It all started weeks ago when Paley announced the 10 year Buffy Reunion.  I heard about the premium package and was lucky enough to find a friend to share in the cost.  We bought the first one when it became available and then planned, and anticipated and watched the Paley Site several times a day to see if any new guests were announced.
Finally the time came.  I drove out from Utah and arrived at Wizard World in LA at 4:30am.  There were people in line already!  I talked with them and just had a good time for awhile and I decided I better check on my friend Karin.  Karin had bought the ticket to Pushing Daisies that my friend who had bought the passes with me wasn’t going to use.  We had agreed to meet at Wizard World.  So I gave her a call.  I had my i-pod speaker in one ear and my phone to my other ear so I did not hear the phone ringing just a couple of people behind me.  She answered her phone and the crowd around me burst into laughter.  It was kind of funny I had been talking to her for the past hour or so but did not know I already knew her.

My friends Angela (hereafter referred to as Angela1) and Tara arrived just as they finally opened the gates to let us in, and they wanted to go put their bags in my car.  No way was I going to miss my chance to meet Milo Ventimiglia and Alyssa Milano, so they had to wait.  When I first walked in to the hall my friends and I went straight to the Golden Apple Booth to get a ticket to the Pathology signing. After waiting around for 4 hours the signing was great.  I was able to tell them both what great work they have done; Milo on Heroes, and Alyssa on Charmed.

Immediately following the signing I went up to the TopCow panel.  Tara had come specifically to meet Seth Green who was there making an announcement about his comic book series, The Freshman.  Seth was soooo funny.  All the guys up on stage made many crude and hilarious remarks and references.  Seth told us about a Halloween party where a Spiderman jumped out at him and danced around trying to make Seth figure out who was under the mask finally the guy takes off his mask, and it’s Luke Perry.  Seth joked about how he loved that guy.  "That guy could totally ride 8 seconds with me" he said.
When we got down to the signing we were informed Seth would sign 2 other things besides the Freshman card they had given us so I was digging through my bag for what I may have.  I found my Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Trump cards with Oz on the front and my Buffy Season 8, Issue 1 comic book I had brought to be signed at Paley.  Seth was so friendly he asked for my name and wrote it in a bubble on all 3 and then was looking for his "powers" on the card.  He was disappointed that the card reflected just his human attributes (on the show he turned into a werewolf).  He remembered meeting me before (We had met at comic con for the last 2 years), and I told him I would be at the Paley Buffy reunion on Thursday.  He said, "Really?  Me too!  It's going to be fun!  I will look for you there."  then I got the best picture with Seth of any I have ever gotten.  He shook my hand before I left and said "see you Monique"
It was awesome!

We left Wizard World and arrived at Paley’s Pushing Daisies event just in time to walk into the Cinerama Dome.  Luckily Karin had left Wizard World early, so we were third and fourth in line and got front and center.  This whole cast is great!.  I had only seen one episode of Pushing Daisies before coming to this, but after the montage at the beginning that was done soooo well, I can’t wait to go back and watch it all.  Kristin Dos Santos, (formerly Kristin Veitch) from Ask Kristin at EOnline was the moderator, and being a fan herself, did a fabulous job asking questions fans would like to know.  She started off making a big deal about how "Ned and Chuck" were in the back touching.  The crowd let out a collective swoon that you could really only understand if you were a fan of the show.   Chi McBride is very funny.  When he walked on stage he did a little dance and showed off his butt by lifting his jacket and shaking it for the crowd.  He made the panel so freaking funny.  The actors were all being asked how they came to be involved in the show and Lee Pace(who plays the main character Ned) said he wasn't looking to do TV, but this was a special script.  Then Anna Friel(who plays his love interest Chuck) answered pretty much the same way.  Then Chi made fun of them, saying they were full of BS.  Actors work to pay the bills.  He said something about Lee being out to sea sailing and this carrier pigeon delivers the perfect script to him.  Chi said he got involved because his wife got pregnant, that was his reason for doing the show.  They joked later on about Chi's former show "the Nine" and Chi said it was the only show in history that was named after its audience.  A question was raised about other networks that Pushing Daisies might have been aired on, and Bryan Fuller(the creator) said that when they were pitching the show there was another network that offered the same price as ABC, and Chi coughed a cough that sounded very much like "Fox".  Bryan continued that they choose to go with ABC and they had been very pleased with that choice.  It was soo cute to see Anna and Lee (Chuck and Ned) being able to touch.  After the panel, I immediately walked up and asked Lee for a picture, and not really worrying about autographs for this night.  I wanted everyone who wanted to get autographs to get one.  SO I grabbed a quick Pic with Chi and got out of everyone’s way.  It was a fun night, the first of four.  :)  I also met Dominick a fellow Whedon fan from Canada.  He would become my "seat buddy" for the rest of the panels.

Sunday, no paley fest event.  Angela1, Tara and I went and explored Santa Monica and the pier.  California is soooo pretty. 

