totchipanda

The extended weekend report :D

So, Joe (aka

raspberrybelle) and I had tickets for Nightwish. I had some trepidation about going, mostly because I hate the venue. It has terrible acoustics and is pretty small. The last show we went to, the doors opened at 8, the opening act took the stage at 10:30, and the main band started at 11:20. To be fair, they did play well past 1am, but I had to leave early in order to make sure that I caught the last bus home ^^; No problem this time, as Ryan and Cori were picking me up after the show and we were gonna head straight to Calgary from the venue. But, since Joe had gone to such trouble to obtain the sold-out tickets and I was already dressed for rockin' out, I might as well go.

After frantically packing my suitcase with as little as I needed for the weekend in my small suitcase, (no, I don't need that item, oh shoot, I really ought to take that... etc) and loading up the van in order to be prepared for a quick exit from the city, I joined Joe down at the venue. There was a long line. By the time we got in, the opening band, Sonic Syndicate, was nearly done their set, and the place was PACKED. I was kinda surprised, as it was only 9:30 or so. But it was a nice surprise! I hate waiting around forever for concerts to start. I also popped in earplugs. I'm too old to care about how dorky I look and I want to save my sometimes-dodgy hearing :P

The very first thing I saw was the bassist, a full head shorter than either of the two guitarists and two vocalists, rocking out. Damn, I thought, he is ADORABLE. Silke instantly transformed from a fabulously gay hairdresser into a fabulously gay bassist in my head. Watching, I realized that no, that adorable little bassist was a girl. There were boobs. Didn't care, she was still hot XD And totally rocking. We heard the last two and a half songs of their set, and I really enjoyed them. We bought their CD, and a little later, the bassist came to the table and Joe got her to sign our booklets <333

Nightwish started around 10:30, and rocked out until midnight. They were SO FUCKING AWESOME. We were stuck at the back near the merch tables; we probably could have pushed our way onto the floor, but I certainly didn't want to be crammed in with so many people when it was sure to be so crowded, and it didn't matter anyway. I have never sweated so much in my entire life, there weren't as many people around me, (only Joe beside me and the people in front of me, really) and I got to stand on a ledge so I could watch the stage over everyone else's heads XD They opened with Bye Bye Beautiful, and I knew it was gonna be a good show as that's my favourite song from Dark Passion Play :D I wish we could have caught them in Calgary the next night, but that was sold out too.

Afterwards, we waited outside until my ride came, we dropped Joe off at home, and headed out. I crawled into the back to take a nap, and the trip went by a lot faster than I thought it did ^^; I woke up thinking we were in Red Deer, but nope, we were in Calgary, at the hotel, ready to go inside and get some decent sleep. Tiny room, with a loud A/C unit over the door, not much to say now as we just wanted in and in bed. Sleepy tiems, yay!

I woke up around 8:30am, which is what I wanted. I wanted to shower so that I had wet hair to bundle into a wig cap, and then start on the day. I considered getting Allan and Ryan up at 9 anyway; my first Otafest, the friend I went with said that she starts 2 hours before she wants to leave just in case anything goes wrong, it can be fixed in time and you aren't running (as) late, depending on the thing needing fixing. It's sage advice, I've stuck to it (so, thank you! :D) They were up not too much later, not to worry, but a good thing, as Allan's costume needed some small bits of attention. "Do you have thread?" he asked; "White or black?" I replied XD I took my time getting dressed, starting with my fakey-shoes (black socks, white flip-flops and white electrical tape ftw!) and going up. We were dressed and ready to go by 11am. Go us!

We got to the venue, and we had just barely walked in the door, when we heard running footsteps. Just as many of us were starting to wonder if we knew this person running up behind us, Allan was thoroughly glomped. "Red Mage for life!" she announced. LOL, the rest of us went. Ten feet in the door and Allan has been glomped. W00t!

After registering, we went to get food. The place was crawling, as it is every year, with high school girls' volleyball players. It always makes things interesting XD And after eating, we kinda split up from time to time and did separate things, but for the most part we stuck together. We went to the vendor's room. We visited J-chan and my sisters. We went outside to watch taiko, but from a distance. The temperature reached 31C (88F) and it was kind of humid, with a light breeze. Allan was wearing a suit and a hat and gloves; I was wearing a five-layer costume. So we watched the taiko from the deep-shade of a north-facing building. As long as we didn't move too much and stayed in the shade (or indoors), it wasn't TOO unbearable.

