Father's First Con
Sep. 26th, 2007 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tohma2004Are you ready for this? My 8 page con report...oh yes...
Now with a few pictures!
Thursday
I woke up and went to Walmart to get a few things for the trip. I specifically got up early, knowing that we would be leaving as soon as I got back from work and Pam got out of class. I then went to work at noon, expecting to find the van at my house when I returned home at 2PM.
At 2PM…no van. 2:30 Pam arrives home…still no van. She calls Cat (owner of Van) only to find out that she is throwing up and unable to move. This presents a major problem for us. Not only does it mean no van and therefore no way to get to the convention, but also a great delay in leaving should we still figure out a way to get there.
It is decided that Pam would drive to Boone, get Cat her medicine and then pick her up and the van and drive back. I suggested driving with her and then I could pick up the van while Pam went and picked up Cat and then I could start loading while they were on their way back to our house…but Cat’s father actually had the van and he was at work, so we had to wait for him to return home.
So Pam headed to Boone (almost a 2 hour drive) to retrieve Cat and the van. Upon arrival we get a call…Cat is way too sick and therefore there is absolutely no way she can go. Even with the medicine. Okay…so we are now 3 hours behind schedule with Pam still 2 hours away and still no van. An hour later, Pam calls again. More bad news.
Cat’s father called the hotel to change the reservation over to my name. The hotel then informed him that the reservation was screwed up and only went up to Saturday and was not at the convention rate, but rather at the normal $300 rate. The hotel refused to change the rate and also claimed they had absolutely no rooms for us for Saturday night. So Cat’s father canceled the reservation…and that left us with no hotel room.
Luckily for me, I remembered that hersha had offered to have me in his and utai’s room several months before. I called him up and left a message to have him call me back since I was having a bit of a room situation. This still left us with no transportation.
If it weren’t for the fact that I was taking Cain I would have stuffed everything in my car and been on my merry way…and had it really come down to it I probably would have left Cain home and done that. But my father came up with an alternate plan.
He would drive us down to Atlanta in my mother’s jeep. He would drop us off and then drive back home with the plan to pick us up on Sunday. Now, keep in mind this is a 5 hour drive one way. Why couldn’t Pam and I just drive the jeep? My mother doesn’t trust us that much to drive that far in an unfamiliar city in her jeep. Probably smart.
About this time I got a call from Hersha and he welcomed my sister and him into his hotel room. So one problem was now solved. So my father and I loaded up the jeep and with a little creative packing and leaving a few unimportant items behind, we were able to fit everything in the back of the jeep. (Keep in mind, Pam is STILL not home yet).
About 7PM I call up GallionX to pester her about her car. Now being 5 hours behind schedule I figured I would see if she was still interested in attending and also give her the full details of my insane pre-con drama. Unfortunately she had already made plans and still couldn’t go.
A little later Pam arrives and the plan gets set in stone. We would leave at 2AM on Friday morning in order to arrive in Atlanta at 7AM with enough time to get Hersha and Utai their wigs since they would be arriving in their DN Angel outfits. We would then drop off the stuff in the hotel room as soon as the hotel lets us in and my father would return home.
Pam and I played cards late into the night and then attempted to get a few hours sleep. Around 11PM I gave up and just read manga until my alarm went off at 1AM to signal it was time to get ready to go.
Friday
We loaded into the jeep and began our VERY early VERY long trip south. It was dark, it sprinkled on and off, and the closer we got to Atlanta the more traffic we encountered.
We ended up arriving at the convention around 8AM and decided to stop and Dunken Donuts since Hersha and Utai weren’t going to be around for about another hour. We then drove to the hotel to sit and wait but decided it might be smarter to get in line and try to get our badges. So we drove back to the convention hotel and dropped Pam off so she could get in line. At this time I called to see were Hersha was and he was about half an hour away. While we sat in the jeep outside the hotel my father suggested I go and get inline as well since Pam called and said it was long. So I started to put on my Infinty fai outfit.
Just as I was about done, Utai called to say she was at the hotel. I told her were the jeep was sitting and she came out and put on the wig I had styled for her Krad outfit. We then headed inside to stand in line. We were almost to the line when Hersha arrived and so we all went to stand in line. While I was in line Pam ran and got Hersha’s dark wig out of the jeep and gave it to him. Their line moved much quicker then mine and they had their badges long before I did and were off getting their picture taken.
Hersha called the hotel and found out that they were going to allow us to put our stuff in the room early. We only had to wait about 20 minutes. So I headed over to the Cosplay Gallery to signup for my judging time.
