Sakuracon 2008
4/13/2008
If you remember my Sakuracon con report from last year, you’ll remember that I practically had hearts shooting from my eyeballs when I returned home from the convention. How long was my con report - 3 solid pages? Man, I must have gushed over the amazing time I had for months afterward and the best part was that I knew everyone else shared the same epic experience. I knew far in advance that living up to this con was going to be impossible but I really never expected to have a mediocre time or, god forbid, a BAD time. Unfortunately, I had just that. There were good times but I think the let-downs were more prominent this time around. Under the cut is my lengthy tale of “BAW” and why turning cosplay into serious business can EASILY spoil an otherwise wonderful con.
I actually arrived in Seattle on Monday night and met up with Krystal and Lizzie at the airport. It was so weird seeing them because it felt like I had never left. We hopped in Krystal’s fancy new car and went to her house where motivation to sew was at low and we mostly sat down and talked about Lizzie’s douchebag boyfriend. Then things got weird and I performed an interpretive dance, explaining the journey of Krystal’s sewing motivation and the joy we will feel upon completing everything. Then Krystal and I recited the Little Mermaid WORD FOR WORD and decided we were losing our minds and went to bed. The next morning was to be XBOX SEWINGCON 2008. We still had a lot to finish on both our ends so we dedicated Tuesday to finishing as much stuff as we could. Unfortunately, it was clear from the beginning of the day that we had way more to do than we expected. I sewed my entire Chihiro tunic together backwards and had to redo it, I had to make our Bleach stuff, and Krystal had a lot to do on Garnet. After running errands and gathering all the supplies we needed, we pretty much worked straight into the night. Despite our efforts, there was still a lot to do at the end of the night and we eventually crawled into bed at 4AM with the intention to finish the rest the next day. Wednesday morning Krystal and I woke up and decided to go for a walk. My fat Chicago butt wasn’t used to walking up hills and I totally felt when I woke up the next morning. Washington is so different from Illinois in a really beautiful way – there’s so much GREEN. When we were walking, I remember thinking “I haven’t seen swampy, pretty landscapes like this outside of a zoo before.” The weather was pretty cold and rainy but it was still a nice, comfortable walk. After that, we got right back to work. I think we sewed pretty much all day and Lizzie came over at some point. Even though we worked the whole time, it was nice being with people as opposed to sewing alone. We ended up going out to dinner which was a nice break but, once again, we ended up going to bed at 4AM. Thursday was a very stressful day. We sewed until late afternoon when we realized that Krystal’s Garnet costume wasn’t going to get done. Krystal’s mom didn’t make it any easier by insisting that we were wasting our time and that we should just wait for another convention. Then the both of us broke down and cried. Let me make this point: I have not cried over cosplay in 3 years. I never let it get to the point where I become emotionally unstable because I want to dress up like a cartoon character and it EMBARASSES me when it happens. Note this is time #1 when I cried during this trip: stay tuned for more. We continued to work but at the end of the night, left for the hotel at 1AM with an unfinished Garnet. We were so beyond caring at that point though because we had worked so damn hard and had nothing to show for it. When we drove up, we got to see Kayla, Mandy, Chris, Hohopapa, and Chanel which was REALLY exciting! I love those guys so much!! We dropped our stuff off in our hotel room and went over to Kayla and Mandy’s room where they presented Krystal and I with gifts… THEY MADE ME BEATRIX’S SAVE THE QUEEN. You know her epic 5 foot sword? Yeah. I basically freaked out. They struggled to finish their own costumes and STILL found the time to make that for me. <3333 They are incredible. HOWEVER, they also made Krystal Garnet’s rod which made us think, “Well crap, now we HAVE to finish Garnet!” So we just hung out for a bit and talked and ate chocolate cheesecake and all ended up going to bed. Friday was Spirited Away day and a pretty darn good day if I do say so myself! We woke up as early as we could and got into our costumes. Krystal and Lizzie looked effing PERFECT as Haku and Lin and I was a little embarrassed because my hair looked frizzy and stupid and I totally didn’t deserve to be in a group with them. XD Anyway, we wandered around the con and got WAY more attention than I expected! A fun fact: everyone knows Haku’s name but no one knows Chihiro’s! “OMG IT’S HAKU! And…that…girl! Aaw!” Anyway, we stopped by the Miyazaki gathering really quickly and I managed to finally run into Dorothy! It was pretty much the day for meeting everyone in the northwest that I’ve ever wanted to meet. XD After that, Krystal and I picked up our badges and went to the Anime Hunters panel which was full of Zach and Dane hilarity, as usual. Later in the day, we met up with Kayla, Mandy, Jen, Kolby, and Chris but quickly ran off to Vince’s photography panel which taught me the important lesson that the human face is composed of the most muscles….I think. Anyway, that night we had a skit pre-meet and we ended up going to Johnny Rockets with Zach which was lots of