In which I meet Zachary Quinto.

( Zachary Quinto is enormous and I am tiny. )

I can't believe I BLINKED. DAMMIT.

So it turns out he was here to talk up not only registering to vote -- always good -- but to talk up Obama, as well. Doubleplus good, amirite? He talked for about half an hour, ended saying that he'd written the speech just a few days ago and it had felt like being "back in the computer lab at 3 AM," then answered some questions. I asked how he got involved in the campaign in the first place, and he made eye contact with me the whole time he was answering. One person asked if he was politically active in college, and he said "Uh, no -- I was a drama student, so I was drama-active," which made me facepalm because, well, yeah. "I was more interested in Shakespeare than politics."

Then, after some announcements from the campus Obama group, he said "Okay, let's just chill."

Which meant him being mobbed by fans, of course. Best moment? One fangirl getting to the front of the crowd and hugging him. He blushed. He's so adorkable in his big glasses when he's just talking, and he has -- as we all know -- a very charming smile, but in all the pictures he made that Srs Bsns face you see above. He took the time to chat a little with most people as he was signing stuff.

When it got to me, I didn't have a pen or anyone to take the picture, so I had to borrow a pen and ask the girl behind me to work the camera. He shook my hand -- good handshake -- and asked my name. "[Name]," I said, "but can you sign it to Beth?"

Everyone burst out laughing. OH NO, I thought, THAT SOUNDED CREEPY. "It's for a friend from UPitt," I said, thinking I was so smooth, "who couldn't be here today."

"Oh, I'm going over there next," he said, but he was already signing, so whatever.

( Zachary Quinto's signature, on the other hand, is not enormous, although it is blurry. )

Then the pen ran out of ink. Luckily, someone was standing by with a (different color) one, so all was well. Then I got my photo, thanked him for coming, and left. There were eight billion questions I wanted to ask him, about working with Simon Pegg (he's the only other new Trek actor I know) and Kristen Bell and the 24 crew, about coming back to his hometown as a celebrity, about using his celebrity to affect change, about whether his Drama profs had given him lectures about using his celebrity to affect change the way mine are, about playing Sylar . . . but the people in front of me had been complaining about people chatting with him for so long, so I figured getting in and out was the better part of valor. Even if it wasn't quite as awesome.

And I didn't shriek until I got into the elevator in my dorm.

CHECK THIS SHIT OUT, GUYS. HOMIGOD.

A million billion thank yous to miruvix for being my price of admission and making me feel less like a horrific geeky fangirl. <3!

PS: I heard him say to someone, apparently in response to a question about Heroes, that "the next installment is called 'Villains,' so. Yeah, villains! *enthused*"

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, unless you didn't.