Anime Central 2010
Time for my recap on Anime Central, 2010!
It all started for me on Wednesday, when Tommy came in from Ohio! Unfortunately my house is in the process of being painted, so I was a little upset that our house was cluttered up with tons of painting supplies. Tommy arrived mid afternoon- I was still in the process of packing. He was extremely exhausted from being up since 4am, and the long drive. He took a nap while I continued to pack. Around 6ish we went out for dinner, to Benjarong Thai, a really good place near my house. We went back home so I could continue packing. (For me, at cons, the packing never seems to end...o_O) I wanted to make some more of the cute toasted marshmallows plushies to sell for the weekend. Tommy and I watched Ru Paul's Drag Race while I worked on them. At about 8:45, we left for the Elmhurst Jewel to meet with the Acen Guys to buy any alcohol we wanted plus any other food items we had forgotten. We bought our stuff then headed back home. Tommy was exhausted so he went to bed- I of course was still not done packing, and I wanted to finish the marshmallows. I finally got to bed at about 1:30 am.
On Thursday morning Tommy and I woke up relatively early. We had some coffee, then made ourselves breakfast! Tommy made scrambled eggs, and I heated up some bacon and made toast. We didn't need to be at the hotel until about 1, so we took our time getting ready. We packed up everything into my mom's car, then picked up Kevin and we headed to the hotel. We saw Anne right away, then took all of our things up to our room. We unpacked and watched an episode of The Tyra Show. =P Lauren/Sassy ended up getting to the hotel sooner than expected! Anne and I wanted to get to the artist's alley so that we could get our table set up. Well, of course Acen fucked up and didn't get us the right tables next to each other. I kind of had a mini breakdown in my mind during the course of that. Luckily, there were 2 empty tables in another area of the AA, so we decided to take those instead of being separated >.>; My mind was definitely put at ease after that. I headed back to the room to hang out with Sassy. I wanted to go to Denny's with the Acen guys for dinner- but the fact that no time was set on when they were going and the problem of not having enough cars to get everyone there threw a wrench in our plans. After much deliberation, I said fuck it, and Tommy, Anne, Lauren, Kevin and I went to eat at the Red Bar. The prices weren't horrible surprisingly, and the food was really good. We also talked to Jim and Zach for a bit. We headed back to the room, watched some of the show on the Bunny Ranch (which always seems to be on at every con we go to), then got ready for bed. We ended the night quoting The Mask. XD
Friday morning we all woke up around 9ish. Anne and my panels started at 11am, so we had to get ready asap. I didn't wear a costume, but I wore the dress I wore on New Years Eve, which was cutesy and mildly Misa Amane-ish. I got tons of complements on my outfit, mostly from Lolita girls. It was pretty hilarious considering the dress was only $20, and the feathered headband was only $5- all from Forever 21! Anne and I had some trouble finding our panel room- and when we did, it was in the most confusing spot ever >.<; Of course what could've gone wrong did- we didn't have the correct cables for Anne's computer to the projector. After about 20 minutes of stalling, we managed to get help from staff! Finally everything was ok. We did both of our panels, The Ways of the Wig & Taming Garment Details. We had a decent turnout and things went extremely well. After the panels, we were pretty hungry. We headed back to the room to grab some lunch. After eating, I headed back down to the Artist's Alley to finally set up! My first sale was quite interesting. A group of about 4 guys walked up to the table and asked if I had any black nail polish. Surprisingly, I did. They were extremely excited, and asked if I would paint one of their friends nails, in exchange for $5. I of course agreed. Rivvy, Mariko, and JT also stopped by! I spent most of the rest of the day at the table, selling things. Sassy also graciously helped me a LOT. She's a great salesperson and so gosh darn bubbly! :D I decided to pack things up around 5ish. I took my things back to the room and changed into normal clothes.
Sassy and I ate a bunch of the alcohol soaked gummies that Mariko brought. They were definitely super strong. We went down the the Acen Guys room to see what was up. Shawn was texting me about hanging out with them, so we hoofed it all the way over to the Intercontinental Hotel. They were all drinking beer and playing wizard sticks. Kevin of course had way too much. -_- Andrew, Tommy, Anne, and several others also showed up. We eventually headed back to the hotel. I met up with Sassy and Patrick at the Red Bar. Kevin was hungry so he went back to his room. We hung out in the bar area for a while, saw Jay, Justin, TF and others. We saw Pernell from across the lobby so we followed him down to where the RPGs of the 90s panel was going on. We didn't stay long, mostly because we were extremely hungry. Andrew offered to drive us to McDonald's down the street. Sassy and I waited in the lobby while Andrew and Tim went to get the car. We got some food, snuck back into the hotel parking lot, and listened to some hilarious 90s music in Andrew's car. We went to bed shortly after.