I filled out my form and handed it to the girl at the desk and she asked for my reference image. I told her I didn’t have it on me and that it was in the car. She said that she needed it and that they were going to scan it so it would be shown when we walked on stage. I asked if the judges were going to get to see it and she told me that I would have to have two copies of the reference image. I sent Pam off to the car to retrieve my reference image while they tried to explain where the business office was so I could get a copy made of my picture.
By this time I was terribly irritated because no where on the signup form or the rules had it stated that I needed two pictures OR that I had to hand in the picture when I signed up. Finally it was clarified that I DIDN’T need two pictures, that they judges would get to see the image. I only needed two if I wanted to have my picture back. I told them I didn’t care what happened to it since it was just a print off from my computer and once Pam arrived with my form I handed it in, signed up for the last available judging slot and was assigned…believe it or not…Entry #13. Heh..ironic. Not to mention this was AWA 13. Good or bad omen? I figured pretty bad, and I wasn’t far off.
So we headed to the hotel to unload. We managed to fit everything on a cart and get it upstairs in only one trip. The room was nice sized. It was a suite so there was a big bed in one room and a foldout couch in the other. The bathroom had this separate little changing area with sliding doors that was pretty cool.
I started to work on putting Cain together since there were some things I wanted to wait until I was in the hotel room to actually assemble. As I was doing this my father was attempting to call around to see if he could find a van that we could rent so he wouldn’t have to make the trip back down to Atlanta. He was unsuccessful.
It was at this point that I decided I would just get ready and put on Cain since I would be changing into in an hour anyway and figured it wouldn’t make sence to go to the con for one hour and then walk back to the hotel and change.
So I began the long process of getting ready at 11AM. I asked my father several times if he was leaving but he just kept hanging out XD First he helped show Pam how she was supposed to pick up the wings in order to get them on my back. They he was helping Pam into her corset. Then at that point I was almost ready and so he helped me get into Cain. He was amused that I had to stand in the hallway to get everything on.
They came the hard part…walking to the con. When we first stepped outside I had fearful visions of Otakon as there was a bit of a wind blowing. But with my father on one side and Pam on the other we made our way up the elevator, up the stairs, across the walkway, down the elevator, to the convention and inside to safety. It was seriously the most screwed up route to a convention ever. Basically you walk out the front of the hotel to the parking garage. Take the elevator up to floor 9. Walk up a flight of stairs. Walk across the street to the mall. Walk to the walkway which takes you across the six lane highways. Take the elevator back down to the ground. Walk around the front of the center. Enter at the con center and go upstairs to the convention.
It was now a little after twelve. One of the crosses broke on the walk over but I had the super glue with me and was able to fix it easily.
So naturally at this point I figured my father would depart since he had gotten me safely to the con…but instead we continued upstairs to where the actual con was taking place. I took two steps inside the door and a group of ten people immediately captured me for pictures. It was apparently a Mexican family who kept excidedly talking in Spanish and putting person after person in a picture with me XD I think I took a picture with every family member at least twice XD
Finally I was able to move on…kinda. After two steps I was stopped. Picture picture picture. Okay move…stop. Picture picture picture. Move…stop. This continued for a good half an hour. I seriously moved maybe 10 feet. Finally I asked if they wanted the wings up and when a chorus of yeses were heard my father sprang into action. XD
My father put up the wings for me and then stepped back with an amused smile as the people swarmed. He kept telling me to turn around and show off the back XD Finally I got a small break and was able to put the wings back down and continue down the hallway. When I got towards the end of the hallway I put the wings back up for a few more pictures and then suddenly…I was surrounded by Rosencruez members.
“Hello boss” they said XD!! Oh yes was I amused. Eurobeat King arrived at that point and managed to get a few pictures of me and my minions. They were 4 very tall men and I told my minions they weren’t allowed to be taller then their boss though so they all knelt down for the picture XD I had 4 smexy male minions on their knees for me XD!! It was great. When I was leaving the con later in the day they said “Bye Boss”. XD!! Oh yes..a highlight indeed.
My minions!
Just like Otakon though, I couldn’t walk ten feet without getting stopped for pictures. I left the wings down for most of the day though because the space was so tight in most areas. My father told me when I turned around at one point, one photographer said “Holy shit..look at the back.” XD This apparently amused my father as well. Another minion showed up at this point (this one female) and we got pictures together and decided to head towards the lobby together.
We headed across the artist alley towards the walkway that overlooked the lobby. I spotted Hersha and Utai and CardcaptorKiki and waved to them. They told me to come down…but seeing only a fairly large staircase and an escalator I knew that was impossible. My second minion headed off and I asked my father if he was going to be heading home yet. He said he didn’t really want to and so I dubbed him my official AWA wingman, which he didn’t seem to upset about.
