Anime USA 2014
I almost forgot to do this report...oops.
Friday:
Alyce came to my house in the morning and we got on metro to head over the con. Since I knew I'd be metroing it to and from, I tried to limit what I brought. Though I had my Hakuouki swords for Luna to borrow and they did get a bit in the way but it wasn't too bad with Alyce there to help. We met up with Brittany who had her own adventure on metro with Alyce's hoop skirt. lol Eric, Liz, and Lu found us and I'm glad they did because it was a pretty confusing route to our hotel room. Our room wasn't in the main hotel section like previous years, but all the way in the back, above the garage elevator. I swear I'll never make sense of this hotel's layout. But the room was really nice! Much bigger than the other rooms so we didn't mind being farther out. That and the elevator was never very crowded since there were only like 3 floors of rooms on this end. We were also above the tech rooms so I ran into Gabi and Adam right away while coming off the elevator so made a point of looking for them every time I came by that area.
I put on my sparkly vest instead of any actual cosplays yet as I figured there wasn't much time for it to be worth it before I got into Der Tod and decided to just focus most of my time to getting ready for that. But at least I felt fancy. lol Got my badge and then we all went to eat at the hotel restaurant. I had a sandwich and it was...okay. But not as good as the salad I had the year before. But it made for good leftovers at least. After that I took photos of Alyce and Brittany in their Once Upon A Time costumes. Then Alyce and I made a quick run of Artist Alley and pretty much just skipped over the Dealer's since neither of us had any interest in it. I knew there wouldn't be anything to interest me since coming back from Japan and all. XD Sadly didn't get to really look at the AA much since we were running out of time which we needed to use to get into our Elisabeth costumes. Alyce was once again finished getting into her costume before me. I mostly had issues with the make-up. I think because I was worried about being late to Jo's photoshoot, etc, that I wasn't able to relax cause my eyes kept watering and messing my eye make-up every time Eric tried. I think part of the reason to was cause he was trying to do the under-eye make-up and my eyes just weren't happy with it. As a result, it was a little messy in the end despite Eric's best attempt. I ended up texting Jo and telling her we had to cancel since there was no way we were going to get to her in time. Instead I had to focus on just being ready in time for judging now since now I had to do my stupid nails. Pfft. One of these days I'll get this costume down to a science so it doesn't take so long. At least I did manage to save some of the nails this time so they can be re-used next time. Even after all that, barely got in for my judging time. Though it turned out they were just chilling anyways since some entries had canceled and I was one of the last so just took my time.
So here's a photo of the finally finished costume (since I wasn't done yet during Katsucon). Photo was taken during the judging by Octography.
Then finally Alyce and I could just relax and take some fun photos around the hotel. I had been wanting to get photos in these costumes since the first year this con was at this hotel so was excited to finally take advantage of this. On our way to the old wing of the hotel, we ran into Jo who still did a few quick photos for us even though we had canceled our actual shoot with us because she's awesome like that!
This is my favorite that she took ^.^
After that we continued on to the old wing and Brittany took some photos on my camera. While my camera isn't the greatest (Alyce had forgotten to bring Tom's camera) I still really love some of the shots we got...
This is probably my favorite of all the ones we got. Took a bit of work to time it right so there was no one in the background so had to wait til there was no one in the hallway but glad we did. ^.^
We felt this desk looked a bit like the one Elisabeth uses to write her angry letter to Franz. Though this is the wrong outfit for that scene but eh, who cares XD
Der Tod sneaking up on Elisabeth
Being a creeper XD
Elisabeth, your time is up
Feeling pretty satisfied with our photos, we got out of costume. I managed to not completely destroy all the nails this time so I got a few to re-use next time. But a few still did not survive, despite doing the method Eric suggested. Oh well. I still have some left to work with. Then the three of us went to dinner at the sushi place we ate at for Beth's birthday a few years ago. It was good but the miso soup tasted a little...off. So that was disappointing. The sushi was good at least. Then Alyce and Brittany went back on metro. Sadly this was the only day Alyce could attend but Brittany planned to come back the next day.
I decided to just stay out of costume the rest of the night. Lu and Liz were getting into their genderbend Assassin's Creed outfits and asked if I could take some photos for them so we went back over to the old wing hallway to take some silly and cute photos. Despite knowing very little about the games, I had fun taking their photos and learning about the game. We even got adventurous and went out on the little patio, despite it being wet and cold from the rain, where a few other people were also doing night photos. Got some pretty decent shots, despite my lack of photography skills. XD After that, I wandered a little bit with the two of them but nothing around the con really held my interest so I ended up just going back to the room and bumming there til I fell asleep.
