Otakon 2001

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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.

Pre-Con (Thursday, August 9, 2001)
San Francisco, CA (9:00 am, PDT)
Weather: 70º F (warm)
"Good-bye, West Coast/ Hello, East Coast"

    For the first time, in a long time, when it comes to going to a con, I don't have to wake up first thing in the morning. :) Talk about convenient. The only thing is, I have one day to spare. Why am I going to East Coast today you're asking? Well, I checked the itineraries for air travel and if I leave first thing in the morning on the day of the con (which is what I normally do), I won't get to the East Coast until 7 or 8 p.m. Basically, I'd lose one day of the con if I do that, and I didn't pay for three days for nothing.
    Anyway, I had a little time before Albert picks me up and everything. Only, I ran into a little problem. I didn't have that much cash, so I asked my folks if they would help me out this one time. Hey, I had no idea that I would get a really sucky paycheck. Man, that's the only thing I hate about having part time jobs. :p Mom was willing to help me, but as usual, my father was being unrealistic. My mom was like, "oh, come on. She'll pay us back." He keeps debating over the fact that if I didn't have any money that I shouldn't go. Yeah, he's right, but due to last minute notification and a bad paycheck, it was too late to back out.
    About an hour later, Albert came and picked me up. Mom was really nice to help me out with my luggage. :) We hugged and said our goodbyes. I said, "Mom, I'll call you when I fly into Philadelphia", and that was that. Albert drove me to his house where I met up with Ace, Fernando, and Tom. I noticed that the guys were playing "Crazy Taxi" on the Sega Dreamcast. I haven't played that game in ages. Albert told me the plan. He said that he would drop off both Ace and Fernando at SFO and he would come back for me later.
    While Albert was out, Tom was nice enough to let me play "Crazy Taxi". Haven't lost my touch. Okay, I was still at the beginner's level, but hey, I managed to get pretty far in the game. About 20 minutes later, Albert came back and we were on our way... with Tom behind the wheel this time. *laughs* At around 11 am, we arrived at SFO at the US Airways . I said goodbye to Tom and I wished him a safe trip. Oh, yeah. That's right, I forgot to mention this. While the guys and I will be in Baltimore, Tom was headed for Las Vegas. Anyway, we waited in line for about 15 minutes or so and before you knew it, we were next in line. The lady at the desk gave us our boarding passes and told us to go to Gate 3.
    The checkpoint -- ohhhhh, yes. The good old checkpoint. Only this time, I wasn't stopped for anything, nor did they mess up with the conveyer belt. However, I was worried. Fernando checked in his sword (a real one) locked tight in a box at the checkpoint. I thought, "oh, my God. What'll happen if they say something, like we can't go on the plane?" Luckily, Fernando's sword made it without anyone raising their eyebrows or anything. *sighs in relief* As we waited, Fernando turns to me says, "I'm worried about the skit. I STILL don't know what to do." I said, "Don't worry, Nando. You're going to be just fine on stage. Just go with the flow. I can't show you how to walk, otherwise it won't natural. Let me put it to you this way, pretend the girl of your dreams is in the audience." Nando started to feel a little better about it, but he was still uncertain. I said, "Don't worry. When we rehearse, you'll get the idea."
    Our plane arrives on time, and we were ready to board at around 12:11 p.m. Ace and Fernando were seated together, while Albert and I would have the other two seats a few rows behind. We left SFO at around 1:00 p.m. We knew it would be a long time before we would reach Philadelphia, but hey, I wasn't bored. About an hour later or so, the flight attendants started serving lunch. They asked me if I wanted either beef or pasta. Again, I'm really iffy about airplane food, so I chose pasta and again, I was given this small tray. Why am I not surprised? *laughs* The pasta was good. :)
    Three hours went by and my nose starts getting all stuffed up. Man, I hate it when that happens. I remember when I was in Colorado and I had to deal with that for three days. I called the flight attendant and asked for some tissues. She didn't have any tissues, so she gave me napkins instead. Well, at least she was helpful. :)
    About two hours later, I'm starting to get bored. What pisses me off is that US Airways charges you $3.00 to use the headphones. Man, United Airlines gives you the headset for free, provided that you give them back when you're done, but hey, at least it's better than nothing.
    At around 9 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. PDT for me) our plane lands in Philadelphia. I was excited and relieved... that is, until we ran into a traffic jam with other planes flying in and flying out. I needed to go to the bathroom and I was trying so hard to hold it. There was no way I could get to the lavatory, considering that the flight attendants had ordered everyone to remain in their seats until the plane came to a complete stop AND arrived at the gate. The funny part in all of this was when I noticed a few passengers getting out of their seats to get their luggage. I started laughing and then the flight attendant makes the announcement for everyone to get back in their seats until we reached the gate. No one was listening, and the flight attendant sing-songs, "you're still standing", and the other passengers were laughing. It took longer than I thought and I started shaking. *laughs* Ohhhhh, man. I'll never forget that. It took us almost a half hour to get to the gate.
