Anime Boston '08
Friday:
Left home at around 3am to drive up to Baltimore to catch my flight to Boston. Picked up a new suitcase to put everything in, plus an extra bag to put wigs in. Arrived at BWI about 45 minutes before the ticketing counter opened and did the self check in. Checked my baggage when the counter opened and then went to wait for the plane. Going through security is a lot less hassle when you take nothing with you. Flight departed BWI at 6:30am and arrived in Boston at around 7:30am. I always enjoy coming to Boston, even if only for this convention. Its such a great city compared to DC Metro.
Grabbed a shuttle (costs $5 extra this year) and arrived at the hotel.
At the hotel it was still a few hours until the roommate would arrive, so I put my stuff in baggage claim and went to registration to get my badge. The line was fairly long for so early in the day, but apparently minute compared to the massive lines to come later for some people. Hopefully AB will fix their registration issues next year. After I got my badge I checked in at Masquerade HQ, who mentioned I might be a traitor piece on the board. Finally at around noontime the roommates showed up and I got to the room.
First costume was Darcia. Everyone loves this outfit at AB, whether I'm in the convention center or walking around the mall. While I was putting it on I noticed one of the gem pieces broke off the headpiece, so I put everything on and went back to Masquerade HQ for their hot glue gun. While going there I bumped into anigirl15 and blufiredragon67, which is always nice. Also ran into goddessofice1 who was in her Cheza outfit, and she asked me to pick her up a few times for people to take pictures. I look forward to seeing those, because I've been waiting to carry a Cheza around for quite a while.
Arrived at Masquerade HQ and while waiting for the glue to cool down I bumped into misaokitty whom I had not seen since Ohayo, (Ok, I'm not 100% sure about that...I remember her from Ohayo, but is this the girl that is Don's girlfriend? Was she at AB?...help me out here Fiona :C) so that was a treat to be remembered.
Wore the outfit for an hour or two. Got into another line to get a ticket to the formal, and then finally went back to the room to claim my sleeping space (aka blowing up my air mattress) and take a quick shower. The room for AB had 7-8 people, with 2 of them being myself and another guy. Once again I was the person that only knew 1 person in the room, but everyone other else in the room knew each other. I just tried to make the best of it by being friendly but I just got the impression from everyone as being "that strange person in our room."
About an hour prior to the formal I got prepared for the great experiment of trying to make a Darcia (minus the headpiece, aka the actual character)cosplay. After putting the wig, the eyepatch, and eyebrows on and then walking around in the convention center a bit, I realized it was a massive mistake to do, so I quickly retreated back to the room before any more people noticed. I didn't even go to the formal. I think the mistake was trying to change a very popular cosplay. So many people like the headress version of it that they apparently find in unfathomable to do something different to it. So yeah... total fail.
Not sure when the day ended...probably late chatting in the room.
Saturday:
Woke up at around 9am to look for some breakfast. Awesome that there is a grocery store across the street from the hotel, because it was way cheaper to buy something there than getting something at the food court.
I think I walked around a little more in Darcia, and then changed into Alan Gabriel to wear around and at the Pillows Concert. Wearing Jiraiya also was a fail because I could not remember the gathering times and 1 was occuring during the concert, so no..
The Pillows (and their opening act, Luv and Reponse) was total win, but before was saw them they showed the newest Monty Oum video "Dead Fantasy", which was beyond the highests levels of awesome. I was kind of disappointed the Pillows did not play the instramental "Stalker," but the rest were great to here. Wore Darcia yet again to walk around during the Masquerade portion to the day.
Got some dinner at the food court and packed most of everything up because of Cosplay Chess in the morning.
Sunday:
Woke up around 8am and packed up the remaining stuff to put in baggage claim downstairs and then went to main events for Cosplay Chess. From the start it was pretty confusing, and despite Ana's best effort people were still confused on what to do. A few scripted parts to play and everyone else was winging it. My role was changed to a part in Team Evil to a part in the Traitor Team, which would of be cool because it was to allow me being introduced coming on stage and getting an attack on the board. But, the event ran long and they ended up cutting about 15 minutes at the end, so I didn't end get to come on stage.
Waited in line to retrieve my bags, clean up and pack the Darcia outfit in the bathroom, sat around a little bit eating a late lunch, and then caught a shuttle back to the airport for my flight back home.
Overview:
AB is fast becoming one of my favorite conventions. Everyone is so friendly and its such a great growing con. Its kind of sad I missed out in seeing more of AB on Saturday because I was in costume. When I go to conventions I really need to set aside a time to not be in costume and just be a complete otaku seeing all there is to see.