Saturday:
Got into Richard and was surprised by how much recognition I got from it. It was more popular than I thought it would be, considering at Otakon barely anyone seemed to care about Graces. lol
Saw this awesome Galaxia cosplayer who made me pretty happy.
Went to the Dealer's Room after it opened since I had time to actually look around, but sure enough, not much interested me. Its hard once you come back from Japan. Cause everything seemed so "meh" in comparison. XD But I did run into Luna and her friend in their Hakuouki costumes. Glad to see my swords came in use. I wandered with them for a little bit until Brittany arrived and then I helped her get into costume in our room. Though I actually didn't do much helping. lol It was mostly Joanna and Brittany's other friend, who I'm blanking on the name right now. They seemed to have a system going so I just watched and helped more with her moving around the con once she got into it. I don't know the character but its from Dark Souls and its pretty damn impressive. She got a lot of attention from it, of course. We actually got her into it pretty fast so she had a little bit of time to mingle before we had to get her ready for judging. When I went in to help do all the paper work and stuff for her, everyone there thought I was entering Richard as well. XD I guess I could have but eh, I didn't win anything at Otakon with it and it had suffered some paint stains since then. That and I was more concerned with helping Brittany that day. One of her platform shoes completely broke off when she was going up to the judges...which was so bizarre and horrible timing. Luckily the shoe has nothing to do with the actual costume so we just held onto it while she did her best to balance on one foot. lol So after that, she gave up on the boots, which just meant she wasn't quite as tall and menancing as she wanted but you can't see her feet so it didn't matter what she wore at least. We then went outside to take some photos.
Brittany being amazing
Joanna also took some photos of me in Richard and they came out pretty nice! We found some flowers that kinda matched the colors on my costume. XD
Brittany and I then both changed out of costume. I changed into Prince Diamond and then met up with Stef for a mini photoshoot with her. I totally forgot my plastic wine glass (again) but Stef suggested we see if we could grab a glass from the bar. Surprisingly enough, the lady bartender was totally ok with us using one so we then bought some cranberry juice to put in it since the bar itself wasn't open yet so couldn't get actual wine, which is fine since I wouldn't have drunk it anyways. XD While we were doing this, ran into the Galaxia again and we took a villains photo together though I still have yet to find said photo. lol She also mentioned she was doing Sapphire on Sunday but I wasn't really planning to get into costume then due to needing to go back on metro and all. Oh well. Did some photos with Stef though I haven't gotten them back yet so don't know how they came out but they were pretty fun. On my way back to the room, ran into Ben and Becca and hung with them for a little bit, just sitting on the floor and chatting.
Ben was wearing his amazing Bilbo costume at the time
Brittany joined us for a little bit but she wasn't feeling too well so her and Forest packed up the monster and headed off to metro. I changed into regular clothes and decided to try to catch the last bit of the Schwarz Stein concert. I had originally intended to go earlier but caught up with talking to people but it wasn't a huge deal. I do like the band but its been so long since I listened to any of their stuff and I only ever knew a few songs by them. Still, I did like the few songs I knew a lot and was still surprised they were even at this con. On my way over there, I found Ling and her friend hanging in the hallway outside of the concert, catching it through the open door without actually going in and I decided to just join them out there. Cause all I really cared about was hearing them and it was more fun to chat with Ling about them than to stand by myself inside. Ling likewise knew about as many songs by them as I did. XD So it was nice bit of nostalgia for the both of us. I went with them in search of food after the concert since we were all a bit hungry but Dunkin Donuts was totally out of any actual food stuff and they decided to go to Chipotle instead, which I'm not a big fan of so I went to Noodles 'n Company...which was packed and the wait was really long but it was worth it. lol And I saw a really cute Tokyo Babylon group while I was there. I talked with the Subaru a little while in line. I didn't ask for a photo even though I wanted one due to it being crowded and the fact that I felt a little rude asking when they were eating. But man they were all perfect. *_*
Took my food back to the room and ate while chatting with Lu, who was in the room due to not feeling well. We mostly gaffed at the ridiculous shows on TV. I was also trying to kill time for the Masquerade since I really only was interested in the awards, figured I'd time it so I'd come in towards the end of the skits...yet somehow I ended up coming in RIGHT at the beginning. Pfft. lol I guess they were running late cause I went in to sit and was surprised how full it was and then see that they were JUST announcing the first skit. ...x_x Oh well. Figured I'd just sit through it since I was already there. It was...well it could have been worse. lol The only skit I even remember was the one with The Joker and Harley singing "Do you want to kill the Batman?" to the tune of "Do you want to build a Snowman?" which was actually pretty well done. I honestly don't remember anything else other than the fact there was a JoJo rap battle? But I don't know JoJo well enough to really understand the skit. XD; To be honest I found the half-time show with the maids more interesting than the show itself. Then got to the awards finally. I won Best Master's for Friday! :D And Brittany won Best in Show...which I so knew she would. I felt bad since she had gone home so I had meant to try to get her award for her but was told I had to wait til Sun to try to get it since we also poked to see if Brittany could come back to get it then. But she was still pretty excited judging by her text responses. XD I was a little sad I didn't get back into costume so I'd be in it to accept the award but there's no way I would have gotten into in it in time and I'd have to do it without make-up. Eric totally exaggerated on the amount of rhinestones I used when he announced the award though. lol It was close but not quite that many. XD But it was probably an easier number to say. I also heard someone in the audience shout out "beautiful~!" and I heard several gasps when he did say how many I sewed on so yay, got my tiny moment of glory there. Afterwards I wandered a little bit but there wasn't much to do so ended up just bumming in the room.
