Con, long form
Note to self: do not click the pop up that says someone has commented. You must retype everything. I am tired. I am yawning. I want to sleep. My bed is calling. However, if I get in it, my eyelids pop up and my brain hits overdrive, so I'm typing instead. Er, retyping.
Flight was good. Plane was in early, everyone was there, we left early, had a good tailwind, showed up at San Fran International early.
San Fran International was staffed by idiots in uniform, who when asked where to find the San Mateo Marriott shuttle on level one, like the website for con had said, sent anyone who asked up to level 2, because "all hotel shuttles pick up on level 2". So, went to level 2, found the hotel shuttle sign, and waited. Waited long enough to identify 2 other people headed for con just by the "con" look.
Yes, there is a con look.
One of them had the number for the hotel. Called. Yes, the shuttle was running. Yes, it was picking up downstairs, the airport staff was wrong. So, we went back downstairs. Went out the door. Went across the street and all the way down to the right like we'd been told... not a single shuttle, not a single shuttle sign. Went back across the street, still no shuttle sign, or sign of shuttle. Walked back pretty much to the door we'd come out, and went back inside.
Found, unbelievably enough, an INFORMED person in uniform behind one of the information booths - the same one, incidentally, that had contained an idiot when I asked - and were directed back to where we'd come from: the intersection of Courtyards 4 & G across the street from where the taxi line ended. Where we waited. And identified 3 other conventioners by the "con" look before they joined us in holding up a pillar. And we all waited. And waited, and waited, and waited... until one of them suggested we all split the fee on a taxi, since she'd found one who would take us for $20. And as we're walking that way, here comes a shuttle.
Note, the shuttle had no sign in the window. Instead, the idiot driver pulls up by where we are paused in our walk, peering at him to see if he is the one, and holds up the friggin' sign he's supposed to have in the window. The five of us turn around and go back. He pulls in, waves his sign a little bit, and more of us show up going "YES! IT'S FINALLY HERE!"
Ride to the hotel amazingly short, check in rather simple, aside from them trying to say my room wasn't ready because there were people still in it. Duh, two of the others staying in the room had got there the day before. Our fourth called me to find out where the shuttle was supposed to be, and I told her. Warned her the one that had come for me hadn't been handicapped accessible, and she asked me to remind the hotel she needed said form of transpo. So, I did.
Let's just say her wait was worse than mine, and the hotel paid for her trip to and from the airport by cab. The shuttle service the convention had hired had NO handicap-accessible shuttles at all in their fleet.
Um, the hotel was okay. I wanted to take the bed home, but it wouldn't fit in my suitcase. I wasn't real impressed with their service, aside from one particular guy behind the lobby's counter (and him I have a picture of). The convention itself needed some fine-tuning, but it was an overall blast.
Got to watch anime whilst waiting for my number to come up for getting my badge & bracelet. No idea at all what was playing, but it sucked. I was rooting for the bad guy. Force. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't as stupid as the good guys, who were gonna win anyway just because they were the good guys. Decided to skip out on that and take pictures and video of the chaos in the hall and lobby. Eventually got what I needed, snacked, napped, and went to opening ceremony. So ended day #1.
Day #2 was the panels. And the dealers. And the swap meet and the fan dealers.
I got Gackt, Dir en Grey, & Malice Mizer at the swap meet, along with some other j-rock/pop that I didn't recognize the names of, and some anime soundtracks. Got a couple free VHS animes that the gal just plain didn't wanna take home so was giving away, the live action Death Note, and a random assortment of other goodies.
Got some Visual Kei stuff from one of the dealers, some autographed prints & books, some random pretty pictures - and I cannot BELIEVE that I failed to get the Sephiroth print I went for! - and a bunch of free stuff. Including a latex condom sucker I will never use, since latex hates me. But it amused me that so many of the dealers were giving out free condoms. OOOO! I snagged myself a Sephiroth and my son (he's 9) a Cloud. Not the one with Fenrir. I love my kid, but I'm not buying him a $65 collectible to tear the hell out of.
From the fan dealers... some autographed prints, buttons galore - and I must remember to special order a couple - and a sticker. Don't think I picked up anything else from them.
Come to think of it, I picked up a lot of Bleach stuff, and have no idea where I got it all.
General prizes won included a Shiki chibi doll, V6 autographed art prints, a poster... *thinks* Yeah, I think that's it for prizes.
The cosplay contest was hilarious, and I got myself a bishie at the auction. He's a cutie, even without the wig, and once we were both through with being sick from drinking white Chardonnay on empty stomachs (DO NOT do that, it's a miserable hour or so once the ick kicks in), we had a pretty good time dancing and talking. That took us into day #3.
