Calling All Nerds!

   So there it was.....beautiful California weather, the sky a vibrant light blue dotted with fluffy white clouds taking on shapes. The birds were chirping and the warmness of the sun was spilling over the flowers. Glorious!… or so I am told. I was inside for 2 days making a permanent dent in my couch trying to get my children tickets to see their most favorite actor…okay for me too! J See,  Zachary Levi is our MOST favorite actor! Now I do loves me some Bruce Willis, but who doesn’t as he walks across glass….Yippee Aye Yay  Mother F.…Oh wait….family blog! And I adore Tom Hanks who I have loved since he donned a brunette wig and pearls in Bosom Buddies. And of course Scott Bakula in Necessary Roughness and ‘Oh Boy’ Quantum Leap! But you see Zachary Levi of CHUCK is collectively our super most favorite; our #1....P.S. Scott Bakula played Zac's Dad on CHUCK! I know cool right? I got quite a few calls because my two worlds had collided! Anyway I liked Zac since awhile back when he was in a show called “Less the Perfect” with Sara Rue {Emily’s number one want for Christmas this year!} We have seen his movies like Spiral, Shades of Ray, Chipmunks the Squeakquel, and his most recent as the voice of Flynn Rider a.k.a Eugene Fitzherbert in Tangled and…. well you get the idea....We are FANS!  I mean Emily even has her ring tone as “Terrified” a duet with Kathrine McPhee…yes he sings too, such a talented guy!  Emily’s birthday….a CHUCK birthday! Wow, I just re-read what I wrote, good thing Zac will never read this because I think he’d file a restraining order. Its kinda sounding stalkerish….yes that is now a word! J

   So, let’s get back to the tickets.  See CHUCK is at Comic-Con…Zachary Levi is CHUCK on the show. He also has a company called, “The Nerd Machine.” It celebrates nerds and technology…things that are very prevalent in my house!  So anyway, not only does Zac go to Comic-Con and do panels, he has panels with his own Nerd Machine right next to Comic-Con…..so cool! All you do is choose the panel you want to go to and buy tickets for 20 bucks each, all monies go to an awesome cause called ‘Operation Smile.’ It’s a win/win! One of the panels is with Sir Zachary Levi himself and it included a signing afterwards!! Yes, I said Sir and I plan on writing the Queen until she makes it official J So we were super excited. The day had finally come to purchase them. I log on to buy tickets and the site crashes! So many nerds at once what is server to do?! So not to miss when it was back up I signed up for tweets to my phone to get updates, because of that I did not set my phone down once! I would get messages…..back up in awhile…..in a bit….we are working on it…soon….in the morning at 10am….soon…..ok this afternoon at 3pm! Yep I did that for two days! My computer was on and ready to go at the sound of the whistle! There I was tired, grumpy and I could no longer feel my posterior . Then it was almost time 2:58…2:59….3:00….I hit refresh-refresh-refresh… BOOM…it was open!  BUY TICKETS *Add  to cart!…*Paypal…and *Submit…Then the screen turns white and says ERROR…NOOOOO!!! I try a few times no luck…I tried to use my phone instead….I get through! *Add to cart…*Paypal… and *Submit…and...it is doing that circle thingy that means it is processing then it turns white and says SOLD OUT! Okay now a normal person would say bummer, maybe next time. But not this gal, I slide off the couch in a puddle of tears, I am so upset you would have thought my dog just died. How could this be? WHHHYYYYY MEEEEEE! So dramatic…….STELLA! Okay maybe not that dramatic…but close! Then I get unreasonably mad at my hubby. I curse his name under my breath….Eric frick-a-fracken…curse you!!! If he was here he would have known what to do. He always does if the computer has issues. Stupid deployment! Okay, I am not really mad at him! But what I am I gonna tell my kids? They were so excited and I didn’t come through for them. Sure they would understand but the disappointed look on their faces, oh man I couldn’t bare it!! Then I did something I NEVER DO…I asked for help. I emailed The Nerd Machine. I mean heck what if everyone is having trouble? What if they did get my order…if not could they help? Do they have tickets I could buy, maybe left over ones?  I was a Mama on a mission. I look at my kids and I would do anything for them. This just couldn’t be it and I had to see what else I could do. And it wasn’t easy; I mean it when I say I never ask for help or favors. I don’t think we are more special than anybody else and I never want to bother anyone. But the fact remains as I see what my kids go through, especially Emily; I want to have those extra special moments in life to make up for what they miss out on.  So I took a chance and I got an email back…..it said “Can’t promise, but will I see what I can do.” Can I tell you I was over the moon. For two reasons, one being that there might be a chance and two, that someone took the time to care enough to even try to help us. In the world we live in this is rare and just the trying was enough to make my day! I won’t say his name incase folks read this, then he won’t get tons of letters asking for favors! He is an Angel and that is all I will call him!
 
