Sunday, May 7, 2006

I Survived ACen and All I Got Was - Well, Stuff
WARNING! HUGE POST!

It's been three years since I first dreamed of going to a con, and yesterday, that dream finally came true. AnimeCentral 2006 was proudly my first convention, and will continue being "my home" con for years to come.

The day started off with "Treats or Goblins" blasting from my mini-stereo. I groggily woke up, and it wasn't until my dad yelled at me to get up did things actually click. Of course! Today was ACen!
I shoveled everything I needed into my guitar case and pockets, which, really, wasn't much. I arrived at Haku's house at 8:00am, and amused myself by watching him and his sister (going as Sasuke) get ready for the con. After a bumpy start (we got about two minutes away from the house before we remembered we had forgotten the IPass), we rode to the con, amusing ourselves with random people giving us the "evil eye" upon seeing our costumes and/or wigs.

Random Moment #1: We (me, Haku, Sasuke, and their father) pulled into an Elgin Shell station a little before 9:00am. While the father was loading up gas, a man in a truck next to our pumping station looked over and gave us "the evil eye" upon seeing Sasuke in the front seat (headband and spiked (natural) hair), then me and Haku in the back (black wig, headband, and pink wig).

As we got further into Rosemont, the odd stares just increased. We got stuck in a construction site at one point, and this group of carpoolers behind us raised their eyebrows when Haku and I turned around.

We were lost for about five minutes.

Random Moment #2: We turned a corner and a guy sitting on the corner waiting to cross watched our car. ...And continued watching the car until we were out of sight.

As we got closer to the con center, cosplay began to bleed through. When we saw a person with blue hair, all three of us said, "Cosplay!" We laughed hysterically at the police guy/security guy who watched the garage.

So finally, after a very quick pre-reg (thank the gods for PRE-REG!), we were in. We laughd numerous times at the suckers in the registration line (evil!). After two seconds, we were asked to do a photo shoot (so somebody out there has a picture of Haku, Haruko, and Sasuke XD), and then we did one in return.
...And within three seconds, Sasuke had decided to run off with her other eighth-grade friends, which left me and Haku together for the entire freakin' day.

We first explored Artist's Alley, which didn't have much going on since it was still fairly early. Me and a girl in an Azumanga Daioh school uniform received a spoof comic that took Hogwarts and put it in the AzuDai style. ^^;; Haku and I shuffled off to an original-drawing print booth, where I made my first purchase: an (photocopied) inked drawing of Haruko for three bucks.
...And then we headed to the dealer's room. That's one fantastic highlight of the con - the artist's alley and the dealer's room flow right together.

Random Moment #3: Whenever I lost track of Haku, I would scream, "WHERE'S MY NINJA?!" Since there was a Naruto cosplayer at pretty much every booth, I'd get several head turns.

We wandered the dealer's room the vast majority of the day. I'd say we walked by every table about thirty times (seriously), because every time we'd make a new discovery. My second purchase came in the form of a Fruits Basket "lucky" bag, for sixteen dollars.

I stopped quickly at a very small booth, and made my third purchase, a Shippo keychain. Two bucks!

While looking at a katana booth ("You must be 18 or older to buy"), somebody called out "Haruko!". Since I only saw three (or four) other people cosplaying some form of Haruko, I knew this girl meant me. And since I didn't have a guitar, I was told to put Haku in a headlock and give him a noogie. XD The "older person" with them laughed, "Seesh, so particular."

We arrived at a large booth run by two Asians. ^^;; LOTS of merchandise, LOTS of imports. T-shirts, hoodies, watches, action figures, keychains, patches - everything but CDs, mangas, and DVDs. That gave me the reassurance that these people weren't bootleggers (and I know there were some there, Asian and not).
Fourth purchase came in the form of a chibi Hiei keychain for Aiyanna - $5.50 I said I would get it for her, since she wants Hiei merchandise. And she turns 16 this August. And she couldn't come to ACen because she's moving (still in district ^^).

More exploring. The most annoying part of the con, though, was a dealer at a yaoi/yuri/hentai booth. He was the only frickin' person there doing the whole barker thing. After he said, "Come and see Harry and Draco wave their 'wands' around, eh eh? HAHAHA!" I completly tuned him out and refused to even make eye contact on that booth.
Lots of people with the paddles, by the way. Lots of girls between the ages of 10 and 12 holding them. o_o I began to worry about the perviness of the youngsters. There was also a few screaming matches between these pre-teen girls between "yaoi" and "anti-yaoi". It was...yeah.

