We arrived around 11am and went to pick up our badges. My boyfriend and I were panelists, and we asked a staff member where to check in. He sent us to Con Ops, which was an adventure in itself. We got pretty turned around as it was down a hallway, around a corner, and in what seemed to be a hotel suite. Turned out, that wasn't where we were supposed to check in. The staff actually cared that we were given misinformation by another staff member and tried to figure out who it was. Of course, we didn't know exactly who it was since we only saw him briefly, but we were told not to listen to anyone not wearing a suit. While at Con Ops, I got my rifle peace bound. All they did was put a yellow zip-tie on it, they didn't take down my name, and I didn't sign anything. It was much less thorough than Fanime's peace bonding, and much friendlier than the first peace bonding staff member that I dealt with at Fanime. (The second Con Ops member at Fanime that I dealt with was very nice by the way.)
From there, we were directed to check in as panelists at Registration. We weren't told whether to go to the regular registration line or the pre-registered line, so we took a guess and went to whichever line was closer. It turned out to be the pre-reg line, which luckily was the line we needed. About two steps away from the front of the line, I got minor heat stroke. The combination of my boots, wig, and jacket, and the large crowd was too much for me, I felt dizzy and my stomach hurt. I just stood still and held onto my boyfriend for balance until it went away. We got our badges, met up with our friends again, and headed toward the Dealers' Hall.
We fought our way through the crowd, which was incredibly difficult with my rifle strapped to my back and one of my friends wearing wings. We managed to make it there, only to find that the Dealers' Hall was also extremely crowded. We tried to browse, but it was nearly impossible. Our friends wanted to look at some wigs, and my boyfriend and I found a semi-out-of-the-way spot off to the side to wait for them. We also visited a friend, Ratgirl Productions. We tried to leave the hall, but my friend that was dressed as Simon and I got stopped for a photo and held up the entire line of people trying to get out. We felt bad, but there was literally no place to step aside for photos.
My friends and I got out, but we completely lost my boyfriend somehow. We looked around where he was but couldn't find him, he also had my cell phone because I had no pockets, so I couldn't call him. Eventually my friend called him and we met up again.
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| Me and my friend's bowl of oyako don that coincidentally had chopsticks like mine |
We finished around one-thirty and went back to the car to pick up my boyfriend's laptop for our panels. I took out my contact lenses, because there was no way I was going to attempt to read notecards in the dark for two hours with contact lenses in, then we went to the panel room. A friend of ours was giving her panel, "Photoshop for Cosplayers" and we watched until the end of it. It was about ten minutes before the beginning of our first panel, "Rattata: Top Percentage", and we took the time to set up the laptop and review our notecards.
"Rattata: Top Percentage" went fairly well, but it was over way early. I mean, I'm pretty sure we couldn't fill the whole hour, but all of our main content was finished with in twenty minutes! Our backup content only lasted another ten or fifteen minutes (as it normally does). Some people left, some stayed to wait for our next panel, "Magikarp: A History", and some had Pokemon battles with other attendees on their DS. Personally, I used the time to take a bathroom break. I also chatted with my friend and we took some off-the-record suggestions from attendees. I guess they didn't want to give us feedback in front of an audience or something, I don't know.
The extra time between our panels seemed to go by very fast, and soon it was two-o'clock, time for "Magikarp: A History". I think that the panel went better than it ever had before. We had a full forty-five minutes of content, which I believe was more than we've ever had before, filling almost the entire hour. Also, since we had just done a panel, we were a lot more relaxed, so we talked slower (at a normal pace) and could make jokes and add commentary to fill time. Of course, my boyfriend is a lot funnier than I am on the fly, but hey, content is content. After the panel, we took more off-the-record suggestions, I don't know why people don't want to raise their hands to give us suggestions, but okay.
From there, we went back to the car again to ditch the laptop and so that one of my friends could change her cosplay. My friend took what felt like forever to change, so I tried to put my contacts in in the parking garage. I got one in, but it was inside-out. Of course, I always put it in inside-out the first time, it never fails. I eventually gave up for the time being. We were on the lower floor of the packing garage, and waiting for the elevator to come down took forever. Just when we were about to take the stairs, it showed up. One of my friends and I hopped on with a couple of other people, but my boyfriend and our other friend took the stairs. The friend I was with and I both had to go to the bathroom to put in contacts and fix makeup, so we figured this was better anyway.
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| Photo by Kei Tsubasa Photography Photobombed! |
It was then five-o'clock and time for a short photoshoot with Weise Studios, the same photographer that did the "Photoshop for Cosplayers" panel. Originally, we had scheduled to do a shoot at 6pm (because our panels had been scheduled for later), and it was going to be an hour long, but because of the cold and the lack of light, we had to move the shoot to five and shorten it. I think it was about fifteen to twenty minutes. I can't wait to see the photos though, the shoot was really fun. After that, we made another pass through the Dealers' Hall.
One of my friends wanted an action figure, and I just wanted to browse. We came upon a table with a bunch of small Pokemon plushies all over it, and I told my boyfriend that I really wanted a small Victini plush. There were larger Victini behind the booth, but they didn't even have prices on them, and similar-sized plushies were about $35, which I didn't have. We didn't see any small Victini, and it was a very shallow pile, so my boyfriend and I just started picking up different plushies and playing with them. We looked for different evolution lines and put them together and I marveled at how adorable they all were. Then by some sort of luck, at the bottom of the pile, upside-down, there was a small Victini plush. I took it and immediately went to the line for the booth and bought it. It was the only thing I bought besides food, and I love it so much.
My boyfriend wanted to stop in at Daiso before dinner, and our friends wanted to get crepes, so we parted ways for a little while. I got asked for a couple of photos in Daiso, including one with a girl who got very, very close to me, haha. At least she asked if she could hug/hold me first, and I did say it was okay, I just didn't expect her to be so close. We got dinner at the same place we ate at earlier then headed back to the convention.
Around six-thirty, my boyfriend and I got in line for the masquerade. We were really close to the front of the line, and I was happy because that meant we could sit near the front. I needed to be near the front because my contacts made everything blurry. I left the line at one point to check out an artist's booth nearby, he had amazing Pokemon badges that I fawned over. They were out of my price range (with good reason, they were gorgeous), and I told the artist that I wish I hadn't already spent all of my money. He said that that was alright, and that he enjoyed when people admired his work. I took a business card and got back into line with my boyfriend. My boyfriend also left the line a couple of times, I forget what all for, but I chatted a little bit with the people in front of me. They seemed to be a mother and daughter, and they both complimented me on my cosplay. The mother talked to me a bit about my costume, asking what I had made and why I wasn't in the cosplay contest since I made all of it and she said it was really good. I told her that I'dd entered contests before, and it's boring without my friends, so I'd rather watch with them.
The cosplay contest was a lot of dancing, a lot of dancing. It was all very cute, and most of the dances were done very well, it was just a lot of dancing. I can only watch dancing for so long. The highlight of the show for me, and I'm sure many other people, was a performance of glowsticking. Basically, it's dancing in the dark with glow sticks on strings, and it's amazing.
After the masquerade, we spent some time waiting/tracking down one of our friends, and then we left. The ride home was easier than usual, no insane amounts of traffic, and no getting lost.
Overall, I had a very good time, I only wish I could have hung out with friends more, the whole day seemed rushed.