    We disembarked and as I walked towards the gate, I said, "Oh, my God! It's scorching here!" The last time I've ever experienced weather like that was when I was in Las Vegas back in August of 1996. I told the guys that I would be right back and I ran as fast as I could to the restroom. *laughs* When I came back, Nando thought it would be a good time to get a photo opportunity, and I said, "sure, why not." So, he took a photo of Albert and me . :) I called mom to tell her that I flew into Philadelphia. I told her how hot it was and that our plane to Baltimore could be delayed due to the plane traffic. We didn't have time to grab a bite to eat, considering that boarding time for our plane to Baltimore would take place in a matter of minutes.
    This time, Nando and I were seated next to each other, while Ace and Albert had the other two seats more or less next to us on the right. The funny thing about this flight was, it only took us about 15 minutes tops to arrive at Baltimore/ Washington International. It was probably longer than that. Maybe because I was chatting with Nando so much that I didn't pay attention to timing. It was already 11 p.m. (EDT). It was pretty late and we needed to get to our hotel and have some late dinner. I honestly don't think that the airplane food was enough. *laughs* I said, "Guys, I did my research on eating establishments, and I came across this. It's the Monument Café . Why not? It's close to our hotel, they're open until 2:00 a.m., and get this, it says, '15% off your first visit'." The guys agreed and said that they would give it a go.
    But, hey. First things first. We took a cab to the hotel which took about 10 minutes give or take. During the ride, I was surprised to find out that Baltimore had a Bay Bridge. Those copycats! No, just kidding. *laughs* It was hot, but it wasn't as hot as it was in Philadelphia... as far as I knew... About 15 minutes later, we arrived at the Wyndham Hotel. As we walked into the lobby, I noticed a group of people with luggage cart. I noticed that a few of the items were wigheads and a Sailor Moon costume hanging from the rail of the baggage cart. I waved at them and they kind of gave me a strange look. Maybe because I wasn't in costume or I didn't have anything for show and tell. Oh, well. Albert gets the keys for the hotel room and we headed on up to room #811. We stayed in the room for about an hour or so.
    At around midnight or so, we were headed towards the Monument Café. I felt very awkward on the streets of Baltimore so late at night. You'd think downtown would be the busiest place, but it wasn't. It was so dead quiet. At first I thought I lost my hearing. I proved myself wrong when the guys were chatting with me asking me, "how far is it?" or something like that. To be honest, I have no recollection of what was said while we walked towards the restaurant.
    By the time we arrived at the restaurant, Albert says, "Oh, no. The restaurant is closed." I don't know if it was me or Ace who said,
"wait a minute. The door is open." We opened the door and because there were no lights or anything, Albert kept insisting that the place was closed. But then Nando says, "wait a minute. There's light up ahead." We followed the light and it was all-night bar. I'm all, "uh... hello?" The bartender sees us and says, "Hey, guys!" He acted as though as he knew us or something. *laughs* We asked him if it was possible to order a meal. And he said, "yeah, the kitchen is still open. Pick a table." And all of us jumped at the opportunity. He gave us our menus and we ordered. He asked us if what we wanted to drink, and we asked if we could have some Cherry Cokes. he said, "okay, I'll be right back." We didn't get Cherry Cokes, per se. What we got were cokes with either 4 or 5 maraschino cherries in it. We were like, "whoa!" I was always used to having only one maraschino cherry served in my Coke or my 7-Up, not 4 or 5. *laughs* Anyway, as we were chatting we were sipping our Cokes away and everything. The bartender comes back to our table and asks us if we wanted any refills. We're all, "Oh, yeah. Sure!" He would constantly come to our table and ask us if we wanted any more things. Then he goes and says, "I'll be at the bar, but if you guys need me, give me holler." He was really nice. I mean, yeah, it took a while for our meal to get to our table, but once I took a bite into my burger, I could see why it took so long. It was just THAT good. :) What caught my attention were the shoestring potatoes. I've never seen fries, or should I say "potatoes" like that.   Ace ordered the crab soup, and he says, "this is real crab." I said, "of course, it is. This is the East Coast. Were you expecting imitation crab?" and he says, "well... no, I guess not." *laughs* Nando and Albert seemed to enjoy their meals as well. I guess you could say that we were living the life that night... or morning I should say. *laughs* We finished our meal and we were given the check. Ace paid for all of us. I asked him, "are you sure about this?" He says, "yeah, don't worry about it." I'm all, "okay..." I kind of felt guilty about that... still do. :( Nando gives the bartender his digital camera and asked him if he could take a photo of us and he did. :) Since we had really good service, all of us chipped in $5 dollars for the tip, which was basically a $20 tip. Nando hands the tip to the bartender. He's all, "I can't accept this. It's way too much!" Nando's all, "sure you can." *laughs* The bartender thanks us and we headed out.
    Before turning in for the night, Albert thought it would be a good opportunity to show us around the Baltimore Convention Center. Where the dealer's room would be located, where the pre-registration line started, the skyway from the convention center to the mall, etc., etc. What fascinated me was that at the end of each block, there were different types of fish statues. One that caught my fancy was the fish that was shaped like a guitar. Nando took out his camera and decided to get a photo of me. :) I liked the tour, but the heat was really bad.