Day #3, for me, the con was effectively over before it ended. We did the bishie brunch, which was pretty good. Gots my piccy taken with a few of the bishies. Lovely, adorable things they were. (Probably also going to aviod females for the rest of the week, considering how badly and constantly they got mobbed!) There was only one panel I was interested in, and I managed to miss it because I'd planned to do sight-seeing after I'd done some necessary shopping. *coughs* I needed a suitcase for taking my goodies home.
I made a quick tour through the library, established that the anime currently playing was one I wasn't interested in watching, and finally found my youngest the panda he'd asked for. One of the dealers actually had one, and I saw it just in passing, after having realized I didn't have enough time after the brunch and shopping (done first to confirm souvenir pennies) to do the exploring I'd wanted to do and taking yet another "crap there's got to be a panda something related to anime" turn through the dealer's room. My oldest had decided he'd rather have Cloud than a white tiger after all.... since they didn't have Ichigo, Grimjow, Genesis or Reno and I told him he couldn't have Sephiroth. He did get white tiger ears, though, and the baby-child (who's 5 and informs me he's a big boy now, thank you very much) got some soft fuzzy blue ones.
Ending ceremony was kinda... yeah. Everyone was frikkin' tired - I'd passed people literally sleeping in the line waiting on it to start during one of my picture tours - no one was all that interested in screeching and showing excitement when their numbers were drawn in the raffles.
Went afterwards to what was jokingly referred to as a "DBZ fanfic writer's support group". The dealers I'd got the panda from, no less, me & my remaining roommates. "Hi, I'm X, and I've been writing DBZ fic for Y years. Been involved with yaoi for z years..." Left them going at it because I seriously needed to pack.
Emery is hereby declared the sweetest of the bishies, and Sweedish my favorite, even though I had the most fun with Elysium. Anton is decidedly the craziest, and I fear for next year - he'll be back! Him, I have multiple video on, from before I realized he was a con bishie. Since he is, no video will be posted to prove him the craziest, sorry. The most popular though, considering he sold for $1600
was definitely Lestat. No, I didn't catch all their names. Yes, I talked at least a little bit to a lot more of them. Got pictures of most of them, some with me. I came home a happy girl... and then I went to work. The bishie vibes have all worn off.
And somewhere in there, someone actually asked me to pose for a picture, 'cause they thought I looked so pretty in my outfit.
<-- me in shock. Unfortunately, the only pictures of that outfit I have have bishies in them, so you don't get to see it. I'll post up the other one instead.
Flight home delayed an hour. We had a headwind. We were LATE. I was bushed. Handed my dad the keys.
HE RAN INTO THE CAR BEHIND US.
I got home very late - and I drove. *kicks Dad's butt again* I will be covering the damage with bumperstickers, yes.
There we go. Long version's over.
Flight was good. Plane was in early, everyone was there, we left early, had a good tailwind, showed up at San Fran International early.
San Fran International was staffed by idiots in uniform, who when asked where to find the San Mateo Marriott shuttle on level one, like the website for con had said, sent anyone who asked up to level 2, because "all hotel shuttles pick up on level 2". So, went to level 2, found the hotel shuttle sign, and waited. Waited long enough to identify 2 other people headed for con just by the "con" look.
Yes, there is a con look.
One of them had the number for the hotel. Called. Yes, the shuttle was running. Yes, it was picking up downstairs, the airport staff was wrong. So, we went back downstairs. Went out the door. Went across the street and all the way down to the right like we'd been told... not a single shuttle, not a single shuttle sign. Went back across the street, still no shuttle sign, or sign of shuttle. Walked back pretty much to the door we'd come out, and went back inside.
Found, unbelievably enough, an INFORMED person in uniform behind one of the information booths - the same one, incidentally, that had contained an idiot when I asked - and were directed back to where we'd come from: the intersection of Courtyards 4 & G across the street from where the taxi line ended. Where we waited. And identified 3 other conventioners by the "con" look before they joined us in holding up a pillar. And we all waited. And waited, and waited, and waited... until one of them suggested we all split the fee on a taxi, since she'd found one who would take us for $20. And as we're walking that way, here comes a shuttle.
Note, the shuttle had no sign in the window. Instead, the idiot driver pulls up by where we are paused in our walk, peering at him to see if he is the one, and holds up the friggin' sign he's supposed to have in the window. The five of us turn around and go back. He pulls in, waves his sign a little bit, and more of us show up going "YES! IT'S FINALLY HERE!"
Ride to the hotel amazingly short, check in rather simple, aside from them trying to say my room wasn't ready because there were people still in it. Duh, two of the others staying in the room had got there the day before. Our fourth called me to find out where the shuttle was supposed to be, and I told her. Warned her the one that had come for me hadn't been handicapped accessible, and she asked me to remind the hotel she needed said form of transpo. So, I did.
Let's just say her wait was worse than mine, and the hotel paid for her trip to and from the airport by cab. The shuttle service the convention had hired had NO handicap-accessible shuttles at all in their fleet.
