SAKURACON 2007
Apr. 10th, 2007 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totchipandaApril 4, really late:
I finish packing, Allan and Nicole come and get me and we go packing off to Allan's house, where we stay up too late eating at Timmy's, getting drinks and snacks at Shopper's and repacking Nicole's suitcase. I get to sleep on a pair of mattresses with some plush dogs named Doggy, Puppy, Puppy Jr and Mr Purple.
April 5, really fricken early:
We get up... go to Greyhound to pick up the wig that Nicole forgot in Grande Prairie and that her mum had sent south the night before. The freight area is not open but the guy goes and fetches it for us anyway. We head to Beej's, get stuck in traffic, finally arrive at like, 8:40.
Last of the 4 drivers arrives before 9 and they all run off to pick up the vans.
9:24 am: Vans are here! They are red and blue. Cue Red vs Blue commentary and the entire tone of our weekend is set. Radios are left in the vans to keep in contact with each other.
11 am: we finally get underway after picking up some Animethon pamphlets. Red van gets ahead of us, and Blue van has to catch up.
2:00 PM-ish BC Time: I gets a cookie! But I eated it...
6:10 PM: Dinner stop in Kamloops. We are rather behind still and are told we have half an hour to eat in the mall.
7:00 PM: We switch drivers. Red van, which is leading us, gets lost.
10:00 PM-ish: we drive RIGHT THROUGH Abbotsford, miss all turn-offs to the border, and wind up in Langley. Oops. Red van turns us around by pulling a U-ie right in front of an unmarked police car. Double-oops.
11:00 PM-ish: we get to the border. Blue van is pulled to the side for a random inspection, where the guards are rather lenient on us I suspect because we are not the first Sakuracon attendees they talked to that day. Allan is "cavity searched".
2:15AM: we finally get into Seattle and find our hotel, after getting lost, winding up on the wrong side of the freeway, twice, and turning the wrong way down one-way street. Good times :D
3:00 AM: bedtime, yay!! I realise later that this is 4 am Alberta time, and we'd mostly all been up since 7 AM. 21 hours, oi vey. SLeepytimes!
April 6
We get up at like...10... get dressed, take our time, head down to the con finally around 12:30. We take some pictures of Nicole in her mascot costume, and then around 1 decide to get into line to get our badges. It takes about an hour, in which we join a random DS pictochat with some other congoers, finally see Kate (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mako) and we get our badges JUST after 2. Nicole and I hurry off to the doll meet, where we chat it up with many cool peoples :D including an adorable Umi (Rayearth) cosplayer, a gorgeous cosplayer in red (don't know what it was from, but it was really nicely done) and Tez, whom I suspected was from journalfen and I confirmed that blah blah blah (not like me, usually, to just bust out and ask strangers stuff like that ^^;; ) and of course the lovely danaka_dollfie who looked adorable with short hair :D Kate came when she got through the badge line about an hour later. Ren and Yarris got taken off together and while the clothes stayed on, they made every effort to get down to business on the floor >.> I pierced a bunch of ears with tiny drills and then my phone died while I was waiting for a phone call from mew_infinity :(
So Kate came back to the hotel with me while I charged the thing for like, 10 or 15 minutes, and of course, she'd called while it was dead ^^; We headed back to the con to quickly browse the dealers room, whereupon we became seperated and never found each other again for the whole night :( I went to the 404s improv show which was amusing (We liked Steve, yes we did :D) and then I had to run away to get picked up. Buuuut they were late, 'cause they got lost (HAH did I ever know that one!) and while everyone else went out for dinner, I waited.
Scott and Shilo arrived and we went off to karaoke!! They got the reservation extended at the karaoke place, and since we had time, we went to a deli for me to get some food and I found some of the mission I had been sent to Seattle with in the form of gum. Karaoke was FUN; the machine's worked the way that the ones here in Edmonton did the first time I went a couple years ago, with a book you had to program numbers out of. One of the books was incorrect, which kinda sucked cause two of my favourite songs weren't in the one that DID work. Oh well. We sang our hearts out, and then they took me back to the hotel. It wasn't long before everyone else came back, and we were in bed at a semi-decent hour.
April 7
We get up at like, 8, and spend most of the two hours getting Nicole ready and dressed. She has to go to cosplay rehearsal/judging right away, so I take all of our dolls to the meet. I see most of the same people from the day before, plus a few new people, and there are TONS of dolls. The pretty red cosplayer is there again, and she has an adorable minifee Shiwoo who is so fricken' adorable most of us agree that we now want one ourselves >.> Shilo and Scott find us rather accidentally and I pack everyone up to take back to the hotel and we go for lunch :3
The restaurant next to Uwajimaya has the delicious curry fried rice that I had there 2 years ago, so i am VERY VERY VERY HAPPY :D We go to Kino, but there isn't much there, sadly :(
Then we decide to go touristy and go to the Space Needle. W00t.