    The guys felt terrible once they came back to the hotel. So did I. Man, that's the one thing I hate about the East Coast in the summer. It's so hot and humid, and I had the soaked jeans to prove it. :p Oh, well. I'll see if I can get used to it. :) As we were in the room, I was fixing my Sakura staff, by adding the ring, the star, and the wings to it. I then tried on the costume and Albert took a photo of me in it. Personally, I think I look terrible in the photo. Oh, well. What could I do? Afterwards, I got out of the costume and went straight to bed since I knew that I needed to be up by 8:00 am, the next day.

Day One (Friday, August 10, 2001)
Wyndham Hotel/ Baltimore, MD (8:00 am, EDT)
Weather: 100º F (hot, muggy, and humid)
"Jetlagged/ The East Coast Thang"

    I'm still not used to the time change. It was 8:00 am, and to me it was 5:00 am. Albert goes to me and says, "Hey, Claudine! Wake up. We've gotta go to pre-reg." All I could do was moan and groan. I was so tired that I didn't even want to get out of bed. But then again, why should I complain? After all, I asked for this. I quickly got out of bed and got into my Sakura Jester Costume with the Kero-Chan purse that Al gave me. You know, now that I look at it, the costume is cute, but noisy. Everywhere I went, you could hear the bells ringing. *laughs* It was too funny.
    As we walked in the lobby, I noticed that the same group of people were in the lobby, only this time they were in costume. They said 'hi' to me. See? What did I tell you? I figured that once I got into my costume, they'd say something to me. *laughs* They told me that they had traveled all the way from Missouri. That's STILL a long way. We talked about what we liked and what we didn't like about the conventions and stuff like that. Before I knew it, the guys were calling me and I left. We were in the lower level and Albert was calling Stella. I said, "okay, no problem."
    Albert, Ace, Nando, and I walked from our hotel to the convention center. It was a short walk, but when you're walking in 100 degree weather, it seems much longer. *lol* Anyway, when we got there, we saw a huge line. I said to myself, "Ohhhhh, boy! This could take a while." I waited for about a half-hour or so, give or take, and before I knew it, I was headed up the escalator, only to find myself in another huge line. :p How much longer will this take? Ay-yi-yi. As I got closer and closer to the front desk, there was a table right next to me that showed all of us the badges to choose from. I said to myself, "wow! This is nice", and for some odd reason, without thinking, I chose the "Crest of the Stars" badge for myself. I was the next person in line, I gave my ID to the person at the front desk and he told me to get a maker and put my name on the badge. Afterwards, the lady sent me to the lamination station. Nice badge, eh? I think every con should do this. It makes things so much easier. :)
    I waited for the rest of the guys to get their badges laminated and everything, and as I was waiting, I decided to get a bottle of water at the Starbucks stand. I was so surprised as to how many people wanted their picture of me. I honestly didn't think my costume was that special; no joke. I just said, "okay". It was fun, but at the same time, I felt kind of lost considering that I didn't know anyone. But all of that changed when I saw Diana Kou dressed as Seiya and Ayako Mizuno dressed as Yaten. I thought they looked great. :) I loved the atmosphere of the con so far, except for the fact that the dealer's room wasn't open. I felt really weird just wandering around left and right. I was completely lost. I mean, yeah Albert introduced me to his friends and all, but despite all that, I felt really lost. As I walked around, I saw these group of people who were dressed as Ranma characters. Oh, wouldn't you know it. I wasn't in my Ukyo costume. :( Oh, well. I'll get into the costume later on. No worries.
    As the day went by, I started feeling sticky in my Sakura costume, not to mention hot as well. I talked to the guys and told them that I would go back to the hotel and change into another costume. I was also getting annoyed at listening to the bells jingle everytime I walked. I said, "Guys, I'll be right back. I'm just going to change out of my costume." The guys said, "okay", and I walked back to the hotel. It took me a while because I felt really icky from the humid weather, not to mention the perspiration. :p I'm glad I went back, otherwise I'd be giving cosplayers a bad name. :( I took a shower and got into my Ukyo costume. :) Oh, yes. Who could ever forget the Ukyo Costume? *laughs* It's one of my personal favorites. I tried to fix my spatula... a lot of help that did. :p Maybe it was the humidity that wouldn't allow the hot glue to last. :p Oh, well.
    I walked down to the convention center and I managed to meet up with the Ranma group and have my picture taken with them. :) That was pretty cool. Afterwards, I had a chance to mingle around. People were snapping their cameras left and right. I started feeling a little better, but at the same time, I felt kind of lost. I didn't know where the guys were, and rumor had it that they were in the dealer's room or they were IN LINE for the dealer's room. I was on my way to take the escalator down to the dealers room line, but as soon as I reached the bottom, an Otakon staffer tells me that I needed to get back upstairs. I told him my situation and everything. He almost turned me away, but I pleaded with him by saying, "what I would like to do is see if they are in line. If they're not in line, I'll be happy to go back upstairs." He didn't argue with me and he was willing to help me out. :) I searched left and right, but there was no sign of either of them. :( What's worse, Nando didn't have his cellphone on him. When I placed a call to Nando's cellphone, Ace was the one who answered it. I said to myself, "what is Ace doing with Nando's cellphone?" I asked him if he had seen Nando, and he said no.