Sunday:
I decided I still wanted to show off a little so I put on my sparkly boots with my regular clothes which probably looked a bit goofy but whatever. XD I could have worn it with the sparkly vest but since I'd have to go home on metro soon, didn't want to get too dressed up. I put my stuff in Eric and Liz's car so I could stay and wander the con a little bit more. Tried to pick up Brittany's award but they had already packed everything up so they said they would mail it to her. Then wandered the Dealer's room for a bit and then Eric, Liz, and Lu decided to head out so I got my stuff out of their car and headed over to metro...and somehow went out the wrong side of the hotel. Pfft. So had to back into the hotel and to the other side. I'm so used to only coming out the one side so I guess the fact that they had driven their car out of the parking garage on the back side threw me off. Eventually figured it out though did have some trouble carrying everything by myself so might have to consider getting a ride to con next time if I plan to bring that much again. At least I got Luna to keep the swords for now so I wouldn't have to worry about them (she said she could use them for a photoshoot so it worked out). But yeah, the con was overall pretty good and I'm glad I finally got to enter Tod. ^.^
~Lyn
Friday:
Alyce came to my house in the morning and we got on metro to head over the con. Since I knew I'd be metroing it to and from, I tried to limit what I brought. Though I had my Hakuouki swords for Luna to borrow and they did get a bit in the way but it wasn't too bad with Alyce there to help. We met up with Brittany who had her own adventure on metro with Alyce's hoop skirt. lol Eric, Liz, and Lu found us and I'm glad they did because it was a pretty confusing route to our hotel room. Our room wasn't in the main hotel section like previous years, but all the way in the back, above the garage elevator. I swear I'll never make sense of this hotel's layout. But the room was really nice! Much bigger than the other rooms so we didn't mind being farther out. That and the elevator was never very crowded since there were only like 3 floors of rooms on this end. We were also above the tech rooms so I ran into Gabi and Adam right away while coming off the elevator so made a point of looking for them every time I came by that area.
I put on my sparkly vest instead of any actual cosplays yet as I figured there wasn't much time for it to be worth it before I got into Der Tod and decided to just focus most of my time to getting ready for that. But at least I felt fancy. lol Got my badge and then we all went to eat at the hotel restaurant. I had a sandwich and it was...okay. But not as good as the salad I had the year before. But it made for good leftovers at least. After that I took photos of Alyce and Brittany in their Once Upon A Time costumes. Then Alyce and I made a quick run of Artist Alley and pretty much just skipped over the Dealer's since neither of us had any interest in it. I knew there wouldn't be anything to interest me since coming back from Japan and all. XD Sadly didn't get to really look at the AA much since we were running out of time which we needed to use to get into our Elisabeth costumes. Alyce was once again finished getting into her costume before me. I mostly had issues with the make-up. I think because I was worried about being late to Jo's photoshoot, etc, that I wasn't able to relax cause my eyes kept watering and messing my eye make-up every time Eric tried. I think part of the reason to was cause he was trying to do the under-eye make-up and my eyes just weren't happy with it. As a result, it was a little messy in the end despite Eric's best attempt. I ended up texting Jo and telling her we had to cancel since there was no way we were going to get to her in time. Instead I had to focus on just being ready in time for judging now since now I had to do my stupid nails. Pfft. One of these days I'll get this costume down to a science so it doesn't take so long. At least I did manage to save some of the nails this time so they can be re-used next time. Even after all that, barely got in for my judging time. Though it turned out they were just chilling anyways since some entries had canceled and I was one of the last so just took my time.