Ran into Star_Angel and talked for a few minutes. She found it incredibly cute that my father was hanging out as a handler XD
I had my photoshoot with EBK scheduled for 4 and when I finally managed to get down to the lobby, I ran into EBK and he said he had some cancellations and we could do my photoshoot now. (it was about 2 o’clock…yes it took me 2 hours to travel an incredibly short distance). So we went outside (first checking to make sure there was no breeze of doom…) and did the photoshoot. My father took pictures as well and continued to help with the wings and talk with EBK.
Peace out, Yo
Once I was back inside of the lobby I spotted Hersha and Utai and wandered over to them. CardcaptorKiki happened to be there as well and so I hung out with them for a few minutes while my father wandered around the lobby snapping pictures with my camera. He ended up recognizing Vash the Stampede, Naruto, and was on the hunt for a Faye Valentine from Cowboy bebop. Then I started to get tired so I decided I wanted to change.
We started (very slowly) to head back to the hotel. Once there we deposited the wings in the jeep sine I had the brilliant idea that he could take the Cain costume home and we could have more room not only in the hotel room, but in the car on Sunday. So then we headed up to the hotel room and I changed into Infinity Fai again. We took the rest of Cain downstairs and put it in the jeep before heading back to the con.
My father then bought Pam and I some lunch at Subway before finally heading home at 5PM.
As I was walking around as Infinity Fai I was surprised by the amount of people that recognized me. When I was walking around with CardcaptorKiki in her Sakura outfit…I even got called…can you believe this…YUUI! XD We both died. That was the single most awesome comment all weekend. In our wanderings we discovered a Kurogane cosplayer…a very very old Kurogane cosplayer…he was at least 60 years old. I am not kidding.
The rest of the day was basically spend wandering around and doing…not much XD I went back to the hotel room around 7 and changed into my Sakura outfit. When I got back I wandered around a bit and decided NOT to go to the ball (which was apparently a good idea since it wasn’t that exciting and sine I didn’t have a date anyway it didn’t make much sense to go alone). So instead, Pam and I played cards just outside of the ball room XD It was Sora versus Sakura in a thrilling game of “Golf”.
We then wandered around until about 11 and I called up cardcaptorkiki to see if she wanted to get some pictures together. She came back down in her Sakura gown and EBK got a few pictures of us together. We hung out until about midnight and then Pam and I headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. (keep in mind we had been in a car at 2AM that morning and I had yet to sleep)
Sakura-himes
Saturday
Woke up and put on Tsubasa Seishirou. Headed to the con and wandered around until deciding to go outside and take a few pictures. When we came back in, cardcaptorkiki spotted me and we got a few pictures together. She was waiting for her Syaoran to arrive so we wandered around a bit before sitting down in the lobby to wait for him. He finally arrived and we started to assemble for the CLAMP photoshoot.
Fear my hamster ball of doom
Give it back!
During our wanderings Pam and I walked the entire convention in search of were the costume contest judging was going to take place. We ran into several other people that were trying to find it as well. Staff members merely said it was downstairs. There were no signs to indicate where until FINALLY someone put up a sign to say it was across from a restaurant in the food court. We headed down there and wandered the mall until we finally located where the judging would be. I was glad we decided to do that early since if I had tried to hunt it down before my time slot I probably would have been late.
The photoshoot started at noon and when it was done I ran back to my room to change into Fai. In the process of changing one of my snaps broke and a piece of the coat came unsewn so some last minute repairs had to be made.
I headed back to the con and was immediately stopped XD The pictures started again, and although not quite to the extreme that they were for Cain, it still took me forever to get back to the lobby where Hersha, Utai, and CCKiki were waiting. They were heading back to change into their DN Angel outfits again and so I just sat in the lobby waiting for my judging time.
I made both coats! ^_^
My time was at 2:45 so about fifteen minutes early I headed to the judging room. I sat down with the other sin the room and this…this is probably the biggest complaint I have about the ENTIRE convention. The judging.
You walk behind this screen and stand there while the judges walked around you. Circling you like buzzards. Quietly examinging your costume. Never saying a word. I wondered if I was supposed to just tell them how it was made but they never asked and so I was afraid to actually offer the information. Finally one of the spoke and asked how the staff was made. Then another asked what kind of fabric I used for the lining. And that was it…the end…they walked away and I was sent off to get my picture taken. I was insulted. I felt like I had just gone through a beauty inspection, not a craftsmanship judging. I was there all of maybe 3 minutes. It was quite possibly the worst judging experience I have ever had. I walked away not wanting to win anything because it would have felt like a pointless win.
