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This report is entirely based on my point
of view. Please do not ask me to take off any remarks
on here. Where I live, we have first amendment rights, meaning
that we have the freedom of religion and freedom of the press. In
my case, it's the freedom of speech, which goes under the first
amendment rights. If you don't like the comments I made on this
page, sorry, but this is my page.
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| Day One
(Friday, March 30, 2001) San Francisco, CA (6:00 am, PST) Weather: 60º F (cool) "Running Around In Circles" I woke up at around 6 am, and I still had a bunch of things I didn't pack. So what else is knew? At around 7 am, my pager went off. I returned the page to my friend, Jason Estioko. He paged me to tell me that he was all set. He wanted to ask more questions, but I told him that I was still packing a few of my things and I needed to get that done before Al shows up. Just as I was about to hang up with him, my pager goes off again. This time it was Al. I returned the page and he told me that he was just 10 minutes away from my house. I was like "damn!" I wasn't even finished yet. He told me that he got up at around 5 am to leave his house. Poor guy. :( Looks like I had to pack my things quicker than I thought. I can't find the cord to my rice cooker, and I only had one Senshi Mysterious business card, only because the stupid program didn't run properly on my computer. Could this get any worse? After everything was all packed, I managed to walk out the front door and carry my bags (all 4 of them) to Al's car. Hey, when you go to a convention, it's impossible to travel light. As we get into the car, Al hands me my Fanime Staff T-shirt. I was like, "Shoot!" I completely forgot my Senshi Mysterious T-Shirt -- the one I was supposed to wear at my panel. I ran back into the house to get it. I didn't have enough room in my bag, so I put it in the pocket of my jacket. *laughs* Yeah, that's how crazy we anime fans are. *laughs*. We head off to Jason's place, which is a 10 minute drive from my house. Al's never been to his house before, so I had to direct him. Once we arrived, Jason was a little upset over the fact that we didn't call him to let him know that we were coming. Well, he told me that he was ready and all set. Oh, well. He introduced us to his mom and she and I had a little chat. She didn't seem like the strict type from what Jason had told me. Off we go to Fanime; we drove onto HWY 280. There wasn't much traffic and everything seemed to run smoothly... that is, until we were ready to merge onto HWY 101. My God! Traffic slowed down so suddenly and we came so close to hitting the car in front of us. Al, using his quick tactics, quickly moved into the white line on the right side of the road while his arm was keeping me back in my seat. What a guy! I mean, man! He's a good driver. During the ride, we were talking about some of the people we would meet and all of the events. It was a nice 45 minute ride; finally, we drove into the Westin Hotel parking lot at around 8:15 am. As we carried our things towards the main entrance of the hotel lobby, someone was shouting at us, telling us to come on up. As we walked into the main lobby, we met Adrian and he told us to go up to their room -- #803. In that room was Keith Burgess (VA of Akuma), Marshall, and Joe. :) I went into the bathroom and changed into my Kasumi costume. Once I came out, Joe handed me my staff badge. Well, they got the picture and the DJ name right, but they left out my middle name. *groan* I hate it when they do that. Oh, well. At least they didn't forget my middle name when they made my regular attendee badge. :) There was not much to do, except go to the hotel registration desk and get my hotel fees paid. The lady told me that my room wouldn't be ready until noon, which wasn't a problem for me because I managed to stash my stuff into Al's room. Al and I wandered around for a bit, and we bumped into this girl, who turned out to be Stella Wong. Al told me that she wanted to date him a long time ago, and when she saw Al and I holding hands, she felt very hurt. I said, "Oh, man... I'm sorry she had to find out this way...", so yeah, I guess you could say that I started feeling guilty. We also ran into Mary Gaffney, who was our Sailor Mercury from our Fanime Con skit last year. :) Al was all, "didn't I see you at Nan Desu Kan?" I said, "No, no, no. That was Amanda." What was so funny was that I never gave much thought on how Amanda and Mary almost looked so much alike... the only difference was that Mary was a much more mature than Amanda was. Al took me to the yet-to-be-opened dealer's room, where I saw Taliesen Jaffe. One of the things I asked him was, "weren't you s guest star on "The Facts of Life"? He was all, "How did you learn about that?" I told him that after show, the credits rolled and his name was written in it. He couldn't believe it. A few minutes later, I met Revell Walker for the first time and as I hugged him, I apologized for all of the mischief that happened before Ani-Magic 2000 took place (long complicated story). He said, "Oh, it's all in the past. Don't worry about it. It's over." Maybe... but I still felt that I owed him an apology. I went back into the lobby to see if Jason could get his attendee badge. I go to Jason and I said, "you know what? Let me get the badge for you. This is ridiculous." I went up to the front desk and I asked them for Jason's badge, and they were very polite towards me, and handed me the badge with no problems. :) At that point, I bumped into Becca Norman, chairperson of Nan Desu Kan. :) We hugged and we talked about this year's Nan Desu Kan. She told me how excited she was and how she couldn't wait to get everything up and running. :) We couldn't really talk much because she was working as a reporter for Artemis Radio, so I said, "okay, I'll talk to you later", and we parted. Jason got his attendee and volunteer badge and we headed off to the opening ceremonies with Al at around 11:00 am. We sat in the front row and everything was good. I think I was in there