So here's a photo of the finally finished costume (since I wasn't done yet during Katsucon). Photo was taken during the judging by Octography.
Then finally Alyce and I could just relax and take some fun photos around the hotel. I had been wanting to get photos in these costumes since the first year this con was at this hotel so was excited to finally take advantage of this. On our way to the old wing of the hotel, we ran into Jo who still did a few quick photos for us even though we had canceled our actual shoot with us because she's awesome like that!
This is my favorite that she took ^.^
After that we continued on to the old wing and Brittany took some photos on my camera. While my camera isn't the greatest (Alyce had forgotten to bring Tom's camera) I still really love some of the shots we got...
This is probably my favorite of all the ones we got. Took a bit of work to time it right so there was no one in the background so had to wait til there was no one in the hallway but glad we did. ^.^
We felt this desk looked a bit like the one Elisabeth uses to write her angry letter to Franz. Though this is the wrong outfit for that scene but eh, who cares XD
Der Tod sneaking up on Elisabeth
Being a creeper XD
Elisabeth, your time is up
Feeling pretty satisfied with our photos, we got out of costume. I managed to not completely destroy all the nails this time so I got a few to re-use next time. But a few still did not survive, despite doing the method Eric suggested. Oh well. I still have some left to work with. Then the three of us went to dinner at the sushi place we ate at for Beth's birthday a few years ago. It was good but the miso soup tasted a little...off. So that was disappointing. The sushi was good at least. Then Alyce and Brittany went back on metro. Sadly this was the only day Alyce could attend but Brittany planned to come back the next day.
I decided to just stay out of costume the rest of the night. Lu and Liz were getting into their genderbend Assassin's Creed outfits and asked if I could take some photos for them so we went back over to the old wing hallway to take some silly and cute photos. Despite knowing very little about the games, I had fun taking their photos and learning about the game. We even got adventurous and went out on the little patio, despite it being wet and cold from the rain, where a few other people were also doing night photos. Got some pretty decent shots, despite my lack of photography skills. XD After that, I wandered a little bit with the two of them but nothing around the con really held my interest so I ended up just going back to the room and bumming there til I fell asleep.
Saturday:
Got into Richard and was surprised by how much recognition I got from it. It was more popular than I thought it would be, considering at Otakon barely anyone seemed to care about Graces. lol
Saw this awesome Galaxia cosplayer who made me pretty happy.
Went to the Dealer's Room after it opened since I had time to actually look around, but sure enough, not much interested me. Its hard once you come back from Japan. Cause everything seemed so "meh" in comparison. XD But I did run into Luna and her friend in their Hakuouki costumes. Glad to see my swords came in use. I wandered with them for a little bit until Brittany arrived and then I helped her get into costume in our room. Though I actually didn't do much helping. lol It was mostly Joanna and Brittany's other friend, who I'm blanking on the name right now. They seemed to have a system going so I just watched and helped more with her moving around the con once she got into it. I don't know the character but its from Dark Souls and its pretty damn impressive. She got a lot of attention from it, of course. We actually got her into it pretty fast so she had a little bit of time to mingle before we had to get her ready for judging. When I went in to help do all the paper work and stuff for her, everyone there thought I was entering Richard as well. XD I guess I could have but eh, I didn't win anything at Otakon with it and it had suffered some paint stains since then. That and I was more concerned with helping Brittany that day. One of her platform shoes completely broke off when she was going up to the judges...which was so bizarre and horrible timing. Luckily the shoe has nothing to do with the actual costume so we just held onto it while she did her best to balance on one foot. lol So after that, she gave up on the boots, which just meant she wasn't quite as tall and menancing as she wanted but you can't see her feet so it didn't matter what she wore at least. We then went outside to take some photos.
Brittany being amazing
Joanna also took some photos of me in Richard and they came out pretty nice! We found some flowers that kinda matched the colors on my costume. XD
Brittany and I then both changed out of costume. I changed into Prince Diamond and then met up with Stef for a mini photoshoot with her. I totally forgot my plastic wine glass (again) but Stef suggested we see if we could grab a glass from the bar. Surprisingly enough, the lady bartender was totally ok with us using one so we then bought some cranberry juice to put in it since the bar itself wasn't open yet so couldn't get actual wine, which is fine since I wouldn't have drunk it anyways. XD While we were doing this, ran into the Galaxia again and we took a villains photo together though I still have yet to find said photo. lol She also mentioned she was doing Sapphire on Sunday but I wasn't really planning to get into costume then due to needing to go back on metro and all. Oh well. Did some photos with Stef though I haven't gotten them back yet so don't know how they came out but they were pretty fun. On my way back to the room, ran into Ben and Becca and hung with them for a little bit, just sitting on the floor and chatting.
