Vegas Yeah~
Went to work and stayed until 2pm on Thursday and went home to finish packing and wait for Zach to come and pick me up. We left Santaquin around four-ish. The drive was spent talking, stopped in Cedar City for sushi, stopped in St. George for some groceries, jamming to music and attempting to NaNo. We got into Las Vegas about 9pm their time. We checked into the hotel and on our way our of the lobby we ran into Todd Haberkorn. I said "Hi Todd!"
And he just immediately turned and looked at me curiously, eyebrow cocked in confusion. "Do I know you?"
"Uh, no. We've never met, but I know who you are :D" Okay, yeah, that sounded creepy... but of course I know him! He's here cause he's famous.
He shook my hand and asked where we were from and said Salt Lake, and he thought that was cool. He'd just got in from LA and was checking in. We parted ways and said we'd see him around.
Zach will forever tease me about my creeper moment. I wasn't expecting him to, like, stop and talk to me! I meant it more like a passing hi! I thought it was funny. I do love my voice actor encounters XD
Whilst waiting for gab, fault and Jeff to get into town, Zach and I walked around Vegas. I've walked the Strip several times in my life, but not so late at night. I'm used to hookers on the streets and people flicking porn in your face, but I wasn't used to people being in costume O_O. We passed Woody and Buzz. Jesus. Bumblebee. Marilyn Monroe. Barney. Then there were a lot more drunk and crazy people out and about more so than normal. Don't know why the costumes were more shocking than everything else, but there you go. Amusing to note was that the porn flickers reached over me to hand it to Zach. We are together, thank you very much!
After exhausting ourselves, we headed back to the rooms and Zach fell asleep on the couch in mine and Melissa's room. 1am the rest of our peeps join us. There was some miscommunications with a pick up with signs for the convention and sadly Melissa had to deal with it despite telling Rich several times she was not local :/ We probably got to bed around 2:30 when all was said and accounted for.
Friday Melissa got up early to help out with her staff duties and I rolled out of bed a few hours later to get ready and meet up with her to help out. We spent quite a while trying to print off more signs, but none of the computers in the Ops room were helpful :p We had Zach bring Melissa's laptop up and we fiddled with it some more.
Went to the Dealers Room for a bit before Opening Ceremonies. When Opening Ceremonies ended, we parted ways for noms and I just opted to eat the food I brought to eat. While the rest were getting their noms and some groceries I went to the Yoko Ishida and Chihiro Yonikura concert.
I've been a fan of Yoko Ishida since Pretear and bought the domestic release of her album, so it was fun to see her perform some new songs. I was disappointed of how SHORT the concert was. Two Japanese singers and they sang for maybe 15 minutes each. I was also confused why they had the concert on Friday when hardly anyone was there.
They sung a duet of the Evangelion Opening and it was pretty cool. Got that on film.
After the concert ended, I met up with Zach to go to the Voice Acting for Beginners class with Kyle Hebert and Julie Rei Goldstein (Sam Reigel canceled :C and Patrick Seitz was only there on Saturday). It was amusing. Nothing Zach or I didn't know already, but Kyle is fun.
Then I went to get signatures from Yoko and Chihiro. I was amazed at the short line and how QUIET it was in there. It was like waiting in line for a funeral viewing. I guess with the Japanese guests they wanted us to be extremely quiet. I got up and had Yoko sign my CD and she was VERY thrilled that I had it (lots of "WAI!!! ARIGATO!!'s). Had Chihiro sign the back of my con badge and they took my hand in theirs and thanked me.
On my way back to find Zach in the AMVs, I stopped in artist alley and snagged a few things. Watched some AMVs and then we went to find our peeps. Chilled in the room for a bit before deciding to go get IHOP for dinner so we could snag their internets. Then we went to Walmart and all bought ponies. Came back to the rooms and brushed their hair together. It was very magical.
Saturday I got up all by my lonesome and got ready and went to the Hellsing panel. Personally I don't care for the series, but that was the only panel Crispin Freeman was going to have. But with so many others at the panel, he didn't really say much, but when he did I was like "pleeeeeeeease talk more~"
Left the panel and headed to the viewing room to watch the Bonds Beyond Time Abridged movie. It's been online for well over a week now, but I thought it would be fun if I waited to watch it with a bunch of other people and man was it amazing XD Probably in my top five favorite projects LK and Co. has done. I laughed so much.
Click to viewFor your loling pleasure. There's three parts!
LK had his panel at the same time as Crispin Freeman's signature signing and I was conflicted the whole Vegas trip thus far trying to figure out what to do. I had missed LK's panel last year and was really sad because they put him in a tiny tiny room and cut the line. THEN I learned that Crispin was signing for two hours instead of one :D! So I went to LK's panel, then Zach texted me saying he had a place in line for me o_o I didn't even have to ask him! You guys, I have the best boyfriend ever!! He texted again when he was getting close, so I left LK's panel early and found Zach in line.