Monday Angela1, and I went over early to wait for the evening with Judd Apatow.  We met TQ from Santa Barbara and I saw my friends from Cali, Yani and Angela2, and we met Marco from NY.  He's a fellow browncoat and such a gentleman.  He gave his extra badge to Karin, so she could move up to the second row.  So, all of us pretty much took up the front row.  It was announced Judd would be his own moderator.  He first called out Gary Shandling and showed us an amusing clip from the Larry Sandlers show with Jim Carrey singing. 

Then Tom Arnold came out and he told us a story of when they were filming at Judds grandmas house and he and Roseanne got in a "spat" She scratched him and they were soon involved in a "fight to the death" which ended with sex in the "Make Up Room"  Judd pointed out that’s not what the make up room is supposed to mean.  "Sorry Judd's Grandma.." who was in the audience.  Judd then brought out Busy Philipps! Paul Feig! Jason Segel! Seth Rogen! Paul Rudd! Jonah Hill! And Andy Dick...and then proceeded to tell the audience with Paleys permission we were going to get to see a whole lot of Jason with a clip from the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.  (He didn’t really give Paley a chance to stop it).  An upcoming film starring Jason and Kristen Bell.  Then right there in front of Jason, and the whole audience of 850, they showed a completely nude Jason in a break up scene with Kristin Bell from the movie.......
Poor Jason.  He blushed and pulled his hat down over his face.  What a brave soul.  It was a much different panel than any I had ever seen at Paley.  Following the panel I ran up and got a copy of knocked up signed by all 5, Jonah, Seth, Paul, Jason, and Judd for my hubbys boss.  Then it was off to the reception upstairs in the domes bar.  Angela1 and I got our picture with Busy Phillips and walked around, got the water from Marco :), tried the hors’deovers.  Paul Rudd was over in a corner looking dour, talking to Andy Dick.  The security guy wasn’t letting anyone near, but I leaned over and started talking to him about how I loved him in Veronica Mars.  That made him very happy and we talked about it for a few minutes and he called me over for a picture.  (thanks to Yani, who reminded me it was Veronica Mars that I remembered Paul from)
Later on that night I caught up with Jason and told him how brave we all thought he was, and I got a picture with him....he was clothed this time.
Then I got a picture with Judd Apatow too, on his way out.
Angela1 wanted a  picture with Andy Dick.  First he flipped us the finger, then he french kissed her.  Just before this Andy had been flirting with Judds sister.  He yelled out to Judd, as Judd was going down the stairs.  "I am sooo going to F@@ your sister.  You are sooo going to have a  niece or nephew."  Angela1 and I headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.  Poor Ang, I woke her up to my out of control laughter, because the guy staying next to us was leaving at 7 am and his cart full of luggage caught on the door, made a huge bang, then he fell over and tripped on all his luggage cursing over and over again.  Waking up to that was the funniest thing in the world to my morning brain, and I could not stop laughing.

That night was Chuck.  I adore this show and could not wait to see the cast. Almost everyone was there : Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike)! Scott Krinsky (Jeff)! Vik Sahay (Lester)!, Julia Ling (Anna)! Joshua Gomez (Morgan)!, Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome)!, McG (EP)!, Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah!), Zachary Levi (Chuck!), Chris Fedak (co-creator/EP)! and our returning champ Josh Schwartz. and especially Adam Baldwin(Casey).  That guy has always been such a class act when I have seen him in the past. He goes out of his way to be a crowd pleaser :)  We, Angela1, Angela2, Yani, Joe, Marco, my friend Heather who had just arrived from Arizona, Domick, his friend Karen who had just arrived from New Orleans were waiting since about 1 pm at the front of the line.  We all shared in the love of anything Whedon and also shared funny convention stories and general stories from home.

As it got closer to them opening up the doors and letting us in, Paley had set up the ropes different from the other nights, so all the people from behind crowded up around us and became a mob of people.  Inside the dome the line splits you can go left or right to get into the actual theater.  The other nights we had sent one person one way and one the other because one side always opens first.  Dominick and I had told New Orleans Karen to go right and sit on Dominicks right when we got in.  When Paley got in, one ticket lady had no idea how to tear a ticket so half of us were held back, and one particular guy (hereafter referred to as Vermont) cut his way to the front of the line, then ran in elbowing and almost trampling all of us who had been waiting for hours before he even showed up.

