Last night was the TAPS event at The College of William & Mary. It was so fun! If you want the extended version, keep reading. If you just want to see pics, go to my Flickr photostream.

I was SO excited to attend–I found out about the event over a month ago, rather accidentally–I went to the official TAPS site one day and glanced at their appearances/events calendar, and behold! Jason and Grant in Williamsburg, Virginia! After talking with no less than four people in four different departments on campus, I tracked down the correct date and time of the event! (There was a discrepancy initially, with W&M saying one day and TAPS saying another. We got it straightened out, though.)

I took a half day off from work, and my friend M and I drove up to Williamsburg around 1 PM. I was worried because someone from my Ghost Hunters Fans group on Ravelry sent me a message yesterday morning to let me know that there were people in line for tickets already, at 9:30 AM! So panic mode kicked in and I was afraid that tickets might be sold out by the time we got to the college.

The drive to Williamsburg wasn’t a long one, except for the fact that we ran into road work on the way. Figures, when time is of the essence, what does the universe send you? ROAD WORK! But we got to Williamsburg around 2:30 and then were faced with the confusion over parking.

Neither of us had been to William & Mary before, and while we had been told by the college to use street parking on Richmond Rd., when we got there, all the street parking was full. Gack. We drove around two or three times, trying to figure out where else to park (supposedly we were supposed to use metered parking but each parking lot we found with meters said “faculty and staff only,” so that was rather confusing). So I started panicking again and made the not-very-great decision to use the downtown paid parking garage and walk onto campus. The parking garage itself wasn’t a problem, but it was kind of a long walk from there to campus.

But we found the University Center, right next to the stadium, and went in. We found the Commonwealth Auditorium (after going up a flight of stairs only to realize that the second floor, where we’d entered, was the main floor). We saw flyers for the Ghost Hunters event and knew we were in the right place. I looked around–there was a student lounge area outside the auditorium, and saw four or so other people sitting around reading. Two of the girls had on TAPS shirts, so I definitely knew we were in the right place.

We found some comfy seats and basically sat around and waited. And waited. And waited. By this time it was only around 3 PM, so we had a few more hours till tickets went on sale at 6. We were hungry, so M went down to the first floor and got us subs from Quizno’s while I sat and waited outside the auditorium. Even though we were the first handful to arrive, I said there was no way I was getting up and leaving, lol. After we ate, it was still early so I pulled out the knitting and worked on my sock. It’s always a good time to knit, you know.

The hours passed and slowly people began to trickle in. They sat down in other chairs outside the auditorium, and I was starting to get very antsy when all of a sudden several people started a line outside the door, then everyone else who had been waiting got in line, so we went, too. At this time it wasn’t even 5:00, I don’t think…so we were in line for about an hour.

We met a nice guy and girl who were behind us in line–I didn’t get their names but we chatted with them for a bit. And then we waited. And waited.

Finally at 6, the event staff (who were basically students from the college who could have been more organized, I think, but hey I shouldn’t complain!) came out with tickets and started handing them out. Students got in for free with their student IDs, and the general public had to pay (it was only $8 per person). So a bunch of the students started forming a new line to get in the door, and we ended up being further back in line than we originally had been, since we had to pay first.

More waiting! They made us stand in line for another hour till the doors opened around 6:45. My feet were hurting by the time we went in! (I would have sat down, but the floor looked kind of suspicious so I opted for standing, lol.)

When we went in, we chose pretty close seats–I think we were in the fifth or sixth row from the front. The big screen at the front was HUGE, so we had a great view. It was like being at the movies.

Yes, more waiting! People continued to trickle in and fill the seats up till 7, when the event was scheduled to begin. And though we had originally been told that there were a limited number of 50 general public tickets available, no one was turned away, even though the auditorium was nearly sold out.

It was a little after 7 when one of the event staff guys went up to the stage. He read a little intro about TAPS (and was corrected by the crowd when he pronounced “Jason Hawes” as “Jason House”), and then Jason and Grant came onto the stage!

Much applause followed and it was SO exciting! They look exactly the same as they do on TV, Jason’s goatee included, lol.

