Sleep-over and Connecticon!
On Friday the 13th (bad luck! oh, no!), I went over to Equipaje's house while the rest of my family went to Lowell. Now, we were going to see HP5, but when the time came to leave, the van wouldn't start. And then Equipaje's dad didn't have his cell phone on, so by the time he noticed that we weren't at the movie theater and came back to the house, we'd missed a good half-hour of the movie. >_< Since Equipaje told us that important stuff happens in that first half-hour, her mom and I decided that we wanted to see the entire thing. So Mr. T took the little monster to the movie, promising to buy tickets for the first showing tomorrow.
Mrs. T wanted to watch Opra, so Equipaje y yo walked down to the center of Natick. On the way, I called Icy, and persuaded her to meet us at Park Street for ice cream. We beat her by a good five to ten minutes, which we spent sitting on a bench in the common. When Icy finally showed up, out of breath and sweaty but happy to see us, we got ice cream and Equipaje was ambushed by a mother of somebody who goes to her school. We saved her, though, and retired to the same bench in the common to eat and freak out people with our conversation. ^_^
Icy had to leave soon after that. :( Equipaje and I saw a cool door and windows, visited 5 Crows (closed), Anne Reagan (open), and the music store next to the Tea Stop that I can't remember the name of. ^_^;; Aforementioned music store had a TON of old records for only a dollar apiece! I got two Billy Joel, Journey, and The Best of Jethro Tull. Then we went back to the house, picked raspberries, made nachos, and watched BSG season two until about one in the morning.
The next morning, Equipaje and I were awoken by the little monster and the dog got up around eight-thirty. The movie showing was to be at ten, so this gave us just enough time to have Cheerios and get dressed. But the van wouldn't start again, meaning that instead of leaving at nine-thirty, Mr. T drove us to the theater at nine-forty-five. We made it in plenty of time.
Talking to people (a.k.a. Equipaje's family and Icy) who had already seen the movie helped me understand that I should not be looking at the movies as literal translations of the books, but rather artistic interpretations of important scenes. So with that in mind, I actually liked the movie a lot! The scenes with Filch and Dumbledore's Army were my favorite, and Umbridge was just perfect. In fact, I liked it much better than the book, which is mostly to do with the book being all filler and very little plot, and the movie being all plot and very little filler. But I wish there had been more of the school falling apart when Fred and George left, and Sirius' death was just so anti-climatic! Anyways ...
After the movie, we went back to Equipaje's house, and had just enough time to watch about half a BSG episode before my mom came to take the twins to our grandparents' house, and Pidge and I to Connecticon. The drive to Hopkinton was fun. All the radio stations were playing good songs, and we saw a whole lot of really cool cars.
In just an hour and a half, we were in Hartford! Okaa-san pointed out the first coupla cosplayers, and Pidge and I were both like, "Yup! Definitely in the right place!" ^_^ The Connecticut Convention Center is very big, open, and airy. After Okaa-san got money from the ATM, Pidge and I dodged cosplayers until a kindly guard at the doors to the dealer's room pointed us to the registration table. It was there that I got my first free hug from an Ash cosplayer toting a Pikachu doll. Then, bearing badges, we returned to the dealer's room.
Going into the dealer's room at Connecticon is like diving into a whirlwind full of confetti. There were people EVERYWHERE, buying, selling, talking, browsing, walking, hugging, and a million other things. 'Twas very loud, but an enjoyable noise. Also, despite the number of people present, it actually wasn't crowded. Pidge and I saw Mookie, Jennie, and Garth! I actually talked to Jennie (*swoons*), and got my second free hug in front of Garth's table. After a little while in there, Pidge and I headed for room 13, in which a panel on the fan fiction writing process was being held.
The writing process panel, and the following one on fanfiction ethics, were all right. There was only one woman hosting it -- more like iving the lecture -- and I think that's what gave rise to my boredom. I didn't learn anything in the first one, and the second was really just a recap of how to behave online.
After the panels, we headed back to the dealer's room. I got a Kyouya cellphone charm, two buttons (rainbow, "Got Pride?"; pink, "Beta Mistress"), and two sticks of Pocky. Pidge got a Devil's Panties comic book and Mookie's signature. The last thing we did before getting picked up was go to another panel, this one entitled "How to Become a Ninja in One Hour". This one, despite not living up to its name, was much more interesting than the two fanfiction panels. Again, it was in a lecture format, but had a much more engaged audience. I sat next to a man carrying a piece of paper reading "glomp me"*. When the panel finished, it was trying not to yell at Okaa-san as she made snippy comments about the cosplayers, stopping for gas and pizza, and driving part of the way home.