Cosplay started around 4:30, but we didn't watch it. We found some cushy seats and sat down to just chill for a bit. I stripped off some costume bits (cape and wig) to cool down a bit. Then I found Dzianna and her and Greg and I walked out to his truck so that she could give me my christmas present, which was a pirate sword :D :D :D I has a sword! Couldn't have it out at the site though, so it stayed in its box XD On our way back in, some of the volleyball girls stopped us and asked to take our pictures. I had to put my wig back on, but it was SO WORTH IT because they said that our costumes were really nice. My ego inflated and danced for joy. She was wearing Metamorphose sweet lolita, aka professionally made; I was wearing a costume that I made myself :D On our way back to the main building, we had stopped to chat with Dzianna's boyfriend and friends, and a Syazael cosplayer asked to take a picture with me. Then we also ran into one of the most adorable lolis in Edmonton (I want to keep her forever and ever and ever, she's so fricken cute), and I finally got back to my crew an hour after I left them XD

The three of us went back to the hotel to change, came back to watch the cosplay half-time and awards, and then we all went out for dinner. Roughly... 20 people. My sister was sad because she had only had $50 to spend for the weekend, $20 of which went to her con pass, and the other $30 to a video game that she wanted. We got that sorted out, tears were had (tears of happiness by that point, I hope, since her dinner was paid for and I gave her some extra cash), I socialized too much to get a drink order with the rest of my table... ^^;; Food was DELICIOUS, but I only managed to eat like 4 bites before I was too full to eat any more ^^; Zoiness and I discussed wank and had some birthday drinks, and we all headed back to our respective "homes" for the night around 11.

It was a good day :D But, sadly, it's just not a con for me unless I get a migraine :( Even after drinking 3 bottles of water and 2 bottles of fruit-juice, I probably hadn't eaten enough, and wound up with a migraine. Thankfully, the drugs didn't keep me from sleeping XD I had a strange dream about putting Guido, Smudge (whom I called "Fishie", my previous calico cat's nickname...) and my new Fennec fox outside, and turning around to collect said animals, I was attacked by zombies ._. Slept for a good 8 hours solid, but what a weird thing to dream...

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. I dressed in one of my favourite loli dresses, which was still covered in Shilo's kitties' fur XD The room had no iron, so I hung it in the bathroom while people showered, and most of the wrinkles steamed out that way. We got the site a little after 11, had breakfast, I shopped the dealer's room again with J-chan, caught up with Dzianna, Greg, Kyle, Kelvin and their friend Glen (? I've never met him before), and the boys were very sweet and had bought me some FF7 cards for my birthday XD WE hung around a bit in the food court until a panel started, which was very entertaining and the woman speaking was a joy to listen to. Sadly, she kept getting interrupted by a couple of icky people who had nothing really to add to the conversation. We had to duck out early, though, because we needed a potty break, and then had to run to the 404's Improv show.

Well, it was hilarious. I got a few pictures and some video, and during one game, I laughed so hard that I cried. And not just cried, but an emotional cry. It was like I was watching a movie and someone had died and I was bawling my eyes out. I wish I'd gotten some tape of that game, it was absolutely ace.

After that, it was close to 6, so I caught up with my family, said goodbye to my roomies, who were leaving after the closing ceremonies to hit up Peter's and go home, and more than a few other people on my way out (love you all!!). We went to Montana's to have a birthday dinner for Dad and myself (our birthday is tomorrow :D) with our Calgary-family. They brought us ice cream and a goofy hat (pictures later, promise!) and the best part was, we got to doodle on the table with crayons XD O YEA.

I also had my picture taken a few times, which amused me all to heck because I had a parasol in all of them. I have never had a picture of this dress taken without a parasol over my head. I also had sent my suitcase home with my roomies, so all I had to wear today was my dress XD I never feel bad for wearing loli, because for every 10 people thinking about how silly I look, one person tells me to my face that I look adorable. (O hay thar ego-boost) HAHAHA :P

We had to wait until today to get going, as Gavin wanted to get Dad's help going to Pick-a-Part (or whatever) to find a new transmission for his Jeep, Cait had to get to her ball-and-chain's mother's place to pick up a table set, and then we waited for Cheryl to come back from work to say goodbye before getting underway. We also stopped at Peter's, which thrilled me because I was so sad to be missing out on the milkshakes, and now I could have one! Yay! Good trip home, some heavy traffic, but nothing that made us stop for more than 10 seconds or so, and the van Dad borrowed from Grampa rode like a dream.

I had a good weekend :3