for about an hour or so when my pager went off. It was Will. He told me that was at the con and Kathy was with him. As I exited the main theater doors, I saw Will with Kathy dressed as Eternal Sailor Moon. Kathy gave me strict instructions regarding rehearsal and I was like, "okay, no problem." She asked me if I have my hotel room yet, and I told her that I wouldn't have it until noon. She's all, "it's already noon." Man, time DOES fly when you're having fun. *laughs* I went to the hotel desk and they told me that my room was all set. She gave me the key to the mini bar and the room. What ticked me off was when she made me sign a contract stating that I wasn't allowed to have more than one person in my room and that I wasn't allowed to bring any outside food into the room. Bullshit! Now, that I look back at it, I should've stopped myself from signing it. Despite that I signed it, I said to myself, 'there is no way in hell I will abide by these stupid rules'... well, with the exception of being told not to give alcohol to minors, but that's a different story. I tried to go back into Al's room to see if I could get my luggage, but there was no one in there and I didn't have the room key. I placed a call to Al telling him that I have my room and that I needed to get my things from his room. As I headed towards the elevator, I ran into Steve Bennett and his brother Kevin. Steve asked me if I was interested in having our group interviewed by him. I told him that I would have to talk to the rest of the group about that. Otherwise, it seemed like a great idea to me. I got into the elevator to take me to the main lobby. As the elevator doors opened, Al was standing right in front of me. We both head back in the elevator heading up. We get my bags and head into my room -- #745. I was curious as to what the mini-bar was. Hey, anyone would go nuts to see that they have a mini-refrigerator with bottles of water and fruit juice, cans of sodas and beer, and little elixirs on the side. I took my bags and stashed them in a corner, so they people wouldn't run into them. As for the VCR I brought... oh boy. I had a heck of a time hooking that into the TV. I had single-handily move the TV case so I could connect the VCR into the cable outlet, and boy is that thing heavy. After that was done, I called Kathy on her cellphone to inform her that she could come into the room. What was really weird was the fact that she was so eager to go into the room, yet, she took her sweet time. But once I saw her with cardboard boxes and stuff, who could blame her? The only thing that I didn't like was the fact that she carelessly left all of her things in the middle of the floor. I had warned everyone beforehand that since the room was taken out on my credit card, I specifically told everyone to "please keep the room clean, and to keep things off the floor." I guess Kathy had her own way of dealing with rules. She then takes out the script and told me that she had made a few changes. I can't believe this! We already made a rule on the message board saying that we wouldn't make any more changes on the script. Who does she think she is? I said, "Kathy, what the hell are you doing!? We said, 'no more changes'." She says, "but these are minor changes." I said, "JoAnne isn't going to like this, Kathy." Kathy assured me that everything would be fine and JoAnne will like it. That's what she thinks. I known JoAnne long before we formed Senshi Mysterious. When she decides on something and someone suddenly does something without her consent, she gets ticked off. I don't blame her. I go to Kathy and said, "wait a minute. Lynleigh said that she would be coming at around noon. I better check to see if she's here." Again, another trip on the elevator, I head into the dealer's room. Fortunately, there are certain advantages to having a staff badge (not to brag or anything) since I didn't have to wait in line for the dealer's room. As I walked in, I saw Lynleigh dressed as Utena from the Manga Version with Onyxmoon dressed as Mistress Nine, who introduced herself as Rachael. Right behind was a girl who was dressed in a Meilin costume, and that turned out to be MandaLeigh Young. She comes up to me and tells me that she's ChibiEudial. I was like, "Oh, hi! I'm Claudine Roselle Puente." I told Lynleigh that our room was ready. Rachael and I helped her with her things and I invited MandaLeigh up to our room. At around 4 p.m. or so, JoAnne told me that she would be at the con in about a half hour or so. I said, "okay, I'll wait for you near the lobby." Again, another ride on the elevator. As I waited in the lobby, I noticed a huge punch bowl full of lemonade. There was no cash register, so I assumed the stuff was free, so I helped myself to the lemonade. The funny thing was, I didn't really notice that Gina and Chrissy of Sailor JAM-Boree were right next to me helping themselves at the punch bowl. As I was about to leave, I was like, "Oh, hello." And Gina said 'hi' in a very timid manner. I thought to myself, "that doesn't sound like Gina. Something must've happened. I just hope it wasn't anything serious." Kathy and MandaLeigh joined me about 20 minutes later and they told me that they wanted to welcome JoAnne with me. :) Meanwhile, Lynleigh and Rachael went back to the dealer's room. I told Lynleigh that we would have rehearsal after 8 or so and she was okay with the idea. :) About 5 minutes later, we decided that it would be best if we waited outside. Whoo! It's hot and I'm sweating in my Kasumi costume as it it. I see a car from a distance, and I assumed it was her car, but I wasn't exactly sure until the car drove closer in my direction. When I saw the driver's face, I realized that it was JoAnne's mom. I was like, "it IS JoAnne!", and we ran towards her car. JoAnne was so surprised that all of us came out to see her. We helped her with her things, I said "hi" to her mom and we chatted for a bit. JoAnne and her mom said their goodbyes and we thanked Mrs. Shweid for dropping her off. We went back into our hotel room and Kathy started discussing the changes she made with the script, and yes, I was right. JoAnne was not at