    Again, I mingled around, and I noticed a flight of stairs that lead into a particular room. I think it was a staffers room or something. I wasn't sure. As I walked downstairs, someone called out, "Hey, DJ Saiyan!" I'm thought, "no one knows me as DJ Saiyan here... unless it was someone I knew." I turned around and I saw Revell Walker. I ran upstairs and hugged him. We chatted for a little while. I remember when he asked me a while ago what happened to Senshi Mysterious and I told him that we posted that in the "About Us" section of the So Desu Ne Cosplay website. He said, "the reason why I'm asking is because there are so many people scratching their heads as to why Senshi Mysterious suddenly disappeared." Before I could answer his question, he was called back to the dealer's room. Oh, well. I said to myself, "I'll tell him eventually." I wandered around the convention and as I did, I saw Alex Alvarez, and gave him a dirty look. he was the last person that I wanted to see at Otakon. I asked myself, "why is this happening? This is all I need right now. A real jerk!"
    Man, I wandered all over and still no sign of Nando. I knew Lynleigh and Seung would be flying in, but I wasn't sure when. As I looked left and right for the guys, everything in front of me became a blur. I felt as though as I was going to fall asleep flat on my feet or something. I wasn't used to the time change. I think going to be at 3 am (12 am PDT) and waking up at 8:00 (EDT) was a bit much. I said to myself, "maybe I should go to the couch on the first floor and take a nap." I took the escalator back downstairs, went straight to the couch and fell asleep.

*    *    *

    I fell asleep for about an hour or so. It was already 5 pm, and there was still no word from anyone. I had my cellphone on the entire time, and no word. :p I took the escalator down to the dealer's room area and there was no line. I said to myself, "I hope the dealer's room isn't closed. As I walked near the doors, I found out that it would be open for another three hours. :) As I walked in, I couldn't believe how many booths they had in there. It's equivalent to the dealer's room in AX. I walked around and I came across the Area 88 booth. I was so surprised to see Revell Walker's table there. Helping him was Ayako dressed as Hotaru-chan. :) I chatted for a while with her and from the looks of it, she seemed to be having a ball. :) As we chatted, my cellphone rang. I was hoping it was Nando because I was looking all over the con for him. When I answered, it was Al. The first thing he asked me was, "do you know where I am?" I said, "where?" and he said that he was in Baltimore. I yelled, "WHAT?!" I think I startled Revell and Ayako when I did that. Sorry, you two. :( He said that Otakon was in the plan all along. And I said, "why, you fraud! You big overgrown...!" or something like that. *laughs* I asked him where he was now, and he told me that he was getting his badge at the registration. I said, "i'll be right there", and I hung up. I told Ayako that I would catch her later and I left the dealer's room.
    Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm not glad to see him, but because I assumed that he wouldn't show up, I made a lot of plans. I wouldn't be able to spend time with him. That's one of the things you have to be careful of before you think about surprising your Romeo or your Juliet. If you don't inform them, they could make other plans and not have time for you. :( Anyway, as I walked took the escalator up to the second floor, I started feeling a little tipsy again. I'm said to myself, "oh, no! Don't faint! Don't faint! Just a little longer." By the time I made it to the preregistration desk, I saw Al. He said hi walked towards me. Before I knew it, I tilted forward, and said, "Al, hold me!" He asked me if I was okay, and I told him that I was really jetlagged. I asked him where Lynleigh was and he pointed at the young girl at the registration booth. Well, what do you know? She wasn't in costume. She was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. I said hi to her and we hugged each other; Seung was right next to her. She asked me where Nando was, and I told her that I looked all over for him and I couldn't find him. She said, "we'll help you look for him", and we started walking... which lasted for about 2 seconds. I was still feeling tipsy turvy. Lynleigh asked me if I was okay and I said, "I'll live. I'm just not used to the time difference. I'll be okay." I stood still for a while and before I knew it, I started to feel better. :) We searched all around for Nando. Lynleigh said that we shouldn't worry since we'll rehearse for the dance at around 9 pm or so. In the meantime, we decided to go to Lynleigh's hotel room at the Renaissance Hotel so she could get into costume. Both she and Seung thought it would be a good opportunity to videotape me [sorry, no videotape footage available :( ]. Basically, I was saying things such as, "I would like to thank everyone I stepped on to get here!" *laughs* Afterwards, Lynleigh began to get into her Sera Myu Sailor Uranus costume. As I was chatting with Seung and Lynleigh, I heard the pitter patter of rain on the window. I said, "Oh, no. It's raining." Lynleigh was like, "What?! Oh, no!" She mentioned that she was worried that her shoes would be affected by the rain. She was wearing color dyed shoes under the boot covers. :( Seung and I suggested that we head out when it stops raining. We hung out in the room for about a half hour or so, until it stopped raining.
