Otakon and and Ankle
Crazy tired. Got back at 4:30am on Monday morning, had a funeral to attend at 9:30 am and then got dropped off at work. Much better now. Had that sleep thing happen a bit more.
I had a good time, but I wish I had been able to hang more with the TAC crew -- I see them so rarely. Next time I'll not do commissions. Well, at least price it so it's only the crazies who'll pay for it... I forget that doing commissions really kill my time... So sad I couldn't party and geek out with 'em all. Ah well, that's what LJ and ICQ are great for.. you can still talk. Not the same, but still.
Con season is pretty much over for me. There CNAnime, but it generally sucks. we're just there because it's a local con. Not the same camaderie as other anime cons, I find, since it's a combo con of Anime, sci fi and comics.
While we always say that we should get together mid-year, I really think that we should try for it... I mean, most of us can drive, and at least us kids on the East Coast can pick a spot... I vote for Vermont. Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory is there! Hehehe.. outlet shopping, and stuff too. At least that if we're not at a con, we can actually spend more time with each other in a more causal atmosphere. Mewhehehe... we'll see. The cons are always more effective at bringing us all out, but it's nicer if we didn't need that excuse to see each other.
Thursday
Scheduled to leave at 7pm, I swung around to erikochan's house around 7:30pm and met gally99 there. erikochan supplied much munchies to cut costs down for our trip, and I tossed in some fresh bagels for the journey and gally99 had some pringles and other nibblers. After much packing, repacking, and a brief debate if we should take gally99's car instead of mine, we finally began our journey from Toronto to St. Catherine's to pick up our honorary Chan, the_evaluator, to then finally kick it outta Canada and head towards Baltimore.
I took the first leg of the trip in to St. Catherine's and then the_evaluator took over from there. Time: 10pm. We were to have left there around an hour earlier. oops. Border was fine. Trip was fine. Drove a bit until the_evaluator and I switched again sometime around 1:30am... drive drive drive... crashed (not literally), in Williamsport at around 3am or so. Of course, not without playing the "missing the turn-off" game and the "where the hell are the hotels" game towards the end. note: misleading signs of logings for a motel that was closed for the night IS NOT a valid sign for lodgings. Got back on the highway and drove for another exit or two before hitting actual civillization and found a Holiday Inn to rest at. Yay! Sleep!
Friday
Got up around 9am and meandered over to the "free breakfast" area. To my delight, you could make your own waffles!! yaay! the_evaluator and I were the only ones moving at the time, but I quickly ran to the room to wake the others up to spread waffle love.
Eventually, we all breakfasted. Stole some little packages of jam and peanut butter and cream cheese for our bread and bagels.
An uneventful drive to Baltimore, aside from another round of "missing the turn-off." Sadly, both time during the way down, it took us at least ten to fifteen minutes to clue in. sigh. BUT we did stop off at a Staples to purchase the lovely silver sharpie markers that I had been searching for. I found out upon my return that they exist in Canada, but they're WAY more $$ here.
So... we were late into Baltimore, around 3pm, I think. Poor daifu ... He'd been waiting since early this morning, since we had planned to be in by noon. He'd picked up his badge, wandered the dealer's room, walked around... all the while to and froing from the hotel to make sure he didn't miss us.
Checking in, we discovered that our room only had ONE double bed, (not the two queens we requested), and while the "kitchenette and large seating area" were spiffy, we were a little dismayed at the thought of five of us staying there. After some words with the front desk, we did not get a room change, but were told that the couch was actually a pull out bed. Not happy about the situation, but our other choice was to seek out a new hotel. er... no.
We unloaded, grabbed our badges and ran off to the alley to find everyone. Thanks to the nice alley coordinator, she seated us all together. We took up like ... eight tables. Crazy. but great. Mai and Vo were sitting right behind me, Jami was beside me. erikochan, gally99, and Evan filled out the rest of our row. Some people we didn't know sat on the end.
The alley layout was fantastic, IMO. Rows upon rows of tables, with plenty of walking space. My fear was that there wouldn't be enough traffice, but it was more than assauged over the weekend. I had never seen so many people just wandering into the artist's alley and show before. the place was almost constantly packed. very gratifying to see the amounts of people there. Hope it's a growing trend.
