So, I never got around to telling everyone about
Kumoricon.
Kumoricon is Portland Oregon's Anime Convention. And my friend Dice wanted to go.
DiceSo, she flew up from Mississippi on Friday August 29th. We had dinner and watched some anime before heading to bed. First thing on the 30th, we headed over to the Lloyd Center Double Tree and got in line...
Mind you, the back of this line was around the building from the entry doors. We had been told to stand in the line but after two hours and finally in sight of the doors, we found out that we were in the Pre-Registration line. GAH! We had missed the Opening Ceremonies and were a bit bummed but we were able to at least get our passes to the Con.
And yes, I was the moron who forgot the camera... But, we saw a ton of awesome looking cosplayers and some of them I was able to snap pictures of on Monday the 1st. (I forgot my camera on Sunday too!)
Since there was nothing going on that we wanted to see, we headed out for food... And booze. The first thing we did when we got back was see
Anime Hunters. It was a panel of funny cosplayers that put on skits. Dice ended up getting swag thrown right in her damned lap! Lucky girl! And she didn't even know who they were when we went in there. Most of her time in that panel was spent drawing me a chibi Jens for my badge. (You will find out more about Jens in the future. All I can tell you now is that I am his number one fan and will be creating a fan site... I swear to you!)
After Anime Hunters, we were headed to the
AMV contest. Now, I had never been into anime but after this contest viewing, I had a whole list of anime that I wanted to watch... I got my first taste of the addiction and to this day I am feeding it. I am sure it's much to Dice's delight.
We had some time to kill and went out for drunken dinner. After we ate, Dice spotted the cutest
Grimmjow. Now, this Grimmjow was sitting with a group of people... needless to say, he was eating. Since Dice was drunk, she headed over. I stepped down some stairs and hid out of their sight, but was able to see what was happening through some table legs. Apparently, Dice went over and told the Grimmjow: "My friend wanted to see some Bleach characters and you're awesome so will you wave to her, she's over... there... Oh, she must have left." Or something of the sort. Grimmjow must have thought her an idiot but it was a HIGHLY amusing to us.
We headed back to the Con and went to the room where they were holding 'Anime That Scarred Me For Life". In the room were some folks who were just having an open discussion. This was along the lines of "Cosplays That We Are Sick And Tired Of Seeing" or "No No's Of Cosplay". This was a very amusing discussion and the panel that we originally came for... well, it sucked. We left early to check out the Park filled with Cosplayers and
Glomp Circles. (This is something that we did often as I smoke and Dice does not... it gave us a way to still hang out while enjoying the con.)
We stood in line to go to the Slants concert and saw Grimmjow again. Of course we were staring! But Grimmjow was surrounded by fangirls and we made up the 'thoughts' of the boy that was seemingly with the three girls. It was highly amusing. Once the girls and their male counterpart left, Grimmjow waved at Dice. Of course she wasn't sure that he was truly waving at her and so... completely ignored him! Hilarious! I'll tell you, Saturday was the most fun. We finally got into the concert but left early as it was... annoying. We headed back to the car to fill up on booze and met up with our Elevator Friends.
2/3 of the Elevator FriendsThe Dice and I and the Elevator Friends met up the first time we got in the elevator to go to the con. They also were in front of us in the two hour line. Almost every time we went to the car for more booze, we met up with the Elevator Friends. They shared their booze with us and we with them. It was lovely... So, when we met up with them again, we drank some more before heading to the Dance (not the Concert). At the dance, we hung with the Elevator Friends... Conga-ed with them... And was even helped to my feet after I did this to myself:
This was three days after it happened...So, with a severely twisted ankle, I went up to the car to rest. My head was spinning when I stood and I had stopped drinking about three hours before this happened. At about 1:30am, Dice came out to the car and told me that one of the Elevator Friends (EFs) was hurling in the men's room sink. And the EF that drove was still too drunk to move anywhere in the car. Sooo, we oftered them floor space at my house. The three EFs piled into my car with a large trash bag for any vomit.
The next morning, we parked and parted ways. We saw the EFs in passing on Sunday, but we didn't seem to hang out with them anymore. I think it was embarassment! But, we were joined by Avery.
The one bad thing about this con was that every major event required us to get tickets. Mind you, the tickets were free but no one told us that we needed tickets to see the Cosplay event! So, we missed it. Annoying to say the least. So, we basically just went to the merchant stalls, watched cosplayers and hung around until the Masquerade ball.
Avery on the left, me in the middle and Dice on the right.This was amazingly fun! Even with my sprained ankle, I was able to dance with Avery (with the help of Percocet). Dice managed to find like three different guys to dance with! After the Ball, we hung out at the dance. Fun times were had by all.
Monday was the last day of the con. Avery only was able to make it one day so Dice and I headed to the Charity Auction alone. While this was entertaining for me, Dice drew a lot. I love the fact that she's able to bust out images while tuning out what is going on around her. Because we were at the Charity Auction, we were able to keep our seats (second row) for the Closing Ceremonies. Keep in mind, Monday was boring as far as the con went. It was the Cosplayers that made the con great!
If you want to see the photos I managed to snap while I was there, you can check out my
Flickr.
amused
determined
curious
accomplished