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An Insider’s Guide to the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend By Katrina Rasbold Text and Photos Copyright © 2013 Katrina Rasbold All Rights Reserved Table of Contents Acknowledgements About This Book Introduction Auntie Katrina’s Guide to Reasonable Expectations The Kick Off Cocktail Reception The Main Cast Luncheon Individual Actor Events Purchasing Event Tickets & Planning Your Schedule for the Weekend Transportation: How to Get There What to Bring What to Wear (But More Importantly, What Not to Wear) Food Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the General Hospital Fan Club Weekend - Don’t Make Me Crazy, People Who is the Organizer of the GH Fan Club Weekend Miscellaneous Information That Doesn't Fit in Other Chapters How to Maximize Your Fun While Minimizing Your Costs What Else Is There to Do in the Area? Tell Me a Story, Auntie Katrina Photo Stories APPENDIX 1 - Area Attractions APPENDIX 2 – Important Contacts & Links About Katrina Acknowledgements My deepest thanks to my favorite people who come out each year to share this special time with me. In no particular order… From left to right: Kathy, Dianna, (me), Delena, Carolyn, Linda (my partner in crime), Debbie, Lynna, Victoria, Maxine, Errol & Nina There are so many others like Rosemary, Tom, Paul, Keith, Tracey, Michelle, George, Claire, Toni, Pat, Stacey…the GHFCW would not be the same if any of you were not there. A very special thanks to all of the wonderful (and even the not so wonderful) GH actors who have attended our functions throughout the past many years and have given me so many wonderful stories to share, as well as our wonderful (and even the not so wonderful) GHFCW event coordinators who let me come and play in their sandbox every year. A special thanks to John & Debby O’Connor and Brooke Arata, who are always so precious and welcoming when I crash their events. Last but not least, thank you to the wonderful fans, especially those who join us year after year and are now like family to us. Because of so many of these people, I got to do things people rarely get to experience and live to tell the tale (to you). I am so very grateful for those wonderful GHFCW moments. About This Book Just to make sure y’all behave yourself at the event, you might want to print out key portions or move this .pdf file over to your laptop or e-reader for quick reference. You never know when you are going to encounter a situation and forget what you read about it because you believed it would never happen to you. This book contains solely my own impressions and thoughts, based on years of experience in working this event, and are not intended to speak for anyone else. My goal is to make sure our guests have the best time possible by understanding all of the ins and outs of the GH Fan Club Weekend. I also thought you might enjoy hearing about some of the fun experiences I’ve had along the way (and some of the not so fun ones). Photos included in this book are the property of Eye on Soaps, All My Writers, and Katrina Rasbold (me). There are times when I will repeat information in this book. That is to accommodate people who do not read the whole book (SHAME on you!) and who only scan certain parts of it. It doesn’t hurt to repeat. You’ll remember it better. This book is created independently and is not directly affiliated with ABC, General Hospital, Debbie Morris, or the Official General Hospital Fan Club. (If it was, I couldn’t say half of the stuff I’m about to tell y’all.) Introduction If you have ever been to the GH Fan Club Weekend, and what an amazing, exciting, soul- igniting event it is, then you know for a fact that a myriad of different types of personalities attend. Some of them you want to pack into your suitcase and take home with you because they are just so funny, sweet and wonderful. Others, let's face it, just ought not be allowed to be out there in the world without some kind of written instruction for how a person needs to act. It's not always that their mamas didn't raise them right or that they just don't have any common sense (although there are times when both or either might be the case), but more a lack of practical experience where no one has been around to save them from themselves. It could be that they don't have friends, or at least not any that tell them the truth. It could also be that they don't have any mirrors anywhere in their house. Sometimes, it's something as simple and not knowing what the weather is like in California in September or where a person should and shouldn't get food in the middle of the night. Just in case you are wondering anything from how to get from the airport to the hotel all the way up to having a sniggling of a suspicion that YOU might be one of those people needing a little social guidance, don't worry. I'm here for you. My extensive experience qualifies me unconditionally to tell you folks what to do and how to act and what to wear and where to go, so you just don't even have to worry about a thing. It's all in these pages. I'm here to help, sweetness. Just settle down with a tasty beverage and turn off your cell phone for a while. Soon you will have all of the information you need to keep from making a total and complete jackass of yourself at this year's event. We're depending on you to not act a fool and so it is incumbent upon us (not the royal "we," although that is appealing as well - I'm talking about the people who will be milling around the GHFCW, just looking for little lost lambs to guide back into the fold so photographs of you in your socks and sandals ensemble doesn't end up on message boards across the nation by nightfall - the hotel does have high speed internet, you know) to take you by the trembling hand and keep you safe from journalistic harm (or the long arm of event security patrols). We've (see previous explanation of who "we" are) been doing this for a long time. You can trust us. Really. Auntie Katrina’s Guide to Reasonable Expectations It’s hard to know what to expect and it’s understandable that in absence of knowing what to expect, one would conjure up all sorts of ideas about how the weekend is going to progress. Sometimes, those are big ol’ castles in the sky and sometimes, they are visions that make this experience scarier than it needs to be. (That’s why I’m here) Of course, I’m not talking to my seasoned veterans, which is basically anyone who has been to even one GHFCW before. I showed up to my first GHFCW all starry eyed and novicey. I am sure I have a picture of me around here somewhere that faraway weekend back in Y2K… Ah yes, here I am with the beautiful Stephanie, one of my very first columnists: I.Was.So.Young and wow, what a great hair day I was having. And look! Here I am with Billy Warlock (AJ after Sean Kanan). Not only is my head something like twice the size of his, but he could not look less thrilled to be there: If only Billy could have had as good of a time as I did that weekend. Of course, that is the year AJ was swinging from a meat hook, so maybe he wasn’t in the best of moods. I couldn’t help but be in a great mood. Within 20 minutes of arriving at the Sportsmen’s Lodge for the first time, I was going up the outside steps near the pool. There was a man 4-5 steps above me and it crossed my mind that he had the absolute finest ass I had ever seen in my life. As if feeling my burning stare on his denim class butt, he turned around and I got the full on glory of John J. York (Mac Scorpio) with a big smile and those lovely blue eyes. He said, “How are you doing?” I put on my best Southern airs and said, “I am doing just fine” and smiled pretty. It set the tone for me to love this event until I die. It just doesn’t get any better than going upstairs with John J. York’s butt. To give you some perspective, that year we had Jensen Buchanan, A Martinez (sigh), Real Andrews, Brad Maule… Twelve years may not seem like a long time ago, but wow! What a difference! People always think I am hedging when they ask us what actors will attend the GH Fan Club Weekend and I say, “We really do not know.” We always presume some will be there. So far, we’ve always had a remarkable turn out. The studio strongly encourages the actors to come and a lot of them do. We can’t, however, ever seem to predict who it is going to be and even if an actor gives us a positive RSVP, sometimes they end up not showing up at the last minute.