It was great to see everyone, especially those kiddies missed at AX.. Lore, Jen, Juno, and a host of others! Also nice to see just everyone together. brought a tear to mine eye, and as Lore stated, warm fuzzies.
The TAC kids went off to dinner, but we stayed having just finally set up. ah well, there was always Saturday. Made some sales, a commission, and got reaccquainted with pockyman! The alley closed down at 11pm, so we trudged back to our rooms, as we were not up to doing anything else. Hungry too, (yay ramen!). Jami tagged along and we were just hanging. Steve came by with the_evaluator shortly after and we were all chit chatting.
We decorated our box of Sleeman's Honey Brown as our gift to Kotobuki. "Kotobiru" and "kotochoco" were our tributes. It's a long standing tradition to stalk the poor man and give him gifts of beer, food, and doujinshis.
Silly us stayed up until 2am, even tired as we were. peh.
Saturday
Of course, we didn't make it down to the alley until a wee bit after 11 - it opened at 10. TAC was missing, but I assumed they were doing that sleeping thing.
Jami was already there. I admire his dedication. I envy his lack of need for sleep.
pretty brisk day, plenty of commissions to go 'round, but tOFU sales were neglected. We really need to put more emphasis on the darn thing. Talking about this on the way home, we basically all get wrapped up in commi$$ions and don't bother pointing out tOFU to passerbys, since we're too busy scribbling...
I ran out at 5 to attend a convention dinner with the_evaluator. Maki, the VP of production IG was found and plans were made to give Kotobuki the Kotobiru. Maki suggests that we attend his panel at 6-7 to say hi. Sure thing, except for the time of the call was 6pm and so was the dinner! What to do..? the_evaluator said it'd be okay to miss the first bit o' dinner, so I ran to the alley, made everyone pack up in a jiffy and we ran to find the Panel room. We took the elevator and ended up in the bowels of the convention center.. probably in places we weren't supposed to be, oops.
but we did find the panel room, and after the panel, we were able to say hi, give our beer, and mug for the camera. good shot too! erikochan should be uploading the photos sooner than later.
I ran off to dinner at the Legal Sea Food restaurant and the rest of the kids went back to the alley.
Upon my return, I noticed that all the TAC crew had gone off somewhere, but I chit chatted with Jen who had remained behind in the alley. Got cell numbers of some of the TAC people to maybe hook up later. There were plans of attending the dance. After the dissapointing summer of anime con dances, (Vo and Mai can attest to that), I was a little bit wary of it, but I was game. I had my flashy lights with me, so I could battle with Vo. (vo, being the far superior flahsy-flashy light dancer).
This evening, the alley closed up at midnight. at which point, we were all wiped with the alley A/C being turned off too early and the previous late night. So instead of calling the TAC kiddies, we went back to the hotel to crash. Not to mention that the alley was to open at 9AM the next morning, and the alley to open at 8:30 for the artists. we left some of our stuff there, as we were too lazy to pack it up.
Back to the hotel, some ramen, bad movies, packing for the checkout the next am and general running around, we didn't sleep until 3am. again. bah!
Sunday
Waking up via our cellphones the next morning was hard. I heard gally99's phone go, then mine about five minutes later. Still, we had to get packed. After some panic about not finding my camera battery charger, and lots of crafty packing, we were able to finally get it loaded into the car, get checked out, and on to the alley.
Not before spraining my ankle however. Me, being S-M-R-T, stepped off the high curb with heavy suitcase, on to a sewer grate that had gaps the size of, oh my foot sideways and promptly fell on my face. ouch. Face was fine, knee was smarting, ankle was.. well, I knew it weren't gonna be pretty in a few hours.
Hobbled to the alley, set up and erikochan ran around for me to get some ice. (thank you erikochan!!) So Sunday started, where I heard the dance was fun from Vo and Mai. sigh. And I missed it. I was saaad.