all pleased with the changes. Who could blame her? It was more than she could handle. When JoAnne scolded her, I thought she was going to start screaming or something. I was like, "man!" A few minutes later, Will calls me to tell me that Arek flew in. I asked him where he was, and he told me that their hotel room was just down the hall from us. I went to their room, and there was Arek, with his camera and everything. Yep, he came prepared. :) I told him that things were kind of hectic over the fact that people were coming in at different times. He understood, and I told him to sit tight until everyone arrived. A few minutes later, my cellphone rang. It was Jeanne and Karen. They told me that they were on the second floor of the hotel. I told them to stay where they were and I would come down to get them, which I did. Man, that's all I was doing practically all day. I was going up and down, up and down. I met up with them and asked them to come up to our room. They told me that they wanted to leave a few of their things in our room, considering the fact that their things were a hassle to carry. Well, it was that and the fact that they weren't planning to stay in the hotel. Okay, we had mostly everyone in the room, except one person -- Jessica (Sailor Moon). We were so excited about the whole convention itself. I remember when JoAnne first mentioned that she had brought the Utena movie and Manda completely freaked out in excitement. I was like, "Calm down". That day was... more than words can say. It was so overwhelming that a few of us were either speaking in gibberish or we were acting like little kids; I think it was more than what I could take. It was already 6 p.m. and some of us were hungry. And I said, "well, there's a Round Table Pizza place near the convention." Well, it was a couple of blocks away, which seemed like nothing to me. We all agreed and decided to go there. I decided to call Jessica to let her know that we would wait for her in the lobby before we headed out for dinner. We went to the lobby and there was Jessica dressed as Princess Serenity, and might I add, a VERY pretty Princess Serenity. :) Lynleigh told us that she had other plans, and I said, "okay, no problem, but please remember to meet back with us by 8 p.m." She nodded and left. Before heading out to Round Table, Manda asked us if it was okay if her mother and grandmother could tag along, and I said, "sure! The more, the merrier!" So, we walked from the hotel to Round Table, which took about, oh.... 15 minutes give or take, but hey, I didn't mind it, and it seemed like the other people didn't mind it either. :) But here's the weird part. Most of us were so eager to get there, and in the very back of the "line", Kathy is starting the water works again. I can't even imagine why. Maybe it was over the fact that JoAnne was so upset when Kathy changed the script. But then again, this is the third time in a row that Kathy has done this. She was having fun the entire day -- laughing, and smiling, and then out of the blue, she starts crying. I said to myself, "no, this isn't right. Either she's really upset, or she's faking it to get attention." Well, we arrived at Round Table, and the funny thing was, we saw other cosplayers there, too. It's nice to know that you're not alone. :) We ordered two pizzas. One was a plain cheese, and the other was the King Arthur Supreme (my personal favorite). Manda's mom was really nice to pay for the two pizzas. :) I had an opportunity to talk to Manda's grandmother and mom, who was seated right next to me. What strikes me about this point in the convention was that I don't remember JoAnne taking a photo of us there, but she did. Manda's mom was nice enough to pay for the two pizzas. :) After dinner, we went into the liquor store. The girls bought some ice cream, and cookies, while I bought some aspirin and a Lemonade Snapple. For some odd reason, I started getting a headache. Maybe it's the fact that I got up so early and how I was looking for the people in our skit. Afterwards, we came across this Sushi place, and a couple of the girls thought it would be funny to start saying the Sailor Moon introduction as loud as possible for everyone to hear. I'm all, "I'm not going to do that. No way! Forget it! It ain't me. Stagewise, I'll do it, real world wise, hell no." I waited outside with Arek, Will and Manda's mother and grandmother. I just couldn't believe they said it in there. I was like, "oh, my God!" About 15 minutes later, we returned to the Westin Hotel. I told the girls that I needed to be at the dance so I could play my music, which was fine with them. :) They went upstairs and again we went our separate ways. I walked into the dance room, but Al was still setting up for the dance and everything. I asked him where Rob Miles was, and he told me that he was in the hospital. I was like, "what?! What happened?" Al didn't know, and he said that there's a big chance that he will not show up to Fanime Con at all. I just hope he didn't have another stroke. :( Before we started the panel or anything, I warned each and every security guard regarding Alex Alvarez. The guy was known for trying to hit on me, but he was also known to steal from people. I worried about the stage where our equipment was because I was afraid that he would try to get up on stage and steal our CDs or some parts of equipment. I said, "please do not allow that guy on stage. If that guy tries to get up on stage, you have my full permission to throw him out of the dance." The security guards told me that they will do everything they can to keep him off the stage. I stayed for the panel, which was practically an all-time low. We barely had an audience in there. It was terrible. Everyone was really eager to get on the dance floor and dance, but the guys still weren't ready with the equipment. When the dance was underway, it was DJ 8 Ball who started off. I waited for an hour or so, but I still didn't get my chance to show anything. I talked to Al and I told him that I would meet the rest of the Senshi Mysterious members for rehearsal, and he let me go. He told me that he would call me if anything