Saturday morning I woke up only mildly hungover. Anne got into her Momohime costume, and I got into my super vinyl strait jacket-I mean Asuka plugsuit. For reasons unknown, the cut out in the front of my suit was gapping like crazy, which of course was annoying considering my boobs were…right there. I made do with style tape, but ended up using my wig to cover up any other parts. =P I fully got into costume and headed down to the artist’s alley. I set up my stuff again (stiffly, because this was not exactly the most comfortable costume). I ran into more friends and worked on some rosettes while at the table. I also got a good amount of pictures taken just standing behind the table! I wanted to take a break for lunch, so I headed back to the room to eat. After eating, I wanted to do a bit of walking around in my costume that I had worked so hard on. Luckily, Rivvy was with Sam Lee who wanted to take photos of my costume! We snapped some pics in the stairwell, then hung out in the lobby for a bit. Ran into Dan, Mariko, as well as Jim and Zach again. At about 4ish I headed back to the Artist’s Alley. I stayed there and sold more stuff until about 5:30. By this point I was completely ready to get out of costume! I wasn’t quite ready to get into my Gaga costume just yet- so I opted to stay in normal clothes for a bit. Unfortunately I didn’t have an extra shirt- so I wore a button up cardigan as one. I took some easy mac up to the Acen guys room to heat up, then went back to my room. Anne’s dancers for the soap bubble were all filing in, getting ready with hair and makeup. After a bit of chilling/drinking in the room- Mariko started with my Lady Gaga makeup. Pernell and others came in to visit, and shortly after all the girls were off to meet up for their soap bubble dealie.
Tommy, Sassy, Kevin and I were left in the room. We drank a little more, then I got into my Gaga costume. I was extremely happy with the way it turned out, I definitely want to wear it again. We prepared our Gatorade bottles and went down to the Acen Guys room, where we also met up with Andrew. We chilled in their room for a bit, then headed downstairs. This is where things got bit fudged up. All of these events were happening simultaneously, which made things difficult. We wanted to go to at least part of the masquerade (which didn’t end up happening), wanted to go to the soap bubble to dance on stage (which only happened briefly), I wanted to walk around in my Gaga costume (I didn’t get to walk around much), and we wanted to go to the Acen Guys panel (the one thing we actually accomplished…but by that time we were tired of drinking, and were just tired in general. Thus the panel wasn’t as enjoyable as last year D: ) We spent most of our time standing outside of the grand ballroom, waiting to get into the soap bubble. We were under the impression that since we knew people running it, and I was a PART of RedStar Costumes it would be a cinch getting in. Wrong. We spent entirely too much time just standing there, when we could have been drinking in the room, or walking around in costume. I was very let down by that. Eventually we made a break for the backstage door (we being Sassy and I) and basically ran backstage, up the ramp and onto the stage. NO ONE stopped us at all. =P We danced for about 15 minutes, but by then I was already tired of it. The music was mediocre- I really wish I could’ve been there for Vinh’s set. We headed back out to where this “VIP” room was, got some kind of paper bracelets, then left. Lol. We headed towards the Acen Guys panel since it was starting soon. I was super happy to see the golden retriever service doggy again! We sat in the panel- but by that time we were pretty exhausted altogether. I was a bit disappointed in myself for going to bed so early (around 2ish), but eh, I still had a good Saturday.
Sunday morning we woke up, dressed, packed, then took all of our stuff to the artist’s alley. I hadn’t gotten to look around the artist’s alley/dealers hall at all over the weekend, so I did that. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I did get a super adorable panda plushie from Happy Japan. They had a super big body pillow version of the panda that I wanted, but it was $100. I headed back to the table for a bit, and at around 2 my mom came to pick up Tommy, Kevin and I. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home, then watched some TV, and took a nap. Later on, Mariko wanted to meet us for dinner, so we took Tommy to Giordano’s for some exclusive Chicago pizza. We got back to my house, watched some Deadliest Warrior then went to bed. Tommy left early the next morning!