After that, we get SLURPEES, I find a SHITLOAD more gum, and then we go back to their hotel to just chill for a few hours. And we watch a show about elephants. Not as cute and definitely more sad than the meerkats, but still really neat. After an episode of Antiques Roadshow, we decide to head back and see if the rest of my group was up for Gameworks yet. And by some fluke, we get there JUST after everyone else got back too :D So after people get changed and ready and after Storytime with Uncle Wes, we head over. There is a smartCar parked on one side of the street, which makes me happy, and we're at Gameworks until 1am when they kick us out. Shilo and Scott head back to their hotel, and it is the last time I see them for possibly another year ;__________;
April 8
We get up just after 10 and get dressed/packed. Amazingly, we were in the lobby just after noon and we get all of our stuff into the vans to await our return later in the day. I carry my boys with me because I want pictures, and they are RIDICULOUSLY heavy!!! Kate finds us and we hit up the dealers room for cool stuff :D I get some Bleach things and a Toshiya doujin that I have scans of from about 7 years ago that are very very very very very very very very very very very.... very very very pretty :D But somewhere in there, we lose Ralli's wig :( Now my mini is bald. Allan and the rest of Blue van was getting autographs from Move and once they are done, we go outside for pictures. We have JUST enough time to take a few dozen pictures of Nicole and a handful of my boys before we go in for the second 404s performance, which is hilarious :D
After that, it is time for lunch at Cheesecake Factory!! :D By now, it is raining rather hard :( Our waiter, however, is absolutely fabulous.
We say our goodbyes to Kate and part ways at the convention center around 5:30 :( Blue team is first back to the hotel and awaits Red team's arrival. At 6:40, we say goodbye to Seattle at large and are on our way home.
We stop at Walgreen's in the last town before the border, where members of Blue van find FRUITY PEBBLES D: Which none of us who remember them have seen since we were kids. We cross the border without incident and push on through rain and fog to Kamloops, where we stop for the night around 1am.
April 9
We get going around 10 am. Gavin calls me at 11:30 and is indignant that I am still in the middle of BC instead of at work lol. Ten minutes later, my attention is pointed to a smartCar in Clearwater, which I recognize as Maxwell's XD We stop for lunch in Valemont at 2pm, get back on the road at 3, and our next stop is ice cream at 6 pm (Alberta time) for ice cream. Our driver is very tired just before 9 and starts turning left into oncoming traffic. We get to Beej's around 9 and our trip is over :(
April 10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHILO!!!! :D (And Tristan)
I finish packing, Allan and Nicole come and get me and we go packing off to Allan's house, where we stay up too late eating at Timmy's, getting drinks and snacks at Shopper's and repacking Nicole's suitcase. I get to sleep on a pair of mattresses with some plush dogs named Doggy, Puppy, Puppy Jr and Mr Purple.
April 5, really fricken early:
We get up... go to Greyhound to pick up the wig that Nicole forgot in Grande Prairie and that her mum had sent south the night before. The freight area is not open but the guy goes and fetches it for us anyway. We head to Beej's, get stuck in traffic, finally arrive at like, 8:40.
Last of the 4 drivers arrives before 9 and they all run off to pick up the vans.
9:24 am: Vans are here! They are red and blue. Cue Red vs Blue commentary and the entire tone of our weekend is set. Radios are left in the vans to keep in contact with each other.
11 am: we finally get underway after picking up some Animethon pamphlets. Red van gets ahead of us, and Blue van has to catch up.
2:00 PM-ish BC Time: I gets a cookie! But I eated it...
6:10 PM: Dinner stop in Kamloops. We are rather behind still and are told we have half an hour to eat in the mall.
7:00 PM: We switch drivers. Red van, which is leading us, gets lost.
10:00 PM-ish: we drive RIGHT THROUGH Abbotsford, miss all turn-offs to the border, and wind up in Langley. Oops. Red van turns us around by pulling a U-ie right in front of an unmarked police car. Double-oops.
11:00 PM-ish: we get to the border. Blue van is pulled to the side for a random inspection, where the guards are rather lenient on us I suspect because we are not the first Sakuracon attendees they talked to that day. Allan is "cavity searched".
2:15AM: we finally get into Seattle and find our hotel, after getting lost, winding up on the wrong side of the freeway, twice, and turning the wrong way down one-way street. Good times :D
3:00 AM: bedtime, yay!! I realise later that this is 4 am Alberta time, and we'd mostly all been up since 7 AM. 21 hours, oi vey. SLeepytimes!