fun. We were still in costume and the waitress recognized that Krystal was dressed up as Haku! How crazy is that? After dinner, we went back to the hotel to practice the skit blocking and finish Garnet and the Great Will. We ended up staying awake until 7AM at which point things were STILL unfinished. However, we had to wake up at 11 for another skit meetup so we all went to bed. Saturday was a pretty bad day for me. We woke up and went to the skit meet, meaning I got to dress up as Naruto which was way more fun than it should have been. XD After sitting for WAY too long, we all got our costumes judged and rushed back to the room to work on FF9 stuff. At this point, it was late in the day (almost 3PM) and I was getting progressively more frustrated. Everything everyone said bothered the hell out of me. We had to meet up for the skit at 5:30 and Garnet still wasn’t done. Eventually, the weight of the situation hit me and I had to go back to my room and cry it out. I felt like we were wasting the entire convention and it was my fault because I INSISTED on finishing Garnet. We could have been at the con hours earlier and gotten at least 5 extra hours of sleep if I wasn’t so persistent. I was sleep deprived, hungry, and crabby and it all just got to me at the wrong time. It was pretty bad. Anyway, after a speed-cry I went back to Kayla and Mandy’s room and worked on Garnet some more until it was finally finished. We cut corners and were so desperate to be done we even used a shoelace to lace up the front of Garnet’s bodysuit but it was done. We immediately went to the convention center – still aggravated but becoming gradually happier every minute. We got a lot of pictures taken in the short time we were there and I have to say, we looked pretty cool together. We only got to wear the costumes in the halls for about 20 minutes before we had to meet with Lionel for photos. I knew Lionel would do an epic job with our costumes so I was very excited. We got a few shots but as we were looking for more shooting locations, we realized that it was time to meet up in the green room so we agreed to meet with Lionel another time. The 4 of us raced back to the hotel room to change and made our way to the green room. I ended up falling asleep on the floor for a bit before the masquerade actually started. When they called the order of the skits, we found out we were first. This was a big surprise and I was very nervous! Our skit was so well-received the year before that I was scared that our new skit wouldn’t live up to the audience’s expectations. However, as the MC announced our group name, the audience immediately started cheering and I got my nerve back. We performed the skit and everything went according to plan – we got a lot of laughs which was great. The camera man did a pretty terrible job and missed a majority of the more important plot-points but whatever. All in all, I was pretty proud! After we performed, we went and sat in the audience to watch the other skits. God, that was the longest effing masquerade EVER. While there were some good skits here and there, the majority was really terrible and 90% of the audience left before the show was over. It was so bizarre seeing a completely empty room during a masquerade and very disappointing. Not as disappointing as the fact that we didn’t win a dang thing in the end. I don’t want to sound like an elitist jerk but while our skit wasn’t great, it was much better than 75% of the skits that won. (With the exception of Zach and Dane’s skit which was very funny XD) In fact, most of the awards were very “WTF” and it was very hard to come to terms with the fact that our hard work was not appreciated by the judges in the end. Anyway, it put a huge damper on the night and I just retreated back to my room while Kayla and Mandy went to the Ouran PJ party. More crying, blah blah blah. This is what, the 3rd cry of the con? I’m not even sure what I was so sad about. Anyway, Krystal, Lizzie, and Corey came back to the room and they cheered me up and we ordered food and went to bed around 2AM. On Sunday morning I met up with Kayla and Mandy again, feeling better than the night before. I put on Kayla’s Naruto costume and just wandered around with the group for a while. I eventually met up with Krystal in her Garnet costume so we could get some more FF9 shots with Lionel. It was cold but hanging out with Lionel is always so enjoyable and his photos made it so worth it! The day went quickly and soon Kayla and Mandy and Chris had to go home so I went back to the hotel to say goodbye. More crying, etc. When they left, I was very sad because I felt like I might not see them again for a long time and it was such a crummy way to say goodbye. Anyway, Krystal and I just changed out of our costumes and hung out in the hotel for the rest of the day. However, Krystal had to go home so I said goodbye to her, which wasn’t as hard seeing as I know she’ll be at Acen. After that, I went to the Cheesecake Factory with Lizzie and Corey and went back to the hotel and passed out. The next day I took the shuttle to the airport where my flight was delayed for 5 hours. More crying. I just kept thinking “Great way to end the weekend.” Sakuracon was quickly associated with the pokemon, bidoof. If last year’s Sakuracon were a pokemon, it would be something beautiful and awesome like a dragonair. This year, we expected something great and we got a bidoof. A bidoof. Such a failure it’s hilarious – that was Sakuracon 08.
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