Yay for my first ACen ever!

Friday:

I woke up freakishly early Friday morning to catch the train to O'Hare Transfer. We thought the traffic would've made me late for the train but luckily, I got there with time to spare. Took a shuttle from the train station to O'Hare and then a shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Sam picked me up downstairs and gave me all my crap (badge, goodie bag, concert ticket, etc.) and then I followed him and Dink around while they did their staff duties. I helped with concert ticketing! I felt so official and in power, especially since when we got to the ticket booth, there was a ginormous mob waiting. Sam, and his amazing power to project his voice, got everyone in order. Me and Dink passed out tickets for like 2 hours, screaming "take your badge out of the plastic" and "no cameras, no bags or no entry". It was kinda difficult to do since I was sick.

After ticketing, I joined the mob outside the dealers' room and went in as soon as it opened. There was a LOT of crap to look at. I'm really proud that I didn't buy everything in sight. I told myself I wouldn't buy any anime, manga, figurines, plushies, wallscrolls, posters or anything else with no purpose other than to sit somewhere and take up space ('cause I lack space). So the first walk around of the dealers' room was to find stuff for James, who "gave" me $20 to spend on merchandise. That could buy him like...2 things, which is what I ended up doing. Bleach things in his price range are hard to find. Useless Naruto things are abundant. I got him a cute, chibi Kakashi keychain. I ran into Denise there and followed her around 'cause I didn't want to walk around alone. I only bought a Pirates of the Caribbean yaoi doujinshi. It was too cute to ignore; it begged to be bought. I flipped through it afterwards and it was money well spent. Also got a bunch of free posters.

Sam needed help with the second ticketing session so of course, I volunteered. I felt official again. Feifei showed up with Amy's group in the middle of it. Me, her and Dink worked as a very efficient team. Afterwards, me and Feifei went to find Amy in the dealer's room/artist gallery. I bought myself the neko-eared hat that I was tempted by. We all of their stuff out of Amy's van and back to their hotel room. I carried Kai's sword. They brought a LOT of costumes with them.

Fei-chan and I went off to the concert! There wasn't really a line, more of a mob. We saw our sophomores and a current IMSA sophomore there. We sat, we talked. We stood, we migrated to the doors, we talked. We started a weird up-down-up-down trend, we stood some more, we talked. Then when the doors opened, we got pretty much trampled on the way in. Swek opened the concert and started playing some anime songs. I knew the first few ones but then they did stuff I didn't recognize. That was when I fell asleep, which was amazing considering we were sitting directly in front of a set of huge speakers. I woke up just in time for Swek to get the Teen Titans reinserted into my head. After that, we thought we'd just stay in the room and wait for The Pillows to come on but no, they cleared us all out. Me and Feifei got fed up and more than a bit hungry so we left the mob to get some food. We ran into Robbie on the way there so all three of us went for food. Since Robbie didn't have a ticket for Friday night's concert, we had to leave him to get back. By the time we got back, the concert had already started. Oh well, no biggie. The Pillows were awesome, even though I didn't know any of the songs. The lead singer was pretty good looking and had gorgeous hair. I am insanely jealous. Me and Fei-chan also ran into J-Net people, including Denise. Some mosh-pitting occurred near us. We shied away.

Josh was in a mini-skirt! Ha! He was dressing up as Envy from Full Metal Alchemist to Amy's Ed. I would've done Envy had I had any time but alas, no time whatsoever. Feifei, bless her, brought two costumes to wear so I asked to borrow the one she wouldn't be wearing. We spent some time fixing her Wufei costume since it was made to her cousin's measurements and her cousin's tiny. Afterwards, we went to Midnight Madness, which was HILARIOUS. Fisting the North Star. Bigus Dickus. Ha! And the commericals! Yaoi Ai for the Shounen Guy, "we're here to raise your charisma". Shoujo Gone Wild, Shounen Gone Wild and Mecha Gone Wild. Oh my gosh, it was too much. We left when it got boring, watched a bit of TV in the room and went to sleep.

Saturday (yes, all that above was on Friday):

Woke up really late and missed most of the activities I wanted to do. Oh well, sleep was more important for a sick person. Stayed in the room until Feifei's Ranma costume and her Wufei costume were properly done. Dressed up and went to the dealers' room. On the way there, someone asked for a picture of me in the Wufei costume. I felt so special. ^_^ Next year, I so want to do a Yue costume. Probably without the wings 'cause I'm cheap and lazy. And I want to be able to sit.

I bought more stuff! Robbie found a Yu Yu Hakusho artbook that looked to be published this year. It was GORGEOUS. I thought I had seen all the YYH art there was out there but nope, they drew more. So pretty... I also bought a little purse thingy with a picture of angry Kyo (from Fruits Basket) kitty on it. It was a lot cheaper than I expected. Back to the room after shopping, then off to the masquerade line to vegetate. We vegetated well. I was a tomato. I forget what Feifei was 'cause she kept changing her mind. Robbie was an onion. Strange choice. I think we waited in line for like two hours where we talked to people, watched people and even napped.

Almost all the costumes were great. My personal favorites were the Bonta-kun, of course, and the Hinoto 'cause the costumer not only looked like her but acted like her, too. Some of the skits were hilarious, others were eh and some were just plain embarassing for the cosplayers. The judging took forever so we had like a mini-dance in between. It was interesting but I was just too tired to participate in any of it. Turns out we missed Full Metal Fantasy or whatever because we stayed at the masquerade for so long. Oh well.

We changed out of our costumes for the rave/dance. It was fun, with lots of loud techno music. It was interesting 'cause me and Feifei cha-chaed to some of it. It worked out surprisingly well. I gave up around 2:30 'cause I was just too exhausted. Feifei apparently came back around 4:30.

Note: Josh sleeps like the dead.

Sunday:

Last day! *sob*

Packing and then final trip to the dealers' room. I only wanted to buy a Hiei keychain to go with the Kurama one Paul bought me last year. In addition, I wound up buying a CLAMP artbook with pictures I had never seen before. It cost me a lot but it's something I could stare at for hours a day. I bought James a Bleach print-thingy. I wandered around the artist gallery and found this one person that drew really gorgeous prints. If it weren't for the fact that I wouldn't know what to do with them, I probably would've bought a few. There were two really good YYH drawings in there. Also, I found a colored drawing of a baby Gaara holding a teddy bear. It was too cute to ignore and I thought about buying it for James but the prints were sold out. Sad. I wasn't about to buy the huge poster. After the shopping, we went to the Anime Music Video award ceremony. We watched stuff until Feifei and Robbie had to leave. I stayed and watched the rest. Then I waited around for my dad to pick me up. Sam had just enough time to tell me my laptop might be fucked, as in hardware problems. Lovely, no?

All in all, it was great fun. I plan to do more next year, when I'm not so sick and tired. And the Yue costume. Mark my words, I will wear a costume.