    We headed back into the convention center and went into the dealer's room. Lynleigh had her opportunity to meet with Revell, Ayako, and Diana and eventually we got to see Keith Burgess at his Manga Entertainment booth. :) Al shows up and we started chatting... not to mention that someone else also showed up. *coughAlexAlvarezcough* Al knew that I wasn't crazy about having Alex Alvarez hanging around the table, so he lured me away from it. We kissed and hugged; yeah, you know, all the mushy stuff. *laughs* But for some odd reason, despite how close we were with each other, I felt as though as we were somehow drifting apart. Maybe it was because of the fact that I wouldn't be able to spend time with him at this con. Oh, well. Lynleigh couldn't find anything in the dealer's room and she wanted to get back to her hotel before it rained. We were on our way, and as we walked towards her hotel, there was an unusual odor. I'm all, "what's that smell?" Lynleigh kept insisting that it was the trees. I said, "I don't think the trees have that kind of odor." We were just two blocks away from the hotel and wouldn't you know it? It's raining. Poor Lynleigh. The dye on her shoes were starting to rub off. We finally made it to the hotel and as we walked into the room, Lynleigh took her shoes off. I couldn't believe it. The dye had gone all the way from her tights to her feet. She looked as though as she had bruised feet. Seung was like, "Oh, my God!" Who would've known that the dye would've penetrated everything from her tights to her bare feet? She quickly changed into her Sailor Star Maker costume, considering how hot it was. She asked us to help her with her costume. Man, it could take at least 15 minutes to get into that costume, regarding the hair extensions and stuff like that. Man! I guess that's why I sometimes have this iffy feeling about making extravagant costumes; it's all about preparation and timing. :p
    Anyway, we head back to the convention center, and we were on our way into dealers room. Before we made it to the doors, this guy comes up to us and asks us, "are you So Desu Ne Cosplay?" I said, "yeah", and then it automatically clicked. Arek told me that when we go to Otakon, we would be stopped by a photographer named Howard Kim, who would be representing the Scramble News Network, so I went to him and said, "you must be Howard Kim", and he nodded and said yes. He asked us if we could pose for him and we did. The funny thing about that photo opportunity was the fact that I never got to see that photo. Afterwards, we headed into the dealers room, but not to shop; to find Nando. He was roaming around somewhere and the weird thing was, we couldn't get a hold of him. Man, was Lynleigh getting the attention by many photographers. I also recall her getting the attention of Steve Bennett. Oh, yeah. Who could ever forget good old Steve? It was too good. :)
    Hours went by and we still couldn't find him. Lynleigh, Seung, and I decided to give up and try back at the hotel. But first, Lynleigh wanted to get out of her Sailor Star Maker costume and get into her her normal clothes. I stayed in my Ukyo costume. Once we came back, we decided to look for Nando. I decided to try Nando's cellphone yet again, and I finally managed to track him down. I asked him to meet us outside the dealer's room, and he did.
As we headed out, we asked each other where we should have dinner, and we ended up going to Planet Hollywood. I found it very unusual that Baltimore would have a Planet Hollywood. Oh, well. What surprised me was that the state tax in Maryland is 5%. Man, if only California wasn't so expensive. :p Had another group photo of ourselves. I like to think of it as a "before-our-performance" photo *laughs*
I was still pretty jetlagged, but when it comes to rehearsals and performing, I'm usually a good sport about these things. As my drama teacher once said, "the show must go on." We found a spot in the basement of the convention center. There was barely anyone there, and the space we practiced in was pretty big, which gave us an advantage. Nando still felt a little iffy about doing the runway skit. He's all, "I don't know how to do this." I said, "sure, you do. Just pretend like your girlfriend is watching you in the audience, and you're trying to seduce her or something." Rehearsal went pretty well, even thought it was for about an hour and a half.
We were all pretty exhausted and we decided to get back to our hotels and get some sleep. That's about it for now.

Day Two (Saturday, August 11, 2001)
Wyndham Hotel/ Baltimore, MD (6:30 am, EDT)
Weather: 100º F (hot, muggy, and humid)
"The Cosplay... That Almost Wasn't"

    I barely had any sleep, but I feel a lot better than I did the day before. I said to myself, "Could it be? I'm starting to get used the time difference? I hope so." There was no time to lose, so I got into my Kasumi costume and I was on my way. I tried to wake Nando up, but I guess he was too tired from the other night. I told him that I was headed over to the Renaissance Hotel to pick up Lynleigh and Seung so we can pre-register for the masquerade. I told him that I needed to see him at the convention center ASAP so we can rehearse on stage and everything.
    As I walked out of the hotel, there was a huge traffic jam on the main streets of Baltimore. I was like, "what the hell happened?" The street was blocked off and I asked a police officer how I could get to the Renaissance Hotel, and he showed me the detour. It took me a while to get there, but I made it at around 7:00 a.m. Now... that hard part. I completely forgot her room number. :p I had to take a wild guess. I'd be lucky if I could find the right one by one try, so I picked the door on the very end of the corridor, knocked on it, and it was the right one. :) Seung answered the door, and Lynleigh just got out of bed. She asked where we were going to have breakfast. She told me that she didn't want to have room service because it was too expensive. I don't blame her. I said, "well, we could try the eating establishments that were written in the Otakon booklet." Seung suggested that we should try the shopping mall near the convention center, and that's what we did. Lynleigh and I weren't too crazy about the restaurants. Also, most of the restaurants were closed. In the end, we went to Burger King for breakfast. I said to myself, "I'd better not find a sowbug in my meal this time." I didn't even bother looking at the Croissan'wiches. Yech! That's all I need in my life -- 600 calories and 260 milligrams of cholesterol in my diet. :p Lynleigh got the French Toast sticks, while I went for the Cini-Minis. Lynleigh said, "this reminds me of the hot lunches we had in elementary school." Oh, yeah. The school days. *laughs*
    After breakfast, we immediately went to the convention center and we were told to go to the third floor of the convention. As we walked towards the masquerade registration area, we were like, "oh, my God!" We were a little worried that we wouldn't get a spot in the masquerade... that is, until they separated the children from the main competition. When they asked the kids to go into one line, the line grew much smaller. Talk about relief. *whew!* As we waited in line, an Otakon staffer gives us a clipboard with a masquerade application for us to fill out. I asked Lynleigh, "what should I write?" And she said, "under title, write 'So Desu Ne Cosplay Presents: A Model Revolution' ", and I said "okay". Nando shows up and we're all in line ready to roll and everything. The line starts moving and by the time we were called into the office, the lady asks us about our skit, and the music and everything. We asked her if it was possible for us to rehearse on the stage, and she said that it wouldn't be a problem. :) She told us that we were group number #6. Wow! We were at the very beginning. :) She sends us into the auditorium and we were told to take our seats and wait for further instructions from the Otakon staffers. We were in there for about a half hour or so. Afterwards, the Otakon staffers were really nice to let us rehearse on their stage. :) Now, why can't AX be organized like this? Oh, well.
