So, updates...
Alrighty. Lemme open Facebook up, since I know that I stuck a couple updates there....
Y-con was a blast! So...
According to Facebook, I posted I was leaving at 4:16 am on Thursday. Was at the airport and discovered they had free wifi before 7:40am (next Facebook post). Was watching anime whilst I waited to be able to board the flight. My flight had no headwinds and LOTS of tailwind: we got to the airport a whole hour ahead of schedule! 'twas great!
Nikki had also arrived, and we texted back & forth trying to figure out where each other was. Finally determined we were in different buildings, and I called the hotel to check for sure where the shuttle would pick us up. Then proceeded to text Nikki the info - just in time for her to board the shuttle that was about to pull away. Mine was the next stop, and lucky me!, she'd saved me a seat. Ride highly uneventful, aside from the hovering jets. It was really weird, looking out the window to see that the airplanes WERE NOT MOVING. They were hovering. (yes, I know the technicalities, still looked like they weren't moving). So we had fun with "But that's only supposed to happen in Sci-fi!"
Hotel desk said they didn't have us registered as having a room. Insta "OH SHIT" fit, but they sent us down to the room that Ginia and Pixelgoddess were in, where we discovered that in the back and forth emails of the setting up of the room, some information had gotten mislaid, and certain full names had been losted. Still, Ginia had snagged our keycards for us, so all was well.
Showered off the evil that was travel and insane work schedule, and headed out for sightseeing. Met up with Angel, Dana, & PK, along with a bunch of others, but those were the three who wound up with me & Nikki on the BART. My first subway-type ride! Got directions from a guy in a wheelchair to clarify our written directions, and caught the bus to Japantown. Picked up munchies, kimono, & a desperate need for more spending money next year there, and returned back to the hotel. Our shuttle home was f'ing LATE, and poor PK got half-froze waiting on it.
On to the hot tub, where we met a certain blond for the first time - he was leaving, so more on him later. Tub was great... much goodness to be had. Then a nap for the insanity that was to begin the next day: The official first day of Yaoi-Con!
I'd actually expected to spend more time at con with Ginia and Pixelgoddess, and kinda feel like I ought to apologize to them for barely saying "hi" or "bye" through most of con. However, I am unfortunately easily swayed by pretty boys who demand my company, and Rufus Shin-Ra was my prince for the majority of con. Hey, I'm the Prince's Jewel, and he is the Prince of Shin-Ra, Inc., so it makes perfect sense! Anyhow...
We get up: we're STARVING. Must go get food. Ate breakfast at The Grill with Ginia and Pixel (shorter to type, kill me not!), and headed back to the hotel. Go back. Went wandering the hotel lobby, and met up with the lovely Rufus, whom we soon discovered was the blond from the hot tub the night before. Rufus and Reno were promptly suckered into a photo session with the cosplay.com photographer guy. Wander around a bit waiting for registration to start, meet up with AD&PK and haul them and Rufus to The Grill for lunch, and get back in time to get our numbers for registration.
Now, after this, things start getting blurry due to the utter lack of sleep I've had up to this point, and my memory wanting to go "tell them this! tell them this!" out of order. Also, I could be wrong, and the above photo session could have been Saturday. Except I'm sure I was only Hojo on Friday. Wasn't I? I don't remember. So, henceforth are highlights!
Waxing. PK needed help waxing his legs before he put on his costume. Well, I've never waxed mine, and he asked me to help him anyway. So, I did. We ran out of wax strips before he ran out of hair, so he wound up in my shower, using my shaving gel and razor to get the rest of it. Me, I figure I will NEVER EVER wax my own legs, but I will help if asked again.
Copious photoshoots. Regardless of costume, our darling is a camera slut. Of the 535 photos & videos I took during con, 387 included him as Rufus Shin-Ra, Cloud Strife, or Dante. Himself is referred to hereafter by whatever costume he had on. There was also a FFVII photoshoot... so maybe I was Hojo on Saturday, too? Nikki said that shoot was Saturday. Anyhow, lots of cameras flashing.