happened. I went to the second floor of the Westin and I met the group out on the balcony rehearsing. Basically, we went over the script and rehearsed little by little. What really cracked me up was the fact that some people ended up saying the wrong lines and what not. :p After a few more practices, we finally got the hang of it. Five minutes later, my phone rings. It was Al. He told me that the dance was losing his audience and asked me if I would go back to the dance. I said that I would and I ended up going back. I told the group what happened, and they understood. As I went back downstairs, I came back and all of a sudden, Al starts playing his music and the dance was up and running again. He asked me what song I should play and I said, "Let me start off with 'Night of the Summer Side' before I start playing any new songs of mine. We played the song, but by the time I was ready to play my new hits, the other DJs came back. I was like, "what the hell?" I wasn't finished. Al turns to me and says, "don't worry. We have all of tomorrow night." I said, "okay, no problem." And I went back to my hotel room. As I walked in, I noticed our room was completely annihilated with Kathy's things. I said, "Kathy, will you please pick up your stuff off the floor?" and of course, she refused. The other girls were up watching the Utena movie and on the second bed, there was a girl with red hair and these rectangular shaped glasses. I was like, "who are you?" She's all, "it's me! MandaLeigh." Now, note that when I met her, she was in costume. I never saw how she really looked or anything. Now, THAT was funny. :) I didn't get to stay up to watch the entire Utena movie. Hey, I was exhausted with all of the running around, the rehearsal, and stuff. Can you blame me? Oh, well. Tomorrow's another day... or should I say it's the "performance day"? Day Two (Saturday, March 31, 2001) Westin Hotel/ Santa Clara, CA (6:00 am, PST) Weather: 80º F (hot) "A Small Accident/ Showtime" Well, let's see. I woke up early as usual, which would be two or three hours before the others would wake up. I get bored easily first thing in the morning. I figured that I should go downstairs and see if Al was up and around. I was still cautious about what he told me the night before, that Amanda Winn-Lee would leave the con first thing in the morning. I wasn't going to let her leave without having her sign something of mine. I assumed that Al would be in the lobby, so I took the elevator down. He was there, but Amanda Winn-Lee wasn't. I thought, "oh, no. Maybe she left." I felt disappointed and I went back upstairs to change into my regular clothes. When I came back downstairs, Al told me, "Claudine, you just missed her." I'm all, "who?" He says, "Amanda Winn-Lee." I'm like, "what?! Oh, man." I thought, "oh, well. I might meet her at another con." Al and I went into the buffet to have breakfast. Since I was up and around, I thought, what the heck. As the waitress showed us to our tables, there was a young lady wearing a black and white striped blouse, blue leather jeans, and these funky colored shoes, and ironically that turned out to be Amanda Winn-Lee. Al kept telling me that I should talk to her, and I kept shaking my head because I didn't want to disturb her. I said, "Al, she came here for breakfast. I don't think I should. Maybe she doesn't want anyone bugging her." He said, "no, it's okay. She won't mind." He called to her, and I started to blush. I honestly didn't know how to react. I felt honored, but at the same time guilty. He goes to me and says, "Go on." And I said, "May I have your autograph?" She agreed, so I gave her my badge and she signed it. After breakfast, I went up to the hotel room, which looks worse than the night before. I said, "what the hell is this? Kathy, please pick up your stuff off the floor." She still refused. The girls were snacking on breakfast bars and stuff like that. You know, now that I look at it, I started feeling guilty about having breakfast with Al and everything. Before we knew it, it was already 10 a.m. Thanks to JoAnne, we had a few emergency rations so to speak in our room -- the stuff that the Westin forbade us to have. :p Afterwards, we got into our costumes quickly and headed towards the main theater. Dieter called for attendance and then we were given the ground rules for the masquerade and everything. He said, "when I call your group name, please come up to the stage so we can get the lights and technical stuff out of the way for you", or something like that. I figured that it would be a while before they call us to the stage, so Jessica, Lynleigh, and I stepped out to get something to eat. I told Jeanne that if they called us, to please call me on my cellphone. We walked towards the buffet coach, which was right outside of the swap room. The pizza looked great, but I think it would be much better if they had it at a reasonable price. I mean, $4.00 for a pizza square is just too much. On the other hand, we were starving so we didn't really have much of a choice. As soon as Jessica, Lynleigh, and I were going to sit on the floor to eat, my phone rings. When I looked at the caller ID, it was Jeanne. Damn! It's always at precisely the wrong moment. :p I picked up and she told me that they just called us. I was like, "damn!" Okay, we'll be there in a second. Jessica, Lynleigh, and I walked back to the theater, and I'm basically eating my pizza square as fast as I could, considering that they don't allow food inside the theater. I thought Sailor Moon was supposed to stuff her face in an exaggerated manner, not Sailor Mars. My face looked terrible. :p As we were walking towards the theater, we saw Averi dressed as Ryoko in a country outfit. Averi couldn't help but laugh over the fact that I was stuffing my face in such a ridiculous manner. Chrissy from Sailor JAM-boree gave me a funny look. Hey, who could blame her? I looked like a real live cartoon character pulling off something like that, or probably some cheap imitation of Lucille Ball. *lol* As I was finishing my pizza square, I went to Averi and asked her, "are you guys performing to the closing theme to Shin