Woo! Really a great con and keeps on growing. Here is where I'll talk about my time at the con, which really isn't the best to go by...You gotta go to it yourself!

Thursday

I went to my friend's room where it didn't have a window facing other hotel windows, which we probably wouldn't have done anything with this year. anyways. The room has two beds and already there are others in it that aren't staying. I met some really good people in there and got an idea of what the con will be like on Friday since my friends had already registered. 

Friday

I got to the registration at like....8:30 ish and I had promised my friend Bailey that I would buy her badge and registered us both. The line was looooong while the pre-reg line is next to nothing. Next time I have to pre-reg right when I hear about it.  Caught up with my friend that had the key to the room where I could put all my bags of stuff into the room. Good thing I didn't stay overnight since it looked like chaos and there must have been some chaos in them getting their cosplay outfits together. My outfit was Vampire Princess Miyu which wasn't too bad for a last minute like thing. Wandered about before opening ceremonies started and there were tons of cosplayers out and about and I was wicked surprised to see Power Rangers of Green, White, and Pink as well as people dressed from the Nick show Avatar the Last Airbender. I wasn't about to get into their debate of Avatar being an Anime or not. 

Opening ceremony was interesting since I've only seen it one other time. They started it all off by showing a video of the five years of Anime Boston which was hilarious and I giggled when they pointed out the bit that they needed more room. No shit. I even spotted my friend who cosplayed last year as the Deer Spirit in the film.  Next they introduced the guests and I got a little ahead of myself when they started describing Greg Ayres and screamed out "GREG!!!" and you could see that she got a little startled by it.  The voice actors for Havoc, Hawkeye, and Mustang eventually came out but at one point they all came out and did a little skit of Mustang posing when he declares that when he is Fuhrer "All female officers will wear tiny miniskirts!" Loooove it. 

After opening ceremonies I looked at the anime that would be showing but most of them I had already seen so not much point in watching them again. Even if I wanted to see a particular anime there is the Dealers room. I was a little confused about where the dealers room was since where it was last year is now a area for food and first aid. Once I found the area I was astounded because it was far larger than it was previously. 

More space = more stuff.

I spent a good two and half hours in there to be sure I got to see all of it. I did buy a catboy badge that said "Yaoi Otaku."  *purr* Huge amounts of videos and manga were available but since I was going to be around there till Sunday I planned on getting anything last minute with great discounts. In the dealers room some guy had put up a TV that showed a never ending video of the ending song of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. You could always find at least four people there dancing to it. Guys. Girls. Crossplayers. At one point there were 12 people dancing to it. There were many outfits that were shown in the aisles that were always being bought by people. Surprisingly there was something else besides Lolita and Naruto outfits. There was an area where art was to be auctioned off and there were some pieces that were really cute but nothing that I would personally want to buy for 45 dollars.  Always looking for sales I came across a guy that had a massive collection of videos under a plastic (smart guy) and were priced right on the outside (really smart guy) and I spotted a Oh My Goddess complete TV series for 90 and I remembered that Meechi wanted something like that. Decided not to buy it  since I wanted to do a complete check of other video places and see if there were others that were selling cheaper or at same price (because I love to bargain).  Spotted also the Final Fantasy Advent Children set where it had the DVD and pages explaining characters and why Denzel is in the video. I didn't buy that though I now really wish that I did.  Came across a booth where it talked about these cube headed guys would fight each other in an arena...oooookay. O I saw them previously around in the con before and thought that they might be from some sort of BomberMan game or something of the sort. Turns out later on that my friend Bailey has one of her high school friends as the evil cube headed guy. Interesting thing about the Dealers Room was that there were Mooninites on sale. They had light bright ones on sale and T shirts with sayings on them that I can't remember. It was awesomely awesome. I believe one of the signs said "Now with 99.9% less Mooninite!"

After the Dealers Room I rushed to get to the Lounge where they were going to hold formal ball dancing instruction. I was disappointed kind of that the room was so small and this group of people coming for instruction was too big for the room. Which could have given the staff a clue of just how many people were going to be coming in later on that night.  I learned the female side of dancing and I was terrible as they taught us the Waltz. Next up was the Foxtrot which they had us switch and I ended up with a yummy Hughes YUMMY I SAY. Worked out pretty well since its all about feeling the man's body flow. We had to separate again and the 'men' chose the 'women' to learn to do the tango. I forgot to mention this before but each side wasn't purely all men or women. It kind of confused the directors a bit when this guy needed a partner and the guy was doing the female part. X3  Tango is very easy and it could be because there are some dances that I went to with my Portuguese family and their friends are similar. I got a young guy for this and I was hoping the Yummy Hughes would get to me first but the young guy got to me first and he wore the shirt that they tossed out to the opening ceremony crowd. Adorable kid, not too bad at dancing, but unfortunately thought I was 15.  Learning how to dance is important and fun, I'm very pleased that they provided it. 

