mandolin | Massive catchup GET, part 2: More Otakon 2007!

Anyway. More on Otakon. I can't be concise. I know. Busy weekend means this took me FIVE DAYS to compose. I am GOING to get all my recaps done!

If you see any Phoenix Wright gathering photos from Otakon 2007, look for the Mia Fey with short hair. I'll have my pics up eventually, but I know the group shots are circulating already.

Managed to get up early on Saturday, shower and do my hair and makeup. I decided not to bother with a wig since the only difference between my hair and that of the character I was dressed up as was several inches. I just parted it on the right side, dressed and tied off the necklace Jen made for me (and despite my attempts to put it on right, I realized later that I still had it on backwards! Gah!) and repacked all my stuff in my art tote bag that looks like a laptop case and could be passed off as a briefcase of sorts. The suit jacket, thankfully, had pockets, so I was able to put my small wallet in there. My hair was behaving, the makeup looked good, the outfit looked good, the pin and magatama Jen made for me looked awesome (a few people asked how I made them and I directed them to Jen and Tasha's table) the fan/"Objection!" sign was accounted for and I was wearing sneakers to save my feet. I didn't want to be late, mainly because I knew that the Phoenix Wright cosplay gathering was scheduled for 10 am by the fountains. We were also hauling overnight bags to take to the hotel so we could go to the rave and crash there overnight, which would also take some time.

We got on the Light Rail in time to hear the first major quote of the con: "I'm a stormtrooper. How much more straight can you get?" Deb and I talked to a couple of guys and Deb had to explain her shirt and the running vampire joke - when he pointed out it was sunny out, she grinned and said, "Daywalker. I'm a descendant of Blade." The guy nudged his stormtrooper friend and said, "Hey, you didn't tell me Blade had any descendants!"

Because I am a freak and was pretty sure we'd get delayed, we had no delays and got there a little after 9. So that gave us time to call Tasha, who met us at the elevator and took us down to the Artists' Alley with our bags, using the excuse that we were carrying in supplies (and some of the stuff we were carrying did qualify). After that, we went back up to the main floor so we wouldn't get anyone in trouble. Saturday is the biggest cosplay day because of the Masquerade, so we had a lot of material to photograph. Interestingly enough, despite the fact that I was dressed up as a less obscure character than last year, I really didn't get stopped for photos much at all. Which was fine, really.

Around 9:30, we got bored and I suggested we at least hang out in the Charles Street Lobby before the PW gathering to see what other groups were gathering there. The sea of yellow that greeted us as we went down the escalators told us where the Pokemon gathering was - it was kind of frightening, actually. But when we got down there, I discovered that a LOT of Phoenix Wright cosplayers had decided to come down early as well - there was a ton of Phoenixes, Edgeworths and Mayas already gathered. I was surprised to find that there were only two other Mia Feys in the gathered crowd; I'd expected a lot more. One of the Mias had an excellent wig, and when I asked her about it she said she'd gotten it a while back for $30 online. She also verified, though, that my decision to use my own hair was a good idea.

Most notable was the pitch-perfect Damon Gant - he had the hair, the bright orange suit, everything, as well as one lone Godot (so us three Mias had to get a photo of Godot and his harem). The gathering attracted the cameras, and all of a sudden the photo shoot was starting early. I became quickly grateful for my "Objection" fan - it was getting hot kneeling in the sunlight coming from the windows.

The crowd shots broke up and people started doing silly stuff for the cameras - Damon Gant picked up one of the Mayas and tried to carry her off! - but I missed out on most of it due to a distraction tapping me on the shoulder. I turned around to see, of all people, Dave.

(For those of you reading this who are not

violetbloom or

jennies or

debrika: I went out with Dave my junior year of college. It basically didn't go anywhere, and ended essentially with "Do you just want to be friends?")

After nearly dropping my fan and having a "guh?" moment, I actually managed to talk to Dave and FINALLY meet his wife, who I'd heard a lot about when they were dating but never managed to meet. (Although I suspect Dave was kind of grateful for that, with all the stories we could have swapped.) It didn't last long because the insanity was still going on, and when one of the Mias started threatening a Phoenix with a Yaoi paddle, I had to go back to taking pictures.

The photoshoot pretty much kept me busy til 11, and I told Deb to go on ahead and I'd call her when we were done. Before we split up, one of the Mias announced they would be holding a mock trial there at 2. Oh my. I'd been considering crashing the

campfuckudie meetup then, even though I'm only audience, but the mock trial sounded like fun.

After the gathering broke up, I wandered around some more and caught up with Deb. We went down to the Dealers' Room, remembering that it closed at 6 and since it had been open for an hour, didn't have much trouble getting in. My fan proved useful yet again in the more crowded areas, especially when the crush of people became suffocating. I think one or two people looked offended when I was fanning in the crowd, but it had nothing to do with sweat and everything to do with the need to breathe in closed quarters. I was stopped no less than half a dozen times in the Dealer's Room - not by people who wanted pictures, though. No, everybody wanted to know where I got my fan, and everyone's face fell when I said I made it myself.

I found a booth that was selling half-price manga, and due to my limited cash flow asked if I could use a credit card - and was told that it was a $50 minimum, or 10 books. Fortunately, I hadn't picked up Monster in months, and managed to pick out 10 books that I would read or was collecting.