Um, the hotel was okay. I wanted to take the bed home, but it wouldn't fit in my suitcase. I wasn't real impressed with their service, aside from one particular guy behind the lobby's counter (and him I have a picture of). The convention itself needed some fine-tuning, but it was an overall blast.
Got to watch anime whilst waiting for my number to come up for getting my badge & bracelet. No idea at all what was playing, but it sucked. I was rooting for the bad guy. Force. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't as stupid as the good guys, who were gonna win anyway just because they were the good guys. Decided to skip out on that and take pictures and video of the chaos in the hall and lobby. Eventually got what I needed, snacked, napped, and went to opening ceremony. So ended day #1.
Day #2 was the panels. And the dealers. And the swap meet and the fan dealers.
I got Gackt, Dir en Grey, & Malice Mizer at the swap meet, along with some other j-rock/pop that I didn't recognize the names of, and some anime soundtracks. Got a couple free VHS animes that the gal just plain didn't wanna take home so was giving away, the live action Death Note, and a random assortment of other goodies.
Got some Visual Kei stuff from one of the dealers, some autographed prints & books, some random pretty pictures - and I cannot BELIEVE that I failed to get the Sephiroth print I went for! - and a bunch of free stuff. Including a latex condom sucker I will never use, since latex hates me. But it amused me that so many of the dealers were giving out free condoms. OOOO! I snagged myself a Sephiroth and my son (he's 9) a Cloud. Not the one with Fenrir. I love my kid, but I'm not buying him a $65 collectible to tear the hell out of.
From the fan dealers... some autographed prints, buttons galore - and I must remember to special order a couple - and a sticker. Don't think I picked up anything else from them.
Come to think of it, I picked up a lot of Bleach stuff, and have no idea where I got it all.
General prizes won included a Shiki chibi doll, V6 autographed art prints, a poster... *thinks* Yeah, I think that's it for prizes.
The cosplay contest was hilarious, and I got myself a bishie at the auction. He's a cutie, even without the wig, and once we were both through with being sick from drinking white Chardonnay on empty stomachs (DO NOT do that, it's a miserable hour or so once the ick kicks in), we had a pretty good time dancing and talking. That took us into day #3.
Day #3, for me, the con was effectively over before it ended. We did the bishie brunch, which was pretty good. Gots my piccy taken with a few of the bishies. Lovely, adorable things they were. (Probably also going to aviod females for the rest of the week, considering how badly and constantly they got mobbed!) There was only one panel I was interested in, and I managed to miss it because I'd planned to do sight-seeing after I'd done some necessary shopping. *coughs* I needed a suitcase for taking my goodies home.
I made a quick tour through the library, established that the anime currently playing was one I wasn't interested in watching, and finally found my youngest the panda he'd asked for. One of the dealers actually had one, and I saw it just in passing, after having realized I didn't have enough time after the brunch and shopping (done first to confirm souvenir pennies) to do the exploring I'd wanted to do and taking yet another "crap there's got to be a panda something related to anime" turn through the dealer's room. My oldest had decided he'd rather have Cloud than a white tiger after all.... since they didn't have Ichigo, Grimjow, Genesis or Reno and I told him he couldn't have Sephiroth. He did get white tiger ears, though, and the baby-child (who's 5 and informs me he's a big boy now, thank you very much) got some soft fuzzy blue ones.
Ending ceremony was kinda... yeah. Everyone was frikkin' tired - I'd passed people literally sleeping in the line waiting on it to start during one of my picture tours - no one was all that interested in screeching and showing excitement when their numbers were drawn in the raffles.
Went afterwards to what was jokingly referred to as a "DBZ fanfic writer's support group". The dealers I'd got the panda from, no less, me & my remaining roommates. "Hi, I'm X, and I've been writing DBZ fic for Y years. Been involved with yaoi for z years..." Left them going at it because I seriously needed to pack.
Emery is hereby declared the sweetest of the bishies, and Sweedish my favorite, even though I had the most fun with Elysium. Anton is decidedly the craziest, and I fear for next year - he'll be back! Him, I have multiple video on, from before I realized he was a con bishie. Since he is, no video will be posted to prove him the craziest, sorry. The most popular though, considering he sold for $1600
was definitely Lestat. No, I didn't catch all their names. Yes, I talked at least a little bit to a lot more of them. Got pictures of most of them, some with me. I came home a happy girl... and then I went to work. The bishie vibes have all worn off.
And somewhere in there, someone actually asked me to pose for a picture, 'cause they thought I looked so pretty in my outfit.
<-- me in shock. Unfortunately, the only pictures of that outfit I have have bishies in them, so you don't get to see it. I'll post up the other one instead.
Flight home delayed an hour. We had a headwind. We were LATE. I was bushed. Handed my dad the keys.
HE RAN INTO THE CAR BEHIND US.
I got home very late - and I drove. *kicks Dad's butt again* I will be covering the damage with bumperstickers, yes.
There we go. Long version's over.