After this I wandered a bit since I didn't want to head to some of the other panels since they really didn't interest me much in learning Japanese. Really I don't feel as motivated to learn it as some of the others did at the con. So back to the Dealers Room where I could check out others costumes, get photographed, and wonder if I should get that FF7 AC set and this Tsubasa keychain that blinked and had Syaoran on it. 50 for FFVII AC and 15 for the keychain. Really felt that they were waiting to screw some of us over.  Most merchandise wasn't marked so I felt wary about it. Found out that there were no other cheaper items about. Boo. Dealers really gotta mark the prices on their things. I started noticing that some thign were getting stolen. 6:30 got into my Cherry Blossom Ball outfit and head up to a panel about Sailor Moon: Past, Present, and Future. Really I was mainly there to check out those from the ASMR ( A Sailor Moon Romance) board. Two other girls were there and one had a Mohawk which interested me that someone interested in Sailor Moon would have such hair. She collects Sailor Moon CLOCKS. Which lead Kelly to show off her SM slippers. Dejana...Dejana kind of stayed quiet but when she did input something like to my question "Favorite pairing" Mohawk girl seemed annoyed. Maybe because she was going to say something? Wish I had a camera for all this. Damn.  During this panel it showed the fantastically crappy job English dub had done to Sailor Moon. I knew it was bad but when they played the two side by side it was REAAAALY bad. Hear that? its the English plotline being flushed out to sea. "Plotline? Pfft, 10 year olds don't need plotline!"  Anyways the end of the panel came to a close and Kelly gave out DVDs of Sailor Moon that had the show (live action/cartoon), movie, and musicals. Did you know SM had musicals? I sure as hell didn't until I went to the panel. The foaming fans wanted DVDs and I couldn't really talk to panelists and my friend called up having issues so I went to help her out. 

Since I hadn't eaten we head off to the food court where I got me Indian food and head to where my other friends were still waiting in line of the Cherry Blossom Ball. We got REALLY REALLY bored. So group ahead of us started up the "wave" which was interesting because the line for the ball had gotten extremely long and when everyone caught on it just kept on GOING. Next came the singing. We bastardized every song that came our way, but the we never got to Sailor Moon ones because we finally made it inside the ballroom. Ballroom turned out to be the same room where we had learned our ball dancing skillz. Along the hall to the room though it was romantically light up by bags with a candle in them. Ballroom was small, not enough tables, not enough GUYS to dance with. Went man hunting a few times with my friend but didn't turn up with much. There was a guy hanging around the back of the ballroom that had a sign that said "Can't Dance" so no help there. The people that help the ball helped those of us that went to the dance lessons to label each anime song by putting "Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango" when needed.  I got a few guys to dance with me but they were younger and they didn't take the ballroom dancing lessons. Danced with girls and they didn't know the lessons but it was still good anyways. The only person that I danced that DID know how was my friend Mere who was at the lesson with me. I danced with her when this guy that she didn't want to dance with stalked her, she found him really creepy. This created me as a "safe" person to dance with and other girls danced with me. Something unexpected happened during the dance though was that Funimation had come in and asked me to dance with this guy that wore a dorky looking LIGHT BLUE suit as they recorded. He didn't know how to dance so I started leading him kind of how to do some steps, but really it was mostly him doing the generic dance steps. After a few takes I got frustrated with his sweaty self and pretty much unbuttoned his jacket and shoved it off his shoulders which the camera people loved and asked for me to do it again. Then they tape the jacket falling to the floor. I must be missing out on something there.  Rest of the ball was "meh" since there never enough seats, not enough tables, and too many chances for someone to take your purse. Solving the problem of putting your purse was to put it under the table of the water cooler which helps when its a tad suspect when you see someone bending under that table. 

Mere wanted to check out what the reaction was going to be to her AMV that she submitted for "Best Comedy" which was "Anime-niacs" so we head to the AMV showing and it was only somewhat into the showing. There were some damned good AMVs but I still thought that Mere's was the funniest. It would have been too until...

Mooninites.

Again.

Last minute entry I could see but still its something that would be sure to get the votes and the attention. Rawkfist was another great video and the one that I found to be second place funniest was the Roydar: The Burninator. Come on it was genius to come up with it and put it together. "Chotto Matte!" *DELETED!* Though I wish I knew what the song to the Bleach AMV, it was kickass.

After this I head back to the room to relax because dancing in heels can be tiring only to realize that the Anime Dating Game 18+ was going to be starting so I hauled my ass back down again and met my buddy DakMoonShadow to where they were but then I stopped myself with the realization that I needed my ID to get in. So I ran back to the room, got my ID RAN back again and got in. All this while in high heel boots. NEVER AGAIN. The Dating Game 18+ is a must for all those that can go, innuendo is best kind of fun. I really should enter into it next year. Its not like you seriously have to be single to do this. You just have to cosplay and that character who is a boy/girl will ask questions to bachelor/ettes  of the same gender cosplay. This year there was three rounds instead of the usual two. Kakashi was the one that asked questions and one of the bachelors was Solid Snake and he did the voice really well. Though really the whole show was stolen by Roy Mustang and Edward Elric when they kissed and both cosplayers were men. :3 Jiraiya was around for the whole show as well but he only really took a lot of action when it was the yuri side "Research!Research!Research!" and when Orichimaru came out to steal Edward Elric as a 'birthday present.' This was prevented by having a third round where Envy from FMA to choose who he'd 'date' with and who would be given to Orichimaru. Envy ended up having Ed but Ed ran out before that got far. I don't understand the whole "Elricest" thing. The one that was given to Orichimaru was Yuki from Fruits Basket and the whole time was set up by his big brother who was the Zodiac manifestation of the Snake so he already had a thing against snakes. Really should have seen it yourselves. Much fun. 