The following weekend was also definitely eventful. On Thursday, my mom took me out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, probably my favorite restaurant. We then went to Nordstrom to take a look at their sunglasses. My mom generously bought me a pair of classic black RayBan wayfarers as my birthday gift. I was so torn between the black and this amazing pair of white ones that had a pink floral print on the inside. If I get an influx of money, I may just have to get those too…My brother came over to celebrate with my family later that night. We had Portillo’s for dinner, and my mom made a great orange cake off of a Paula Deen recipe. On Friday night, Kevin and I met up with Lauren, Bret and Matt to watch the Hawks game. It was quite eventful and super fun to watch. Even Scott Alan and Irene stopped by! =P
Saturday was my actual birthday. I did have to go to work, but I didn’t really mind. I got out an hour early, then headed home to get ready for my birthday gathering at Hala Kahiki. I had a super fantastic time there, thank you so much to all the people who came out to celebrate with me. I drank one too many tiger sharks and don’t really remember the rest of the night. =P I remember going to Gene and Jude’s, but pretty much nothing after that. Sunday I spent most of the day relaxing with a slight hangover. That night, I met Andrew and his friend Jamie in the city for the Imogen Heap concert! We ate at a place called Fat Cat nearby, which was quite tasty. The concert was really great too- a totally different kind of concert experience. I’m very glad I went. Thanks Andrew!
That night was also the night of the LOST series finale- which I had to miss because of the concert. On Monday morning, since neither Kevin or I worked, we spent roughly 4 hours watching it. O_o Yep, a 2 hour recap of the series then a 2.5 hour final episode. The more I think about it now, the more depressed I am that LOST won’t be back. I may end up typing more about this later.
And now I’m almost at the weekend, again! I have been working on a trenchcoat for a customer, which I will hopefully finish today or tomorrow. After that I’d love to work on plushies again. I also received a sort of…crazy email this morning. I had tried to apply for a position at the Beverly Arts Center a few weeks ago- but I was sent an email back saying that I should send my resume anyway, as they hire costumers on a semi-regular basis. Well, I got an email from them today! The project they emailed about was this: A Super Mario themed burlesque show: Boobs and Goombas. HAH! This was so totally out of left field. I read up on what they want, and…I think I may do it. It sounds too ridiculous not to. ^_^
It all started for me on Wednesday, when Tommy came in from Ohio! Unfortunately my house is in the process of being painted, so I was a little upset that our house was cluttered up with tons of painting supplies. Tommy arrived mid afternoon- I was still in the process of packing. He was extremely exhausted from being up since 4am, and the long drive. He took a nap while I continued to pack. Around 6ish we went out for dinner, to Benjarong Thai, a really good place near my house. We went back home so I could continue packing. (For me, at cons, the packing never seems to end...o_O) I wanted to make some more of the cute toasted marshmallows plushies to sell for the weekend. Tommy and I watched Ru Paul's Drag Race while I worked on them. At about 8:45, we left for the Elmhurst Jewel to meet with the Acen Guys to buy any alcohol we wanted plus any other food items we had forgotten. We bought our stuff then headed back home. Tommy was exhausted so he went to bed- I of course was still not done packing, and I wanted to finish the marshmallows. I finally got to bed at about 1:30 am.
