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Whee, I'm updating my journal again!

Soooo~! I got up excessively early (for me) and got ready as fast as possible so I could dash to a friend's house so we could get on the bus and go. We got there... Probably 2 hours before Opening Ceremonies. So the aforementioned friend could help our Ed cosplayer with her wig. Said cosplayer is on AE staff so she didn't have much time so she left after her hair was done, and she had also brought a can of hair colour spray, which we tried.... on my hair. It turned my hair green at first. Gack. Then Friend 2 leaves to go back to duty.

Friend #3 phones me. I forgot to call her before I left. So, we figure we'll go wait by the bus loop for her. While we are sitting outside watching for the bus, people walk by and give Friend 1 a very weirded-out look. After about 10 feet, they scream "You're not in Kansas!" at her. Yes, you guys, she is dressed as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, complete with ruby slippers and Toto. And you didn't recognize her. And you didn't bother throwing that insult to her face. How stupid.

When Friend #3 arrives in Izumi cosplay, she runs off tto the table and misses us. When we find her setting up there, she hands me other cosplay materials. I get changed as quickly as possible after getting as m uch of the stuff out of my hair as possible. Which made for a very strange arrangement for me because I have really dark hair, and I was Winry for the day. Friend #4 appears and claims her Artists' Alley table before making a mad dash for Anime Idol rehearsal. After a short while of wandering the tables that were still setting up, we realized that... the spray that hadn't been washed out, had actually started to turn blonde/yellow. So what's the logical solution? Spray the stuff all over my head, of course!

After choking on the fumes for a couple minutes, we realized... my hair was probably not going to change too much. Oh crap. Then our anime started, and I got to see the special beginning scene to GetBackers, and some Read Or Die (Must finish that series still), and then some dubbed Last Exile (Oh my god, is Lavi's voice grainy!). We didn't get to see episode 3 because the people organizing the anime had failed to account for the time taken up by opening/ending sequences. Like they did last year.

Buuut I missed that episode for a good reason! I went around the corner and into the Gaia Meet & Greet. And stuck my username into the can for the Letter Draw. Because an Oct '03 letter would be absolutely lovely and either get me some very nice pets, or... well, a devil tail/angelic sash. Got to sit around and talk about people's Gaia gripes (Be patient about the Battle System, people!) along with Editor. I laughed inside when we were told we would get no free stuff this year. Some people decided we're going to start a petition to get Lanzer and Co. to come up here next year. Come visit your family, Lanzer, and then meet your British Columbian fans! I then got drafted to do banner art for said petition. whee

After! I got up to the chalkboard and wrote the following in large letters: "Lythiaren is here! Dragoil please come to front row!"

Because we'd arranged to meet at the con. I tried phoning her cell... 4 times. And then got a call from some other cell phone from the same area code. Upon picking it up, I discovered that... she was outside the room and her friend didn't want to come inside. Sooo, I walked out still talking on the phone and, not realizing that she was right next to the doorway, walked right past her. And needed to be told to turn around and see her wave at me.

And then we gathered a bunch of Gaia peoples all together in a circle (including AndrAIa, Editor, Dragoil, and some others whose usernames I forget), and chatted about the state of things (such as rampant greed and Q&A stuff) for a while, and I got to leaf through Dragoil's sketchybook. And saw the original sketches for the Cockatrice, and wondered why they weren't inked like everything in the other book. sweatdrop

After the idle chatter was done, I pointed Dragoil and her friend at the bus loop (after 3 erroneous attempts because I forgot which hall we were in), and they had to vanish. I... went back to othe Artists' Alley table and was dragged to Dealers' Room with Friend #1.

On the way, I ran into the only Envy cosplayer there, and her Winry atempted to attack me with a tinfoil wrench. Mine was real. So we all took a photo together with Envy staring at a pair of Winrys (in spite of me having my dark hair and forgetting to remove my glasses) wielding wrenches at each other. It was awesome. And then I got a hug from someone who also recognized me. I was like. "... huh?!" until she said "You're Winry, so I have to hug you." And then we got our asses up the stairs.

Inside, I found one place that sold kimonos and yukatas. I found one that was perfect for me, in navy blue with a white sakura petal-y design. Good quality, for $75, although the scarf would cost $20 extra, bringing the total to $95. I asked them to put it aside for me, they're holding it until I come in tomorrow. Found other shinies that were nice to look at but not to buy (ie. Ed watch, but I could find it cheaper, FMA keychains, Fruits Basket plushies, RoDTV Collector's Edition DVDs, anime/game OSTs, pretty posters...), and then... I found THE ART. I must scan these and show them sometime, because they were such gorgeous FMA arts. They were $3 each, so I was like.. GIMMENOW. And bought 7 of them. That was about all I found in Dealers' Room.

We made a mad dash for Anime Idol, and found that they were still showing Gundam Seed. And our friends were closing their Artists' Alley table early. I helped Friend #3 to take things and put them into storage, and then we found that Anime Idol still hadn't started. So we took drink requests and went to look for refreshments for people. One of them specifically requested strawberry-kiwi Snapple. We looked. Everywhere. We even went to the other end of campus. That store was the only place that was open that had Snapple. And they didn't have strawberry-kiwi. *headdesk*

So we bought him something else and I spotted an ATM that wasn't emptied of cash. So I pulled cash out for that yukata. After putting my debit card upside-down 5 times. Way to go Lyth, you're really bright today, aren't you?

And then we got back to Anime Idol, just a little late for the beginning. I only liked 4 of the people, and out of those 4, 3 were chosen for the top 5. One girl was flat the whole song (She sang Every Heart, and she also kept cutting off all the long notes), and somehow she managed to make it while our friend was pretty good, in spite of having less than a day to prepare, and forgetting all the words to the song (She did the theme from Gundam Seed Destiny). When jidging time had rolled around, they couldn't decide so they had everyone do a big song together. They were assigned 1000 Words, the Japanese version. Only about 4 of the 10 sang.

Then they were given the Fruits Basket theme to sing. This is our friend's warm-up song. The problem was, the girl next to her would not hand over the microphone, so we heard our friend's voice, but it appeared as though the other girl was singing, although 8 of the people didn't know the words, and the other one who did know them, was at the other end of the line. As a result, that girl who was lipsyncing to our friend, fooled Brian Dobson into thinking it was her, and so she was chosen, and our friend was left out. ARGH. But that's okay, we congratulated her for making it into the top 10 of all the participants, and singing so well in spite of having the least time to prepare out of all the people.

Then my mom phones. I ask her about the yukata and she says not to buy it til I discuss it with her at home. I think okay, I will buy it tomorrow.

Then several of our friends left us to go out for sushi. I was left with Friends 1 and 2. Friend 2 left for karaoke, and Friend 1 helped me get the stuff out of my hair. And then for lack of anything else to do, we sat on the stairs because the ruby slippers, comfortable as they apparently are while standing, were killing her feet. Then we went off to the "free phone area" so she could lie down somewhere while I doodled gryphons. And then when it was about time for my mom to appear, we hobbled down the stairs because our feet were DYING. And then Friend #2 sees us. From the roof. And then dashes down several flights of stairs to get a ride home from me. xp

That's everything that happened... so far. At least the somewhat more interesting things. I will probably post another report tomorrow, ne? ^_~