I stepped out of the parking garage and gawked, stepped through the double doors and gawked, up the escalator, gawked, and essentially spent the entire way up to registration with my jaw dragging on the floor. The convention that had previously only existed to me only through pictures and videos was now right before my eyes, all around me. It was just as beautiful as I imagined. It was also pretty overwhelming. In addition to this being the biggest con to date that I've attended, it was outside of my usual NC/SC/GA con turf. It was very easy to feel like I was sent back in time and experiencing my first con. To help rid myself of the feeling, I changed into a cosplay at my first opportunity.
For Friday I walked around as Eclectica Jade, though that wasn't the initial plan. Mother Nature was responsible for lots and lots of playing by ear hurriedly amending plans for the weekend all around. Jade was a good cosplay to wander around in since it didn't turn many heads and I could therefore be left to my own devices. I tried to get accustomed to the convention center--I would need maybe a couple more days if I truly wanted to say that I knew my way around that place. As beautiful as it was, it could be so needlessly confusing to navigate. I worked very hard, especially for this convention, to introduce myself to people that I may have talked to either through my facebook page or tumblr. My first "victim" was tumblr user annakotsu, whom I'm sure I caught at a bad time but was very sweet anyway. Later that night I got to meet two very cool cosplayers, starlightslk and sephygoth. It would be these two and Tom, the person who gave me the opportunity to attend Katsu in the first place, that I would be spending most of my weekend with.
Saturday was, as it always is at a con, busy busy busy. I prepared myself for a photoshoot with Dewey, the photographer for Arda Wigs. The previews he showed me on the camera look wonderful, and working with him was very nice and I'm sad that he lives so far away and that I most likely won't get the opportunity to shoot with him again. Good thing I was given the opportunity in the first place. After that I ran into a couple of familiar faces, i.e. tumblr user striderian and Sarah of Starrfall Photography. The appearance of snowflakes led to the coercion of going outside for a very VERY quick shoot. The time had finally come for me to change into my Kneesocks cosplay, the only new cosplay I brought to Katsu. While I changed I let Ejen of Cosplay in America come talk to me and take some photos for his documentary-style videos and his book. Once again I'm given the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and speak with a nice, down-to-earth name in the cosplay community. I did make it into his video by the way, if you haven't checked it out. I was ready with just enough time to rush out to my next photoshoot, which of course had even more coercion to go out into the snow. Side note, snow is pretty and all but DAMN was it too much to be around it for more than eight hours! I had time between this photoshoot and the next to do some more mingling, some more introducing myself to people, and people introducing themselves to me. The next photoshoot was a doozy, let me tell you. Lots of location changes, lots of stopping to shmooze with other people, lots of shenanigans. And yes, I did get some photos in the oh-so-notorious gazebo, so get ready, cosfame, here I come as soon as those photos come back.
Sunday didn't feel at all like a usual con Sunday for a couple of reasons. For one, I was in a fully-involved cosplay with no planned photoshoots, and also we weren't leaving until the next morning. I would be spending all of this day at the convention center instead of rushing to get all of my shit out of the hotel in time. I spent most of this day talking, having lots of long-winded conversations, reflecting on my overall experience. This was fortunately also a day of finding people I'd been trying to find all weekend. (I'm looking at you superpancake). I changed out of my cosplay around the early evening time but we stayed up wandering around the (surprisingly not as empty as I thought it would be) convention center until the wee hours of the morning.
When it was time to say goodbye, it was definitely difficult for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who knows me personally. To anyone who doesn't, I hope that I was cheerful and positive and not too distant when I spoke to you.
Overall, my experience was incredibly positive, especially for my first time there. I was left feeling like there were several stones unturned, however, due to how much time I devoted to staff responsibilities, photoshoots, and let's not forget the entire day I lost because of inclement weather. The next time I go to Katsucon, it won't be as staff. It just felt too weird having a job when I was supposed to be on vacation, despite the job itself being simple and foolproof. There is so much more I want to do, so many more people I want to meet, so many more adventures I want to have. The adventures I did manage to have were wonderful, and I am forever grateful that I got the opportunity to have them. Here's to Katsucon 21.
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