So I was hauling a fairly heavy bag of manga when we went to the Artist's Alley to meet up with the gang at Jen and Tasha's table, and was very grateful when they let me dump my bag there. Deb and I cased the Alley to see who was there and what was worth picking up. I stopped by the Comedity table and bought a penguin "Slide!" shirt because I don't have a decent baby-doll style T-shirt and it was cute. I also picked up a mini-comic at the Red String table, although I couldn't fulfill my promise to Gina to find the cosplayers dressed as characters from the comic. I hope they found her table.

I don't remember the order of events, but I'm pretty sure we went over to Harborplace to get lunch around 1 pm. I tried to call Wendy but couldn't get through to ask her about meeting up at Artscape. Alas. After lunch, we went back to the con and split up for a bit - I know we weren't together around 2 pm, when I went up to where I thought the CFUD meetup was. No dice. I went down to the Charles Street Lobby to catch the tail end of the PW mock trial, which was hysterical. By the time con staff broke it up and confiscated our table, the defense was trying to prove that Damon Gant was waterproof. Heh.

Somehow, I wound up back in the Artists' Alley afterwards, because that was when Tasha's friend Jaleel found their table... not without effort. He was searching the Alley for them, talking to Tasha on the cellphone who was trying to direct him to their table. Jen was standing on a chair trying to flag him down and I loaned her my fan as a signal flag. He did eventually find the table, and we hung out and caught up for a bit since the last time we saw him was Halloween. I decided to case the Alley again.

I also bought a couple of funny mini-prints of Phoenix Wright chibis. I have NO idea where they got to. I've gone through all my bags. *sniff* After wibbling, I gave into temptation and bought a PW "Attorney at LOL" T-shirt because it just cracked me up.

Of course, I ran out of cash. But I was positive that there was a Chevy Chase ATM in the Sheraton attached to the convention center, so I headed over there to get some cash. En route, I went past a guy wearing a pink dress with a too-short skirt and telling his friends, "Aw, come on, it doesn't look that bad!"

For answer, I walked by with the fan over my face, displaying the "Objection!" side towards them.

Two seconds later, I heard a "HEY!" accompanied by raucous laughter. Delayed reaction, much?

I got my cash at the ATM (which was there! Score!) and bought my dinner at the gift shop - a couple of fruit and nut bars and a bottle of green tea. Yes, I know, but it was probably healthier than 90% of the food available in restaurants in and around the con. Besides, I'd been really bad with Johnny Rockets the other day and pizza on Saturday.

Went back to Artists' Alley and picked up two volumes of Paradigm Shift, a webcomic I lost track of a LONG time ago. I'd promised Dirk Tiede I'd come back with cash, and he was pleasantly surprised that I did.

Consulted with Deb about the schedule and we weren't really enthused about the showing schedule for the evening. Devil May Cry would have been interesting, but the mob to get in was not worth it at all. We tossed around some panels, but in the end decided to just kill some time and split up. I wound up in the Manga Library when my cell went off - Wendy had finally gotten her messages - and had to call her back in the hall so the people in there didn't throw the books at me. I read a few volumes and then headed off again, and this time a couple people did stop me in the hall for pictures. I saw people camping out on the floor for the Masquerade line and decided not to bother. I've been curious about the Masquerade, but considering you apparently can't leave and come back for the entire four hours of it... not that curious.

We hauled our bags over to the hotel room before it got dark so we wouldn't be lugging them back after midnight, and Deb and I just crashed on the bed and hung out there with Jaleel for a while before we went back to the Alley table. I made the mistake of trying to go to the rave alone ahead of the gang while they were still getting stuff squared away. Going to the rave alone is pretty boring, and I made my way down just in time to miss the rest of the gang. I considered catching up with them, but my stomach was feeling queasy, so I crashed at the Alley table for a bit.

The evening pretty much wound down from there, and this recap is too long anyway. I watched some of the Saturday Night Parodies, not wanting to just toss my bag into the pile of unguarded bags outside the rave (I'd been robbed once at a con, and that was enough), caught some of the Guyver anime, fell asleep on a couch near the Starbucks, and we ended up making it back to the hotel room around 2 am. With the time it took to get all the air mattresses inflated and fitting in the bedroom, it was 4 am by the time we crashed and didn't wake up til...

I was basically a zombie Sunday morning - we all were - but managed to pack up and haul our bags over anyway. While we were arranging stuff in the Alley, Mom called to wish me happy birthday, and I hung up the phone to see three horrified looks. "It's your birthday? Agh! We totally forgot!"

Well, I had too. Not to mention that if they forgot, I didn't have to worry about any public birthday spankings. :)

I honestly don't remember much about Sunday since I didn't feel well at all (I don't do well on lack of sleep). We poked around the Dealers' Room again, wandered a bit more, and I was dumb enough to pass on the Eminence concert. I know, big mistake, but I really wasn't feeling so good. I went to closing ceremonies in the hopes that they'd announce the con dates this year, watched the winning AMVs... and there was no con date. When asked, the person running the ceremonies said, "I don't know when next year is, but you can find out at the con feedback session."

Forget that. I bailed and met up with Deb to get on the Light Rail. My car was still there, unmolested and it was a short drive back to my place.

I finally got home around 3, and then remembered I had to get over to my cousin's engagement party at 5. Since I was so dead, I called over there to let them know I'd be an hour late; I had to take a nap so I'd be in shape to deal with other people. I took my nap, showered, changed, and was a little better when I got there instead of cancelling. Good thing I went, too - even though it was their engagement party, they had a birthday cake for me. Which was really touching.

I got to bed late again - not as late as the previous night - and was glad I didn't have to go to work the next day.

Next year, we're all going to get a couple hotel rooms.