Farmed out my commissions, did one quickie one and then hobbled around to ECAU to buy their Final Fantasy-esque doujin with the really sweet printing. Very impressed on the production value of that. Props to the ECAU crew and Alpha, since I think he got shafted with editor position. I know how fun that is.
Picked up mine and erikochan's pieces from the Art Show. I think we priced too high, but that was intentional on my part. I like my Chi piece. Until I can reproduce it well as a print, I'm a little loathe to part with it. Unless someone wants to pay me lots of $$! *g*
Packed up our stuff so we could leave around 2pm. Alley closes at 3 anyway, and we were there until 3 regardless, packing. gally99, Evan and I cabbed it back to the hotel to pick up the car. Evan parted ways with us there, as his ride back was waiting. We swung around to the convention centre to pick up the rest of the kids and gally99 took up the first portion of our long ride home.
This time, we caught on right away when we missed turn offs. Stopped by for Denny's dinner, (almost a must on a Convention trip.. bleargh), and the_evaluator won at that coin-dropping thing. Free apple pie for us!
Stopped off at the Walmart across from the Denny's to do commando shopping. erikochan and I got a nice top and some candy, and the_evaluator got some stuff for her kids. gally99 was able to resist.
Gally resumed driver duty. We, at one point, got a ticket. Bummer. We will try and contest it. There were some bogus charges there. REALLY. What does EMS charges have to do with a traffic ticket!?
Drive drive drive. Gas station stop yielded some kitkat bites, water, bathroom, and a driver change. gally99 and I swapped to the backseats and the_evaluator took the leg from somewhere in New York to St. Catherines. Dropped the_evaluator off and then I took the ride back home. Thankfully, at 3am, there were no cops. Going 130-140 got us to Toronto fairly quickly. Dropped erikochan off, then gally99. We would sort through our junk at later that evening, since it was 4:30am before I hit my own drive way and no one was in any shape to think, much less sort through the tetris-like packing of trunk.
Went to the Chinese bone doctor today and had my ankle bone reset. HURT. PAIN. were just two things that popped into my head as he popped the bone back in. Actually, they were the only two things I could think of at the time, it hurt so much.
According to him though, I should be back to normal in a week.
I had a good time, but I wish I had been able to hang more with the TAC crew -- I see them so rarely. Next time I'll not do commissions. Well, at least price it so it's only the crazies who'll pay for it... I forget that doing commissions really kill my time... So sad I couldn't party and geek out with 'em all. Ah well, that's what LJ and ICQ are great for.. you can still talk. Not the same, but still.
Con season is pretty much over for me. There CNAnime, but it generally sucks. we're just there because it's a local con. Not the same camaderie as other anime cons, I find, since it's a combo con of Anime, sci fi and comics.
While we always say that we should get together mid-year, I really think that we should try for it... I mean, most of us can drive, and at least us kids on the East Coast can pick a spot... I vote for Vermont. Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory is there! Hehehe.. outlet shopping, and stuff too. At least that if we're not at a con, we can actually spend more time with each other in a more causal atmosphere. Mewhehehe... we'll see. The cons are always more effective at bringing us all out, but it's nicer if we didn't need that excuse to see each other.
Thursday
Scheduled to leave at 7pm, I swung around to erikochan's house around 7:30pm and met gally99 there. erikochan supplied much munchies to cut costs down for our trip, and I tossed in some fresh bagels for the journey and gally99 had some pringles and other nibblers. After much packing, repacking, and a brief debate if we should take gally99's car instead of mine, we finally began our journey from Toronto to St. Catherine's to pick up our honorary Chan, the_evaluator, to then finally kick it outta Canada and head towards Baltimore.
I took the first leg of the trip in to St. Catherine's and then the_evaluator took over from there. Time: 10pm. We were to have left there around an hour earlier. oops. Border was fine. Trip was fine. Drove a bit until the_evaluator and I switched again sometime around 1:30am... drive drive drive... crashed (not literally), in Williamsport at around 3am or so. Of course, not without playing the "missing the turn-off" game and the "where the hell are the hotels" game towards the end. note: misleading signs of logings for a motel that was closed for the night IS NOT a valid sign for lodgings. Got back on the highway and drove for another exit or two before hitting actual civillization and found a Holiday Inn to rest at. Yay! Sleep!
