Anime Expo: Day 3

(photo courtesy of T1nk) Food court before the Exhibitor Hall opens.

Mood: In Pain

Today I wore my American McGee Alice costume. I actually saw quite a few ladies dressed up as the classic American McGee Alice. I had not seen anyone with any of Alice new costumes from Return to Madness. This one amazing girl had the horse rook as a prop.

I was in a bit of a panic this morning because I had not prepped from the night before. I still had breakfast to make, lunch to pack, and get to the Starbucks to get my caffeine and internet fix, as well as send out a fax. I was surprised/relieved when I managed to get it all complete and still get to the con early. As a note, the Westin does have a “24 hour” Fed Ex service center. It’s a 24 hour set up for internet/computer use ($0.40/minute for internet; I don’t remember the prices to use the Business software), fax machine and photocopier. I didn’t get the photocopier price but it was $2 a page for faxing, not including the cover page (ouch). I’m sure there was a FedEx/Kinko’s within walking distance from the hotel that probably had cheaper rates, but I ran out of time to search for that kind of information.

Since I arrived at the Exhibitor’s hall earlier than before I wandered around to check out all the Exhibitor’s and some of the Artits Alley. I saw many things I wanted to buy, but only purchased some new kneadable erasers from DickBlick, who were kind enough to sell them to me even though they weren’t officially open yet. In the A.A. I saw Nigel Slade, but didn’t stop to say hi (H4773r had already contributed to his rum fund from the both of us yesterday). I did manage to find Mary Cagle and say hi and give her a very small donation. She was set up right next to Kelhound, but Kel wasn't around yet. I also didn’t stop to see Fred Gallagher which was a bummer.

Today's highlight at Anime Gift booth was watching the G4 crew hanging around the booth across from me, Panda Hat. Panda Hat had also hired a couple of booth models that wandered the floor in their outfits and passed out stickers. Candace Bailey was there and soon a huge crowd surrounded the booth as Candace and the models began to make some mischief and have fun. I was a bit bummed I couldn't talk to the G4 crew or Candace, but there's always another con.

I decided today I was going to stick around and do SOMETHING at the con, other than work. H4773r and I ended up watching some more anime. This time: Utena and a few episodes of Corpse Princess. Both of which I enjoyed. After the anime we decided to head back to hotel since it was getting late and we wanted dinner.

LisaLisa and Rabbit had gone to Disneyland for the day so H4773r and I were left on our own for dinner. The plan was to check out the hotel food court to see if they had any good options. For some reason I got confused and ended up on the wrong floor, where we found a Subway but that was it. The actual food court was two floors down. The Subway guy saw us standing outside and told us to hurry up and come in if we wanted food since they were closing. Honestly, neither of us really wanted Subway but we figured it was the only thing open at this point so we went in. I had my delicious veggie patty and H4773r had a fiasco, not really. Essentially everything H4773r wanted they were out of. EVERYTHING. Eventually H4773r gave up and had the Subway guy just make him whatever sandwich he suggested. I felt bad, but it was all still delicious, so not too bad.

Since tonight was our last night in the hotel, I spent my evening packing up everything. The plan for tomorrow is H4773r will check us out and then park in the lot across from the con. When I'm done with my day tomorrow we'll head straight home.

Anaheim Comic-Con: Day 3

Last day...we finally got to sleep in. Again, H4773r didn't have to be at the Armor-Geddon booth til 1pm. We grabbed "brunch" at the Carl's Jr. by the hotel. As a note, they don't serve "grilled cheese" when you ask for it. They will however, serve a Famous Star with cheese, sans burger. Same damn thing in my opinion, but whatevs.We made it to the con and I was...confused. All the fan tables were pretty much devoid of fans. For a moment I thought maybe everyone had packed up early and went home. Turns out since a bunch of the celebrities weren't going to be there on Sunday, the fan tables were allowed to move to the celebrity tables.

I couldn't find Kryssie anywhere. I was told by the Orange County Star Wars Society that she was out on the floor networking. So while I waiting I finally did some shopping. New microns from Blick, Creepy Susie & 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children by Angus Oblong, a copy of The Maxx vol. 4 by Sam Keith, a copy of Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, and a copy of The Devil's Panties vol. 4 by Jennie Breeden. I really wanted Nigel Sade to sign by his strip, but I just ran out of time to find him.

When I finally found Kryssie she mentioned that she was going to spend the rest of the con networking and since we no longer had a booth I just took the day off. I hung out a

round the Armor-Geddon booth serving as back up when people kept coming by to take photos of H4773r's co-worker C.J. (she was dressed as Morrigan, sans wings). I think we've decided

that for future cons we're all going to try and co-ordinate cosplay outfits.

"Lunch" was procured from the Baja Fresh (I love burritos!).

As the con wound down I was able to help Armor-Geddon break down the booth. And here's where I get annoyed. Armor-Geddon paid to have people help us load. So we start breaking down the booth and are going through it pretty fast and we have no sign of the boxes that were supposed to have been saved. I go looking for someone to ask about what's going on. There was no one around for about 10 minutes. I finally find a guy who tells me that they're delivering the boxes right now. I go back and finish help breaking everything down. We're nearly done and still haven't seen any sign of our boxes. So N.B.L. goes to talk to someone. And, of course, our boxes were thrown away. So now what? They eventually let N.B.L. drive her van into the con hall and we loaded everything ourselves. So not complete bullshit, but definitely annoying. We really could've been done about 1-2 hours earlier.

When we finally got everything loaded out H4773r and I decided to spend one last night at Downtown Disney. We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and saw Rio at the Disney AMC theaters.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a bit before hitting the long road home. I had quite a bit of fun at this con and wouldn't mind coming again in the future.