Friday night, to say the least, was the beginning of one of the greatest weekends I have had in a long time. The weekend was totally wonderful!!!!! Now I warn you, this is going to be one of the ones that puts my infamous insanely long posts to shame, but that is only because I 1. want to tell you all about it and 2. keep a perfect memory of this weekend^^ SO THEREFORE, I apologize profusely in advance if the insanely large block of text is intimidating XD. Okay, I begin with graduation on Friday, and I will go through until we got home on Monday:
Friday - Graduation
We ended up making this our prep day, so to speak, because Kelsey, Sally and I were all planning to leave straight after our graduation. After much work and playing a game of "Organize My Suitcase", I got it all travel ready and got it picked up by Kelsey before graduation. Graduation itself was freakin awesome! XD Apparently, the Class of 2007 is the most deceitful to walk the halls of OHS, for even after being patted down and searched, we still managed to get 7 beach balls, a blow up body, bubbles and silly string onto their precious field XD In addition, the sound system was screwed up, so that was the only time that things like the beach balls went in the air, so we weren't taking away from people's "glory" as the principal called it. Anyways, after getting our diplomas, joking about how the "Sober Grad Night" was a way to hypnotize new grads into the ways of gambling while locked up(there was a hypnotist supposedly booked to come), we got Sally's stuff, Starbucks, and were on our way to San Jose. The car ride was really fun amazingly, because you had two excited grads on their 2nd and 3rd times at Fanime, and their extremely excited little "sister" who was going for the first time, in the back seat with Starbucks cream frappacinos (tooo much chocolate XP)
Saturday - 12:30AM-6:30AM: FANIME(time awake to date: 19.5 hours)
We made it to Fanime at around 12:30, and I was as joyous as could be from the moment I walked into the Marriott(where we stayed). Before we had walked in, I had situated my bags so my small bag was on top of my rolling one, and I put together my glaive and carried it into the hotel. As soon as we walked in, I noticed a group of girls standing off to the side and suddenly I heard them whispering loudly and freaking out because I had a Saturn glaive. When we got into the elevator to go to our room, there was another girl who walked out and squealed in delight and told me she liked my glaive. Our room was super nice, on the 22nd floor, and I felt at home right away. We began to unpack and I quickly laid out my Saturn costume and attempted to put it on, since I had never been able to have the entire thing at once. I put on my wig and Kelsey and Sally freaked out about how different I looked with short black hair, and then Kelsey left while Sally and I messed with my costume some more. When Kelsey came back, I got help with my bows and I went with her friend Erick(who was a staff member this year) to get my glaive 'peace-bonded', or basically approved by the con to be used as a prop. After a lovely chat with the people on duty about Sailor Moon related stuff, I walked with Erick to a more mainstream part of the Marriott and was stopped for my first picture. It made me so happy, you have no idea! Afterwards, we walked towards the Hilton, and along the way I got a few "Rock on Saturn!"'s and picture requests. At one point, a guy chased me from Stage Zero in the center of the con to the Hilton, and told me he loved my costume, that he wanted to take my picture, and then asked if he could glomp me. As nice as he was, he slightly frightened me when during his glomp he hugged me tight and kissed the side of my head before wheeling himself away on his roller shoes. Oh, and he warned me that if he saw me again, he would glomp me without warning. I also met an awesome girl from Canada who sprinted from the video rooms to take my picture^^ By the end of the hour or so I was down below, I got my picture taken at least 6 times. I also followed some gorgeous piano music that a man named Vincent was playing, and I stopped and told him he played beautifully (he hadn't noticed I was there at first, he was so into his playing), and then I went upstairs again. We stayed up all night, wandering together around the convention center, sitting outside and making some new friends, and talking in our room. We also semi helped Kelsey try to dye her hair purple and pink lol I was so happy to be there; I honestly felt completely at peace and at home there.