   Well as Comic-Con came I didn’t hear back. And that was okay I knew what a crazy time that must be and how busy this Angel probably was with getting it all set up for The Nerd Machine. But my hubby, so far away felt a bit helpless. See if he was home, he would help me take Emily downtown and help try to catch Zac at his Nerd Machine Head Quarters..Nerd HQ which is not easy to do sitting in her chair for hours. Then there are the crowds, holy cow just trying to find a bathroom is a challenge. Taking care of her while still keeping tabs on Matthew downtown in Comic -Con Chaos, YIKES! So that is why for us having a set time and set place was so important. Eric is the kinda dad who would have done what he could to get her and Matthew his autograph, a handshake or a quick picture! It is for sure a two person job, but I was going to try to do what I could! It is amazing what you will do for your kids!

   As I told Eric of our plans he and I both said we should thank this Angel for even trying to help, because it meant a lot. And we didn’t want that to go unnoticed. So, my sweet hubby thanked him and then guess what? He got back an email…and it said……..“We’d love to help what are the names of the attendees?” WHAT???? I tried not to get excited, these things do NOT happen to us. I believe we are a blessed family but we are not very lucky! So I said nothing to the kids just in case, I had no idea what to expect or what he could do for us. There is hoping and there is reality! There was a brunch there at the Nerd HQ the same day as the signing, and Zac would be at it. So the kids knew about that and they thought that was the plan. They had no idea that possibly, hopefully we could go to the panel and signing! I wanted to say thank you for whatever was in store for us, so we bought a thank you gift for the Angel to give to him, I was so grateful and wanted him to know it. And we bought something for Zachary too if we did see him. We bought Navy stuff of course ;) and couldn’t wait to give it to them. 

    So the next day we woke up and my slug kids got ready in record time and practically in the car before I was! We get there and my expectation…I was just hoping the Angel was not on a coffee break and no one knew who we were and called “Security” on us! I really was just hoping to just get in the room for the panel or even watch it on a TV in an over flow room or something. I really had no idea what we were going to be allowed to do. We go inside and were greeted by a girl who said, “Oh yes we know who you are!” You do? Really?! She said she didn’t want us to have to wait in line and to come with her and she took us up into the elevator! The kids had no idea so the look on their faces was AWESOME! That was unexpected!! Then she said she was Zac’s sister! How cool is that! She was so sweet! She chatted with us for a few minutes and she sat us in chairs off to the side of the stage and asked if we needed anything…if WE need anything…ummmm pretty sure this is AMAZING and we are SO good! Then a man came over and said hello and said he was Zac’s dad! Seriously cool! We had a great conversation and he was just as sweet. What an amazing family! Then “Our Angel" came over. How do I possibly thank him?? This is far more than expected and deserved, I have no words and thank you just doesn’t seem to cut it! I handed him the gift we got him; a Navy shirt and Coin. He was very touched. He gives me a great big hug and says he is blessed by doing this. Wow! I was thinking how blessed we were! So it meant a lot that he felt the same way. It was such an amazing moment. I could kick myself for not taking a picture with him. He changed our lives forever!   