Cypher suckered us (Nikki, Rufus & me) into volunteering to helping set up the swapmeet, since we were lounging in the courtyard when they started setting it up. We figure that ended up working in our favor, since we got to pick up official volunteer cards and ribbons and goodie bags and certificates and will get to use the volunteer discount next year. Two hours of rearranging tables and keeping people out until they had everything more or less where it was supposed to be - most of that waiting for hotel staff to come move the umbrellas - which they never did. Those fuckers were HEAVY!
Snagged some Bleach and Ruroni Kenshin manga at the swap meet, but didn't find anything I was actually looking for. Hit up the fan dealer room and both dealer's rooms, too. Got the posters I'd meant to go home with last year, lamented the lack of lollipop condoms (snagged some regular ones because I'd promised someone he'd get some), and couldn't find what I was looking for. Did buy a collar and chain when with Reno & Dante, and got myself chained to Dante for a little bit. FINALLY found a Sado poster for my eldest brat for his birthday, on the very last day about an hour before the fan dealer room closed.
The charity auction went pretty well, I think. Rufus bid on something in "true Rufus style". He had this little half-smirk going every time he raised his bid, and he was just lounging in his seat. Yeah, he won. The bishie auction? That didnt' go so well. The economy shat on con this year. It was estimated that attendance was down 20-30%... and the bishie auction proved the brokeness of the attendees. My darling Emory went for far less than he did last year - Ginia & Pixel got him. The great Lestat, he who usually goes well over a $1000, went for a measly $850 - and he was the most expensive. Jareth, the Goblin King, was second at $600, and he didn't even need to take anything off! Makes me wonder if he had if he would have surpassed Lestat. Anyhow, Cloud and Reno both fell asleep during the auction. They were sooo cute! I has pictures!
I only hit one of the two forums I'd wanted to see, got caught up in a photoshoot during the second. Hopefully, I didn't miss much. The forums were... sparse on interest-grabbing this year. My interest, anyhow. As was, the forum I went to became the pre-show for the bishie auction, and may very well become a part of the viewing during registration next year. Hope so, 'cause Cid and Lestat did an excellent job putting it together.
Bishie Brunch turned out to be me, Nikki-Reno, Rufus, and his Reno (yeah, two Reno's) instead of me, Nikki, Ginia, & Pixel because his Reno makes a plot bunny with a sugar-high on crack seem tame. Um, let's see. I don't much remember the opening ceremony. Pretty sure we were with Rufus then, too, though. Basically, once we found him, we became his. *shrugs* I am not complaining. I spent the majority of my convention snuggled next to a pretty Brit who loves attention, and have no problems with that whatsoever!
The dance... went with Cloud. We got fed up with the DJ and left, went to do some more pictures and soak in the hot tub. It really does look like a Mako pool if you can get the camera set right.
Bishie Bingo: we came so close time after time! I still owe Rufus a forfeit for not winning, even in the drawing. *pouts* I had over 35 entries, so I'm peeved I losted.
What else, what else... heh. I think the only thing left is Closing Ceremony. Rufus bought $100 worth of raffle tickets. I bought $10, and the three of us (add Nikki) each earned two tickets, and his Reno earned one. So between us we were trying to keep up with 139 tickets. Rufus won the first call, and then again 4 more times, and Nikki won once. The first and second times Rufus went up, he took Nikki-Reno with him. The last three, he took both of them because his had rejoined us. (Oh, she was his because they knew each other from previous cons and were roommates.) 'twas great fun.