They started the slideshow presentation on the big screen, which was a summary of TAPS.

The presentation also included case studies (with participation from the audience) about previous investigations, sample EVPs (including some I’d never heard before, not from the show), video evidence (some from the show but a couple clips pre-Sci Fi channel, including two *hilarious* clips of a fence gate that had it in for both Jason and Grant).

It was just such a cool experience to see them talk in person–of course I’ve watched the show/DVDs over and over and I listen to their radio show every week, but to see them in person was the best. They are so funny together and it’s obvious they were really enjoying themselves as well as us in the crowd.

At the end of the slideshow, Grant announced that unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to sign autographs and take photos with everyone because they had to catch an early morning (3 AM!) flight today. I was *so* bummed. I had had my heart set on getting pics with each of them, but then I quickly realized I couldn’t be too disappointed–I got to see them in person, laugh a lot, and enjoy several pieces of evidence I’d never seen before.

Then it was time for Q&A and they both went into the audience to answer questions. We were sitting on Grant’s side of the stage, so we were closer to him.

Jason was on the other side of the room.

I then decided, ok, if I won’t be able to get pics with them, I am going to ask a question! So I was wracking my brain trying to think of a question that wouldn’t sound absolutely stupid, and came up with–ok, Ouija boards. I’ll ask what it is about them specifically that they’re so opposed to. Brilliant!

So Grant answers a question from a lady sitting in the row in front of us, and she has two questions. First, “What type of audio recorder do you think is best?” (or something similar), then (I am not kidding), “Second, Ouija boards! Why don’t you endorse using them?”

ARG! That was totally my question! LOL ok, ok, think fast…er…umm! So I shot up my hand really quickly so that Grant wouldn’t pass me by, and he saw me and waited next to me while Jason was about to answer another question several rows behind us. Well he ended up signing an autograph for someone, so Grant came over to me. eeee! hehehe

ok, sidenote–yes, I know I am squealing (as much as I can in text) like a teenage girl over Elvis in 1960, but hello, this is TAPS…they basically ARE like Elvis to me. LOL! Not only am I a fan of their TV show, radio show, and book, but I’m also a big fan of Grant’s music.

So Grant came over with the microphone, and I (hoping to god or goddess or dog) that I don’t sound like an absolute moron, said, “This actually isn’t a paranormal question, but–I love your music! Are you coming out with a CD, because I would buy it!”

ok, inwardly I’m pimpslapping myself for not coming up with something far wittier or cleverer, but cut me some slack. Chick in front of me stole my other question, lol.

Grant laughed, and then he said “Thank you very much,” and I said “You’re welcome!” and he said, “I’m trying!” (about his music). So I said, “Ok, thank you!” and that was my Grant experience.

I did manage to get quite a few close pics of Grant while he was on our side of the audience, as well as Jason when he came around later.

Then they were basically wrapping up. Some people actually went up to Jason and asked him to autograph stuff, which he did (very nice of him!), and some people actually got out of their seats and went up to him, but I didn’t want to be rude, especially after he and Grant had just said minutes before that they really didn’t have time to do that. So I thought that was a *little* rude of the other people, but J&G were very nice to everyone.

After that, they went back up to the stage and the event staff thanked them and made some closing remarks. We gave them a round of applause, and then the event staff told everyone to look under their chairs for a piece of paper (or something, not sure) because they were giving away a signed Ghost Hunters poster along with a signed “Ghost Hunters camera,” of which my first thought was, thermal camera? Mini DV? lol, in reality it looked like a disposable camera but I think one of the kids in the crowd won it, which was cute. While everyone was looking under their chairs, though, I was watching Jason and Grant and they kind of snuck off stage at that time. I wanted to wave goodbye to them, or something! lol

To say it again, I had such a good time at the event. I really hope I can attend a future event where I’ll be able to actually talk to both of them and do a proper meet and greet, but I was just really happy for last night’s experience. It was definitely worth the wait and even all the confusion over the event date and parking.

If you ever have the opportunity to go see Jason and Grant, definitely do it!