myself (and my wallet) back together.
Friday
Or, why I HATE travelling in big groups. The fun of colelcting 24 ppl
altogether, never mind waiting for the bus in sweltering heat. But we got
everyone together and left the city with minimal trouble. Rear end of the bus
had a Ninja Burger game going, while directly behind me was a trio of XX'ers
enjoying ALOT of yaoi, to judge by the sounds since the bus was ONLY equipped
with a VCR--the heck happened to 'DVD to rule them all?'
By the time we hit Edmonton, we were reduced to singalong and flashing
bored truckers for entertainment... don't ask, I don't want to know either...
Sign in was CRAZY!! considering how big the hotel was, never mind
our non-existant sleeping arrangements. Con Staff were also handing
out the prereg passes... and of course there were a whole BUNCH of ppl
with us who didn't know about it
Go figure....I'll spare the details, but we eventually got things settled down enough
that I could FINALLY grab a shower and put the finishing touches on
my cosplay costume... unfortunately, the final piece -- a sign reading
'Scratch Ears if you Love Catboys' -- was seen by Head of Security as
'solicitation of goods / services'.... B*STARD!!
Pretty much pissed the night away at karoke... too bad the AC in the room
was shot so long bouts in the room wasn't recommended. Even tried
a turn at the Hajime no Ippo OP with some of my roommates, much to our
embarassment when we found out we'd have BG music, but no backup words
I NEED A VODKA!!
Saturday
Somehow, I never figured Continental breakfasts to include hardboiled
eggs being served over ice
Or a nonexistant shuttlebus servicewhen it's specifically listed in the guide. Or a bankmachine door being
locked out to cards one night then open thenext day. So our group
took the long way around and found ourselves traveling thru the weekend
street fair / market... needless to say to the gawking stares of everyone
on the street
Poor suckers... I don't think they knew what hit them!Unfortunately this came to bite us in the a$$ when we got to the 'Con
and were feeling alittle full of ourselves. Suffice to say one of our
members was within an inch of getting kicked of premesis or worse....
but in hindsight he made his mark for this year! :LOL:
After that incident, I pretty much stayed in the Dealer's Room for the
rest of the day... final damage still has to be tallied, but Ispent my entire
budgetted amount on stuff. Some mentionables: Satoshi Urushihara
Illustrations, Chrono Crusade Manga, DVDs, cheap boxsets... I'm still
rather pissed off not much FMP! or madlax merchandise was available... AGAIN!!
The highlight of the day was SUPPOSED to be cosplay, but two things
happened: 1) on the way back to the 'Con, I ran into two underage
ignorants, and rather than waste my time on them -- and in hindsight I
really SHOULD'VE wasted my time on them
-- I walked on... 2) Con Staffby this time were on quite short fuses so I lost my spot in the lineup
...Far be it for me to tell someone how the hell to do their jobs.
2nd highlight was the anime dance scheduled for the night, and it pretty
much made up for the day. YAY!
what started out as a large portionof attendees sitting onthe sidelines became a VERY lively party... with
only one blown power fuse thruout
Main thing was... HAVE FUN!And BOY was I having fun!
Sunday
Take the friday signin insantiy and reverse it...
a quick breakfast,a fast pack and checkout and we were back to whatever was left of
the Con, be it badtempered staff, been-there-seen-that showings, empty wallets,
etc. I generally sat around to relax, check out my swag and catch any last
photos of costumes I missed from the day before.
Of course, what 'Con experience is complete except for that one last
unexpected f*kup at the end: getting home from the wrong end of
town with 50lbs of swag and no arms to carry it in
Oh man......never mind next door to where we were dropped off at happened
to be where I worked... and my start time was only a matter of hours away...
The Shows
Mostly repeats I wanted to watch, but I managed to catch some shows
I'd never watched before: Honey & Clover (1st OP I swear is an
LSD-induced excuse to play with your food), Uta-ka (cute meets magical girl),
Najica: Blitz Tactics (it's all about the panties).
The I'd rather NOT remember
The hardboiled eggs on ice... my camera getting dropped from height--again!...
those two ignorant brats... being kicked out of the cosplay line... and
generally how all the Con staff were on PMS attacks right from the getgo.
Half of it was poor planning and organization on their part, the other was
apparently 1/2 the event security staff bailed before the start of the Con.
Still no excuse for their boorish behavior IMO
The final monetary damage
I'd rather not tally... but $1600+ is a pretty close figure
So what'd you dress as?
Catboy... I did do some poses and got a few ppl to scratch my ears
before my sign was declared 'in violation.' BTW, I AM housebroke, for
any female otakuers out there with a weakness for catboys
Don't ask when pix'll be available. They'll be up when I get off my a$$
to get them up....
Regards