Friday
Got up around 9am and meandered over to the "free breakfast" area. To my delight, you could make your own waffles!! yaay! the_evaluator and I were the only ones moving at the time, but I quickly ran to the room to wake the others up to spread waffle love.
Eventually, we all breakfasted. Stole some little packages of jam and peanut butter and cream cheese for our bread and bagels.
An uneventful drive to Baltimore, aside from another round of "missing the turn-off." Sadly, both time during the way down, it took us at least ten to fifteen minutes to clue in. sigh. BUT we did stop off at a Staples to purchase the lovely silver sharpie markers that I had been searching for. I found out upon my return that they exist in Canada, but they're WAY more $$ here.
So... we were late into Baltimore, around 3pm, I think. Poor daifu ... He'd been waiting since early this morning, since we had planned to be in by noon. He'd picked up his badge, wandered the dealer's room, walked around... all the while to and froing from the hotel to make sure he didn't miss us.
Checking in, we discovered that our room only had ONE double bed, (not the two queens we requested), and while the "kitchenette and large seating area" were spiffy, we were a little dismayed at the thought of five of us staying there. After some words with the front desk, we did not get a room change, but were told that the couch was actually a pull out bed. Not happy about the situation, but our other choice was to seek out a new hotel. er... no.
We unloaded, grabbed our badges and ran off to the alley to find everyone. Thanks to the nice alley coordinator, she seated us all together. We took up like ... eight tables. Crazy. but great. Mai and Vo were sitting right behind me, Jami was beside me. erikochan, gally99, and Evan filled out the rest of our row. Some people we didn't know sat on the end.
The alley layout was fantastic, IMO. Rows upon rows of tables, with plenty of walking space. My fear was that there wouldn't be enough traffice, but it was more than assauged over the weekend. I had never seen so many people just wandering into the artist's alley and show before. the place was almost constantly packed. very gratifying to see the amounts of people there. Hope it's a growing trend.
It was great to see everyone, especially those kiddies missed at AX.. Lore, Jen, Juno, and a host of others! Also nice to see just everyone together. brought a tear to mine eye, and as Lore stated, warm fuzzies.
The TAC kids went off to dinner, but we stayed having just finally set up. ah well, there was always Saturday. Made some sales, a commission, and got reaccquainted with pockyman! The alley closed down at 11pm, so we trudged back to our rooms, as we were not up to doing anything else. Hungry too, (yay ramen!). Jami tagged along and we were just hanging. Steve came by with the_evaluator shortly after and we were all chit chatting.
We decorated our box of Sleeman's Honey Brown as our gift to Kotobuki. "Kotobiru" and "kotochoco" were our tributes. It's a long standing tradition to stalk the poor man and give him gifts of beer, food, and doujinshis.
Silly us stayed up until 2am, even tired as we were. peh.
Saturday
Of course, we didn't make it down to the alley until a wee bit after 11 - it opened at 10. TAC was missing, but I assumed they were doing that sleeping thing.
Jami was already there. I admire his dedication. I envy his lack of need for sleep.
pretty brisk day, plenty of commissions to go 'round, but tOFU sales were neglected. We really need to put more emphasis on the darn thing. Talking about this on the way home, we basically all get wrapped up in commi$$ions and don't bother pointing out tOFU to passerbys, since we're too busy scribbling...
I ran out at 5 to attend a convention dinner with the_evaluator. Maki, the VP of production IG was found and plans were made to give Kotobuki the Kotobiru. Maki suggests that we attend his panel at 6-7 to say hi. Sure thing, except for the time of the call was 6pm and so was the dinner! What to do..? the_evaluator said it'd be okay to miss the first bit o' dinner, so I ran to the alley, made everyone pack up in a jiffy and we ran to find the Panel room. We took the elevator and ended up in the bowels of the convention center.. probably in places we weren't supposed to be, oops.
but we did find the panel room, and after the panel, we were able to say hi, give our beer, and mug for the camera. good shot too! erikochan should be uploading the photos sooner than later.