Saturday - FANIME: 6:30AM-11PM (total hours awake: 36(12 hours less than I thought, but then I was super tired when we guessed)
When it finally reached 6:30, we were able to go scavenging for a place to eat breakfast. To our dismay, there was no place nearby that had breakfast food for cheap. We ended up eating at a restaurant on the 1st floor of the Marriott, but it was way over the budget of a con-goer. Sally and I went to the registration line to get our tickets just after 7:15, and waited until nearly 8:30 for the gates to open. We met two college students(one dressed as Tifa from Final Fantasy, the other in normal dress) and talked with them as we waited. A great thing for Sally was that she saw a Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender and after a quick debate on whether not to ask for her picture, ran over and got a picture of her. She also got a picture of a girl dressed as L from Death Note, which made her even happier. When we got up to the registration booth, I gave them my receipt and they ALMOST WOULDN’T GIVE ME MY TICKET BECAUSE OF MY FREAKIN WIG!!!!!!! I mean, I know I looked different, but that different? Also, we ran into my chaser from the night before and he glomped me again ON THE STAIRS. Anyways, after that we walked around for a bit to wait for things to open, and when they did, it was so wonderful. I went into Artist Alley and I went to a booth I went to last year, showing them I still had the pins I bought from them the year before on my purse. They were so happy and asked to take my picture, and then I bought two more hilarious pins from them, one saying “Look! I’m Cosplaying!” and the other saying “I spent my weekend hungry, sleep deprived, and watching anime in a dark room with people who smelled funny. It was the best weekend ever!:” I also got another cute one from another booth that had a “*_*” on it in purple. We took Sally to the Dealer’s Room for the 1st time and she had nearly the same reaction I did when I first set foot in there with Chelsea and Scott: dinner plate eyes glazed over with happiness, huge smile, and looking like she might faint away with happiness. We looked at a lot of different things, but it seemed that this year there was so much less I wanted to buy. I spent most of my time in Artist Alley, and it was really great when I found Jessica, which was great because it took her a few minutes to recognize me with my wig XD I ended up buying stuff from her booth to “help my poor college student friends”, and I was quite pleased with all of my purchases (Sakura cell phone charm and bookmarks, YAY!^^). I got to introduce Sally to Jessica and Chelsea, which made me happy as well. As we stood there talking my phone started ringing and it ended up being Scott. I moved to the corner of Artist Alley to talk with him about him kidnapping me to hang out, and when I had my back toward the Alley I got TACKLE GLOMPED BY MY CHASER! Scared me half to death, and at that point I was so ready to go back to being blonde Kate(especially because my feet were killing me from the boots. Shalyn, if you will allow me to borrow them again next year, I am putting some type of padding in them. How you’ve worn them without it is beyond me). But anyways, after I got off the phone with Scott and we had planned out what we would do(ice skating, which I had never done before), Sally and I wandered and found Shalyn(in all her awesome Nana O. glory. Shalyn, you looked freakin amazing as Nana!), and eventually found Kelsey as well. We looked in the Dealer’s Room again and we found the same purse I bought two years ago in brand new condition….and let’s just say the difference was startling. Where mine is like a dark navy blue now, the original is a SUPER BRIGHT BLUE. We laughed and I laughed harder when everyone said they liked how my purse looked now as opposed to how it looked originally. I like to call it “Before love and sun” and “After love and sun” XD. Anyways, when Scott called again to have me come meet him, Sally and I decided to have an adventure in San Jose to find him.
We are never doing something that stupid again.
We walked in circles for I don’t even know how long, but with our feet hurting it was more than either of us probably want to remember, but I was super grateful to Sally for humoring me and joining me on the excursion. We finally gave up and sat in front of the convention center waiting for him and then he came like a half an hour or so after we gave up. We all reconvened up at our hotel room and talked for a couple hours before he and I left to go to the ice rink. As we walked to his car, we realized that he was parked a HELL of a lot farther than Sally or I would have ever dared to walk in a city we didn’t know. It was practically in Japantown!!!! But we had fun along the way, taking pictures and talking, which made me very happy. Along the way he learned that ice skating was one of the things on my own “To Do List”, and that seemed to make him very happy. We went to the rink, which was a really big thing for me, having never gone skating before (but having always wanted to). I was very scared when I got onto the ice, but thanks to Scott being so sweet and helpful, I was skating decently and not hugging the wall by about halfway through the session. We actually also attempted to do a trick, but apparently I’m not that good yet XD(almost slipped and fell numerous times lol). However, I was extremely proud of myself for not falling, and the one time I was an inch from the ice Scott caught me(though it was partially his fault that I nearly fell, I still am grateful that he caught me). We took tons of pictures while on the ice, sang along to the songs that they played(like Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day. I will never understand how it is that every time we go hang out somewhere, that song always plays at least once), and I will be perfectly honest, I had the time of my life out there. I want to do it again really soon^^ We went to TK Noodles afterward, so I got my first taste of real Chinese food(actually practically my first taste of Chinese food period, and it was good too), and then we went back to the convention center. Though he parked really far away from the convention center, so by the time we got to the convention center, and then walked back to park closer, we ended up having spent an hour walking. Not good for me seeing as I was beat after all that, but I really didn’t want to go to sleep and have the day be over, especially because I see Scott so rarely. And before this goes farther, I would like to say, yes, I am a sentimental sap who probably cares way too much for her friends, so therefore either accept it or deal with it in silence, because if I hear one more comment that I am obsessed I may very well go insane. Anyways, back to happy Kate^^ We finally made it back to the room after stopping on so many dang floors(ah, the joys of anime conventions), and then Scott and Kelsey made me go to bed, which while I didn’t want to, I admit I felt a hell of a lot better the next morning.