So feeling very disillusioned and quite disappointed Pam and I went off to sit in the lobby. In our wanderings we discovered a little kid that sounded like a doggy squeaky toy when she walked and figured out that it was her shoes making the hilarious noise. We ended up seeing/hearing her walking around all weekend.
Pam and I sat down in the lobby and played more “Golf.” It was at this time that Old Kurogane came up and wanted a picture with me. Also, the musical act “The Captains” were standing right above us watching the people in the lobby so I snapped a few pictures of them. A couple of them were quite hilarious to watch as they kept making funny faces.
The captains
The rest of the day was basically spent wandering and getting my picture taken until it was time to stand in line for the costume contest. Now, AWA doesn’t have skits. It is only the craftsmanship contest. So there were 120 awesome cosplayers standing in line waiting to do their walk across.
I got lucky because entries #14 and #15 were awesome ^^ They were a lot of fun to talk to throughout the backstage time. #14 ended up winning “Most Original” for her outfit since it was an original creation of a dress made up of Manga pages. It was pretty cool and you could tell she put a lot of effort into it. But they were hilarious and I’m glad I got to talk with them before the show. They kept telling me they were going to strip me down and steal my coat XD
After the contest (no I didn’t win anything, nor did I expect to) I stood outside the door talking to GreatSG where many people commented that I should have won “Best Prop” for my staff. I felt honored ^^ This award actually went to a Temari and gaara. Just hearing the comments made my night especially since I saw several really awesome props that I thought deserved the award.
It was while I was standing outside the main events that a girl crawled under my coat XD I don’t know who she was or anything, but all of a sudden she was there. I knew it had to happen at least once at the con XD It always does.
After the contest my arms hurt from carrying the coat all day so I just let it drag around behind me the rest of the night. It wasn’t very crowded so I wasn’t worried about getting stepped on and the floor wasn’t very dirty so it actually didn’t get very dirty being dragged. Around midnight, Pam and I headed back to the room to collapse into exhausted piles.
Sunday
Got dressed as Tasuki and basically did a run around the dealer’s room before heading back to the hotel and getting things ready to be hauled downstairs. Fansview did snap a picture of me while I was walking around and several other people got a picture of me when I was taking a nap waiting for the dealer’s room to open. I got several hugs from Tasuki fangirls as well. I felt a little incomplete though because my earrings had broken and so I couldn’t wear them.
As I was wandering around the dealer’s room Pam wandered off with a friend of hers. We had agreed to head back to the hotel at 11AM to start taking stuff to the lobby since our parents would be arriving at noon to load the jeep. At 11, I headed out of the dealer’s room and tried to call her but she didn’t answer her phone. I started to wander around the con thinking she had left the room and was wandering around with her friend but couldn’t find her. I tried calling a few more times before finallying heading back to the hotel alone.
Headed back to the hotel to attempt to get the stuff out before noon. It was 11:20 by the time I got there and just before I got to the lobby Pam called to see where I was. I told her to get her butt to the hotel. I got into the elevator and when I got to our floor, Hersha and Utai were standing there with some of their stuff waiting for an elevator. I got a load of my stuff from the room and when I got to the elevators they had apparently managed to get one. I hopped on a fairly empty one that showed up and headed down to the lobby.
While I was sitting there Utai and Hersha showed up with the same load they had in their hands when I met them upstairs. I waved them down and they had said they had to go all the way up to come all the way down. This amused me since I had already been sitting in the lobby with my stuff for about ten minutes. While I was in the lobby Pam called to say she was at the door of the room…without a key. I told her to come back to the lobby and get mine. Utai and Hersha mentioned they had seen her on their way back down and that she had called out to them…realizing it now was because she couldn’t get into the room.
They headed out to their car and Pam arrived to get the key. Once she had the key she went back upstairs to get a load of stuff. Unfortunety for us all the carts were taken and so it was going to take several trips up and down the elevator to get the room empty. It took three trips for Pam to get everything downstairs but by the last trip the elevators were getting emptier and easier to get on. Of course it was also 12:20 at this point and we had been hauling stuff for an hour.
Our parents arrived and loaded the stuff into the jeep. It loaded a lot easier this time and we even had an extra person since my mother had come along as well. We headed back to the con for one last spin and then I changed as we headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner before heading home. I slept the whole way.
And that…was AWA. An 8 page con report. It was a good con. Factor out all the crazy drama and you’ve got a fairly boring con. But it wasn’t boring in a bad way. I had fun, got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen since Otakon or even before that. If I go back next year…attempt to get an artist alley table so I don’t have so much down time.
