Sorry for the lack of updates once again. I need to find time away from job searching, school, and other things to write.
Anywho, lemme talk about my recent trip to Animation on Display.
As I mentioned in some other blogs, (and people who know me know this). I haven't been cosplaying or going to gatherings since October. Personal stress, weight gain, work, school, and other things have prevented me from going to cons/gatherings. That and the feeling of "meh, I don't wanna do this." So, AoD was a pretty big deal for me.
Friday night was the beginning of con stress. As I have mentioned on a facebook post, "Cons ain't cons without major stress." Before or during.
I didn't have a lot of money to spend, so I had to do some little favors to do so. But luckily, I had my little paycheck to help me with funds. I prepped the night before, by waxing my face, buying supplies, packing, shaving my legs, and and painting my nails. Along with waxing and doing Maria's nails as well. Needless to say, because of that stress, we didn't sleep till two a.m.
Saturday morning, we had to get up early because I still wanted to go to class. I wanted to get as much hours as I could before we went to the con. I convinced Maria to cut her hair and get her makeup done at the salon so I could get credit for it, have her have her elaborate makeup for Stocking, and of course, keep busy until we left. Her makeup looked amazing and I couldn't have been anymore proud of myself:
Photo from my iPhone, and yes, I think Maria was tired in this pic ^^;
So I clocked out early, and we headed from my house, straight to San Francisco. Due to the Bay Bridge closure, we had to take the San Mateo bridge. It also made it convienent to pick up my honey, Nick, from the San Mateo Caltrain Station.
Once we got into San Mateo, we waited for his train to arrive. I applied a little bit of makeup and he arrived :). We all got together and drove off to Japantown. Once we had arrived, we hauled ass to find a parking station, since apparently, the lot was full. I did make Nick get out of the car and save an empty space for me. Thank you honey! XD
We pulled Supermans in the car. Changing into our Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt cosplays. With me as Panty, Maria as Stocking, and Nick as Brief. We grabbed our things, and walked to the Hotel Kabuki. Meeting up with friends and cosplay family, getting our badges, and exploring the con.
We all had a P&SwG shoot at 3 with the amazing Kris Ling (BlizzardTerrak), I told Nick and Maria to go ahead without me, since my bro Robbie (Eliteslayer) and myself had to check in to our hotel room. And here is where the poop hit the fan.
According to the hotel, I booked the room for last weekend. I did not! I told them the weekend of the convention which was on President's Day weekend, this was back when I booked the hotel in October. Then, I called them about two weeks ago to put the room under Robbie's name, once again, letting them know it was for the convention. Also, my confirmation emails (which were on my iPhone) had that date on it! Needless to say, I was angry, stressed, and really pissed off. I was thankful for Robbie being there and not letting me go off on the staff.
I may be a nice woman and not wanting to cause any drama, but when you are tired, near fainting from anemia, and stressed out, then you don't want to take any crap handed down to you. So I thank you Robbie for being there.
As I realized I couldn't be there for my shoot, I also started looking for me and my roomies (there was five of us) to stay. Luckily, Jaiden and Ray had a suite and it was only two of them! They let us stay with them in their suite provided we paid and cleaned up after ourselves, which we did. Jaiden and Ray, I cannot thank you so so much for your generosity and charity! You guys will get extra sweets and loving from me!
We then proceeded to get our things from my car, and settle. Even though I was shaking, and in near midst of a panic attack (thank you once again, Robbie and Jaiden), I had to rush and get to my panel that was at four.
Now, my panel, Cosplay Cosmetology, went fairly....okay.
I only say this because I had a set way of presenting this after doing it the first time (and slightly bombing) at Fanime. I had live demonstrations, a model to present, and what not. But combine that with last minute editing, no cord for a Mac Book, and my near panic attack, I feel that it could've been done better. But people gave me compliments on it, and I had more audience participation than Fanime 2011. Here's hoping Fanime 2012's panel goes better! (If they approve it)
After my panel, we made it back to the room to sort out our stuff. While the others went to dinner, I decided to stay behind with my boyfriend to rest. After a nice bath in a (AWESOME) jacuzzi tub and sometime in the sauna, I got redressed and headed with Nick to the Brony Mixer. While there, I hung out (and took care of ^ ^;) a very....happy Dana xD.
We all then retired to the room and had a small room party, it was more of a meeting with Blue Lotus Cosplay if anything. Princess Celestia cocktails are awesome though! :)
Sunday:
Woke up early again, nommed on the breakfast stuff we brought, and got dressed into P&SwG again. Thank you Kris for squeezing us in last minute due to the crap that happened the day before.
So here are some teaser pics from that shoot:
Myself and Maria as Panty and Stocking respectively.
My "backlace" gun was made by my darling Nicholas :) It was my Valentine's Day Gift
Brief trying to give Panty a Valentine. Brief cosplayed by my darling Nick :)
Panty's response? "Bitch, please." xD
The next pic isn't safe for work xD or for anything, but hey, I will let you know, I wasn't commando during this shoot, AND, it is how the character is.
TTKSA - Time to kick some ass, by prepping my weapon xD ^^;
Though I do like that pic, it really shows how I was able to pull of Stocking. And once Kris finished editing the rest (no rush, Kris :) ) I will post up the pics, especially the ones showing off me and Maria's makeup. I was very proud of how our cosplays turned out.
Our P&SwG cosplays were definitely a group effort. With me doing the makeup and some wig styling for the three of us, Maria making/sewing the costumes (with the exception of Nick's jumpsuit, she did make and sew the patch for it though) and Nick and Robbie making our fabulous props. I am very happy with how this all turned out.
After the shoot, we got out of our cosplays, changed into One Piece (Me as Post Time Skip Nami, Nick as Post Time Skip Sanji, and Maria as Boa Hancock), we headed back to the con. Nick went to his Pony panel, while me and Maria were chilling. We then went to an awesome ramen house for lunch :) I need to remember the name of the place so I can leave them a great review on Yelp!
After, I went to babysit Oscar's sweet little girl, Mai. Oscar was at the Hideo concert and I got to stay in their room and watch her. Mai is such a delight and a very intelligent girl :) I can actually see her cosplaying when she gets older :)
Once Oscar came back, we all switched into comfier attire, went to get me a crepe, and began our journey back home.
So, needless to say, AoD was a fun con. Got to see a lot of friends, took a load of stress from personal matters off me, and got me excited for the con season coming up.
I just need to not stress over little things and look at the bigger picture. And not to forget the Murphy's Law of "What can go wrong, will go wrong." But I will try to be optimistic and hope that things will not go downhill :)
So, with that, I bid you all a goodnight :)
<3 Much Love,
Captain Li Hellsing
No comments:
Post a Comment