Anime USA 2008 (+ "ramblings of a single lady", which will come later)
This is going to be long, and I'm not going to LJ-cut it. Sorry ♥
It wasn't as good this year. Heck, since the convention's move from the Sheraton to the Hyatt, I haven't really enjoyed the convention. Maybe it's because I'm older now? Or maybe because there are almost NO hang-out places! But, I can't say I didn't enjoy this wonderful weekend...
Friday: Iain and I don't have classes on Fridays, so we didn't have to skip; but because my brother is still in High School, he had to skip. I called in for him :3 We got our passes pretty early, so we just walked around until the gaming room opened. Then Iain and Sidney left me to game; I went to the 3rd Floor (also known as the Panels and Board Games floor) to do nothing :D I sat at the tables and stared down for what seemed like hours.
Oh, wait. It was for a few hours .-. That makes sense now... It was pretty much an uneventful day.
But that was also the day I "crashed" the car. I actually scraped the front-right corner of the car >.> Ahem, but the most eventful thing of that day was getting home @_____@ We were locked in. The lady comepletely lied. So we had five/six cars all bunched up, trying to find a way out. The cashier wasn't there; the credit-card machine didn't work. And so we were there for a hour until some genius woman found another exit and showed us all! LADY, WHOEVER YOU ARE, I LOVE YOU! And bam, my brother and I got home around 3AM.
(Though we left for our car at 12AM so that is just ridiculous!)
Saturday: Iain and his buddies over slept. But Sidney and I got to the convention on time (maybe even a bit early). Morning event that scared the shit out of me? My car's radio/stereo system didn't work. The words came up in webdings and every button only turned the system on and off. Luckily, this was fixed by the time I left for home. Again, and uneventful morning. But I met Cafe, a Thai man who looks like he's 17 but is actually 20. Yeah, you should've seen my reaction @___@ I went to the dealer's Room and bought some things that I wanted to put in the car, so I went to the garage/ parking lot of doom and non-functioning credit-card machines.
And I got lost. I have a really bad sense of direction (but it's better than my mom's). I was walking around for fifteen minutes or so, and then I finally spotted someone. Someone with tonfas. SOMEONE WITH PURPLE TONFAS O-O! And so I went up and asked for help ^-^;; And luckily for Momo, this person was nice *-* He had to do something really fast with his car, but then he helped me :3 And HOLY MAN-HOLE TYL!HIBARI-COSPLAYER! A NOVA parking sticker O:! A NOVA student! I was pretty excited and said, "Dude! You got to NOVA too?! Which campus?" And so after a few minutes of "omigawh hayyy", we exchanged names xD. This guy is Alvin, who's also a Thai man but this one is 19 xD And after walking around for an hour, we found my car and the exit! We parted ways shortly after entering the hotel ^-^;;
I forgot what I did to make the time pass, but I waited until Karaoke started. I did really, really, really badly this year. Then again, I do badly every year. Before it started, Cuong found me. Cuong is a super-nice 2x year old Viet man I met a few years back-- back when MOVE was performing for AnimeUSA at the Sheraton. I rarely see him because he lives in New Jersey, but I always see him during Anime USA :3 Magically, he found me at karaoke. Apparently, according to him, we actually met at karaoke during that year in Sheraton. He has a pretty good memory! So maybe that's how he found me... "Look for the karaoke nut at...DUH! Karaoke :D" Things were fine. Josh performed Gackt's Yami no Shuen. It was a kick-ass performance with light-sabers, fake-blood splurting, and amazing vocals. (But he didn't come in first place D: He lost to some Haruhi girl .-. One of many Haruhis....) Cuong recorded a few videos from the karaoke contest. He got me .-.
Click to viewTruthfully speaking, I don't think my voice is bad .-. I just get nervous, start to shake, and forget lyrics a lot ^-^;; Maybe next year I'll do better! I saw Alvin for a second at karaoke. He changed costumes O: (This costume was Nozomu ITOSHIKI from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei; BTW, thanks for the introduction xD it's an awesome anime!!) After the contest was over, Cuong left to do whatever it was he did, and I started wandering around again...