I get up to the table and Crispin looks straight into my eyes with his gorgeous blue eyes I kinda... got distracted. I handed him my Durarara DVD. He takes out his handy sharpie and is like "I will sign on his hair, cause his face is pretty!" I dunno what it is, but overall he just seemed tired and not as enthusiastic as I'd thought he'd be going by his twitter/facebook feed and the commentaries I have. Or maybe he just likes to be more reserved in person.
(this is also the only photo I have of myself in cosplay, derp)
Met up with Melissa and Company and got in line again for Todd Haberkorn and Kyle Hebert! Whilst in line, saw epic Yugi cosplay.
Then upon uploading this, I discovered this is one of Katie's friends that I've met before, Lol. She was getting a lot of attention, so I didn't try to get a better photo. And, I must voice my complaint of how unimpressed I was at the cosplay. There was maybe a small handful that were good.
Group photo of all of us. Blurry photo is blurry and dark. I should have given the volunteer more instructions -_-;
(live_bomb
My terriyaki chicken, rice, California rolls and veggies! It was REALLY tasty. Very on par with Yamatos. They also served Calpico! The waitresses were in cosplay, Ponyo was playing on the TVs, and the walls were lined with anime decor. I really hope the place sticks around, cause I want to make that a traditional stop.
Came back to the con and Zach and I went to LK and his new wife Marianne's panel and stayed for all of five minutes as they and the rest of their panelists were completely smashed and it was just annoying to watch. Unless you like watching drunk people do stupid things.
Oh, so this convention had every panel after 6pm be 18+ I'm fine if there are some cause there are people that enjoy that but there was no alternative for people that don't. Then the one that we tried to go to was incredibly ridiculous. Later we found it that they had so many was because the guests wanted to have some along with attendees. But still, have at least one other panel for the younger crowd and ones that wish to be less disturbed. /rant
Came back to the rooms and watched this week's MLP episode. Then grabbed our laptops and internetted forever. (The internet was uber expensive, but that night we decided we wanted it). Melissa and I giggled like five year olds over FEELS and dancing llamas for the majority of the evening.
Sunday we all got up and went to the Anime Radio Show that Kyle Hebert put together. He took an old radio show script and invited all the guests to execute it. It was hilarious watching his face drop in horror when realizing this was a bad idea... so many dirty minds amongst the guests XD
Grabbed some noms between that and the FUNimation panel, which was... kind of pointless. I was hoping for some important reveal or stuff that I couldn't find just by looking on the internet. At least the Hetalia movie outtakes that she showed were entertaining.
Closing ceremonies was kind blah as all the guests had already left, but the Taiko drum group was really cool!
After that was the Bitch at Rich session and Melissa got to sit up on stage with the other staff members :D Lots of good suggestions were discussed about organization, problems and future guests. Come to find out that there was only sixteen hundred attendees. Banzai doubled their numbers o_o this is shocking since Vegas acts like such a big convention. Guests really do love Rich, I guess.
Left the convention and went over to the Excalibur for a buffet of yum. Wandered the casino and arcade there. Then whilst driving down The Strip and trying to see if Melissa could find a real hooker for the lulz, we all developed posh alter egos because we supposedly robbed a bank. I am now Ristakay. Zach is ZjeiZjei. Melissa is Miffy. Aaron is Ajax. And Jeff is Biff. We're crazy, yes. The rest of the evening was spent giggling and talking, watching the Abridged movie and staying up until stupid a.m.
Yesterday we requested a later check out so we could be lazy and sleep and take our time getting out the door. We packed up and left after noon and we drove our separate cars home. Zach and I stayed behind to look around some more and to take pictures for the new City Center since my dad did some cabinet and countertop work. Unfortunately we couldn't get inside the time share tower :(
Paris Casion over the Bellagio water.
Chocolate fountain inside Aria.
Once our feet were tired, and it was getting late, we grabbed In-N-Out and got on our way. Watched the Abridged movie again on my Zune and got two days worth of NaNo typed up, but I'm still incredibly behind T^T Got home just after 10pm. Talked to the family, uploaded photos and crashed.
I'm still very tired ;; Was not cool getting in the car this morning and discovering the battery was dead, so I was late to work this morning -_-;
Anyway, here's the stuff I bought!
My mission was to buy all the Tiger and Bunny things. That's the only reason I have that Yaoi badge :p I love little bottlecap cellphone charm Kotetsu! Got KIDA commissioned for $3. Daisuke and Dark, Yugi and Nyan Cat buttons.
Snagged Gundam 00 S1 for $45. That's the cheapest yet! Normally they go for $20-40 each and I got all three discs for $15 each. And Happily I got Yugi out of a blind box. Yay, my Jounouchi isn't alone~
So far Anime Vegas and Banzai are my for-sure plans. With Camron going on his mission March/April, who knows if his farewell will fall on Fannatiku's week. Banzai will probably just happen all the time since I get in via press badge. I'd like to go to Comic Con this year as well, but who knows if that's going to be possible.
But hey! I got cosplay plans for next year.
Skyward Sword Zelda. Sooooo excited to play this game. I'm asking for it for Christmas as I can't justify buying it for myself at this time.
Ringo from Uta no Prince Sama Maji 1000% Love. I've always wanted a pink wig and I think he would be a lot of fun. Yes, you heard me. He.