   So we watch the panel and much to our surprise not only was Zac there some of his co-stars were there!!! The crowd *ehem*cough* okay us too...went crazy! Joshua Gomez {Morgan} Mark Christopher Lawrence {Big Mike} and Adam Baldwin {John Casey}; Em and Matt were stunned! I was so caught up in the moment I didn’t take their picture, because the look on their faces was priceless! There before them sat half the people on their favorite show ever! The panel was great, they were funny and we even got to ask them a question! We had such a great time. It was surreal! Each week we watch these people and as silly as it sounds even though you don’t “know” them you care about them. Not just as a character, but as people. You really do get invested and hope good things for them. Ok again, I sound stalkerish again!! I mean it in the most non-stalkerish way possible!

   The panel was almost over and I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to be a part of the signing, they had done so much already and if they said okay you are done we would have been very grateful for that. So when one of the Nerd Staff came over and said wait here when it is over we will get a group shot for you guys I couldn’t believe it! Really!? Again more than expected!! So she told everyone to stay seated please and lead us out, I figured they would have had us get out of the room first so Em didn’t get clobbered. Then his sister came over and took us to the signing table…okay....we went past the signing table…and through some curtains and to these glass doors and I am not gonna lie, my heart was beating like crazy for what I saw inside! They opened the doors and there they all were! Oh my goodness. Best part again the faces of my kids! This was WAY BEYOND and more then UNEXPECTED! Good thing when I met and hugged our Angel I did not know this was going to happen because I would still be hugging him and that would just be awkward after this amount of time and one of us would have surely had to use the bathroom by now! I truly had NO idea! 
   
   Zachary was so polite and he introduced himself….I wanted to say “WE KNOW, we totally heart you!” Adam introduced himself as well. He is a favorite too…I liked him since the movie My Bodyguard {circa 1980 thank you!} And the kids LOVE him as Casey on CHUCK. I will say they were all so very wonderful to us. They signed our magazines; they even gave us a poster. They took pictures with us and if that was not enough they even chatted with us. And may I say when you like an actor you so hope they are as cool as they seem and that they are a regular person who is living out their passion, that you really could hang out at a BBQ together or something. You don’t want them to be arrogant, rude or like they did you a favor by signing something. If that happened you’d be crushed! Well they did not disappoint us at all! Each one of them were just honest to goodness wonderful people. Zac and Adam talked with us the most. They were genuinely interested…yes I know they are actors J…but I don’t think they were acting!  They were gracious and we had a great conversation. They didn’t have to do that. Any of it really! They could have just taken a quick picture, or signed stuff and left and we still would have been thrilled. But they took the time to do all of that and then the time to talk with us. And I know they will meet a ton of fans in their lifetime and won’t go “Oh WOW we met the Larvia Family!”  And that is okay! But we totally will! We have an amazing story, they changed our lives forever! This was a wish come true! Emily is actually eligible for the Make-A-Wish we just never did it. There are so many other kids in need. And I do believe Emily deserves such fun things, her last surgery we almost lost her and it was an awful time for her, for us as a family. Thankfully she ended up being okay! So to have this happen was amazing and it didn’t take away from anyone else. I wish I could thank them ALL again, do something to show how grateful we are. I would love for Our Angel that made this possible, to know how much this meant to us. He answered an email and made all this possible and saying thank you still just doesn’t seem enough. And of course to say thanks to Zac, he was kind, caring and humble we are even bigger fans now! What a day! What a memory! One we will never forget!  

*And for those of you concerned about the dent on my couch from me sitting there for two days, because I know you totally are….I bought a BEAUTIFUL throw at Target…so don’t worry you can’t see the dent anymore! ;)

       Here are a few pictures from the event, a birthday and one important person who was missed from all of it...Dad! But there is always next year!

 
*See told you the throw was beautiful....so soft too! Of course now that I look at it, I want to comb the fringe straight....hmmm OCD much?