What a fun convention this was! Granted, Murphy's Law was in effect starting Thursday, so even when we got there Friday it was still crazy (I have never seen a line for Fanime like I did this year; around the outside of the Marriott at 6:30PM!?) & we had gotten there late this year due to circumstances that couldn't be helped. This didn't stop me from putting my entire Arrietty cosplay on for the first time (something I had been literally working on until the night before *procrastinator*), & so I stayed up late to go wander around & hang out with friends. But by Saturday morning, once we got our badges, everything started to feel semi-normal.
There were a lot of new things for me this year at the con though. Having gone since 2005, after awhile things started to feel really the same & I pretty much stopped going to events at the con (except for the occasional gathering). This year though, my friends had an Artist Alley booth, & I while I missed out on my original plans to go to the Pokemon gathering to help set up on Saturday, I ended up having a much funner day to hang out with new friends in my Arrietty cosplay & running into pretty much everyone that I knew in one day. I also found a Traveler cosplayer from Journey (one I had been trying to find all day after a brief sighting in which they immediately disappeared into the crowd), & the lovely girl gave me a paper "scarf piece" with the Robert Frost quote "Two paths diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference", which absolutely made my night.
Sunday morning was also a lot of fun & another day of convention firsts for me. Despite cosplaying officially since 2007, I've never had a really proper photo shoot for costumes at the convention by myself. GaMeReVX was very kind to offer one for my Rhyme cosplay, which I had been wanting one of particularly in San Jose, because the area fit her style far better than what I had back at Y-Con in Burlingame. Additionally, although the meeting was brief & unexpected for them, I got to meet the other members of NOTN Cosplay, whom I've admired for the last couple of years. All in all, an excellent start to my morning. I also ended up going to the masquerade & taping NOTN's skit (as well as few others), & I actually really had a lot of fun watching, even when there were skits for series I knew nothing about.
The last day was a little sad, because like every convention, this one went by like a bullet train. I put on Arrietty one last time for a few minutes so I could get a few pictures on my own camera of her, & headed down to the Artist Alley to hang out with my hotelmates until we planned to leave. However, I instead got invited to lunch by a new friend & his group, who were dressed up from Sherlock, & so I hung out with them for a very enjoyable few hours before I had to sadly say goodbye. I ran into GaMeReVX on the way back to AA to meet my group, so it became the journey of goodbyes and getting ready to wrap up another year of convention going.
Fanime didn't start off perfect this year by any means, but it ended up being one of my favorites I've ever been to. Friends and cosplay and the memories associated with them are the main reasons I go to conventions & this one was chock full of them. I can't wait for 2013~!
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