Tenchi?" And she nodded and said yes. Why am I not surprised? The outfit was a dead give away. After I inhaled my lunch, I walked into the theater, and Dieter helped us out with lights and technical areas. We rehearsed once on stage. I was dressed as Sailor Mars wearing the black wig, but to tell you the truth, the wig was really starting to annoy me. Whether I pinned it on or not, it was getting in my face, not to mention falling off. It fell once during the first rehearsal. Then I said, "Oh, screw it! I'll be Mars without the wig." My hair was long enough for the part anyway. After we did a quick run through, we went back upstairs to the balcony on the second floor to rehearse. Unfortunately, after I fell on stage over a number of times, I must've twisted my ankle in some odd way. I said, "wait up! Guys, I think I twisted my ankle when I fell during rehearsal." JoAnne and I were willing to go to our hotel room. Unfortunately, Kathy had both of our hotel keys. We asked Kathy for the hotel keys, but because Kathy was sooo attached to our room keys, there was no way for us to get back into our room. We had to crash in Arek's room for the moment time. Now, usually I was told that a guy's room is much messier than a girls room. In this case, it's not true. He kept his room as neat as a pin, while our room was annihilated. :p I was on the bed, and I asked him to take a photo of me. He's all, "Aw, Claudine, I can't do that. You twisted your ankle." I said, "Arek, you're a reporter, ain't you? Part about being a reporter is telling the news as it is." He shrugged and took the photo of me (I look terrible in this photo). Again, JoAnne takes out her recorder and gets herself, Jessica, Manda, and I singing "The Simpstones". Arek suggests that we should sing 99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall, and I was the only one who ended up singing it... might I add terribly. Oh, and let's not forget how hilarious Arek was when he did his impersonation of Barney Grumble. Jessica took some ice, wrapped it in a towel, and as she placed it on my ankle, I groaned a little and said, "Gee, I really DID twist it." I didn't even realize how bad it was... at the time. Arek asked me if I would be able to perform in the masquerade. I told him that it was too late for me to back out; the show must go on. He didn't agree with what I said, and I said to him, "Arek, my major is theater, and part about it is knowing that no matter what happens (if it's a minor illness or injury), the show must go on." Eventually, my ankle started to feel better. Arek told me that he would be downstairs and he said that it was okay if we stayed in his room. JoAnne and the rest of us were chatting. It took me a while to realize that Jessica wasn't in the room with us. I said, "wait a minute! If we're all here, then who's with Jessica?" Everyone was like, "I don't know." Oh, great. Her mom would ruin my bacon if she found out that her daughter was wandering around the convention by herself. I rode the elevator to the first floor and I figured that she was probably in the dealer's room. I saw Averi and Angela, and I asked them if they had seen Jessica. Averi's all, "Yeah, she's right over there," pointing to her right. I thanked her, and when I walked towards Jessica, Arek was standing right beside her. I said, "Oh, good. She wasn't alone." A few minutes later, Jason came up to me and I asked him if he was enjoying the con and everything, and he said he was having a ball. I turned around, and guess who I bumped into? None other than Tiffany Grant. :) I felt so honored. She came in to get some Asuka Langley merchandise. She looked at my attendee badge and read my name. She thought it was unusual that they would print my name twice. She said, "it's kind of like, 'pizza, pizza'." *laughs* I thought that was cute. :) Jason asked her how she liked the Bay Area, and she said, "I haven't had a chance to see the sights yet." I told her that I liked the way she portrayed Kome from Blue Seed. Who could ever forget her motto. *laughs* "If it still has bullets, keep shooting." I figured that since I missed her panel, I asked her if she could autograph my badge. She said, "sure." I gave her my badge and she signed it. Afterwards, my phone rings, and Tiffany says, "what is that? It sounds kind of psycho." *laughs* She was referring to the ringing of my phone. My phone is a Nokia and at the time, I set the ringing tone to "dizzy". It was JoAnne. She called me to ask if I could find Kathy, so we could get our room key back. I told her that I would do my best to find her. It took me a while to get Kathy to come with me, considering that she was in the middle of buying something. She showed me these Sailor Moon cels. She paid about $300 for those cels. I said, "what?! Kathy, that's too much!" Oh, well. It's her money, not mine. At 4:30 p.m., we went back to the hotel room and ended up eating bits and pieces before heading to the theater. A few minutes later, Arek asked us if he could take a group photo of us before we go to the masquerade orientation. So, naturally Arek had his camera with him and took this photo. At 5:00 p.m., all of us headed backstage and were given instructions by the staffers/ security. Oh, and what is this? It turns out that John Lira is staffing backstage. He was originally a member of Japanime FLASH: CSM Japanese Animation Association. I told him that after the masquerade I needed to be at the dance, and he told me that I should be able to go to the dance without any problems. :) A few minutes later, I went looking for someone from Sailor JAM-Boree because I wanted to tell them about the dance. I found Chrissy and I invited her and the rest of the Jamborteers to the dance, and she told me that she and the rest of them would try to come to the dance. I said, "okay, no problem." Afterwards, I went back into the hall waiting in line with Will, Kathy, JoAnne, Jessica, Arek, and Karen. What happened next was completely unexpected. I had no idea that a bunch of Fanime security guards would come backstage and find me. Interview wouldn't describe it; more like interrogation. They were like, "why are you