Friday:

Ah, the lovely chaos of packing up six people and travelling...we drove to the con in two cars, one of which tried to overheat on the way there. Upon check-in, we moved our two cartfuls of stuff to our room with the help of a polite bellboy. When we walked in, it was about eighty degrees, thanks to the previous occupants, but it cooled down relatively quickly. After unloading our stuff and organizing it some, we got into our Friday costumes, all based on video games. So about an hour or so after our arrival, Link, Zelda, Rinoa, Squall, Fujin, and Rajin took the elevator to the ground floor. We got registered very quickly, and were given some nice "goody" bags at the desk. Unfortunately they were the same type that destroyed the sleeve of my shirt at Jacon, so I gave a quick warning to the group to protect their costumes from the bleeding problem. Most of us opted to put the bags in the room after we took a look at the con. After a short photo shoot in the hall, we all decided to use our free time to see what was going on, and mostly dispersed. After a while, Eric and I decided to get out of costume and hit the showers. After getting dinner, most of us decided to relax, but Amilcar and I wanted to check into the poolside karaoke event. After seeing the line, I opted out and wandered the hotel a bit more, trying to prepare myself for Saturday and unwind a bit. After meeting the rather famous "stripping Shinji" from the previous year's AFO and watching the Fujikoma people take down their equipment, I ran into another of our crew, Jess down by the pool during my second pass-through, and also ran into Gecko for a minute, who said he had to return to Tampa for some costume parts. But I was realizing I was far too tired to keep awake. After a quick walk through tht hall where rehersals were being held for the next day's cosplay contest, I gave up and went up to bed.

Saturday:

Awakening terribly uncomfortably from sleeping on the floor, I noticed that one of our crew was missing in action. Not knowing how to get ahold of her, we first made a short visit to the hot-tub, though a couple of us had forgotten bathing suits, then decided to all get showered, dressed, and go have breakfast. We all went to the local donut shop, and then picked up the groceries for the lunch that our resident chef was to be cooking. After searching in vain for the proper seasonings, we decided to make do with what we had, and got back to the hotel about 11, finding a quick note from our missing member, explaining she would be back about noon. As lunch was simmering, most of us opted for a short nap to refresh ourseles. When I woke, it was time to get dressed for Saturday's activities. Flying out of bed as I saw the time, I began passing out the costumes for the day. After about an hour, our cast of Touga, Miki, Mamiya, Anthy, Shiori, Kozue, and Utena finally made its' way downstairs, our hoopskirts knocking into innocent passers-by. After grabbing Marboroshi for a few minutes to get some pictures, we went outside to the pavillion to have a chance to get some pictures of our own before we seperated. We wandered the con some more, finding the registration table for the cosplay contest and confirming our entry, then planning on practicing our coreography some more before the contest took place. After some more wandering, and picture taking, along with meeting some more of the con personalities and some friends, we decided to get out of costume and eat some of the lunch Amilcar had made, Danielle, Eric, and I first making a stop at the local 7-Eleven to buy some sodas and making a darn good example of cosplayers scaring the 'normal' people. We hit the pool and hot tub for a bit to relax from the hot and heavy costumes, and headed up for lunch. After lunch, we held our rehersal, using my car as the boombox due to a lack of power outlets, and we were finally ready for our stage performance. After sitting and waiting for some time in the anteroom, our group was finally called to perform. The audience began to cheer as they heard the music play, and sang along and clapped to our "Men in Tights" skit. After the performance, we milled around some more, and waited for the judging. After the awards were presented, nearly everyone went back to the room to get some well-deserved rest, Phil falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Having the bed this time, I relaxed and went to sleep, Danielle hoping I did not sew her to the bed as we slept.

Sunday:

After another pool and hot tub hit, we all went get ready for the costume contest and to get our things ready for checkout. After a flurry of activity, we were finally ready, except my jacket was still not taped into place. Rushing to put everything on, I got ready as fast as I could, sparing not an inch of bare skin. When we were all out of the room, we put the last of our things in the car and walked over to the con. After being swamped with photo shots, walking through the con to find the pre-registration table took nearly a half hour. After we were registered, we went to grab a quick lunch, but not without a painful removal of the peeling tape and a shirt being substituted for the completely bare effect. After our lunch, we returned to the con for our prejudging times. As Jess dressed in the Utena costume, and I retaped my jacket more securely, Amilcar went in for his judging. Thankfully, the staff was running a few minutes late, which gave me a few minutes to attatch the jacket more firmly. After the quick judging was over, we went to wait for the "fashion show" part of the contest. When my turn finally came, I struck a pose with my pistol and prayed that the movement didn't pull open my jacket. After the rest of the contestants had went, we waited an insane amount of time to get the results, and were disappointed to learn that the judges could not even keep track of who was in which category. What I didn't understand was why a girl with a stuffed animal in a basket won for best prop and another girl in the beginner division took the prize for the advanced category. I think it was some very poor judgement on AFO's behalf. After getting out of my costume and damaging my skin, we all went home completely exhausted.

Overall:

The con was not horrible, but it was rough doing all three days, and the organization and such needed a lot of work. Personally, I think with better organization and more thought into some of what they do AFO might even be a good con to attend sometime...it was certainly a big improvement from last year, but they still have a long way to go. Even so, I may not attend AFO next year. Personally, I think if it hadn't been for my great friends, this would have been a really bad experience, but their presence made it a lot more fun! Thanks to Amilcar, Danielle, Eric, Jess, and Phil for making this con a more enjoyable time!