Sunday, May 13, 2007

ACen: 2007 Edition
Once again, this is pretty freakin' long.

Well, I'm back. And I am dead freakin' tired.

This year's ACen was...something else. There were the goods, the bads, and the randoms. >>; I'm not sure how to construct it this time around, but, well, let's go.

The day started off, once again, with "Treats or Goblins" playing from my speakers. Actually, I woke up when my dog Jack was squirming around, so I actually threw myself back in bed and waited the six minutes for the alarm to go off. I am LAME, I know. XD

Got up, ate, then got dressed and headed out to Waffles's. Hung there for a half hour and shipped out at ten. At first, we were kind of quiet in the car, and then we got into talking about...a lot of random crap. xD We arrived at around 11:00 and...well...
Okay, so, we went inside and there was this huge line. The dealer's room was flipped from where it was last year, as was the pre-reg/reg lines. I asked an L cosplayer if the line was for something, and it was to merely get in if you didn't have your badged mailed to you. That was me.
So after standing there for a half hour, I go and stand for an hour in the pre-reg line. ACen, I f***ing hate you for that.

Noon, I had my badge, and me and Waffles set out to shop. But...I dunno, things didn't seem as lively this year as they were in previous years. I mean, it may have been that we were in the more "warehouse" part as opposed to last year (where the room had windows and stuff), but it just seemed kind of dull. But there were more shops this year than there were last year, at least it seemed like it. My first two purchases were a Hunny plushie and cell phone charm at a total of fifteen dollars.

We walked around some more, mainly investigating the random trinkets that (essentially) looked cool. Later on, I bought the Group 6 necklace from Bleach for twelve dollars. After that, we once again walked around some more before investigating into artist's alley. It was an interesting experience, but...well, it's one of those things where you have to raise your eyebrows and go "People pay for that?" at about half the things. Harsh but true.

Funny thing happened. While going with the left flow in the alley, I unsuspectingly passed by Schultzie. He looked at me and I looked at him, but none of us said anything. X3 He looked like the kind of guy I didn't want to make a dumbass out of myself with. >>;

Me and Waffles bought this really amusing chibi Tamaki bookmark ($3) from some vendor who signed as "[unreadable] Messi =)". It has good printing quality, unlike some things in the alley.
On our second pass through, I bought an Ouran-patch sticker ($2) as Waffles got a Heartless sticker. By this point, I had received a handful of text messages (and missed calls) from both Shinkiro and bellpickle. But since bell didn't exactly have a definite number, I avoided calling her and instead called up Shin.

"Where are you?" asked Shin.
"By the Funimation booth," I replied.
"You're with a yellow cream puff," Waffles offered.
"I'm with a yellow cream puff," I said.
And then apparently, Shin said "I see you", but I didn't hear that and was still on my cell. xD She came around the corner, took a step forward, craned her neck to look at my badge, and...well, it was my meeting with Shinkiro. (The spoken part was something like, "Katana?" "Shin?" "Hi~!")
Ada Pallas, aka MsKeller, made an appearance and...shook my hand. XD We followed her to her art booth that she was sharing with someone (Beth was her name, I believe). I bought this keychain there of Gaara with a cup of coffee that said "Coffee no Jutsu". xD C'mon, I had to buy it.

Once Ada mentioned "yaoi", though, Shin and I bolted right out of there...

Shin wanted to look for Ouran merchandise, so we led her to the booths we had seen/purchased things at. Unfortunately for Shin, her love for Mori is unheeded by the retailers - at least the ones at the con. So really, her entire mission was looking for something Mori. (We later ended up finding a bookmark at an artist's booth.)

The elusive bellpickle kept her name as we rounded the shops. Shin and I kept speculating on how she must be at the such-and-such concert, or the autograph panel, or something. Eventually, we reached a table by this snack-food place, where sat Schultzie. I just was silent before mentioning how I saw him in artist's alley and then burst out giggling.

In the midst of conversation, my cell phone in my coat pocket started ringing (vibrating, though, since you couldn't hear a damn thing in the dealer's room). It was bell. There wasn't a mix-up in our plans, but three of the four myO people had pretty much assumed we'd never meet bellpickle and were therefore at the snack-food place in the dealer's room as opposed to this pantry-ish food store at the hotel. XD So we told her we'd get over there, and thusly came my first skywalk of the con. OH MOMENTOUS. >>;

Mind you, this entire time, Waffles has been in shoes with heels on them. When we meet up with Schultz, she took the off to relax her feet. Thus began the lesson every con-goer has to learn at least once - You never wear heels. Ever. (This lesson I learned last year.)