Now with a few pictures!
Thursday
I woke up and went to Walmart to get a few things for the trip. I specifically got up early, knowing that we would be leaving as soon as I got back from work and Pam got out of class. I then went to work at noon, expecting to find the van at my house when I returned home at 2PM.
At 2PM…no van. 2:30 Pam arrives home…still no van. She calls Cat (owner of Van) only to find out that she is throwing up and unable to move. This presents a major problem for us. Not only does it mean no van and therefore no way to get to the convention, but also a great delay in leaving should we still figure out a way to get there.
It is decided that Pam would drive to Boone, get Cat her medicine and then pick her up and the van and drive back. I suggested driving with her and then I could pick up the van while Pam went and picked up Cat and then I could start loading while they were on their way back to our house…but Cat’s father actually had the van and he was at work, so we had to wait for him to return home.
So Pam headed to Boone (almost a 2 hour drive) to retrieve Cat and the van. Upon arrival we get a call…Cat is way too sick and therefore there is absolutely no way she can go. Even with the medicine. Okay…so we are now 3 hours behind schedule with Pam still 2 hours away and still no van. An hour later, Pam calls again. More bad news.
Cat’s father called the hotel to change the reservation over to my name. The hotel then informed him that the reservation was screwed up and only went up to Saturday and was not at the convention rate, but rather at the normal $300 rate. The hotel refused to change the rate and also claimed they had absolutely no rooms for us for Saturday night. So Cat’s father canceled the reservation…and that left us with no hotel room.
Luckily for me, I remembered that hersha had offered to have me in his and utai’s room several months before. I called him up and left a message to have him call me back since I was having a bit of a room situation. This still left us with no transportation.
If it weren’t for the fact that I was taking Cain I would have stuffed everything in my car and been on my merry way…and had it really come down to it I probably would have left Cain home and done that. But my father came up with an alternate plan.
He would drive us down to Atlanta in my mother’s jeep. He would drop us off and then drive back home with the plan to pick us up on Sunday. Now, keep in mind this is a 5 hour drive one way. Why couldn’t Pam and I just drive the jeep? My mother doesn’t trust us that much to drive that far in an unfamiliar city in her jeep. Probably smart.
About this time I got a call from Hersha and he welcomed my sister and him into his hotel room. So one problem was now solved. So my father and I loaded up the jeep and with a little creative packing and leaving a few unimportant items behind, we were able to fit everything in the back of the jeep. (Keep in mind, Pam is STILL not home yet).
About 7PM I call up GallionX to pester her about her car. Now being 5 hours behind schedule I figured I would see if she was still interested in attending and also give her the full details of my insane pre-con drama. Unfortunately she had already made plans and still couldn’t go.
A little later Pam arrives and the plan gets set in stone. We would leave at 2AM on Friday morning in order to arrive in Atlanta at 7AM with enough time to get Hersha and Utai their wigs since they would be arriving in their DN Angel outfits. We would then drop off the stuff in the hotel room as soon as the hotel lets us in and my father would return home.
Pam and I played cards late into the night and then attempted to get a few hours sleep. Around 11PM I gave up and just read manga until my alarm went off at 1AM to signal it was time to get ready to go.
Friday
We loaded into the jeep and began our VERY early VERY long trip south. It was dark, it sprinkled on and off, and the closer we got to Atlanta the more traffic we encountered.
We ended up arriving at the convention around 8AM and decided to stop and Dunken Donuts since Hersha and Utai weren’t going to be around for about another hour. We then drove to the hotel to sit and wait but decided it might be smarter to get in line and try to get our badges. So we drove back to the convention hotel and dropped Pam off so she could get in line. At this time I called to see were Hersha was and he was about half an hour away. While we sat in the jeep outside the hotel my father suggested I go and get inline as well since Pam called and said it was long. So I started to put on my Infinty fai outfit.
Just as I was about done, Utai called to say she was at the hotel. I told her were the jeep was sitting and she came out and put on the wig I had styled for her Krad outfit. We then headed inside to stand in line. We were almost to the line when Hersha arrived and so we all went to stand in line. While I was in line Pam ran and got Hersha’s dark wig out of the jeep and gave it to him. Their line moved much quicker then mine and they had their badges long before I did and were off getting their picture taken.
Hersha called the hotel and found out that they were going to allow us to put our stuff in the room early. We only had to wait about 20 minutes. So I headed over to the Cosplay Gallery to signup for my judging time.