On Thursday morning Tommy and I woke up relatively early. We had some coffee, then made ourselves breakfast! Tommy made scrambled eggs, and I heated up some bacon and made toast. We didn't need to be at the hotel until about 1, so we took our time getting ready. We packed up everything into my mom's car, then picked up Kevin and we headed to the hotel. We saw Anne right away, then took all of our things up to our room. We unpacked and watched an episode of The Tyra Show. =P Lauren/Sassy ended up getting to the hotel sooner than expected! Anne and I wanted to get to the artist's alley so that we could get our table set up. Well, of course Acen fucked up and didn't get us the right tables next to each other. I kind of had a mini breakdown in my mind during the course of that. Luckily, there were 2 empty tables in another area of the AA, so we decided to take those instead of being separated >.>; My mind was definitely put at ease after that. I headed back to the room to hang out with Sassy. I wanted to go to Denny's with the Acen guys for dinner- but the fact that no time was set on when they were going and the problem of not having enough cars to get everyone there threw a wrench in our plans. After much deliberation, I said fuck it, and Tommy, Anne, Lauren, Kevin and I went to eat at the Red Bar. The prices weren't horrible surprisingly, and the food was really good. We also talked to Jim and Zach for a bit. We headed back to the room, watched some of the show on the Bunny Ranch (which always seems to be on at every con we go to), then got ready for bed. We ended the night quoting The Mask. XD
Friday morning we all woke up around 9ish. Anne and my panels started at 11am, so we had to get ready asap. I didn't wear a costume, but I wore the dress I wore on New Years Eve, which was cutesy and mildly Misa Amane-ish. I got tons of complements on my outfit, mostly from Lolita girls. It was pretty hilarious considering the dress was only $20, and the feathered headband was only $5- all from Forever 21! Anne and I had some trouble finding our panel room- and when we did, it was in the most confusing spot ever >.<; Of course what could've gone wrong did- we didn't have the correct cables for Anne's computer to the projector. After about 20 minutes of stalling, we managed to get help from staff! Finally everything was ok. We did both of our panels, The Ways of the Wig & Taming Garment Details. We had a decent turnout and things went extremely well. After the panels, we were pretty hungry. We headed back to the room to grab some lunch. After eating, I headed back down to the Artist's Alley to finally set up! My first sale was quite interesting. A group of about 4 guys walked up to the table and asked if I had any black nail polish. Surprisingly, I did. They were extremely excited, and asked if I would paint one of their friends nails, in exchange for $5. I of course agreed. Rivvy, Mariko, and JT also stopped by! I spent most of the rest of the day at the table, selling things. Sassy also graciously helped me a LOT. She's a great salesperson and so gosh darn bubbly! :D I decided to pack things up around 5ish. I took my things back to the room and changed into normal clothes.
Sassy and I ate a bunch of the alcohol soaked gummies that Mariko brought. They were definitely super strong. We went down the the Acen Guys room to see what was up. Shawn was texting me about hanging out with them, so we hoofed it all the way over to the Intercontinental Hotel. They were all drinking beer and playing wizard sticks. Kevin of course had way too much. -_- Andrew, Tommy, Anne, and several others also showed up. We eventually headed back to the hotel. I met up with Sassy and Patrick at the Red Bar. Kevin was hungry so he went back to his room. We hung out in the bar area for a while, saw Jay, Justin, TF and others. We saw Pernell from across the lobby so we followed him down to where the RPGs of the 90s panel was going on. We didn't stay long, mostly because we were extremely hungry. Andrew offered to drive us to McDonald's down the street. Sassy and I waited in the lobby while Andrew and Tim went to get the car. We got some food, snuck back into the hotel parking lot, and listened to some hilarious 90s music in Andrew's car. We went to bed shortly after.
Saturday morning I woke up only mildly hungover. Anne got into her Momohime costume, and I got into my super vinyl strait jacket-I mean Asuka plugsuit. For reasons unknown, the cut out in the front of my suit was gapping like crazy, which of course was annoying considering my boobs were…right there. I made do with style tape, but ended up using my wig to cover up any other parts. =P I fully got into costume and headed down to the artist’s alley. I set up my stuff again (stiffly, because this was not exactly the most comfortable costume). I ran into more friends and worked on some rosettes while at the table. I also got a good amount of pictures taken just standing behind the table! I wanted to take a break for lunch, so I headed back to the room to eat. After eating, I wanted to do a bit of walking around in my costume that I had worked so hard on. Luckily, Rivvy was with Sam Lee who wanted to take photos of my costume! We snapped some pics in the stairwell, then hung out in the lobby for a bit. Ran into Dan, Mariko, as well as Jim and Zach again. At about 4ish I headed back to the Artist’s Alley. I stayed there and sold more stuff until about 5:30. By this point I was completely ready to get out of costume! I wasn’t quite ready to get into my Gaga costume just yet- so I opted to stay in normal clothes for a bit. Unfortunately I didn’t have an extra shirt- so I wore a button up cardigan as one. I took some easy mac up to the Acen guys room to heat up, then went back to my room. Anne’s dancers for the soap bubble were all filing in, getting ready with hair and makeup. After a bit of chilling/drinking in the room- Mariko started with my Lady Gaga makeup. Pernell and others came in to visit, and shortly after all the girls were off to meet up for their soap bubble dealie.