To the skywalk we went and then in the hotel, going to the escalators and heading down. There was a group of girls in front of the pantry-ish food store, and while one of them seemed to be bell, nobody said anything.
And then I, ahem, recognized Remy. XD So outloud I go, "That must be her, that's Remy."

Whoo, response!

Waffles, bell, and I went into the pantry-ish food store and bought something to drink...Once outside, we formed this circle in front of the Hyatt entrance and talked. xD Bell had this grocery bag chock full of weird and oh-so-sugary delicious Japanese treats. I have no idea what she ate, but Waffles and I started popping in chocolate-filled cookies shaped like koala bears.

It was really an amusing and impressive time. We just sat there talking and laughing and watching all the cosplayers go by, take pictures, and just act goofy. We showed pictures of our dogs on our cameras/phones and about any normal family staying at the hotel that weekend. X3 Waffles counted her money and showed me all her ones going, "Any strip clubs nearby?" We eventually got up and went to the room where the opening ceremonies...or something...had been held because Shin left her jacket there. XD

Bell departed the group to get in line for the masquerade and stuff. We bid farewell and headed back to the dealer's room. It was kind of funny, namely because Schultzie was being dragged around by three fangirls that squeed at the randomly cute stuff. XD So whenever we stopped at a booth, he went to the nearest weapons booth and looked at those. At this point I made my final purchase, a Hunny wallet, for ten dollars. (I KNOW, I'M OBSESSED.) I needed a more "girly" wallet anyways, and you can't get (me) more girly than a black wallet with yellow and pink flowers with a pink chibi Hunny head staring at you. As he smiles...with that grin...and his eyes so large...and...

Notice how I didn't buy a lot of things. I have $41 left over, as opposed to eleven from last year. There were things I would've liked to buy, but the things I bought were things I really did want. Also, last year, I made the obligatory purchases of a Naruto headband and a FMA pocketwatch. P:

We made the artist's alley rounds once again, where Shin at least got her Mori bookmark. Then, hunger striked the Katana, so we sat at one of the snack-food place's tables as Shin called up Giordanos for pizza. xD And by the way, the job she interviewed for before going to the airport - she got. Herzlichen Gluckwunsch, Shin~!

This also meant she was buying us dinner. XD

We told the pizza guy to go the Hyatt, so once again we set off and landed back at the pantry-ish food store. Shin bought us drinks too, and while waiting in line, this...oh, how to put it...this guy dressed in chains and (essentially) leather underwear and black angel wings came in. We girls started giggling and once again brought up the one dollar bills...We ended up daring Shin to stick a dollar in his leather-underwear, so once she paid for our drinks, she walked over and did so. Only I witnessed this, even though I hissed at Waffles to watch. XD I burst out in laughter, and Shin came back, laughing, before I declared her winning at everything.

Unknowingly, we passed by the pizza guy, since we had been told an hour and it had only been about thirty minutes. We sat outside to wait for him before Shin called him and was told he was at the hotel. xD; So we got our pizza, plus plastic utensils and plates, and ate.

The outside of the hotel was crazy. We sat underneath this glass awning thing as people from the balcony shouted to people on the ground. This one guy on the ground proclaimed, "You may have one this round but the war is not over yet!" Or something. But God, it was crazy and freakin' hilarious. Once again, we joked about the normal people at the hotel, since we had been in front of some pilot or something while buying our drinks.

After dinner, it was pretty much the end of the con for us. It was past six and we weren't totally sure if the dealer's room was closed or not, so we took the outside way to the convention center. And indeed it was closed, which was kind of sad since there was nothing else to do. We wandered the hotel a bit, and somehow Schultzie split off from us, and we wandered some more. After a while, we sat in the lowest level and just...sat. Then Schultzie popped up again and it was time for me and Waffles to leave.

The two went up the lobby with us and I gave Shin a hug before we left. Waffles and I ended up sitting on these concrete blocks at a corner while we waited to get picked up. She recited a Harry Potter book-on-tape recording she had on her cell phone before getting a call that told us to go the con center. There we sat the fountain for a few minutes before getting picked up and heading home.

Once again, cosplay was visible until we got to the highway. We were both tired and then answered the slew of questions we got before both Waffles and her sister read manga and I messed with my phone. About ten minutes into our drive, I decided to text Shin to tell her we were going home and thanking her for hanging out with us. XD

AnimeCentral 2007 ended for me, and it was something else. Although I am totally going again next year, this year's experience was sort of...I dunno. But meeting with three myOtaku people made up for it all, and I, at least, had a good time doing so.
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