LJI Week 17: Scare Quotes
I went to Otakon this past weekend. For those who don't want to click the link (clickyclicky!), Otakon is the second-largest anime convention in the US, and has been running for over 20 years. If you have any interest in anime, manga, gaming, science fiction, fantasy or horror, Otakon has your people in abundance. The attendance cap this year was 35,000 people, and it was reached. People who wanted to buy a ticket late Saturday or Sunday were SOL.
I'm one of the freaks that cosplays at these conventions. This year, I did Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Lucille Ball and Ice Queen from Adventure Time. Making the Ice Queen dress took about two months. The sewing machine is still on my dining room table, and wig heads are taking up the back windshield ledge of the car.
Ice Queen and Ballet Princess Gunter
The down side of being in a crowded convention center with 35,000 of your closest fanatics is there is always SOMEONE who doesn't feel so good but doesn't want to lose out on the money already spent and then attends the con anyways. This anonymous SOMEONE is "patient zero" for the dreaded "Con Crud."
"Con Crud" this year is manifesting as a cough, sore throat, running nose and itchy eyes. That's much better than some outbreaks, like the Emerald City Comicon bout in 2012 that sidelined people for up to a week and appears to have been a flu variant. Hopefully the virus will clear it's way out of my system in a week or so and I can go back to wearing contacts and using mascara.
I've just spent three days with my kids and grandkid, enjoying a rich environment filled with the most fantastical outfits. We had fun as a family, indulged in quite a few flights of fancy about winning the lottery and being at a con every weekend, learned some new techniques for our own costume building, explored new-to-us anime options and generally had a blast. I even got to have dinner with our very own alycewilson, Kung Fu Panda (who is absolutely adorable) and the Gryphon. What's a week of being sick compared to that?
I'm one of the freaks that cosplays at these conventions. This year, I did Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Lucille Ball and Ice Queen from Adventure Time. Making the Ice Queen dress took about two months. The sewing machine is still on my dining room table, and wig heads are taking up the back windshield ledge of the car.
Ice Queen and Ballet Princess Gunter
The down side of being in a crowded convention center with 35,000 of your closest fanatics is there is always SOMEONE who doesn't feel so good but doesn't want to lose out on the money already spent and then attends the con anyways. This anonymous SOMEONE is "patient zero" for the dreaded "Con Crud."
"Con Crud" this year is manifesting as a cough, sore throat, running nose and itchy eyes. That's much better than some outbreaks, like the Emerald City Comicon bout in 2012 that sidelined people for up to a week and appears to have been a flu variant. Hopefully the virus will clear it's way out of my system in a week or so and I can go back to wearing contacts and using mascara.
I've just spent three days with my kids and grandkid, enjoying a rich environment filled with the most fantastical outfits. We had fun as a family, indulged in quite a few flights of fancy about winning the lottery and being at a con every weekend, learned some new techniques for our own costume building, explored new-to-us anime options and generally had a blast. I even got to have dinner with our very own alycewilson, Kung Fu Panda (who is absolutely adorable) and the Gryphon. What's a week of being sick compared to that?