banning Alex Alvarez from the dance?" I was like, "what?! What are you talking about?" They told me that I wouldn't allow Alex Alvarez to come to the dance. I said, "No, no, no. That's not what I said. I said that he can come to the dance, but he's not allowed to get on the stage where all of our CDs and equipment is stashed." Then they were like, "Ohhhhhh, okay." I said, "I can't have him banned from the dance unless he does something wrong." They said, "okay, no problem. If he tries to step foot on stage, he will be banned from the dance." I said, "thank you", and they left. Diana Kou, dressed as Mistress Nine, finds us in the hall and she wished us good luck. Will showed Diana his little Pikachu, and Diana held Pikachu towards her with her mouth wide open. We thought it was too funny, and I said, "Hey, we should get a picture of you doing that." She's all, "I can't do that. It's... Pikachu." I said, "Diana, you're Mistress Nine. You could care less." She shrugged and said, "okay", and we took a photo of her. At 7:00 p.m., it was showtime. And again, the No Need For Tenchi Group was the act right after us. I said to myself, "Okay, as soon as our skit is over with, I'm running back to the green room to watch their skit." For some odd reason either they or we end up missing each others skits; sometimes they're after us, or we are after them. :p Remind me to have a talk with these MCs about that. *laughs* About an hour later, it was Senshi Mysterious's turn to hit the stage. Well, guess what happens? Technical problems happened. They didn't play our tape and we were standing on stage for almost a minute without any music. We were practically a laughing stock on stage. Yeah, I will admit that was bad, but the only thing I have to do is say to myself, "it's not our fault, and these things happen." Finally, they played the tape and we did our act. The audience seemed to enjoy the skit, that is... and no, I'm trying to put anyone down here, mind you... until Kathy came on stage dressed as Sailor Star Maker. Yes, I have to give her credit for having the courage to get on stage like that, but the audience was less than unappreciative towards her. :( In the end, our skit was considered so-so. Oh, well. At least it wasn't as bad as the AX 2000 skit we did. The minute I step go off stage, I saw Rob Miles. I was so glad to see him. I asked him if he was okay, and he said, "yeah, I'm much better now." I could tell that he was taking it easy and I said, "I've gotta go, but I'll talk to you later, okay?" He nodded and I went backstage. I ran because I wanted to see the No Need For Tenchi group performing their skit on the TV screen. I only saw half of it, and I've gotta say. It was so cute and clever. :) I even told Averi's mom that. I said, "That's so cute!!!" When the skit was over, I saw the group coming backstage. Nick comes into the room, and I shouted in a country accent, "Ride 'em, cowboy!" *laughs* He seemed to enjoy that. :) Towards the end, Sailor JAM-Boree takes the stage and they ended up having the same technical problems like we did. It took the tech people a while to get to play their tape. They turn the lights off and the people backstage started applauding. I said, "wait a minute! Wait a minute, if that happened to any of you guys, you wouldn't be applauding, okay?", and they stopped. It took 5 minutes for the tech people to cue their tape, and in the end, their skit was absolutely fantastic. I said to myself, "man, they've been working!" I didn't get to stay for the awards. I needed to be at the dance. I hurried to the dance room with some assistance from the staff. I make it to the dance, and DJ 8 Ball is at the mixers. I'm all, "what the hell? I thought it was our turn." I was pulled aside to be interviewed as DJ Saiyan, which took about 5 minutes or so. Afterwards, I went back on the stage to get ready to play my music. I ended up playing "Night of the Summer Side" again and before I knew it, that was all the time I had. DJ 8 Ball took the stage again. I said, "what gives?" I left the dance upset and everything because this was supposed to be our night and I was practically upstaged. :p I went back to the hotel room ticked off and everything, and I said, "I'm complaining to the Fanime staff about this. If they want to look at me as being inconsiderate and rude, that was fine with me. They can believe what they want to believe." I was going to head off to the viewing rooms, and at that point, JoAnne, Manda, and Jessica came back from the masquerade. I said to them, "let me guess. Sailor JAM-Boree won." JoAnne was all, "no, they didn't win anything." I said, "what?! Oh, my God!" Manda says, "the Tenchi Group won Best In Show." That was an even bigger surprise; I couldn't believe it. They asked me about the dance, and I was less than enthusiastic to talk about it. Eventually, I told JoAnne how upset I felt being upstaged by this other DJ. And she apologized and everything. Jessica's mom comes into our room, and I said, "please excuse the mess." She said, "this kind of reminds me of college." Jessica said that she wanted to go to the viewing rooms to see the masquerade tape with Lynleigh. She said, "okay, but I don't want you staying up past midnight, okay?", and Jessica nodded. Afterwards, Jessica and Lynleigh went back to the lobby, while I ended up sulking about the dance. There's a knock at the door. It was Al. I told him how upset I was, and he apologized fro everything that happened. He said, "don't worry, Claudine. You'll get your big chance at Nan Desu Kan. I promise you that you'll be the first DJ to start the Nan Desu Kan dance." I said, "Okay." He left and I was really exhausted. Before I knew it, I was out like a light. Day Three (Sunday, April 1, 2001) Westin Hotel/ Santa Clara, CA (7:00 am, PDT) Weather: 80º F (hot) "Panel Time/ Farewell" Again, I woke up early again, but this time, the clock went an hour ahead. Man, this is the one thing I honestly think these chairpeople and staffers at conventions should think about. I mean, "geez! Have a heart! You've got some nerve scheduling a con at the time when we go back to Daylight Savings." Everyone else