guess who's back...back again

hi.

i know, i know, it's been awhile!  i blame it partially on my own laziness, but also i discovered the hard way that as of late june, apple decided to shut down the photo stream app that i relied on for choosing and uploading pictures in my posts.  at the same time, i was running low on hard drive space on my laptop which was really hindering my ability to access my photos so that i could write my posts.  and so i was trying to go through and delete large files and apps and duplicate photos and i would get started and then get overwhelmed and not wanna anymore.  i thought maybe i could just grab the pictures from google photos because i knew my phone backed up all of my photos there, but when i tried to access them from the laptop the pictures only went through 2020.  what the heck, man.

ugh.

anyway, it's still not perfect, but i managed to free up some space and now i'm just choosing the pictures i want to post, sending them to the laptop via airdrop, then deleting them after i get my post written.  

good lord, what a boring ass post this is turning out to be. let's make it a little bit more interesting - going back to june and the general hospital convention.  my gold-level ticket got me a spot in one of the set tours at prospect studios, and so on that saturday i was up early and boarding the bus.

after a slightly hairy ride through some very narrow residential streets, we finally pulled into the studio parking lot and got our first look at the familiar signage:

"grey's anatomy" films here too, which explains this:

before our tour began, we were given the chance to use the restroom - and i'm still kicking myself for not taking them upon it, because as it turns out a couple of my fellow tourists ran into james patrick stuart, who plays valentin cassadine.  he was there for a workout at the gym, and happily stopped to pose for a couple of photos.  not to mention, the walk to the restroom took them past the actors' dressing rooms which would have been cool to see.  d-oh.

we had to wait a bit for the tour group ahead of us to finish up and exit the set, but it ended up being well worth the wait because as we finally went through the doors, we were welcomed in by none other than a smiling james.

he stayed to chat with us for just a few minutes before heading off through a door to parts unknown, and our tour began.  

we were hosted by senior producer mary-kelly weir, who was just as friendly and sweet as i'd remembered.

although i'd been lucky enough to do a set tour the last time i attended this convention, it was a different experience this time around since the production crew switches out the sets as they film.  they had kelly's diner set up, which was perfect for me with the shirt i'd chosen to wear.

the famous moss was present as well.  if you know, you know.

this is sonny's badger, which can be seen in his office.  they were running a contest to name this little guy, and maurice benard was going to pick a winner out of a fishbowl a few days later.

the metro court pool is one of their newest sets, which they've used extensively.  it was scheduled to be up for several months, and i think they just recently took it down since summer is over.

nikolas cassadine's home on spoon island, along with one of "ava jerome's" costumes.

the one set that's permanently up is, of course, the hospital.  

they use this office for different doctors, swapping out name tags and various pieces of decor as needed.

there were other current costumes sprinkled throughout, although these caught everyone's attention as they had been for "bobbie spencer."  bobbie had been portrayed by jackie zeman for several decades, and sadly she had just passed away unexpectedly after a cancer diagnosis that took her in a matter of weeks.

closest i'll ever get to an emmy.

the last selfie i snapped was in sonny corinthos' apartment.

the only way to get a set tour - aside from knowing someone who works there or, you know, landing a role on the show - is through the convention.  now that i've gone twice, i'm not sure if i'll get to do it again.  it does make for a fun solo weekend for me though, so i guess we'll just have to see.

oh, and i mean...if anyone knows how to snag a spot as an extra on the show, hook ya girl up.  THAT would be a dream come true!