Random Moment #4: While on my way to another booth, two girls stopped me and asked about the sign I had taped to my guitar case. It read "Ich habe kein Gitarre", which means "I have no guitar". They thought it was hilarious that somebody knew German (besides them), and asked to take a picture of it. So someone out there has a picture of my sign. XD

My fifth purchase came in the form of a Naruto headband. I asked Haku which one I should get - Mist or Sound. He said Sound, and I bought it for eight bucks. YAY! If you shop around enough, you get a good deal. Afterall, Haruko would be a Sound ninja, meh? Though...I'd be a Mist ninja.

We finally made the rounds to the front of the Dealer's Room, and that is where I found and met Fred Gallagher - aka, Piro, the person behind MegaTokyo. I waited in line for about a half hour while he draw characters for people. Haku went off "to boost my manga collection", so I read the MT book I had brought along for Piro to sign.
I told him I was a Boo fangirl. XD So he drew Boo for me! I talked to him about the vibrating sheep of death and about the German strips. He thought it was cool that I had printed out the German translation of the sheep of death comic and put it in my German binder. ^^;;

Haku returned, and now we were hungry, so we scarfed down pizza and drinks. My lunch cost seven dollars. While waiting in line, I scampered off to take a picture of Sesshomaru and Jakotsu, then they took a picture of me screaming in return. ^^;;

We were getting bored with the Dealer's Room, so after sitting on the cement and after Haku got another picture of him taken, we went off to the Hyatt. The walk was very freakin' long, and by now, my boots hurt. While on the skywalk, a guy asked me where my guitar was - in German. We had a short German conversation, leaving others VERY confused. XD

Random Moment #5: Haku and I got lost. VERY lost. So we flipped a coin to see what direction we would be going in. Heads was "to the parking garage", tails was "to the other direction we could've taken from the skywalk". Thank God tails won.

At the Hyatt, we lounged around for a bit, mainly relazing and resting out feet. We went to the first level and sat against the wall for a while, studying the map. I was the first one to notice that there was a projection of "AnimeCentral 2006" and the female spy-ish logo at the middle of the elevator area. XD Wish I had taken a picture.

Now, Haku asked me that if we met bellpickle, could he hit on her. X3 I strangely said yes for the mere fact that it would be hilarious. Sorry bell. XD

But next came the most disappointing and heartbreaking part of the day. Bellpickle and I agreed to meet at "the free snack area" between 2 to 2:30. This is where I think I (we) went wrong. For me, I don't know if that was the official time. I just assumed it was. Plus, I later found out (when I got home) that the "free snack area" probably didn't apply to The Forum, which is Haku thought was the "free snack area".
In the end, I think of it like this: I blame it partly on myself, partly on bellpickle, and partly on ACen. ;_; Oi.
Better planning next time around.

So, having done nothing for an hour and a half, we went back to the Dealer's Room. We went in hyped and screaming, "SHOPPING TIME!" I had around fifty-five bucks left, and went off to buy what I've wanted for a while - a Haruko T-shirt. She's eating ramen and says, "Yo!". That was 18 dollars, and my sixth purchase.

The money still burning a hole in my pocket, I made my seventh purchase: I had finally managed to find a FMA pocketwatch for - ta da! - twenty bucks! I knew if I searched hard enough, I could find it.

While walking (some more), a cute little girl (probably twelve or so), asked me to take a picture with her. She was dressed up as Li from Card Captors. And aw! she was just so damn cute! Once we finished, she said, "Thanks! Haruko rocks."
She was really cute. ^.^

Then I went to another large booth and bought my eighth and ninth items - my last ones as well. The eighth was a chibi Alphonse keychain with him sitting and holding a chibi-snowman-Al in his hands. AWW! ^.^ The ninth was a Shigure keychain (one of the more usual rubber ones. Shigure cost either four or five, and Alphonse cost either two or three. Either way, I paid seven dollars for both, and when I gave the man exactly seven dollars, he called me "such a fine young woman". XD

I had nothing left to spend my money on, and kept ten of my ninety-eight dollars.

Now we went to the Hyatt, and to the video game room. After a while, we sat on a very cushiony bench outside of the VG room, where I found a crumpled dollar on the ground. XD I was now one dollar richer, and kept wondering if anybody was going to pull a string when I tried to pick up the buck. ^^;;

At five, we went to a Para Para panel, where I dropped out within ten minutes. :3

Random Moment #6: At six, it was time to leave, so me, Haku, and Sasuke went out to the garage where we had been. I forgot to mention earlier than there were two or three proms that were to go on in the ballrooms. So when we went out at six, there were limos and teenagers in tuxes and dresses. And here there were bunches of people dressed up as fictional characters mixed in with them. XD It was the most hilarious part of the day, for sure.

As we drove away from the convention center, we saw many cosplayers holding giant plushies, wallscrolls, action figures, bags and bags of stuff, and just the plain normality of a con purchase. Even as we went under a bridge, we still saw people from ACen. And in fact, it wasn't until we were on the highway did we not see any more. ^^;;

Can't wait until next year.
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