Sunday – FANIME: 11AM – 2AM
Sunday was much less eventful than the other days, at least for me. We wandered around, especially around Artist Alley(I swear I am addicted to that place), and I wore my yukata for most of the morning with my black wig and glaive, going as “Saturn on Holiday”, according to our friend Eric(aka: Onii-chan of the OHS Anime Club). Sally and I ate a junk food lunch in the little room outside of our hotel room(you had to go into a room to get to the door of our room and another room) since, because we felt bad for him, we let Geoff recuperate in our room. As the Fanime 2006 Con Hobo, I had sympathy for him, so it was no big deal to me when Kelsey asked if he could. I did laugh however when Sally left him a threatening note to make sure he didn’t touch our stuff(Sorry Sally, but it was adorable lol). Also, I took pictures of Sally with more Avatar characters, including her favorites Iro and Zuko (Iro gave her tea!), which was awesome. I took Sally to the Masquerade down the street and got a picture of the guy who dressed up as Jesus(the day before I saw him on the plasma screen with the phrase “Our con is blessed! Jesus walks among us!” next to it. I had to get a picture of him XD) and the book from Death Note for Sally. I wandered around a bit more, bought a Gwee plushie at the Gaia booth, and talked with Scott on the phone when he called, learning that apparently Sally and I sleep like the dead, since we never even flinched when he, Kelsey and a bunch of his friends came in and out of the room at various time during the night(I found this very funny actually lol). I also called my mom and grandma, since I had nothing better to do at that point, which both appreciated. My grandma was so excited to hear about my skating adventure and reminisced about her days of skating back in Holland, and she was very proud of me for not falling. My mom however, said that in the future, remember to not tell her I am going skating until AFTER I have done it, so she doesn’t have to imagine me in the hospital XD I stayed up in the room until Kelsey came back, and then directed Sally by phone to the hotel when she had another adventure in San Jose, this time on her own. We stayed up talking and then we went to sleep around 2AM, fully intending to be up by 6AM to make as much as we could of our last few hours at Fanime.
Monday – FANIME: 9AM-1:30PM
Needless to say thanks to the title, we failed miserably XD But we still were determined to do as much as we could. I left first and wandered the Dealer’s Room, buying a bracelet like Kyo’s from Fruits Basket(even though I am a Yuki fangirl >.>) and a second manga for Sally, which pleased me to no end when I got to give it to her. I also bought a very frivolous, but adorable, ‘Otaku ID’, which the lady who was making them drew me in anime style, star earrings, Hello Kitty shirt and all. We went back to the room and watched TV until Kelsey’s parents came to check us out, but we left much sooner than we had thought we were going to. I called Scott to say bye to him as we left, and much to my dismay he had been planning to leave soon to come see us. As we drove home, I felt like there was a hole inside of me, and as crazy as this may sound, I felt homesick for the bay area. Sally didn’t want to leave either, asking Kelsey’s parents to “not make us go back to the cow town”. I agreed with her on every level of that. When we got to my house, everything went downhill; the joy was gone, and because my sister apparently had a horrible weekend due to me "getting all the attention", I had to give her the Gwee plushie on my mom’s orders. Now that I look back on it though, as much as I didn’t want to give the adorable dragon away, I have to admit it made me feel good to see the look of happiness on her face when she hugged it. And I like the Kyo bracelet a whole lot, so now I am out of birthday presents for Katia and Vickie. Oh well, back to the drawing board I suppose lol
As a whole, this weekend had been so wonderful. I hope next year is just as wonderful. Once I get my photos developed, I will have to post them here so everyone can see how crazy I look with short black hair and as a Sailor Senshi XD
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Costume