I filled out my form and handed it to the girl at the desk and she asked for my reference image. I told her I didn’t have it on me and that it was in the car. She said that she needed it and that they were going to scan it so it would be shown when we walked on stage. I asked if the judges were going to get to see it and she told me that I would have to have two copies of the reference image. I sent Pam off to the car to retrieve my reference image while they tried to explain where the business office was so I could get a copy made of my picture.
By this time I was terribly irritated because no where on the signup form or the rules had it stated that I needed two pictures OR that I had to hand in the picture when I signed up. Finally it was clarified that I DIDN’T need two pictures, that they judges would get to see the image. I only needed two if I wanted to have my picture back. I told them I didn’t care what happened to it since it was just a print off from my computer and once Pam arrived with my form I handed it in, signed up for the last available judging slot and was assigned…believe it or not…Entry #13. Heh..ironic. Not to mention this was AWA 13. Good or bad omen? I figured pretty bad, and I wasn’t far off.
So we headed to the hotel to unload. We managed to fit everything on a cart and get it upstairs in only one trip. The room was nice sized. It was a suite so there was a big bed in one room and a foldout couch in the other. The bathroom had this separate little changing area with sliding doors that was pretty cool.
I started to work on putting Cain together since there were some things I wanted to wait until I was in the hotel room to actually assemble. As I was doing this my father was attempting to call around to see if he could find a van that we could rent so he wouldn’t have to make the trip back down to Atlanta. He was unsuccessful.
It was at this point that I decided I would just get ready and put on Cain since I would be changing into in an hour anyway and figured it wouldn’t make sence to go to the con for one hour and then walk back to the hotel and change.
So I began the long process of getting ready at 11AM. I asked my father several times if he was leaving but he just kept hanging out XD First he helped show Pam how she was supposed to pick up the wings in order to get them on my back. They he was helping Pam into her corset. Then at that point I was almost ready and so he helped me get into Cain. He was amused that I had to stand in the hallway to get everything on.
They came the hard part…walking to the con. When we first stepped outside I had fearful visions of Otakon as there was a bit of a wind blowing. But with my father on one side and Pam on the other we made our way up the elevator, up the stairs, across the walkway, down the elevator, to the convention and inside to safety. It was seriously the most screwed up route to a convention ever. Basically you walk out the front of the hotel to the parking garage. Take the elevator up to floor 9. Walk up a flight of stairs. Walk across the street to the mall. Walk to the walkway which takes you across the six lane highways. Take the elevator back down to the ground. Walk around the front of the center. Enter at the con center and go upstairs to the convention.
It was now a little after twelve. One of the crosses broke on the walk over but I had the super glue with me and was able to fix it easily.
So naturally at this point I figured my father would depart since he had gotten me safely to the con…but instead we continued upstairs to where the actual con was taking place. I took two steps inside the door and a group of ten people immediately captured me for pictures. It was apparently a Mexican family who kept excidedly talking in Spanish and putting person after person in a picture with me XD I think I took a picture with every family member at least twice XD
Finally I was able to move on…kinda. After two steps I was stopped. Picture picture picture. Okay move…stop. Picture picture picture. Move…stop. This continued for a good half an hour. I seriously moved maybe 10 feet. Finally I asked if they wanted the wings up and when a chorus of yeses were heard my father sprang into action. XD
My father put up the wings for me and then stepped back with an amused smile as the people swarmed. He kept telling me to turn around and show off the back XD Finally I got a small break and was able to put the wings back down and continue down the hallway. When I got towards the end of the hallway I put the wings back up for a few more pictures and then suddenly…I was surrounded by Rosencruez members.
“Hello boss” they said XD!! Oh yes was I amused. Eurobeat King arrived at that point and managed to get a few pictures of me and my minions. They were 4 very tall men and I told my minions they weren’t allowed to be taller then their boss though so they all knelt down for the picture XD I had 4 smexy male minions on their knees for me XD!! It was great. When I was leaving the con later in the day they said “Bye Boss”. XD!! Oh yes..a highlight indeed.
My minions!
Just like Otakon though, I couldn’t walk ten feet without getting stopped for pictures. I left the wings down for most of the day though because the space was so tight in most areas. My father told me when I turned around at one point, one photographer said “Holy shit..look at the back.” XD This apparently amused my father as well. Another minion showed up at this point (this one female) and we got pictures together and decided to head towards the lobby together.
We headed across the artist alley towards the walkway that overlooked the lobby. I spotted Hersha and Utai and CardcaptorKiki and waved to them. They told me to come down…but seeing only a fairly large staircase and an escalator I knew that was impossible. My second minion headed off and I asked my father if he was going to be heading home yet. He said he didn’t really want to and so I dubbed him my official AWA wingman, which he didn’t seem to upset about.