I ran off to dinner at the Legal Sea Food restaurant and the rest of the kids went back to the alley.
Upon my return, I noticed that all the TAC crew had gone off somewhere, but I chit chatted with Jen who had remained behind in the alley. Got cell numbers of some of the TAC people to maybe hook up later. There were plans of attending the dance. After the dissapointing summer of anime con dances, (Vo and Mai can attest to that), I was a little bit wary of it, but I was game. I had my flashy lights with me, so I could battle with Vo. (vo, being the far superior flahsy-flashy light dancer).
This evening, the alley closed up at midnight. at which point, we were all wiped with the alley A/C being turned off too early and the previous late night. So instead of calling the TAC kiddies, we went back to the hotel to crash. Not to mention that the alley was to open at 9AM the next morning, and the alley to open at 8:30 for the artists. we left some of our stuff there, as we were too lazy to pack it up.
Back to the hotel, some ramen, bad movies, packing for the checkout the next am and general running around, we didn't sleep until 3am. again. bah!
Sunday
Waking up via our cellphones the next morning was hard. I heard gally99's phone go, then mine about five minutes later. Still, we had to get packed. After some panic about not finding my camera battery charger, and lots of crafty packing, we were able to finally get it loaded into the car, get checked out, and on to the alley.
Not before spraining my ankle however. Me, being S-M-R-T, stepped off the high curb with heavy suitcase, on to a sewer grate that had gaps the size of, oh my foot sideways and promptly fell on my face. ouch. Face was fine, knee was smarting, ankle was.. well, I knew it weren't gonna be pretty in a few hours.
Hobbled to the alley, set up and erikochan ran around for me to get some ice. (thank you erikochan!!) So Sunday started, where I heard the dance was fun from Vo and Mai. sigh. And I missed it. I was saaad.
Farmed out my commissions, did one quickie one and then hobbled around to ECAU to buy their Final Fantasy-esque doujin with the really sweet printing. Very impressed on the production value of that. Props to the ECAU crew and Alpha, since I think he got shafted with editor position. I know how fun that is.
Picked up mine and erikochan's pieces from the Art Show. I think we priced too high, but that was intentional on my part. I like my Chi piece. Until I can reproduce it well as a print, I'm a little loathe to part with it. Unless someone wants to pay me lots of $$! *g*
Packed up our stuff so we could leave around 2pm. Alley closes at 3 anyway, and we were there until 3 regardless, packing. gally99, Evan and I cabbed it back to the hotel to pick up the car. Evan parted ways with us there, as his ride back was waiting. We swung around to the convention centre to pick up the rest of the kids and gally99 took up the first portion of our long ride home.
This time, we caught on right away when we missed turn offs. Stopped by for Denny's dinner, (almost a must on a Convention trip.. bleargh), and the_evaluator won at that coin-dropping thing. Free apple pie for us!
Stopped off at the Walmart across from the Denny's to do commando shopping. erikochan and I got a nice top and some candy, and the_evaluator got some stuff for her kids. gally99 was able to resist.
Gally resumed driver duty. We, at one point, got a ticket. Bummer. We will try and contest it. There were some bogus charges there. REALLY. What does EMS charges have to do with a traffic ticket!?
Drive drive drive. Gas station stop yielded some kitkat bites, water, bathroom, and a driver change. gally99 and I swapped to the backseats and the_evaluator took the leg from somewhere in New York to St. Catherines. Dropped the_evaluator off and then I took the ride back home. Thankfully, at 3am, there were no cops. Going 130-140 got us to Toronto fairly quickly. Dropped erikochan off, then gally99. We would sort through our junk at later that evening, since it was 4:30am before I hit my own drive way and no one was in any shape to think, much less sort through the tetris-like packing of trunk.
Went to the Chinese bone doctor today and had my ankle bone reset. HURT. PAIN. were just two things that popped into my head as he popped the bone back in. Actually, they were the only two things I could think of at the time, it hurt so much.
According to him though, I should be back to normal in a week.