Anime Iowa 2008
8/22/2008
Friday
After planning to leave at 10AM on Friday morning, I was not surprised when Courtney, Megan and I left sometime after 2PM. We were met with some heavy tolls but very little traffic so it was a nice, easy drive. When we got to the hotel, we unpacked our stuff and brought our luggage up to the main hotel. We had stayed in the hotel across the interstate the year before and it was very convenient being so close to the con, even if the room was smaller. Anyway, we unpacked a little bit and I was hit with that bizarre, “I can’t believe I’m at a con” experience. This time it hit me a little stronger than usual and I decided that I didn’t feel comfortable cosplaying and that I just wanted to walk around and get used to the environment for a while. Instead, I decided to take some pictures of Megan and Courtney in their costumes which ended up being lots of fun! Anyway, we went to the room where we met up with our roommates Tara and Heidi to discuss food plans. (We decided to order from Pizza Hut to satisfy Tara’s Code Geass fangirly needs.) While we were waiting for the food, Megan, Courtney and I went to Walmart to pick up any last minute necessities. While shopping, we made unkind generalizations about the customers of Walmart then about the citizens of “the city of Iowa” in general. We then proceeded to make fun of Megan for calling Iowa a city. When we got back to the hotel, we ate quickly and ran downstairs to enjoy some pool-time before it closed for the night. We relaxed in the crowded hot tub for a bit and eventually went upstairs to shower. I was the first to shower for the night and came across a strange discovery when I entered the bathroom. Mixed among the complimentary bottles of shampoo and conditioner was something called a “shoe mit” – essentially, a piece of cloth, I assume is used to buff shoes? Confused, I asked my roommates about the purpose of such a device and, baffled, we all had a good laugh about it. The shoe mit quickly became the con’s mascot. That night, we did something that we have been trying to accomplish for A YEAR – my roommates and I successfully COMPLETED the Mysterious Ticking Noise. As soon as we heard “Harry Potter – UH!” we all burst into laughter and congratulated each other for our tremendous success. That may sound dramatic but if you have ever tried to reenact the Mysterious Ticking Noise you can appreciate how difficult it is to complete! Saturday The next morning, we all woke up relatively late and slowly got into our Xenosaga costumes. Megan’s KOS-MOS was an absolute BEAST to get on and getting her into costume took at least 2 people and around 2 hours, I believe. It was my first time trying on Shion and I was pretty happy with it in general. Before the con, I was quite unhappy with my wig but once I was wearing the entire costume, its errors no longer seemed to bother me quite as much. Although I was still massively uncomfortable showing my stomach, the rest of the costume was pretty comfortable so I couldn’t complain. Megan’s KOS-MOS looked great but hurt her like crazy so we only went downstairs long enough to get some pictures before heading back up to the room to recover. We hung out in the hotel and were greeted by visits from Jim, Zach and George who brought us a dose of funny, as usual. Anyway, Megan and I headed down to take some more photos and hang out in the green room. I wasn’t in the best of moods. Soon, Jim, Zach, and George joined us and their presence made me lighten up a whole lot. Megan and I did our walk-on and they did their skit and everything went well. None of us walked away with any awards but we all got a good response and, after the judge gave out an award for “best use of bananas”, we knew we couldn’t be too disappointed. After the masquerade, we went back upstairs to change. My jacket and my necklace were starting to hurt and it felt good to be able to put on some pajamas and just lounge around. Although we originally planned on going to the rave, Megan and I fell asleep in the room and I woke up around 2AM to discover that everyone was still out partying. For one reason or another, I got really depressed sitting there by myself. The room had complimentary internet so I went online to talk to some friends but it just made things worse. I began to think about the Anime Iowa the year before and all the people who weren’t with us this year and it made me really sad. For some reason, I had a real disconnect with this con and constantly felt awkward being there – like I was too mature to still be going to cons or something. I didn’t want to cosplay and just felt very strange. Like when you’re in a dream and everyone else seems to understand what is going on but you’re totally confused and trying to grasp what is going on but nothing seems to make sense? Anyway, I just sat by myself missing people and feeling sad and had a good “baw” session before going back to bed. Sunday The next morning, I woke up early feeling much better. It’s really stupid but just CRYING sometimes makes me feel better. Anyway, I took a shower and got into my Selphie costume and Tara very kindly took some photos for me. Afterward, we all packed up the car and decided to swimming again! This time the pool and hot tub were empty and we spent a lot of time in the water, making happy manatee faces and pretending to be Michael Phelps. When we were nice and relaxed, we stopped by KFC before hitting the road. Honestly, it was probably the best day at the con for me. When we got home, I had to take the train home and say goodbye to Megan, who is going to be in Texas until December. It was kind of hard but I'll talk to her online just like usual so I'll survive. I won't lie, I've had a hard summer and I am looking forward to this break from cons for a while. If I haven't already said, I will NOT be going to Youmacon or Ohayocon this year. My good friend Joe just moved to Japan and I really want to save up as much money as I can to be able to go visit him next Spring/Summer. I am going to be graduating college and, aside from the trip, want to save as much money as I can. Also, besides saving money, I'm just straight-up conned out at the moment and am hoping that a break will help me reestablish my enthusiasm. We'll see what happens.
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