Ran into Star_Angel and talked for a few minutes. She found it incredibly cute that my father was hanging out as a handler XD
I had my photoshoot with EBK scheduled for 4 and when I finally managed to get down to the lobby, I ran into EBK and he said he had some cancellations and we could do my photoshoot now. (it was about 2 o’clock…yes it took me 2 hours to travel an incredibly short distance). So we went outside (first checking to make sure there was no breeze of doom…) and did the photoshoot. My father took pictures as well and continued to help with the wings and talk with EBK.
Peace out, Yo
Once I was back inside of the lobby I spotted Hersha and Utai and wandered over to them. CardcaptorKiki happened to be there as well and so I hung out with them for a few minutes while my father wandered around the lobby snapping pictures with my camera. He ended up recognizing Vash the Stampede, Naruto, and was on the hunt for a Faye Valentine from Cowboy bebop. Then I started to get tired so I decided I wanted to change.
We started (very slowly) to head back to the hotel. Once there we deposited the wings in the jeep sine I had the brilliant idea that he could take the Cain costume home and we could have more room not only in the hotel room, but in the car on Sunday. So then we headed up to the hotel room and I changed into Infinity Fai again. We took the rest of Cain downstairs and put it in the jeep before heading back to the con.
My father then bought Pam and I some lunch at Subway before finally heading home at 5PM.
As I was walking around as Infinity Fai I was surprised by the amount of people that recognized me. When I was walking around with CardcaptorKiki in her Sakura outfit…I even got called…can you believe this…YUUI! XD We both died. That was the single most awesome comment all weekend. In our wanderings we discovered a Kurogane cosplayer…a very very old Kurogane cosplayer…he was at least 60 years old. I am not kidding.
The rest of the day was basically spend wandering around and doing…not much XD I went back to the hotel room around 7 and changed into my Sakura outfit. When I got back I wandered around a bit and decided NOT to go to the ball (which was apparently a good idea since it wasn’t that exciting and sine I didn’t have a date anyway it didn’t make much sense to go alone). So instead, Pam and I played cards just outside of the ball room XD It was Sora versus Sakura in a thrilling game of “Golf”.
We then wandered around until about 11 and I called up cardcaptorkiki to see if she wanted to get some pictures together. She came back down in her Sakura gown and EBK got a few pictures of us together. We hung out until about midnight and then Pam and I headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. (keep in mind we had been in a car at 2AM that morning and I had yet to sleep)
Sakura-himes
Saturday
Woke up and put on Tsubasa Seishirou. Headed to the con and wandered around until deciding to go outside and take a few pictures. When we came back in, cardcaptorkiki spotted me and we got a few pictures together. She was waiting for her Syaoran to arrive so we wandered around a bit before sitting down in the lobby to wait for him. He finally arrived and we started to assemble for the CLAMP photoshoot.
Fear my hamster ball of doom
Give it back!
During our wanderings Pam and I walked the entire convention in search of were the costume contest judging was going to take place. We ran into several other people that were trying to find it as well. Staff members merely said it was downstairs. There were no signs to indicate where until FINALLY someone put up a sign to say it was across from a restaurant in the food court. We headed down there and wandered the mall until we finally located where the judging would be. I was glad we decided to do that early since if I had tried to hunt it down before my time slot I probably would have been late.
The photoshoot started at noon and when it was done I ran back to my room to change into Fai. In the process of changing one of my snaps broke and a piece of the coat came unsewn so some last minute repairs had to be made.
I headed back to the con and was immediately stopped XD The pictures started again, and although not quite to the extreme that they were for Cain, it still took me forever to get back to the lobby where Hersha, Utai, and CCKiki were waiting. They were heading back to change into their DN Angel outfits again and so I just sat in the lobby waiting for my judging time.
I made both coats! ^_^
My time was at 2:45 so about fifteen minutes early I headed to the judging room. I sat down with the other sin the room and this…this is probably the biggest complaint I have about the ENTIRE convention. The judging.
You walk behind this screen and stand there while the judges walked around you. Circling you like buzzards. Quietly examinging your costume. Never saying a word. I wondered if I was supposed to just tell them how it was made but they never asked and so I was afraid to actually offer the information. Finally one of the spoke and asked how the staff was made. Then another asked what kind of fabric I used for the lining. And that was it…the end…they walked away and I was sent off to get my picture taken. I was insulted. I felt like I had just gone through a beauty inspection, not a craftsmanship judging. I was there all of maybe 3 minutes. It was quite possibly the worst judging experience I have ever had. I walked away not wanting to win anything because it would have felt like a pointless win.