*And I would have, too, if he hadn't left early. *pouts*
Mrs. T wanted to watch Opra, so Equipaje y yo walked down to the center of Natick. On the way, I called Icy, and persuaded her to meet us at Park Street for ice cream. We beat her by a good five to ten minutes, which we spent sitting on a bench in the common. When Icy finally showed up, out of breath and sweaty but happy to see us, we got ice cream and Equipaje was ambushed by a mother of somebody who goes to her school. We saved her, though, and retired to the same bench in the common to eat and freak out people with our conversation. ^_^
Icy had to leave soon after that. :( Equipaje and I saw a cool door and windows, visited 5 Crows (closed), Anne Reagan (open), and the music store next to the Tea Stop that I can't remember the name of. ^_^;; Aforementioned music store had a TON of old records for only a dollar apiece! I got two Billy Joel, Journey, and The Best of Jethro Tull. Then we went back to the house, picked raspberries, made nachos, and watched BSG season two until about one in the morning.
The next morning, Equipaje and I were awoken by the little monster and the dog got up around eight-thirty. The movie showing was to be at ten, so this gave us just enough time to have Cheerios and get dressed. But the van wouldn't start again, meaning that instead of leaving at nine-thirty, Mr. T drove us to the theater at nine-forty-five. We made it in plenty of time.
Talking to people (a.k.a. Equipaje's family and Icy) who had already seen the movie helped me understand that I should not be looking at the movies as literal translations of the books, but rather artistic interpretations of important scenes. So with that in mind, I actually liked the movie a lot! The scenes with Filch and Dumbledore's Army were my favorite, and Umbridge was just perfect. In fact, I liked it much better than the book, which is mostly to do with the book being all filler and very little plot, and the movie being all plot and very little filler. But I wish there had been more of the school falling apart when Fred and George left, and Sirius' death was just so anti-climatic! Anyways ...
After the movie, we went back to Equipaje's house, and had just enough time to watch about half a BSG episode before my mom came to take the twins to our grandparents' house, and Pidge and I to Connecticon. The drive to Hopkinton was fun. All the radio stations were playing good songs, and we saw a whole lot of really cool cars.
In just an hour and a half, we were in Hartford! Okaa-san pointed out the first coupla cosplayers, and Pidge and I were both like, "Yup! Definitely in the right place!" ^_^ The Connecticut Convention Center is very big, open, and airy. After Okaa-san got money from the ATM, Pidge and I dodged cosplayers until a kindly guard at the doors to the dealer's room pointed us to the registration table. It was there that I got my first free hug from an Ash cosplayer toting a Pikachu doll. Then, bearing badges, we returned to the dealer's room.
Going into the dealer's room at Connecticon is like diving into a whirlwind full of confetti. There were people EVERYWHERE, buying, selling, talking, browsing, walking, hugging, and a million other things. 'Twas very loud, but an enjoyable noise. Also, despite the number of people present, it actually wasn't crowded. Pidge and I saw Mookie, Jennie, and Garth! I actually talked to Jennie (*swoons*), and got my second free hug in front of Garth's table. After a little while in there, Pidge and I headed for room 13, in which a panel on the fan fiction writing process was being held.
The writing process panel, and the following one on fanfiction ethics, were all right. There was only one woman hosting it -- more like iving the lecture -- and I think that's what gave rise to my boredom. I didn't learn anything in the first one, and the second was really just a recap of how to behave online.
After the panels, we headed back to the dealer's room. I got a Kyouya cellphone charm, two buttons (rainbow, "Got Pride?"; pink, "Beta Mistress"), and two sticks of Pocky. Pidge got a Devil's Panties comic book and Mookie's signature. The last thing we did before getting picked up was go to another panel, this one entitled "How to Become a Ninja in One Hour". This one, despite not living up to its name, was much more interesting than the two fanfiction panels. Again, it was in a lecture format, but had a much more engaged audience. I sat next to a man carrying a piece of paper reading "glomp me"*. When the panel finished, it was trying not to yell at Okaa-san as she made snippy comments about the cosplayers, stopping for gas and pizza, and driving part of the way home.
*And I would have, too, if he hadn't left early. *pouts*