After that, we met up with Aki, who became Yazoo, and did more photos (complete with Rufus becoming Cloud) until hunger became demanding, then we had a mini pizza-party in the lobby. 1/2 Hawaiian (for Cloud & I), and 1/2 meatlovers for everyone else. Pizza went *poof* very quickly. Then we retreated to the hot tub again, and for the first time ever, were chased out by the hotel staff for being out there after hours. *snorts* We'd been out there every night of con, and only once during acceptable hours, so it was really annoying they finally decided to enforce the get out time. So, we went to Cloud & Reno's room after being run out, and just hung out until ridiculous hours considering when Nikki had to be up to leave for her plane.
Made my flight in plenty of time, had tailwinds all the way back, got there early, called my ride to tell them so, and discovered they were stuck in 2mph traffic because everyone was getting off work or something. But, I did finally get home!
So, on the way home from con, I'd stopped at work. Discovered, to my utter dismay, that I was not getting any recovery time. Compliments of traffic, I was getting home a lot later than I'd expected, and while I'd known I had to work the next morning, I usually have Tuesday afternoons off. Nu-uh. I was scheduled for the next three nights, meaning after a fairly well sleepless con, I was working from 8:45am-11:15pm between both jobs for the next 3 days. Was well beyond loopy by Wednesday night, and managed to make a money error (in the store's favor) of $20, which meant when I came in even more tired on Thursday, the first thing that happened was me getting written up. Bad night went to shit... and more shit just kept piling on. Crap that ran out, crap that wasn't attached properly and therefore seemed to still be out, crap that wouldn't enter in the computer correctly, etc., and me be absolutely paranoid about who was giving me how much and how much I was giving back... but luckily my lovely boy was there to help out with another ex-co-worker, and once I'd finally stopped crying (I hate crying at work).
It also helped that he came in saying "Mint & Cherry!" which I heard as Minty Cherries, and had a "He started reading stuff on Y-Gallery when?" moment, until he explained the condoms I'd given him were mint and cherry flavored, and that someone had offered him $200 for the mint one because no one had ever seen a mint-flavored one before. I had to laugh in spite of the stress, because that was just too funny.
Incidentally, thanks to my schedule, I missed out on voting. Totally lost track that it was Tuesday... *sigh*
Y-con was a blast! So...
According to Facebook, I posted I was leaving at 4:16 am on Thursday. Was at the airport and discovered they had free wifi before 7:40am (next Facebook post). Was watching anime whilst I waited to be able to board the flight. My flight had no headwinds and LOTS of tailwind: we got to the airport a whole hour ahead of schedule! 'twas great!
Nikki had also arrived, and we texted back & forth trying to figure out where each other was. Finally determined we were in different buildings, and I called the hotel to check for sure where the shuttle would pick us up. Then proceeded to text Nikki the info - just in time for her to board the shuttle that was about to pull away. Mine was the next stop, and lucky me!, she'd saved me a seat. Ride highly uneventful, aside from the hovering jets. It was really weird, looking out the window to see that the airplanes WERE NOT MOVING. They were hovering. (yes, I know the technicalities, still looked like they weren't moving). So we had fun with "But that's only supposed to happen in Sci-fi!"
Hotel desk said they didn't have us registered as having a room. Insta "OH SHIT" fit, but they sent us down to the room that Ginia and Pixelgoddess were in, where we discovered that in the back and forth emails of the setting up of the room, some information had gotten mislaid, and certain full names had been losted. Still, Ginia had snagged our keycards for us, so all was well.
Showered off the evil that was travel and insane work schedule, and headed out for sightseeing. Met up with Angel, Dana, & PK, along with a bunch of others, but those were the three who wound up with me & Nikki on the BART. My first subway-type ride! Got directions from a guy in a wheelchair to clarify our written directions, and caught the bus to Japantown. Picked up munchies, kimono, & a desperate need for more spending money next year there, and returned back to the hotel. Our shuttle home was f'ing LATE, and poor PK got half-froze waiting on it.
On to the hot tub, where we met a certain blond for the first time - he was leaving, so more on him later. Tub was great... much goodness to be had. Then a nap for the insanity that was to begin the next day: The official first day of Yaoi-Con!