was out like a light. Kathy told me the other night that we should present our awards at our panel. I was like, "hell no! This is our panel. We're there to talk about what makes a good cosplay group and ways of keeping things simple. If we're going to present awards for our group, that should be done privately." Yeah, that's Kathy for you -- act first, think about it in a few years. :p Again, I left a note to the girls so they wouldn't have to worry about me. I told them that I would be in the lobby dressed as Belldandy, and if they needed me, they can reach me on my cellphone. I went downstairs and I chatted with a few of the staffers for little while and I would head into the convention center. Some of the staffers and a few of the attendees apologized as to what happened to my DJing act. I said, "you have no need to apologize. It's not your fault." What surprised me was that I never told a soul about what happened, except for JoAnne and Al. Man, word gets around quick at these conventions, doesn't it? I was near the dealer's room and I was hoping it was open, so I could get a head start on asking a few of them to donate prizes for our panel. Unfortunately, it was closed, so I had to wait until 10:00 a.m. :( With nothing else to do, I went back to my room, and just about everyone was up and about packing their things. I told Kathy that we need to give the awards in our room before we go to the panel. She's all, "we have plenty of time. It's 8:00 a.m." I said, "Uh-uh. It's 9:00 a.m., remember? We went back to Daylight Savings time today." She said, "that means we need to have breakfast right now and get things out of the way." She told me that it should only take her fifteen minutes to pack her things. Well, what can I say? Why am I not surprised it took Kathy forever to pack up her things? An hour went by and the rest of the people in the group wanted to go to the dealer's room. I said, "sure, no problem, but just be sure to meet us at in the panel room at Noon." As I was about to leave the room, Kathy pulls me aside and starts talking to me about the Anime Expo skit of ours. Kathy asked me to change the skit idea. I said, "what?! I can't do that." Kathy then says, "The audience won't like the skit you're working on." I said, "what are you talking about? You don't know what the skit looks like at all. How can you say that?" Again she begs me to change the skit. This time I said no, because first of all, the group voted on it, second, a few people volunteered to be in the skit, third, I've already submitted the masquerade application to the people at Anime Expo, and fourth we started rehearsal a few weeks before Fanime Con took place. What angered me was the fact that Kathy not only wanted me to change the skit, but she told me that my skit wouldn't work. I mean, that's like telling someone their oil painting sucks. :p Before I went to the dealer's room, Al was nice enough to put my luggage in the car. What a sweetheart. :) Afterwards, I would go into the dealer's room and ask certain booths to help me out in donating prizes for our panel. Studio Ironcat, Area 51, Anime Pavilion, and Anime Palace were nice enough to help us. :) I looked at my watch and I said, "Oh, my God! It's noon. I have to get to the panel room. I was stopped by a few photographers who asked me if they could get a photo of me, and I said, "Okay, but we have to do this quickly because I have to bring these to a panel." As I walked in, they were another panel discussion going on. It looks like they were running a little late. Oh, well. I'm not going to fret over that. Al came in gave me the roll of raffle tickets to give to the audience. Shortly, Jessica, Lynleigh, Will, Arek, JoAnne, Karen, Jeanne, and Kathy came to the room. Since we didn't have much of an audience, due to the fact that the attendees couldn't find our room. Well, it was either that or the fact that our panel was scheduled at the same time as Sailor JAM-Boree. Oh, well. We just had to make the best of it. Kathy thought it would be a good opportunity to pass out certificates to us. Again, Kathy had to take matters into her own hands. What gives? It was starting to annoy me. Afterwards, we passed out raffle tickets to our audience. Kathy steps out and decides to stop by the Sailor JAM-Boree panel. From the looks of it, it seemed as though as she was going to give out raffle tickets at their panel. I was like, "Kathy, don't do that. That's THEIR panel. They're there for a reason. We should respect their wishes." She's all, "I'm not going to pass out raffle tickets. I just want to give them their certificate." Basically, we gave basic tips on how to make costumes and stuff like that. The audience barely had any questions. :( Oh, well. We figured that it would be best to give out prizes and end our panel. :p I just hope we have better luck with our panel next year. After the panel, Jessica left and so did Karen, Jeanne, Will, and Kathy. Basically it was me, Lynleigh, JoAnne, Chris Tang, and Jason. We figured that we should go back into the dealer's room while it was still open. JoAnne and I ran into Connie Wong of Aloha Anime. JoAnne wanted to purchase some Sera Myu pencil boards. Now, I don't remember what we said for Connie to tell us about her trip from her home to Fanime Con. She did mention that she, Gina, and Chrissy got into a car accident on their way up to Fanime. She said that their car was totalled. I said to myself, "oh, my God! So, that explains why Gina said 'hi' so timidly on Friday afternoon. Man, that must be rough." Well, it was JoAnne's turn to get what she wanted... more or less. :) She came face to face with Kunihiko Ikuhara, series' director of Revolutionary Girl Utena. She was asking him some questions and he said that he couldn't speak English very good. At that point Chrissy comes over, and JoAnne asks her if she could translate for her. Chrissy says, "I'm not a translator." JoAnne asks again, and I said, "Jo, she just said that she's not a translator", and she said, "oh, I'm sorry, and she turns to Ikuhara and asks in Japanese if he could sign her badge, and he agreed. Afterwards, we waved and left... and