April 6
We get up at like...10... get dressed, take our time, head down to the con finally around 12:30. We take some pictures of Nicole in her mascot costume, and then around 1 decide to get into line to get our badges. It takes about an hour, in which we join a random DS pictochat with some other congoers, finally see Kate (
mako) and we get our badges JUST after 2. Nicole and I hurry off to the doll meet, where we chat it up with many cool peoples :D including an adorable Umi (Rayearth) cosplayer, a gorgeous cosplayer in red (don't know what it was from, but it was really nicely done) and Tez, whom I suspected was from journalfen and I confirmed that blah blah blah (not like me, usually, to just bust out and ask strangers stuff like that ^^;; ) and of course the lovely danaka_dollfie who looked adorable with short hair :D Kate came when she got through the badge line about an hour later. Ren and Yarris got taken off together and while the clothes stayed on, they made every effort to get down to business on the floor >.> I pierced a bunch of ears with tiny drills and then my phone died while I was waiting for a phone call from mew_infinity :(So Kate came back to the hotel with me while I charged the thing for like, 10 or 15 minutes, and of course, she'd called while it was dead ^^; We headed back to the con to quickly browse the dealers room, whereupon we became seperated and never found each other again for the whole night :( I went to the 404s improv show which was amusing (We liked Steve, yes we did :D) and then I had to run away to get picked up. Buuuut they were late, 'cause they got lost (HAH did I ever know that one!) and while everyone else went out for dinner, I waited.
Scott and Shilo arrived and we went off to karaoke!! They got the reservation extended at the karaoke place, and since we had time, we went to a deli for me to get some food and I found some of the mission I had been sent to Seattle with in the form of gum. Karaoke was FUN; the machine's worked the way that the ones here in Edmonton did the first time I went a couple years ago, with a book you had to program numbers out of. One of the books was incorrect, which kinda sucked cause two of my favourite songs weren't in the one that DID work. Oh well. We sang our hearts out, and then they took me back to the hotel. It wasn't long before everyone else came back, and we were in bed at a semi-decent hour.
April 7
We get up at like, 8, and spend most of the two hours getting Nicole ready and dressed. She has to go to cosplay rehearsal/judging right away, so I take all of our dolls to the meet. I see most of the same people from the day before, plus a few new people, and there are TONS of dolls. The pretty red cosplayer is there again, and she has an adorable minifee Shiwoo who is so fricken' adorable most of us agree that we now want one ourselves >.> Shilo and Scott find us rather accidentally and I pack everyone up to take back to the hotel and we go for lunch :3
The restaurant next to Uwajimaya has the delicious curry fried rice that I had there 2 years ago, so i am VERY VERY VERY HAPPY :D We go to Kino, but there isn't much there, sadly :(
Then we decide to go touristy and go to the Space Needle. W00t.
After that, we get SLURPEES, I find a SHITLOAD more gum, and then we go back to their hotel to just chill for a few hours. And we watch a show about elephants. Not as cute and definitely more sad than the meerkats, but still really neat. After an episode of Antiques Roadshow, we decide to head back and see if the rest of my group was up for Gameworks yet. And by some fluke, we get there JUST after everyone else got back too :D So after people get changed and ready and after Storytime with Uncle Wes, we head over. There is a smartCar parked on one side of the street, which makes me happy, and we're at Gameworks until 1am when they kick us out. Shilo and Scott head back to their hotel, and it is the last time I see them for possibly another year ;__________;
April 8
We get up just after 10 and get dressed/packed. Amazingly, we were in the lobby just after noon and we get all of our stuff into the vans to await our return later in the day. I carry my boys with me because I want pictures, and they are RIDICULOUSLY heavy!!! Kate finds us and we hit up the dealers room for cool stuff :D I get some Bleach things and a Toshiya doujin that I have scans of from about 7 years ago that are very very very very very very very very very very very.... very very very pretty :D But somewhere in there, we lose Ralli's wig :( Now my mini is bald. Allan and the rest of Blue van was getting autographs from Move and once they are done, we go outside for pictures. We have JUST enough time to take a few dozen pictures of Nicole and a handful of my boys before we go in for the second 404s performance, which is hilarious :D
After that, it is time for lunch at Cheesecake Factory!! :D By now, it is raining rather hard :( Our waiter, however, is absolutely fabulous.
We say our goodbyes to Kate and part ways at the convention center around 5:30 :( Blue team is first back to the hotel and awaits Red team's arrival. At 6:40, we say goodbye to Seattle at large and are on our way home.
We stop at Walgreen's in the last town before the border, where members of Blue van find FRUITY PEBBLES D: Which none of us who remember them have seen since we were kids. We cross the border without incident and push on through rain and fog to Kamloops, where we stop for the night around 1am.
April 9
We get going around 10 am. Gavin calls me at 11:30 and is indignant that I am still in the middle of BC instead of at work lol. Ten minutes later, my attention is pointed to a smartCar in Clearwater, which I recognize as Maxwell's XD We stop for lunch in Valemont at 2pm, get back on the road at 3, and our next stop is ice cream at 6 pm (Alberta time) for ice cream. Our driver is very tired just before 9 and starts turning left into oncoming traffic. We get to Beej's around 9 and our trip is over :(
April 10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHILO!!!! :D (And Tristan)
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Date: 2007-04-11 11:54 pm (UTC)Oh yeah Anime Evolution is August 17th to the 19th this year if you're able. I know it's hard since it's a crazy time for you, but dammit, I miss you!