I forgot how many times I went up and down the escalators, but I did that for a loooooong time. I even "traded" hats with Cafe :3 We did that a lot .-. But then, this one time I was going down the escalators, I saw Alvin again. And I went "Haaaaai~ Alvin!". He was going up the escalators xD "I'm borrrrred!" he called out. It was funny xD And so I asked if he wanted to be bored with me :D And he came back down the escalators, and we went walking around! But we were still bored!!! I dragged him around by his noose from hsi cosplay for a bit. Then we saw some people playing instruments O: Alvin then remembered his clarinet was in his car! So we went to get his clarinet. And we walked around to find a place to sit so that he can play. It was fun :3 We did that for a long, long time.
We even walked to 7-11, in hopes of finding some Bawls. And we found some, but it was root beer, so I didn't get it. but Alvin did. I got a bottle of Coke and a pack of Skittles instead :3 Then, we walked back. The whole time we were walking, though, Alvin kept singing songs from Sentai/Tokusatsu series xD It was cute. He's a weirdo! xD
We changed our location a few times; we finally ended up on the couches on the bottom floor. The line started for the Versailles concert. Well. It was actually a line for the line for the Versailles concert. We didn't get in. Versailles wasn't our thing. Time passed, and the line for the line was changed a few thousand times @___@ Security must've had a hard time. More time passed, and the showing for the first three episodes of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei started. Alvin left to watch it, and I was thinking about it. But then I saw (Veronica) Lamara-san!
She's this awesome girl/woman/lady from my Japanese class. Super nice. We were just talking about things-- you know, anime, the convention, how we don't know each other's first names @___@ We even saw Turk-san! It was funny. Turk-san left with his girlfriend, and Lamara-san and I went to watch Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It was hilarious. Lamara-san left half-way through because she had to meet up with her family. They were a band of cosplayers from Lupin the 3rd. Kick-ass cosplays!
The anime ended, and everyone cleared out. Then this random guy started talking to me .-. Now, don't get me wrong. This guy, Linh, was nice/ friendly, and polite. But he was drinking from a hose connected to his bookbag. Yeah. It was alcohol. I tried to get out of the conversation a couple of times (though I did enjoy conversing with him .-.); luckily for me, Alvin came! He joined the conversation and everything. Somehow, we got out of the conversation @___@ I'm not sure if I want Linh to recognize me in the future >.> But tadah! The time was around 11PM.
And the Versaille concert still didn't start. yeah. Only and hour delay for now... Alvin and I tried finding more stuff to do .-. So He rode the elevators with me :D He has a fear of elevators D: But I kinda made him >.> He even went to +18 Yaoi panels with me! But of course, we got out pretty damned fast. it was boring. The time is 12AM.
And the fucking Versailles concert still didn't start. In fact, the damned concert didn't start until 2AM. Would you like to know why? My inside sources/The staff I knew told me that the reason it didn't start yet was because Versailles' make-up was ruined from practicing and they hate America o_o. Yeah, fuck you too, Versailles. I hope they lose fans and money because of this stunt. I don't care how much you hate America/Americans or how fugly your make-up or you are, but if your fans came out to see your sorry excuse of a musical entertainment group, you better haul ass and perform regardless of your problems. Stupid fucks. Anyhoooooo~ Alvin wanted to stay for the rave, and I wanted to get shiney-glow-things so we stayed. Until 3AM. Then we really couldn't take it anymore. We went home. I showed him how he can get home without taking the highway :D But he still got lost after he said he knew how to get home from Bailey's Crossroads. LOL
Sunday: Iain and his buddies didn't attend at all. This is why you get Mo to drive. I can work on 3hours of sleep. But nyeah, that was the last day. Sid and I arrived at the hotel, and met up with Cafe. We got bored pretty damned quickly. So we went to eat at Matsutake! And funniness occured. Now Cafe makes fun of how I have a poor sense of direction and a lot of other stuff. TYVM♥ But nyeah. I said bye to people, gave more hugs, and yadda yadda. Then I went home.
Now, Cafe is friends with Sidney and me! We exchanged numbers, facebooks and AIM. Alvin and I are friends! We exchanged the same things .-. It's actually a bit creepy how we are similar and have the same interests. I wanna hang out with them again soon! Hopefully, I can find a way to Katsucon, even if it's just for one day, just to hang out with my buddies ^-^
I bet I missed a lot there o.o Oh well!
Coming up next, if I remember, is my "ramblings of a singly lady" post! See you all soon?