    Afterwards, we were given plenty of time to enjoy ourselves at the con and everything. Nando told us that he wanted to see if he could find Melanie, Anna, and Samantha, and we said, "okay, but remember to meet us on the stairs near the dealer's room at around 4 p.m.", and he said, "okay."
    Lynleigh, Seung, and I headed back to the Renaissance Hotel. I ended up ordering room service (I just hope they didn't get charged extra for that). The funny thing was before I purchased my order, I was adding up the tax and everything just to be prepared. When the waiter came to the room, the amount was exactly what I had calculated -- $8.64. Man, it pays to know your percents. The lunch was good, but for some odd reason, I wasn't all that hungry. Maybe it's the Baltimore atmosphere. I don't know...
    After my small lunch, Lynleigh takes out the Wakaba costume. It's so cute. I absolutely love it. She's all, "I don't have the shoes", and I told her not to worry considering that I brought a pair of shoes that was just perfect for the costume. She goes into the bathroom to change, and I told her that I would go back to my hotel room to take a shower.
    I head back to the room and I see Nando with Anna. Nando introduced me to Anna and I told Nando that I would be in the shower if he needed anything. I don't think Anna and I got along too well during the confrontation, considering that her interests were completely different from mine. Oh, well. As I was about the turn the faucet on, wouldn't you know it? The shower barely works. I'm like, "what the hell?" Then it had crossed my mind that the towel that was hanging on the shower was used. As I was looking for a clean towel, I noticed that Nando's digital camera was on the toilet. I'm like, "oh, my God!" And I hollered, "¿Nando, es su camera?" (Nando, is this your camera) He comes back and says, "¡Si! ¿Que paso?" (Yeah! What happened?) I told him that he left in the bathroom and asked him to be careful with it.
    What I didn't like about the shower was that for some odd reason, the water felt hard. I don't know what kind of water they have in Baltimore. It felt hard to me, but then again, maybe it was just me. Anyway, I get into the costume... which more or less fits me. :) I had fun twirling around in the skirt. I was going to use the hair dryer, only to find out that it didn't work. What else can go wrong in this hotel room? :p If it's not the toilet, it's the shower. If it's not the shower, it's the hair dryer. I hope they didn't wreck anything while I was out. *laughs*
    What a way to go. I had to head back to the Lynleigh's hotel with a wet head. As I came in, I noticed that Lynleigh was trying to get into her costume. Seung and I helped her into her costume, and we head out.
On our way back to the convention center, we ran into a bunch of people who just got out of an Oriole's baseball game, plastered. We're just minding our own business, and my God. They were just snarling at us and saying all this derogatory stuff. They called us freaks, queer -- anything that could put us down. One guy looks at me in the Wakaba costume saying, "what the hell are you?" And I said, "I was gonna ask you the same thing. " They were constantly calling us names, and I just hissed out, "fuck you." Another guy gets one look at Lynleigh in her Utena dress, and they said, "Hey, look! It's Cyndi Lauper." I so wanted to kick their ass, but then again, there were three of us and... umteen of them?
Once we got to the convention center, we were really pissed about what happened; especially Seung. We arrived at the meeting place, and Nando wasn't there. We were like, "what the hell? We asked him to meet us on the stairs near the dealer's room. We waited for about 15 minutes, and we even called him on the cellphone, and Ace answered it. I was like, "what the fuck?! How could Nando just give his cellphone to someone else?" Unfortunately we were running out of time. We said, "you know what? Let's go. If he can't show up, that's that."
We went backstage, and still no luck with Nando. I was really getting upset because the Otakon staffers were about to close the doors. They said, "once these doors are closed, that's it." Lynleigh, Seung, and I were getting frustrated. I decided to call the hotel room to see if Nando was there, and I left a message on the answering machine. I basically said, "Nando, you're a nice guy, and normally I would never say anything mean to anyone, but right now, GET THE HELL OVER HERE, BEFORE I KICK YOUR ASS!!!" One guy overheard what I said and went, "yes, ma'am." It wasn't Nando. It was a cosplayer sitting right next to me named Adam Zalonis. During the time we were waiting for Nando, I had an opportunity to meet and chat with him. :) It was great. He was the act before us.
