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As a Poli Sci major at the University of Redands, I often considered a career in the field of diplomacy and international relations. To that extent, the U.N. was always the Holy Grail, in terms of places it would be awesome to see. I never did the tour, because I thought it wouldn’t count. The only way I wanted to see the U.N. was on official business. Once I’d sold my soul to Hollywood, I figured the U.N. dream was over. So imagine my surprise when I got the call that my two worlds, past and present, had unexpectedly collided.

The best way to describe my reaction to actually being in that room is what I whispered to Whoopi Goldberg after my introduction as I made my way to the stage: “I can’t believe this.” Except I added a colorful adjective between “can’t” and “believe,” which she seemed to appreciate. Of course, the best part was how someone at the U.N. had replaced the name plates which usually say “France” and “Botswana” with the names of “Galactica“‘s colonies: “Picon,” “Tauron,” “Caprica,” etc. If we were at a nerd convention like Comicon, I would’ve thought that kind of thing was taking scifi geekdom to an absurd level; the fact that the United Nations had arranged such a thing was nothing short of sublime.

Otherwise, the panel discussion itself was a blur. It reminded me of the time I got to meet Clint Eastwood: as I stood there shaking his hand, I know he was talking, but all I could do was watch his lips flap and think to myself “This is Clint Eastwood. I can’t believe I’m standing here in front of Clint Eastwood. Is this me? Am I still alive?” No idea what he might’ve actually been saying. So the U.N. experience was a little like that, but fortunately we had the videotape to review later, as proof that it truly did occur. Because honestly? Without that, I’m sure by now I would’ve convinced myself the whole thing was a dream — just like it always was…