Sunday

By this time I was foot sore, tired, and needed coffee. I got instant ramen. My friends all brought instant ramen and intended on eating that for the whole con. Ummmm not for me, I won't eat that every meal. Cosplayed once more as Miyu and headed back to the dealers room where I finally bought the Oh My Goddess set and saw that the dancers of Haruhi were still there again. Don't these guys have other things to do? Then again that song and dancing is rather addictive.  Went to "How to become a Ninja in 1 hour" which was interesting, but I'm still not going to think that I can become a ninja. Though seeing the actual ninja homes was fascinating to know that they existed and that they have been deactivated of all their traps. 

Got in line for the General Anime Dating game but there were too many people and I wasn't able to get in. Damn. Caught up with Mere and we decided to do our NarutoXSasuke Sexy Jutsu act for the Naruto photoshoot. I left to change for that and realized that her body type is very different from mine. Tight chest area and hips while the waist section had plenty of material to spare. When I went back to where she was she had left already and I ran into another Naruto group and followed them to the actual shoot area. ran into another buddy of ours who cosplayed as a rather charismatic Asuma who kept things organized of the shoot. Crazy antics all around of ANBU vs Akatsuki, Timeskip and a Naruto cosplayer giving the ultimate glomp to the Fourth Hokage who is speculated to be the father of Naruto. "DADDY!"

Then...it happened. It first started with hearing "BLEACH!BLEACH!BLEACH!BLEACH!BLEACH!" from far away and getting closer. 

Then we saw them.

A huge group of Bleach cosplayers coming down the elevator waving their swords high in the air. I found it hilarious even though they were upsetting the Naruto photoshoot. This all got the attention of the con photographers and other press cameras. Then it all broke up and Bleach got their space in the photoshoot when they could have just stuck with the official area of photography since THEY weren't the ones that got their photoshoots canceled three times. 

Mere got a phonecall from one of our friends Becky who registered last minute so we hung out with her until Mere had to go to her Masquerade. With Becky I finally found the elusive Artist Alley where Becky delved into her Raphael from TMNT fetish and I bought a print from the guy that does Sticky Floors. There are some really good artists and they have some tricks to get the people interested in them  of laying out a naked Renji poster, a plastic ball to show off the artist's talents in juggling, or some other things. Soooo tempted to get that Renji poster. I saw one like that last year and wanted to get that but where the hell would I put it?

She left and I head back to the room because I have to get SOME sleep. Though I get surprised by a man on ropes that cleans the windows. Haha. I always seem them on the office buildings but never in the building I'm in. Though, I kind of thing the guy was laughing at my outfit. After some rest and shower I'm back as Miyu and head to the Sake: Just the Facts panel with the hope that there would be some available for those that are 21+ but no such luck. Panel was informative to know what kind of sake you should get and what you should be looking for. Helped explain what the big bowl thing I have in my sake set is. Need a full sake set though. It would be nice. Now I know to look for a certain sake called "Ruby " or some other one that is named after precious stones and not to get non-pasteurized sake.

9pm Time for bed.

Woke up midmorning and didn't have to put on cosplay outfit. (Yay!)

Not much of anything goes on Sundays. Its the worst day to register. You're pretty much getting screwed for your money if you do since there really isn't as much to do on that day and most of the interesting cosplayers have left. I never got to do much other than go to dealers room. Mere picked up a guy that dressed as Gendo and I went along with her feeling kind of worried that there would be another stalker guy after her (turned out he wasn't and he is a okay guy).  Made me feel like he was like...28 or something. I ended up showing them the way to the Pocky store  that was advertised at the con, there we got green tea pocky. So very good and it was my first taste of green tea pocky. Doing this I was feeling the hurt on the feet and we stayed at the Starbucks and talked and I missed out on the panel that I did want to see (Asian paintbrushing, I'll get you next year). Did get to see some of that Haruhi anime. Weird one I think, doesn't interest me too much, feels like it could be incredibly sad. I left before closing ceremony and I now I've caught it on youtube. Didn't really miss much.

Throughout all this con I seemed to have developed a collection of people mostly made up of women that have become MINE or my 'bitches.' Poor poor people.

You can catch me and my friends's antics here http://youtube.com/watch?v=cMlgPaIx_0k&mode=user&search=   http://youtube.com/watch?v=rXSHrhLyoYQ&mode=user&search=   http://youtube.com/watch?v=peoBNdDdDgA&mode=user&search=


:3 Come to AB next year!