Tommy, Sassy, Kevin and I were left in the room. We drank a little more, then I got into my Gaga costume. I was extremely happy with the way it turned out, I definitely want to wear it again. We prepared our Gatorade bottles and went down to the Acen Guys room, where we also met up with Andrew. We chilled in their room for a bit, then headed downstairs. This is where things got bit fudged up. All of these events were happening simultaneously, which made things difficult. We wanted to go to at least part of the masquerade (which didn’t end up happening), wanted to go to the soap bubble to dance on stage (which only happened briefly), I wanted to walk around in my Gaga costume (I didn’t get to walk around much), and we wanted to go to the Acen Guys panel (the one thing we actually accomplished…but by that time we were tired of drinking, and were just tired in general. Thus the panel wasn’t as enjoyable as last year D: ) We spent most of our time standing outside of the grand ballroom, waiting to get into the soap bubble. We were under the impression that since we knew people running it, and I was a PART of RedStar Costumes it would be a cinch getting in. Wrong. We spent entirely too much time just standing there, when we could have been drinking in the room, or walking around in costume. I was very let down by that. Eventually we made a break for the backstage door (we being Sassy and I) and basically ran backstage, up the ramp and onto the stage. NO ONE stopped us at all. =P We danced for about 15 minutes, but by then I was already tired of it. The music was mediocre- I really wish I could’ve been there for Vinh’s set. We headed back out to where this “VIP” room was, got some kind of paper bracelets, then left. Lol. We headed towards the Acen Guys panel since it was starting soon. I was super happy to see the golden retriever service doggy again! We sat in the panel- but by that time we were pretty exhausted altogether. I was a bit disappointed in myself for going to bed so early (around 2ish), but eh, I still had a good Saturday.
Sunday morning we woke up, dressed, packed, then took all of our stuff to the artist’s alley. I hadn’t gotten to look around the artist’s alley/dealers hall at all over the weekend, so I did that. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but I did get a super adorable panda plushie from Happy Japan. They had a super big body pillow version of the panda that I wanted, but it was $100. I headed back to the table for a bit, and at around 2 my mom came to pick up Tommy, Kevin and I. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way home, then watched some TV, and took a nap. Later on, Mariko wanted to meet us for dinner, so we took Tommy to Giordano’s for some exclusive Chicago pizza. We got back to my house, watched some Deadliest Warrior then went to bed. Tommy left early the next morning!
The following weekend was also definitely eventful. On Thursday, my mom took me out to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, probably my favorite restaurant. We then went to Nordstrom to take a look at their sunglasses. My mom generously bought me a pair of classic black RayBan wayfarers as my birthday gift. I was so torn between the black and this amazing pair of white ones that had a pink floral print on the inside. If I get an influx of money, I may just have to get those too…My brother came over to celebrate with my family later that night. We had Portillo’s for dinner, and my mom made a great orange cake off of a Paula Deen recipe. On Friday night, Kevin and I met up with Lauren, Bret and Matt to watch the Hawks game. It was quite eventful and super fun to watch. Even Scott Alan and Irene stopped by! =P
Saturday was my actual birthday. I did have to go to work, but I didn’t really mind. I got out an hour early, then headed home to get ready for my birthday gathering at Hala Kahiki. I had a super fantastic time there, thank you so much to all the people who came out to celebrate with me. I drank one too many tiger sharks and don’t really remember the rest of the night. =P I remember going to Gene and Jude’s, but pretty much nothing after that. Sunday I spent most of the day relaxing with a slight hangover. That night, I met Andrew and his friend Jamie in the city for the Imogen Heap concert! We ate at a place called Fat Cat nearby, which was quite tasty. The concert was really great too- a totally different kind of concert experience. I’m very glad I went. Thanks Andrew!
That night was also the night of the LOST series finale- which I had to miss because of the concert. On Monday morning, since neither Kevin or I worked, we spent roughly 4 hours watching it. O_o Yep, a 2 hour recap of the series then a 2.5 hour final episode. The more I think about it now, the more depressed I am that LOST won’t be back. I may end up typing more about this later.
And now I’m almost at the weekend, again! I have been working on a trenchcoat for a customer, which I will hopefully finish today or tomorrow. After that I’d love to work on plushies again. I also received a sort of…crazy email this morning. I had tried to apply for a position at the Beverly Arts Center a few weeks ago- but I was sent an email back saying that I should send my resume anyway, as they hire costumers on a semi-regular basis. Well, I got an email from them today! The project they emailed about was this: A Super Mario themed burlesque show: Boobs and Goombas. HAH! This was so totally out of left field. I read up on what they want, and…I think I may do it. It sounds too ridiculous not to. ^_^