When Dominick and I went up the left side we looked down and there is poor Karen spinning and shaking her hands in the air saying "I’m not sure about this, I don’t know where I am supposed to be."  We hurdled the rope and fought Vermont for the front seat.  It was very musical chair-ish and a great show for people coming in from the right.  When Dominick and I sat down.  He said "LOOK, we should be sitting here enjoying our evening with Chuck, and instead we are all thinking 'What the F are we going to do on Buffy night?' So let’s speak no more of that and just enjoy Chuck.  We all agreed and talked about Chuck for a few minutes before someone would bring up" what are we going to do for the Buffy night?" Dominick kept slapping these concerns down, but they kept coming back.  We were finally able to let them go and enjoy the show when Damon Lindelof from Lost came out to moderate.  He announced the cast..  Sarah Lancaster was the only one not there, she was sick that night.  Zach Levi had a beard.  Ryan (Captain Awesome) and Johua (Morgan) were just as funny and played off each other as well as they do on the show.  the whole cast was really funny and really seemed to like each other like a family.   Adam Baldwin is easily the favorite.  At one point one of the actors in the panel says something about Adam, and he calls out  "Isn't that right Firefly?".  There is a pronounced response from the crowd.  At the end of the panel one member of the audience ask if he can do his Hulk Hogan impression for them.  Zach graciously accepted the insane request.  When the panel ended, the audience engaged in a RUSH towards the stage, with one guy in particular hurtling a few rows of chairs.  Afterwards Dominick and I ran to get a picture with the beautiful Yvonne, after about 5 pics she was told no more so we were fortunate to be in the first group.  Zach and Josh sat down and had stuff handed to them to sign.
I got the whole cast to sign my Chuck Cast picture, including the awesome Adam Baldwin who stuck around longer than any other cast members to sign. He signed as many items as he possibly could.  What a great guy.  I also snagged a picture with another cool canadian, Vik Sahay who plays Lester.  Our group, both Angelas, Yani, Heather. Marco, Joe, TQ, Dominick and I all headed down the street to a restaurant Marco told us about called Cat in the Fiddle.  had a late night snack/desert and saw some of the Southern California Browncoats including James his wife, and others that looked very familiar to me.

So Thursday Morning rolls around and Angela1, Heather, Angela2, Marco, Yani, TQ and I got there at 3:30am.  Dominick was already there, had been since midnight.  It was his birthday and he could think of no better way to spend it.  All day we made plans from Plan A - Plan Z and contingency plans if these fell through on how to make it in the front row.  We all talked, joked, told stories and just plain had fun discussing all things Whedon.  It was enjoyable to hang out with fans as crazy as myself.  Later that afternoon we were joined by Rob and Peter and a few other Premium Package People.  We prepared for Vermont with "Operation Vermont" and made a tentative seating chart for the first 30 people in line, so the first 30 of us knew exactly what seat to walk to. It was all orderly and super funny!   The best part of the plan was when "Vermont" showed up in line and tried to talk to us for awhile probably hopping we would let him in with us.  Marco came around the corner and yelled "VERMONT!" at the top of his lungs.  The whole line busted out laughing.

When we were allowed into the cinerama dome we all walked to our "self-assigned" seats and the excitement was palpable.  It was finally almost here, the night we had all bought our tickets for.  We had 3 friends who did not have tickets.  They had spent all night in the standby line.  When they came in with their tickets we treated them to a loud cheer.

Marti Noxon announced the screening of Once More With Feeling.  We all enjoyed it, even though it was not a sing along :(  When it ended Matt Roush of TvGuide  came out and began introducing the guests starting with David Greenwalt and ending with Joss Whedon.  One of our plans was to give him a standing ovation. we did, then the rest of the 850 crowd followed us, even everyone on the stage joined in and gave Joss the standing ovation he so thoroughly deserves.

James Marsters looked so tired, and he told us how grateful he was that we were there.  He said he really needed it.  A question was raised about possibly doing a Buffy movie and Joss answered with something like "All of the stars would have to be in alignment."  It sounded like his polite way of saying "Not in this lifetime".   Seth commented on a workout video he and Charisma are working on for karate strippers, but I think he was joking.  During the first little while I spent time going from one actor to the next making eye contact with each.  When I got to Seth he was scanning the front row and his eyes met mine.   He smiled widely pointed at me and I waved.  He waved back.  Man what a feeling.  Seth now has a fan for life.  During this whole panel he would chirp in with just the right joke.  He is awesome.  I also got a wink of recognition from Amber.  I and my son Mikey had met her several times at past conventions and she is always such a sweetheart.  She looked absolutely phenomenal tonight.  When it all ended I joined the crowd headed for the stage.  Sadly Sarah was unsure about what to do next.  So she turned her back to us and talked to security and moved away to the left edge of the stage to sign a few things.  It got supercrazy really fast so she had to leave.  You lucky left side people.  I did get to meet Emma Caulfield, she had a really cute outfit, and a great sense of style.   Michelle Trachtenberg is all grown up, and I got to see Joss again.  He said "It’s always good to see you".  All three signed my issue #1 Buffy comic.  I missed out on Seth, James and Amber because of the pandemonium at the stage, but I did catch Charisma on her way out.  She signed an autograph for my friend Heather.  Charisma also looked stunning tonight.

Then Angela1, Heather and I headed out to the motel to get some much needed sleep.

I will never forget this night or the awesome marvelous great fantastic people I met and/or became closer to there.

Many more pictures HERE!