So feeling very disillusioned and quite disappointed Pam and I went off to sit in the lobby. In our wanderings we discovered a little kid that sounded like a doggy squeaky toy when she walked and figured out that it was her shoes making the hilarious noise. We ended up seeing/hearing her walking around all weekend.
Pam and I sat down in the lobby and played more “Golf.” It was at this time that Old Kurogane came up and wanted a picture with me. Also, the musical act “The Captains” were standing right above us watching the people in the lobby so I snapped a few pictures of them. A couple of them were quite hilarious to watch as they kept making funny faces.
The captains
The rest of the day was basically spent wandering and getting my picture taken until it was time to stand in line for the costume contest. Now, AWA doesn’t have skits. It is only the craftsmanship contest. So there were 120 awesome cosplayers standing in line waiting to do their walk across.
I got lucky because entries #14 and #15 were awesome ^^ They were a lot of fun to talk to throughout the backstage time. #14 ended up winning “Most Original” for her outfit since it was an original creation of a dress made up of Manga pages. It was pretty cool and you could tell she put a lot of effort into it. But they were hilarious and I’m glad I got to talk with them before the show. They kept telling me they were going to strip me down and steal my coat XD
After the contest (no I didn’t win anything, nor did I expect to) I stood outside the door talking to GreatSG where many people commented that I should have won “Best Prop” for my staff. I felt honored ^^ This award actually went to a Temari and gaara. Just hearing the comments made my night especially since I saw several really awesome props that I thought deserved the award.
It was while I was standing outside the main events that a girl crawled under my coat XD I don’t know who she was or anything, but all of a sudden she was there. I knew it had to happen at least once at the con XD It always does.
After the contest my arms hurt from carrying the coat all day so I just let it drag around behind me the rest of the night. It wasn’t very crowded so I wasn’t worried about getting stepped on and the floor wasn’t very dirty so it actually didn’t get very dirty being dragged. Around midnight, Pam and I headed back to the room to collapse into exhausted piles.
Sunday
Got dressed as Tasuki and basically did a run around the dealer’s room before heading back to the hotel and getting things ready to be hauled downstairs. Fansview did snap a picture of me while I was walking around and several other people got a picture of me when I was taking a nap waiting for the dealer’s room to open. I got several hugs from Tasuki fangirls as well. I felt a little incomplete though because my earrings had broken and so I couldn’t wear them.
As I was wandering around the dealer’s room Pam wandered off with a friend of hers. We had agreed to head back to the hotel at 11AM to start taking stuff to the lobby since our parents would be arriving at noon to load the jeep. At 11, I headed out of the dealer’s room and tried to call her but she didn’t answer her phone. I started to wander around the con thinking she had left the room and was wandering around with her friend but couldn’t find her. I tried calling a few more times before finallying heading back to the hotel alone.
Headed back to the hotel to attempt to get the stuff out before noon. It was 11:20 by the time I got there and just before I got to the lobby Pam called to see where I was. I told her to get her butt to the hotel. I got into the elevator and when I got to our floor, Hersha and Utai were standing there with some of their stuff waiting for an elevator. I got a load of my stuff from the room and when I got to the elevators they had apparently managed to get one. I hopped on a fairly empty one that showed up and headed down to the lobby.
While I was sitting there Utai and Hersha showed up with the same load they had in their hands when I met them upstairs. I waved them down and they had said they had to go all the way up to come all the way down. This amused me since I had already been sitting in the lobby with my stuff for about ten minutes. While I was in the lobby Pam called to say she was at the door of the room…without a key. I told her to come back to the lobby and get mine. Utai and Hersha mentioned they had seen her on their way back down and that she had called out to them…realizing it now was because she couldn’t get into the room.
They headed out to their car and Pam arrived to get the key. Once she had the key she went back upstairs to get a load of stuff. Unfortunety for us all the carts were taken and so it was going to take several trips up and down the elevator to get the room empty. It took three trips for Pam to get everything downstairs but by the last trip the elevators were getting emptier and easier to get on. Of course it was also 12:20 at this point and we had been hauling stuff for an hour.
Our parents arrived and loaded the stuff into the jeep. It loaded a lot easier this time and we even had an extra person since my mother had come along as well. We headed back to the con for one last spin and then I changed as we headed to an Italian restaurant for dinner before heading home. I slept the whole way.
And that…was AWA. An 8 page con report. It was a good con. Factor out all the crazy drama and you’ve got a fairly boring con. But it wasn’t boring in a bad way. I had fun, got to see a lot of people I haven’t seen since Otakon or even before that. If I go back next year…attempt to get an artist alley table so I don’t have so much down time.
