Otakon 2002

Friday:

We got up really early and arrived at Otakon at 9 am. The weather was a bummer, but we were under the roof most of the time outside. Of course, the pre-reg line was huge and we waited and hour and a half before registering. Oh well what can you do. That messed up our plans to meet up with people around 10 so we tried looking for them in line. After watching some AMVs, we found Taco, Yam, and Yasumi. They were nearing registration so we decided to check the at-con registration line for others. We found VB, Margs, and Gonk over there so all was good. Being the first in our group to register, Sam and I went to get a place in line for the dealers room and everyone else would meet us down there. The line actually wasnt that long so we got in there pretty fast. We saw TC and AB in the dealers room so that was cool. After about an hour and half of spending all our money, Sam, Gonk, and I went to wait by the fountain for everyone else going out to lunch with us. We ate at Burger King at 2 and it was fun. After food, we split up. Sam, Gonk, Linny, Yasumi, and I went to watch more AMVs, which is where we were going to meet everyone after they checked into their hotel. Shortly after getting there, the videos stopped for a "break". So we found a place to rest in the reg hall. Yasumi left and Yam found us, so after awhile we went back to the AMVs that were playing again. Of course, shortly after getting there they ended again. We then settled on just resting in the reg hall again because we saw VB, TP, Gyara, and Dyzz hanging out there. Sam, Gonk, and I went to see some parody video before we had to leave. The name of it slips my mind, but it was the CDS productions one about making a dub, it was really funny. Dinner was at the Inner Harbor. We left the convention at 7:30.

Saturday:

We got up early again and arrived at Otakon around 9:30. Almost immediately we ran into Dyzz and VB so we went with them to watch more AMVs. After awhile, Sam and I left and ran into Gonk at the door. We kinda wandered around for awhile and ended up going to see some of "GaoGaiGar Final". We left after 2 episodes and found everyone hanging out by the fountain. They were getting all their cosplay forms in order (and they still have my pen). Gonk went off to get his brother and Sam ran off with a girl she met, Molly, who was dressed as Julia from Cowboy Bebop. They went Spike hunting. So I hung around the fountain with everyone else until they came back. The now 4 of us (with Gonks brother) went to the dealers room to spend more money. Then we watched the second half of the AMV contest. We got lunch/dinner at a pizza place next to Burger King that was really good. Paul and Joey were eating there too and sitting right next to us. When we came back to the con we went to watch "Magical Shopping District Abenobeshi" which was very insane. We stayed until the end of that even though the subtitles were hard to read. Then Gonks brother left and we went to get in line for the cosplay. I went and got changed while in line. I guess we were smart getting in line then. I was 32^nd in line and they let us in pretty early. We also had awesome seats. The skits were great! There were a lot of really funny ones. Of course, the Kodoma no Omacha "Ultra Relax" one was awesome. The winners of the AMVs were good, especially "The Perfect Drug" and "Chop Suey". After the cosplay, we couldnt find anyone or anything to do. I wanted to go see "This is Otakudom" at midnight, but I was really tired. At 11:30 we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday:

Sam and I left for the convention around 9:30 and went to Burger King for breakfast. When we got to the con we went to watch "St. Tail". Psy was actually sitting in front of us so we met her. We went to the dealers room with Psy and her sister. They were both really nice. They had to leave around 12 so we finished what we were doing in the dealers room and decided to get in line for the Yoko Ishida concert. When we came out of the dealers room Gonk and his brother were there so we went with them up to main events. We werent that far back in line, but further than the night before. Gonk found Taco, Yasumi, and Linny way up in line so they snuck us up there. We got awesome seats again. The concert was so cool and I want to learn to ParaPara now. After the concert, Sam and I ran down to the dealers room to grab free "Excel Saga" posters and met everyone again by the fountain. We all got Burger King food and ate by the fountain. Everyone said goodbye and hugged and it was sad. I didnt want to go but we finally did close to 3.