I'd actually expected to spend more time at con with Ginia and Pixelgoddess, and kinda feel like I ought to apologize to them for barely saying "hi" or "bye" through most of con. However, I am unfortunately easily swayed by pretty boys who demand my company, and Rufus Shin-Ra was my prince for the majority of con. Hey, I'm the Prince's Jewel, and he is the Prince of Shin-Ra, Inc., so it makes perfect sense! Anyhow...
We get up: we're STARVING. Must go get food. Ate breakfast at The Grill with Ginia and Pixel (shorter to type, kill me not!), and headed back to the hotel. Go back. Went wandering the hotel lobby, and met up with the lovely Rufus, whom we soon discovered was the blond from the hot tub the night before. Rufus and Reno were promptly suckered into a photo session with the cosplay.com photographer guy. Wander around a bit waiting for registration to start, meet up with AD&PK and haul them and Rufus to The Grill for lunch, and get back in time to get our numbers for registration.
Now, after this, things start getting blurry due to the utter lack of sleep I've had up to this point, and my memory wanting to go "tell them this! tell them this!" out of order. Also, I could be wrong, and the above photo session could have been Saturday. Except I'm sure I was only Hojo on Friday. Wasn't I? I don't remember. So, henceforth are highlights!
Waxing. PK needed help waxing his legs before he put on his costume. Well, I've never waxed mine, and he asked me to help him anyway. So, I did. We ran out of wax strips before he ran out of hair, so he wound up in my shower, using my shaving gel and razor to get the rest of it. Me, I figure I will NEVER EVER wax my own legs, but I will help if asked again.
Copious photoshoots. Regardless of costume, our darling is a camera slut. Of the 535 photos & videos I took during con, 387 included him as Rufus Shin-Ra, Cloud Strife, or Dante. Himself is referred to hereafter by whatever costume he had on. There was also a FFVII photoshoot... so maybe I was Hojo on Saturday, too? Nikki said that shoot was Saturday. Anyhow, lots of cameras flashing.
Cypher suckered us (Nikki, Rufus & me) into volunteering to helping set up the swapmeet, since we were lounging in the courtyard when they started setting it up. We figure that ended up working in our favor, since we got to pick up official volunteer cards and ribbons and goodie bags and certificates and will get to use the volunteer discount next year. Two hours of rearranging tables and keeping people out until they had everything more or less where it was supposed to be - most of that waiting for hotel staff to come move the umbrellas - which they never did. Those fuckers were HEAVY!
Snagged some Bleach and Ruroni Kenshin manga at the swap meet, but didn't find anything I was actually looking for. Hit up the fan dealer room and both dealer's rooms, too. Got the posters I'd meant to go home with last year, lamented the lack of lollipop condoms (snagged some regular ones because I'd promised someone he'd get some), and couldn't find what I was looking for. Did buy a collar and chain when with Reno & Dante, and got myself chained to Dante for a little bit. FINALLY found a Sado poster for my eldest brat for his birthday, on the very last day about an hour before the fan dealer room closed.
The charity auction went pretty well, I think. Rufus bid on something in "true Rufus style". He had this little half-smirk going every time he raised his bid, and he was just lounging in his seat. Yeah, he won. The bishie auction? That didnt' go so well. The economy shat on con this year. It was estimated that attendance was down 20-30%... and the bishie auction proved the brokeness of the attendees. My darling Emory went for far less than he did last year - Ginia & Pixel got him. The great Lestat, he who usually goes well over a $1000, went for a measly $850 - and he was the most expensive. Jareth, the Goblin King, was second at $600, and he didn't even need to take anything off! Makes me wonder if he had if he would have surpassed Lestat. Anyhow, Cloud and Reno both fell asleep during the auction. They were sooo cute! I has pictures!
