A-kon 2011
Jun. 13th, 2011 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
astillarCourtney and I arrived at A-kon around noon on Friday. It took a little while for me to get in touch with my roommates. I'd really procrastinated about finding a place to stay this year, so I was especially lucky to find a spot in one of Kagz's rooms. Courtney’s roommates wouldn't be showing up till much later so she helped me get my stuff up to the room. I was scheduled to be in the 'boys room' so I was confused by all the bras, make-up, and wigs strewn around the room. Then Kagz and Lola showed up in their T&A-tastic costumes. Courtney’s suspicious stare went from their boobs directly to me. "You better behave yourself," she warned.
We then went down to wait in line for a badge. That took two hours and at $62, the price was ridiculous. After that we struggled to find Courtney’s room in the elusive 3rd north tower, which somehow evaded our detection for an hour or so. Once we finally got that taken care of, Courtney got into costume while I prowled the con floor for cosplays to photograph. Later on we met up with the Oklahoma people for sushi in Deep Ellum and then immediately started drinking back at the hotel. We mostly hung out with our Dallas friends, since my Oklahoma peeps were out practicing their cosplay skit.
Saturday morning I was woken up at 6 am by Kagz. She was worried about Lola, our underage roommate who hadn’t come back that night and could not be reached by phone. I was damned tired but couldn’t ignore the necessity of this rescue mission. We wound up walking every inch of the con hotels, food court, skybridge, convention center, etc. We returned to the room unsuccessful; if she’d passed out in someone’s room, there wasn’t much we could do until she woke up.
Eventually she showed up, apologized, and all was forgiven. By then, our other roommates were waking up and we all started working on our various last-minute cosplay stuff. I finished my hand-sewing and went to check on Courtney. She and Hope were just starting to put on their extensive make-up for Scanty and KneeSocks. Crystal was also there in her cute Kuroshitsuji cosplay. The two of us went to get lunch while they got ready. It felt like it took forever to get our food. I went and changed into Finn (Adventure Time), only to realize I’d forgotten my sword at the apartment. I’d seen a lot of Finn cosplay at the con, at varying degrees of quality. There was one that was good enough to be better than mine, if I didn’t have a prop. That was unacceptable. So I went to the dealer’s room and bought an over-priced foam LARPing sword that was almost identical to my missing prop.
I wandered the con, taking and giving pictures. I also met up with my brother Cameron. He was there for a Warhammer 40K tournament. He only had a half-hour break between battles, so we could only hang out for a little bit. By now it was mid-afternoon and the girls were finally ready with their Panty&Stockingw/Garterbelt cosplays. I took some photos of them before they split off to go do shoots with the real photographers. By then I’d found my Austin people and said hi to them for awhile. After that I accidentally encountered the Adventure Time gathering and joined that small shoot. (I need to fix my hat.)
Other A-kon photos
We had been planning to go to dinner with Nick and Lisa for Kana’s birthday celebration that evening, but as we were trying to coordinate that, it started sounding like we’d have to drive to the place, which meant pulling the car out of the parking lot and paying again when we returned. We decided against doing that and instead Courtney and I just walked to a nearby Italian restaurant that the concierge had recommended.
Just before our food was served, who should enter the restaurant but my Austin herd of friends? Yup, it must’ve been fate. Our super-romantic dinner for two was destroyed. ;) We joined them for dinner and then returned to the hotel. I included my brother in that gathering. When he met Courtney for the first time the first words out of his mouth were, “You’re prettier than your pictures online!” Ha ha ha. I think he meant that as a compliment.
The Austin people returned to their room at the Hotel Indigo while Courtney, Cameron, and I went up to my room. The three of us drank and chilled and got in some good quality time. Once I ran out of my boxed wine we headed out in an attempt to find our Dallas amigos. That was another bust, but our Austin and OK friends soon converged on our room and were waiting for us when we got back. Beauty bitched about my poor taste in alcoholic beverages but drank it nonetheless. Cameron, being the lightweight that he is, soon departed.
We all played around and wandered the con until the small hours of the night. I was lucky enough to spot an elusive Sarah Wildcat while we were playing around in the street. I would’ve liked to have met her earlier in the con, but better late than never, I say! Cat, Kevin, and Beauty left around 3 am and we escorted Stephanie to her hotel around 4, to make sure she didn’t get raped on the way. Now it was just Courtney and I; we went back up to my room to find an impromptu hentai fest underway. If it hadn’t been such a bad hentai it might’ve been genuinely disturbing. We watched that for awhile until it got to be too much. As we were leaving, Courtney had the good idea of taking some of our luggage down to the car, to avoid the mad rush that would follow the next morning. There were still a lot of people down on the con floor, though it was noticeably quieter by now. As we walked to the car I noticed that the sky was starting to brighten. It was almost six am. It was finally time to go to bed.
Two hours later we got up and started clearing out of the room. I was a damned zombie all morning. All I wanted to do was either sleep or go home. I couldn’t get in touch with Courtney because her phone was dead and no one responded to my knocks on the door of her hotel room, even when I did my best ‘House-keeping!’ impression. So I tried to explore the con like usual, though that soon devolved to me just sitting in one place and dozing off occasionally. Eventually I found a little hotel store that sold 5 Hour Energy Drink. Of course they were selling it for about $8, but that didn’t matter. I NEEDED that drink. It really helped to push the fatigue back.
I seemed to find Courtney, Stephanie, and Kelly simultaneously at the Food Court. We all hung together for a last round of con-meandering before finally saying goodbye and heading out around 3 pm.