I couldn't get a hold of Nando on his cellphone or the hotel room. Nando, decided to get ahold of Joe and ask him to help us out. Joe wasn't going to budge. It's like, "man, have a heart! What if something happened to Nando. What if he didn't make a mistake." Despite what we said, Joe was not willing ot help us at all. I said, "that fucking son of a bitch!" I was seriously ticked off. First it was AX, and now it's Otakon. :p How could my boyfriend be a friend to a jerk like that? Seung thought it would be best to go out and look for him. He goes, and leaves Lynleigh and me to think of any alternatives. One, we could do the skit as a trio, but it would a little off, two, we enter as a trio and just do a regular walk-on, or three, we forfeit the masquerade all together. About a minute later, Seung calls me on my cellphone, and tells me that he found Nando. *whew!* I said, "Great! Bring him up here!" Finally, Nando is with us... and with just a minute to spare before the staffers decide to close the doors.
The staffers were nice to give us water, and they took care of us backstage. What we had were seats. The screen was backwards, but hey, it kind of gave us an idea as to how the skits looked like. Unfortunately, I missed Adam's skit. I'll have to look at Albert's tape when I get it. We're waiting at the stairs ready to go on, and they just announced our group -- "Entry #6: So Desu Ne Cosplay Presents: A Model Revolution". They play the music and the audience starts to like it. The minute Nando hits the stage, the girls are screaming. *laughs* During that whole skit, the audience is clapping throughout the whole song, and the girls are screaming anytime Nando strikes a pose. When the skit came to a close, the audience cheered... louder than they did for the DDR skit back AX. I was like, "wow!" We get off-stage, and I'm jumping for joy the minute I hear the announcer pronounce my name correctly. :)
It was a long night; I'll tell you that. While the judges were making their decision, they started showing music videos. The comedy ones. :) The judges come back, and they have made their decision. Lynleigh casually says, "I think we're gonna win at least something." I said, "I don't know. Whatever happens, happens. At least I had fun." And then it came. The Gilles Poitras Award goes to... "So Desu Ne Cosplay!" I was like, "What?!" Lynleigh turns to me and says, "Did they call our name?" I said, "let's go before they change their minds." *laughs* I'm walking up stage, and my mouth is wide open in disbelief. What can I say? One award is better than none. As it turns out, Adam got 4th Place for his performance. :)
After the masquerade was over, a lot of people asked for a photo op of us. I was more than willing to get photos. But then again, I never denied anyone to take a photo of me. What surprised me most was running into a guy who cosplayed as Anthy. From afar, I could've sworn it was a gal. No, it was a guy. To be totally honest with you, he's the best crossplayer I've ever seen. I kid you not.
We met up with Diana and Annie, and Diana was like, "it's about time you guys received an award." Ohhhh, boy. Here we go again. After the group photo, I asked Diana and Annie if they would like to join us for dinner, and they agreed. Samantha comes overdressed in her Utena costume, and we ask her if she would like to get a photo with us. She refuses because she doesn't have her Utena wig. Nando goes back to get her wig, which took an awfully long time. He came back... a half hour later. Lynleigh, Seung, and I were a little concerned over the fact that maybe Diana and Annie were waiting for us. :p I hate to keep people waiting. We get the photo, and Nando decides to skip out on the late dinner.
We go back to Lynleigh's hotel room, so she can get out of her Utena costume. Once we headed out, we see Diana and Annie with a couple of their friends on one end of the sidewalk. As it turns out, they were running late, too. We wanted to have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, but they were closed. Bummer. As we walked around the yacht area, we found the Cheesecake Factory. What terrible service we received. First of all, they were rushing us when we were at the dinner table, number two, they didn't ask us if we wanted anything to drink, and third, they took Diana's plate away without even asking if she was finished. When I looked at the bill, I went, "holy shit!" Diana was like, "Claudine, jeez!" as in trying to correct me for using foul language. *laughs* I said, "Diana, we shouldn't leave a tip. If the service was horrible, we don't leave a tip." She said, "no, we have to leave one. I'm going to leave them $1.02. I think they'll get the idea from the two cents." Up to this day, I still don't think we should've left a tip. Diana leaves a dollar and slowly lowers the two cents onto the table. The minute we heard the ching from the two coins, we ran out of the restaurant as though as a bomb was about to go off. We laughed, and Annie said, "I don't think we should've done that." Diana's like, "don't worry about it. They're not going to see us ever again. They don't even know where we live." Good point.
On our way back, all the streets of Baltimore had fire hydrants gushing water. I'm all, "what the hell happened here?" Because our hotel rooms were in different places, we went our separate ways. On my way back to the hotel, I ran into a bunch of Otakon attendees coming out of the convention center. This homeless guy is trying to throw punches at us, and because we didn't know if this guy was going to hurt us, we grabbed him and held him on the ground. He tried to get up and I said, "don't even think about it, man." Everyone gives me a funny look and starts going, "what?" As it turns out, they don't use the word "man" in the East Coast that much. A police officer was across the street and I called to him, and he comes over asking, "what's going on here?" I said, "this guy's hella trying to start trouble". Again, I get the weird looks from the other people. The police officer puts him in the car, and then he goes to me saying, "you know, we don't get that kind of blood around here. Where are you from?", and I said, "San Francisco, CA." He then says, "Ohhhh, so that explains why you were talking like a Californian." I said, "I am?!" It never occurred to me. I thought everyone talked the way I did. But then again, it was my first time on the East Coast.