I only hit one of the two forums I'd wanted to see, got caught up in a photoshoot during the second. Hopefully, I didn't miss much. The forums were... sparse on interest-grabbing this year. My interest, anyhow. As was, the forum I went to became the pre-show for the bishie auction, and may very well become a part of the viewing during registration next year. Hope so, 'cause Cid and Lestat did an excellent job putting it together.
Bishie Brunch turned out to be me, Nikki-Reno, Rufus, and his Reno (yeah, two Reno's) instead of me, Nikki, Ginia, & Pixel because his Reno makes a plot bunny with a sugar-high on crack seem tame. Um, let's see. I don't much remember the opening ceremony. Pretty sure we were with Rufus then, too, though. Basically, once we found him, we became his. *shrugs* I am not complaining. I spent the majority of my convention snuggled next to a pretty Brit who loves attention, and have no problems with that whatsoever!
The dance... went with Cloud. We got fed up with the DJ and left, went to do some more pictures and soak in the hot tub. It really does look like a Mako pool if you can get the camera set right.
Bishie Bingo: we came so close time after time! I still owe Rufus a forfeit for not winning, even in the drawing. *pouts* I had over 35 entries, so I'm peeved I losted.
What else, what else... heh. I think the only thing left is Closing Ceremony. Rufus bought $100 worth of raffle tickets. I bought $10, and the three of us (add Nikki) each earned two tickets, and his Reno earned one. So between us we were trying to keep up with 139 tickets. Rufus won the first call, and then again 4 more times, and Nikki won once. The first and second times Rufus went up, he took Nikki-Reno with him. The last three, he took both of them because his had rejoined us. (Oh, she was his because they knew each other from previous cons and were roommates.) 'twas great fun.
After that, we met up with Aki, who became Yazoo, and did more photos (complete with Rufus becoming Cloud) until hunger became demanding, then we had a mini pizza-party in the lobby. 1/2 Hawaiian (for Cloud & I), and 1/2 meatlovers for everyone else. Pizza went *poof* very quickly. Then we retreated to the hot tub again, and for the first time ever, were chased out by the hotel staff for being out there after hours. *snorts* We'd been out there every night of con, and only once during acceptable hours, so it was really annoying they finally decided to enforce the get out time. So, we went to Cloud & Reno's room after being run out, and just hung out until ridiculous hours considering when Nikki had to be up to leave for her plane.
Made my flight in plenty of time, had tailwinds all the way back, got there early, called my ride to tell them so, and discovered they were stuck in 2mph traffic because everyone was getting off work or something. But, I did finally get home!
So, on the way home from con, I'd stopped at work. Discovered, to my utter dismay, that I was not getting any recovery time. Compliments of traffic, I was getting home a lot later than I'd expected, and while I'd known I had to work the next morning, I usually have Tuesday afternoons off. Nu-uh. I was scheduled for the next three nights, meaning after a fairly well sleepless con, I was working from 8:45am-11:15pm between both jobs for the next 3 days. Was well beyond loopy by Wednesday night, and managed to make a money error (in the store's favor) of $20, which meant when I came in even more tired on Thursday, the first thing that happened was me getting written up. Bad night went to shit... and more shit just kept piling on. Crap that ran out, crap that wasn't attached properly and therefore seemed to still be out, crap that wouldn't enter in the computer correctly, etc., and me be absolutely paranoid about who was giving me how much and how much I was giving back... but luckily my lovely boy was there to help out with another ex-co-worker, and once I'd finally stopped crying (I hate crying at work).
It also helped that he came in saying "Mint & Cherry!" which I heard as Minty Cherries, and had a "He started reading stuff on Y-Gallery when?" moment, until he explained the condoms I'd given him were mint and cherry flavored, and that someone had offered him $200 for the mint one because no one had ever seen a mint-flavored one before. I had to laugh in spite of the stress, because that was just too funny.
Incidentally, thanks to my schedule, I missed out on voting. Totally lost track that it was Tuesday... *sigh*