not a moment too soon. The dealer's room was closing. :( Man, not really enough time to get anything after rehearsal and stuff. :p With nothing more to do, JoAnne decided that it would be best to call her friend Jules to take her back to San Jose State. There was no answer. In the meantime, JoAnne, Al and I, along with Lynleigh and Chris went to the buffet to have a late lunch. Gina, Chrissy, and Connie were at one table next to us, while Mari Iijima and her two sons were at the other table behind us. Anyway, we were chatting... well, I could barely talk. I think after all the excitement, I lost my voice. :p Well, here's a lesson. Learn to save your voice... if you can. *laughs* At around 4 p.m., we went to the auditorium for the closing ceremonies. Jason was already in the theater and he told me that he had a blast at Fanime Con. He, too, apologized over what happened to my DJing act, and he said, "don't blame DJ 8 Ball for what happened last night. You know, he's really a nice guy, once you get to know him." I said, "Oh, no. I'm not blaming him." He's all, "Oh, thank God." I finished my sentence by saying, "I'm blaming Justin. He was our manager. Yeah, some manager. He gave DJ 8 Ball more stage time than us." Jason just shrugged and left the conversation as is. I fell asleep towards most of the closing ceremony. When the gripe session started, I was wide awake. The first gripe was from this guy who said, "the next time you have a convention, don't EVER have a con at the change of Daylight Savings Time." *laughs* He took the words right out of my mouth. One of the staffers said, "This was the only time slot we could get." Bullshit! They could've gotten another time slot. You know what the problem is? They're too lazy and disorganized to do anything. Sorry, but it's true, and I know a lot of people who can vouch me on the remark I just made. Then there was this lady who complained about having her weapons, that were made of either cardboard, plastic, or styrofoam taken away from her by the hotel security. I thought that was stupid. If I were a security guard, I would check each weapon first and if it was fake, I would give it back to it's rightful owner. What right do they have to take away something made out of cardboard, styrofoam, or plastic? It just doesn't make sense. :p After the closing ceremonies, I said goodbye to Lynleigh and Chris. I wouldn't see Lynleigh for another 3 months, as for Chris, I wouldn't see him for another 3 weeks. JoAnne tried calling Jules again and didn't get a response. She was frustrated and Al said, "I'll give you a ride home." JoAnne was like, "Thanks, I don't think I can wait for this guy any more. This is ridiculous. I need to get back to the dorm so I can finish my homework." Jason, JoAnne, Al, and I go to the car and we ran up against another problem. Al didn't know how to get to San Jose State. He had to call one of his co-workers and ask him to get on the internet onto MapQuest for the directions. The directions were given, but as Al drove, he took a wrong turn and he had to call his job again. Once the directions were given, Al drove all the way to JoAnne's dorm. At the same time, Jason told us that he knew someone from San Jose State and he wanted to visit her. Once we found a place to park... and there were glass shards on the sidewalk. I said to myself, "oh, no. What am I going to do? I'm not wearing any shoes, and I can't walk over glass shards." Al was nice enough to give me a piggyback ride until we were at the door. First, Jason wanted to visit his friend, who was a couple of floors below JoAnne. We said hi, and I think she looked at me funny considering that I was still in my costume. Oh, well. We stayed for about 5 minutes or so, and then we escorted JoAnne to her dorm room. She showed us around and everything. We said our goodbyes and left. It was already 6:00 p.m. and Al needed to make a stop at Howies High Tech & Games. He told me to wait in the car while he went in. I said, "why can't I come in?" He said, "as long as you're dressed as Belldandy, Howie will be staring at you the entire time." I said, "oh, no", and while he was driving, I found a clever way to change out of my costume without revealing anything. I'm wearing a sweatshirt and a beige skirt. I walk into Howies without any problems. Afterwards, Jason, Al, and I went to have dinner at this Chinese Restaurant near Howies. It was okay. I've had better. Oh, well. What I liked about it, was that it was still bright and sunny. :) After dinner, Al would drive Jason and I home. Soooo... what did I think of Fanime Con? Well, because I was hanging out with friends and everything, I didn't really pay too much attention to the issues that went on during the weekend, so I'd have to give it an all-time high. I had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and rehearsing for the skit, and doing all the goofy things on JoAnne's audio tape. *laughs* Aftermath On April 2, 2001, I became the new president of the Senshi Mysterious Cosplay Group. We barely saw Kathy on the message board once that happened. Maybe it was over the fact that she was ticked off with me for setting up new rules for the group. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? It also kind of makes you wonder why she never paid her share of the hotel bill. :p I never did ask Rob what happened to him that weekend. Oh, well. Doesn't matter... as long as he's okay and taking care of himself. A few days after Fanime Con, Annie from Sailor JAM-Boree e-mails me with an apology. I was like, "Huh? What are you talking about? There is no need for you to apologize." A month later, Al attended ACEN and he told me that he had a great time while he was there. However, it didn't please me when I was told that a girl was hitting on him. A few weeks later, he decided to go to Reno Con (at the very last minute) and play his music there. I was like, "what the hell? How could he just take off like that without even telling me? Now, don't get me wrong. It had nothing to do with the relationship, but we're a DJing act. We should stick together. Sheesh! 
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