Finally made it back to the room safe and sound, and went straight to bed.

Day Three (Sunday, August 12, 2001)
Wyndham Hotel/ Baltimore, MD (8:30 am, EDT)
Weather: 100º F (hot and humid)
"Getting Back Home Is Half The Fun"

    Well, wouldn't you know it. Our flight was at 7:00 am. :p However, we agreed that we wouldn't take the early flight home. Heck, since we paid for three days, we are STAYING for three days. Despite that we were packing our bags, we weren't ready to leave just yet. We wanted to enjoy the con one last time. We left our things with the bell captain and went off to the convention center.
    There wasn't really much to do except go into the dealer's room and shop around. I was there for a short time, until Albert encouraged me to come with him to Yaya Han's panel. I'm a huge fan of Yaya Han. In some ways, I kind of envy her, mainly because her cosplaying buddies are willing to perform in any cosplay skit idea she has in mind without any problems. I could be wrong on this. Yaya, if you're reading this, please feel free to e-mail me and correct me on this. Thanks. :) Anyway, I really enjoyed her panel. She's very sweet and most of her cosplaying tips made a lot of sense. Man, if only we knew about that sooner, we would've used the microphones for our Fanime Con skit. Oh, well.
    Lynleigh comes into the room, and she asks me if I knew where to pick up our prize from our skit last night. I told her that I had no idea. Seung comes into the room and mentions that we should ask one of the staffers. We did, and he directed us the the lower level of the convention center. The lady asks who we are, and she gives us our prize. Wouldn't you know it? It's a Lost Universe DVD and some buttons. Oh, well. It's better than nothing.
Afterwards, we ran into Albert and Ace and decided to get a photo right then and there. I said goodbye to both Lynleigh and Seung, and we decided to get something to eat quickly at Johnny Rockets. Because we ate so quickly, we all started feeling sick. :(
We went back to the hotel to get our things, and have a cab take us to the airport. I hated that cab ride, mainly because the wind kept blowing my hair in my face. I kept pulling the hair away from me, but it wouldn't stay aside. :p Once we arrived at the airport, Albert tried to get airline tickets from the front desk. We were put on a standby, but direct flight back to San Francisco.. Albert asked, "what are our chances of getting on that flight?" and the lady said, "it's a 25% chance." I'll take that as a 'not good' answer. When Albert asked about the other flight, the lady said that the flight was booked. If we couldn't get a flight on the same day, we would have to pay $100 more, which I didn't have. I was worried out of my skin. We were directed towards the gate. As it turns out, Albert's friend Melanie had a canceled flight, and decided to tag along with us, until we leave, or until until she leaves. During the wait, Albert and I were thinking of options. We figured that there was a slight chance that only two of us would be able to fly out, instead of all four of us together. Albert said, "we'll let Nando and Ace go on the first flight, and then you and I will wait for the next one." I figured fair enough, because they're younger than both of us. So much for the 'women and children' first method. *laughs*
The lady at the desk says, "we have seats available for DeGroot, Ng, Puente, and Tam." Ohhhhh, was I relieved. I didn't have to pay $100. *whew!* Not only did all four us get a seat on the plane, but it was a direct flight to San Francisco. :) Wow!
Okay, so our seats were farther apart from each other. No biggie. As long as we were on the same flight. Albert and I were seated together. Alongside of us was a guy who was going on a business trip to San Francisco. Wow! He was a native from Baltimore, and we 're natives from San Francisco. We exchanged information about the sites for each city. It was great. I don't know if Albert ever got a ahold of him ever again. I never bothered to ask him.
The flight seemed shorter than the last time. Not bad. A good 5 hour flight. :) Once we arrived at the airport, Tom picks us up, and takes us back to their house. Once we arrived, the guys got out of the car, and Albert takes me home. I couldn't wait to get into bed and go to sleep. I was really exhausted.

Aftermath

    I learned two important lessons. Number one, if you ever plan to go to a con, never get your tickets from Priceline.com, and two, if you don't plan to go to a convention and you decide to go to Baltimore on vacation, never go in August. :p The funny thing was, there was no one to surprise with our success. When we came home, the group already knew that we had won. They saw the Fansview website and found out from there. I was like, "Aw, man!" I really wanted to surprise the group. Oh, well. Maybe next time. :) I never knew that Adam would take the time to e-mail me and everything. I thought that was really sweet of him. I never stopped talking to him since.   He's such a great person to talk to. :)
    Just because Otakon is over, there is never a day when I wouldn't stop thinking about being on the East Coast. It was great. I'd definitely want to go back again, and THAT is a promise. :)
    Oh, and if you notice the badge that I chose (located at the top of the screen)... later on, I found out that the Fanime Con Staff T-Shirt had the exact same photo on the back of it. I said, "Oh, my God! Talk about coincidence." *laughs* Maybe I should choose my badges like that more often.