented. Many enjoyed dancing to
it, but not me wawawaaa LOL! That's what I get for sky
diving just a few days before.

Well today was the day that I made my way back. That
was an adevnture in itself. I left one of my bags on
the hotel shuttle. The one with my book from the ball,
that I had Bob, Garrett, Robbie and Robert autograph,
my autographed pictures, and my gown. I called the
hotel and got the next shuttle back to retrieve it. I
was practically in tears. Luckilly I had six hours
before my flight and the bag made it back to the hotel
for me to get it. Hey, that was a way to kill a couple
of hours out of six. I now only had four hours to
wait. 

My flight ended up delayed and for the worse possible
reason....they were trying to find a part. That's
right the plane was missing something. Everyone one of
us that was waiting to get on that flight just stared
at each other. None of us looked all too confident at
that moment. This just five days after I have a sky
diving accident. My first thought was "damn, I didn't
pack my chute. I can't make a jump without a chute or
that will really be an accident!!!!!!!" I started to
make jokes about someone needing to go to the airplane
parts store to get them that part. I don't care what
it is I want the plane that I fly on to have all its
parts, even if it is just a screw. Well, they
obviously found the part they needed and I made it
home in one piece and we didn't crash. I'm just
thankful that it was just an hour flight, any longer
and it may have crashed.

The ball was great and I can't wait until next year. I
am looking forward to seeing Robert and Bob in Orlando
in January. I'm making my plans for that tomorrow.  I
also hope to get another chance to meet Garrett.