I’ve got to say, I can’t remember the last time I ever spent so much time having fun with friends at a con like that. It was FANTASTIC, catching up with friends I hadn’t hung out with in years and making brand new acquaintances too. Sure, I missed having cosplay to wear, but having virtually no cosplay commitments really helped to make this a stress-free con. My only regret was that I couldn’t spend time with everyone as much as I wanted. I could only be in one place at a time and seemed to find people only by dumb luck and chance. And that worked out just fine. Not bad for a con I hadn’t planned on attending.
We then went down to wait in line for a badge. That took two hours and at $62, the price was ridiculous. After that we struggled to find Courtney’s room in the elusive 3rd north tower, which somehow evaded our detection for an hour or so. Once we finally got that taken care of, Courtney got into costume while I prowled the con floor for cosplays to photograph. Later on we met up with the Oklahoma people for sushi in Deep Ellum and then immediately started drinking back at the hotel. We mostly hung out with our Dallas friends, since my Oklahoma peeps were out practicing their cosplay skit.
Saturday morning I was woken up at 6 am by Kagz. She was worried about Lola, our underage roommate who hadn’t come back that night and could not be reached by phone. I was damned tired but couldn’t ignore the necessity of this rescue mission. We wound up walking every inch of the con hotels, food court, skybridge, convention center, etc. We returned to the room unsuccessful; if she’d passed out in someone’s room, there wasn’t much we could do until she woke up.
Eventually she showed up, apologized, and all was forgiven. By then, our other roommates were waking up and we all started working on our various last-minute cosplay stuff. I finished my hand-sewing and went to check on Courtney. She and Hope were just starting to put on their extensive make-up for Scanty and KneeSocks. Crystal was also there in her cute Kuroshitsuji cosplay. The two of us went to get lunch while they got ready. It felt like it took forever to get our food. I went and changed into Finn (Adventure Time), only to realize I’d forgotten my sword at the apartment. I’d seen a lot of Finn cosplay at the con, at varying degrees of quality. There was one that was good enough to be better than mine, if I didn’t have a prop. That was unacceptable. So I went to the dealer’s room and bought an over-priced foam LARPing sword that was almost identical to my missing prop.
I wandered the con, taking and giving pictures. I also met up with my brother Cameron. He was there for a Warhammer 40K tournament. He only had a half-hour break between battles, so we could only hang out for a little bit. By now it was mid-afternoon and the girls were finally ready with their Panty&Stockingw/Garterbelt cosplays. I took some photos of them before they split off to go do shoots with the real photographers. By then I’d found my Austin people and said hi to them for awhile. After that I accidentally encountered the Adventure Time gathering and joined that small shoot. (I need to fix my hat.)
Other A-kon photos
We had been planning to go to dinner with Nick and Lisa for Kana’s birthday celebration that evening, but as we were trying to coordinate that, it started sounding like we’d have to drive to the place, which meant pulling the car out of the parking lot and paying again when we returned. We decided against doing that and instead Courtney and I just walked to a nearby Italian restaurant that the concierge had recommended.
Just before our food was served, who should enter the restaurant but my Austin herd of friends? Yup, it must’ve been fate. Our super-romantic dinner for two was destroyed. ;) We joined them for dinner and then returned to the hotel. I included my brother in that gathering. When he met Courtney for the first time the first words out of his mouth were, “You’re prettier than your pictures online!” Ha ha ha. I think he meant that as a compliment.
The Austin people returned to their room at the Hotel Indigo while Courtney, Cameron, and I went up to my room. The three of us drank and chilled and got in some good quality time. Once I ran out of my boxed wine we headed out in an attempt to find our Dallas amigos. That was another bust, but our Austin and OK friends soon converged on our room and were waiting for us when we got back. Beauty bitched about my poor taste in alcoholic beverages but drank it nonetheless. Cameron, being the lightweight that he is, soon departed.
We all played around and wandered the con until the small hours of the night. I was lucky enough to spot an elusive Sarah Wildcat while we were playing around in the street. I would’ve liked to have met her earlier in the con, but better late than never, I say! Cat, Kevin, and Beauty left around 3 am and we escorted Stephanie to her hotel around 4, to make sure she didn’t get raped on the way. Now it was just Courtney and I; we went back up to my room to find an impromptu hentai fest underway. If it hadn’t been such a bad hentai it might’ve been genuinely disturbing. We watched that for awhile until it got to be too much. As we were leaving, Courtney had the good idea of taking some of our luggage down to the car, to avoid the mad rush that would follow the next morning. There were still a lot of people down on the con floor, though it was noticeably quieter by now. As we walked to the car I noticed that the sky was starting to brighten. It was almost six am. It was finally time to go to bed.
Two hours later we got up and started clearing out of the room. I was a damned zombie all morning. All I wanted to do was either sleep or go home. I couldn’t get in touch with Courtney because her phone was dead and no one responded to my knocks on the door of her hotel room, even when I did my best ‘House-keeping!’ impression. So I tried to explore the con like usual, though that soon devolved to me just sitting in one place and dozing off occasionally. Eventually I found a little hotel store that sold 5 Hour Energy Drink. Of course they were selling it for about $8, but that didn’t matter. I NEEDED that drink. It really helped to push the fatigue back.
I seemed to find Courtney, Stephanie, and Kelly simultaneously at the Food Court. We all hung together for a last round of con-meandering before finally saying goodbye and heading out around 3 pm.
I’ve got to say, I can’t remember the last time I ever spent so much time having fun with friends at a con like that. It was FANTASTIC, catching up with friends I hadn’t hung out with in years and making brand new acquaintances too. Sure, I missed having cosplay to wear, but having virtually no cosplay commitments really helped to make this a stress-free con. My only regret was that I couldn’t spend time with everyone as much as I wanted. I could only be in one place at a time and seemed to find people only by dumb luck and chance. And that worked out just fine. Not bad for a con I hadn’t planned on attending.
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Date: 2011-06-15 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-15 11:32 pm (UTC)