Ben was wearing his amazing Bilbo costume at the time
Brittany joined us for a little bit but she wasn't feeling too well so her and Forest packed up the monster and headed off to metro. I changed into regular clothes and decided to try to catch the last bit of the Schwarz Stein concert. I had originally intended to go earlier but caught up with talking to people but it wasn't a huge deal. I do like the band but its been so long since I listened to any of their stuff and I only ever knew a few songs by them. Still, I did like the few songs I knew a lot and was still surprised they were even at this con. On my way over there, I found Ling and her friend hanging in the hallway outside of the concert, catching it through the open door without actually going in and I decided to just join them out there. Cause all I really cared about was hearing them and it was more fun to chat with Ling about them than to stand by myself inside. Ling likewise knew about as many songs by them as I did. XD So it was nice bit of nostalgia for the both of us. I went with them in search of food after the concert since we were all a bit hungry but Dunkin Donuts was totally out of any actual food stuff and they decided to go to Chipotle instead, which I'm not a big fan of so I went to Noodles 'n Company...which was packed and the wait was really long but it was worth it. lol And I saw a really cute Tokyo Babylon group while I was there. I talked with the Subaru a little while in line. I didn't ask for a photo even though I wanted one due to it being crowded and the fact that I felt a little rude asking when they were eating. But man they were all perfect. *_*
Took my food back to the room and ate while chatting with Lu, who was in the room due to not feeling well. We mostly gaffed at the ridiculous shows on TV. I was also trying to kill time for the Masquerade since I really only was interested in the awards, figured I'd time it so I'd come in towards the end of the skits...yet somehow I ended up coming in RIGHT at the beginning. Pfft. lol I guess they were running late cause I went in to sit and was surprised how full it was and then see that they were JUST announcing the first skit. ...x_x Oh well. Figured I'd just sit through it since I was already there. It was...well it could have been worse. lol The only skit I even remember was the one with The Joker and Harley singing "Do you want to kill the Batman?" to the tune of "Do you want to build a Snowman?" which was actually pretty well done. I honestly don't remember anything else other than the fact there was a JoJo rap battle? But I don't know JoJo well enough to really understand the skit. XD; To be honest I found the half-time show with the maids more interesting than the show itself. Then got to the awards finally. I won Best Master's for Friday! :D And Brittany won Best in Show...which I so knew she would. I felt bad since she had gone home so I had meant to try to get her award for her but was told I had to wait til Sun to try to get it since we also poked to see if Brittany could come back to get it then. But she was still pretty excited judging by her text responses. XD I was a little sad I didn't get back into costume so I'd be in it to accept the award but there's no way I would have gotten into in it in time and I'd have to do it without make-up. Eric totally exaggerated on the amount of rhinestones I used when he announced the award though. lol It was close but not quite that many. XD But it was probably an easier number to say. I also heard someone in the audience shout out "beautiful~!" and I heard several gasps when he did say how many I sewed on so yay, got my tiny moment of glory there. Afterwards I wandered a little bit but there wasn't much to do so ended up just bumming in the room.
Sunday:
I decided I still wanted to show off a little so I put on my sparkly boots with my regular clothes which probably looked a bit goofy but whatever. XD I could have worn it with the sparkly vest but since I'd have to go home on metro soon, didn't want to get too dressed up. I put my stuff in Eric and Liz's car so I could stay and wander the con a little bit more. Tried to pick up Brittany's award but they had already packed everything up so they said they would mail it to her. Then wandered the Dealer's room for a bit and then Eric, Liz, and Lu decided to head out so I got my stuff out of their car and headed over to metro...and somehow went out the wrong side of the hotel. Pfft. So had to back into the hotel and to the other side. I'm so used to only coming out the one side so I guess the fact that they had driven their car out of the parking garage on the back side threw me off. Eventually figured it out though did have some trouble carrying everything by myself so might have to consider getting a ride to con next time if I plan to bring that much again. At least I got Luna to keep the swords for now so I wouldn't have to worry about them (she said she could use them for a photoshoot so it worked out). But yeah, the con was overall pretty good and I'm glad I finally got to enter Tod. ^.^
~Lyn