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*Insert scream of fangirling joy here*

Ah Kumoricon... How can I say this without screaming while skipping around my room and singing six different j-pop songs at once? I go to two cons a year, Sakura Con in Seattle, Washington, and KumoriCon in Portland, Oregon; each one well worth the long ride, and the admission costs. Sakura Con was my first ever con, and so it will always be so special to me, but I think I enjoy myself better at Kumoricon. It's smaller, and not as much to do, the dealer's room isn't as big, and the hotels where it's held are too small. However, despite all that, I really do love it more.

The small attendance means that you recognize people better, and it's easier to start a conversation with someone when you can pick them out of a crowd. Also, even though there were about twenty or so L's there, my group (for I am way too much of a coward to go on my own) and I could still say "Look! It's THE L! Let's go give her Pocky!" and so on. The small dealer's room also had it's advantages, you feel less torn when you go broke because you know you haven't had to decide between two or more things you just had to have (and for some people, they leave and have more than six cents to their name ^^; ). And since there are fewer events, there's more time to sit and people watch, and you meet the nicest people that way (even if she was a miniskirt... red dawn forever!) And it was so much easier to get an autograph from Vash-sama when there's not sixty people separating you.

So now that you know why it's great, here's the day by day run down <3

Friday: Ahh Friday... day before the con gets it's own little blurb. I sent most of the day at the DMV with my Mom-san because I lost my wallet that had my only forms of ID (joy) and so instead of going to the mall and getting the perfect boots for my cosplay... I got a permit. Wah. So afterwards we headed over to Mustard-chan's (also known as C-chan) house and arrived at about 5:30 (and when you read this, I hate your driveway) and had to wait around for a half hour while she got there (her mom's birthday party was that day, so I had to arrive first to stall the other con goers while she drove over. XD) Near got there first, so after our reunion that involved lots of glomping and screaming. About a half hour later C-chan got home and after several trips up her stairs of doom, we had Near's car empty and she was beating Ursula for me because I can't swim to save my life... And Mustard won't let me play KH2 until I beat the first game. Woe. Soon enough the rest of our party arrived, Maji, Becky and Sue (don't you love the mix of real and screen names?) who had a van full of things to unload. Seriously, C-chan, you have stairs of doom. Everyone was unpacked and we spent the rest of the day... doing something... my memory is a bit fuzzy. I remember a lot of eating, playing games, and then crashing because we had a long weekend ahead of us.

Saturday: Con day! Which means... Oh no! Getting up at 4:30am to get ready! T_____T And to top it off, I was playing Hinata that day, meaning I had to get a jacket, pants, and shoes on. That was the extent of my costume. I already have the right hair for it naturally, so I could have slept in because it took about four minutes to get ready. More woe. Becky-chan revealed her totally amazing cosplay of *drum roll* NAVI! She had actually made a little fairy on a fishing pole looking thing, and it had the wings and everything. She also strapped speakers hooked up to an iPod that would repeat "Hey Listen!" whenever she found someone to bother. Two minutes in the room with it and I was counting to ten in every language I knew trying to find a happy place so I wouldn't destroy the damn thing. She put so much effort into it, must not destroy! And the sound would keep coming... Still... But, this lead to our amazing idea for next year's cosplay! *Another drum roll* Crazy Link! That's right, me in a straight jacket, with Link's hat! And the fairy around my head playing that. The straight jacket also keeps me from destroying it, which is a plus. We are geniuses we are. And we haven't even left the house yet. We drove to the MAX station (which is Oregon's version of the Subway, but it's above ground. I think California has them too, but I don't remember...) and after weird looks we boarded and were on our way. About half way there (we were at the end of the line, so it was about an hour ride) some other cosplayers got on as well, so we didn't stand out as much. After arriving, the con high hit you in the face... or maybe that was the cold a** wind... maybe both... Anyway, we had arrived so early (there's a reason for a 4:30 wake up) that we were only in the registration line for about, oh I don't know, two and a half hours. Which wouldn't be bad at all (Cosplay Contest line was longer than that) if it wasn't for the... bad word... that was standing in line behind us. Keep in mind, I'm cosplaying Hyuuga Hinata. C-chan is Deidara. The guy behind us is the most obnoxious Uzumaki Naruto you could believe, complete with fact that he was a *shudders* dubber. I twitch every time he called me Hinata Hyuuga. And nearly punched his face a few times. The joy. He was in a group (who seemed unwilling to have him there) who had some decent members, there was a Yagami Light (hate the character, but the cosplayer was fun) who talked to us. He was at Sakura Con, so we sort of remembered him on an escalator at one point. He was fun enough, kept writing the guy's name in his Death Note and slowly working his way in front of us in line. We pushed him back when it started moving, but he didn't seem aware of it. Maybe he's a good actor, I dunno.
Finally we were inside, and after getting coffee for some (I can't drink it. No caffeine for me crying ) we went to find Hobo-chan and Sempai in line, and chatted with them for a bit before getting in line for opening ceremonies. They were amazing, the Anime Hunters had a skit planned for explaining the rules of the con, for the guy announcing it was creating a "boring con atmosphere" which in itself was breaking rules (will look up youtube of it later). Afterwards there were a million panels we wanted to go to. Guess how many we went to. Near, Mustard and I stayed together, everyone else wandered off to meet other friends/bother people. So after wandering the Dealer's room for a bit, we crashed in a hallway and people watched. I couldn't borrow my mom's camera, so I couldn't take pictures. I was sad. We stayed inside as often as possible because Near was... I forgot who she was, but it was cold and she had a keyblade that she tried to kill me with (I have no heart, which makes me heartless, so it destroys me. We had fun with that). We sat a little table and every so often we'd get up to go take a picture of someone had to glomp someone, that whole thing. I glomped my first L! Which was THE L of the convention, and not only did she have the perfect costume/posture, she won the L vs Kira debate. Yay. While sitting we saw a girl in FMA cosplay, complete with mini skirt. Now, we're all Risembool Rangers (the fanclub for Ed's voice actor) so we yell "It's a Skirt!" she turns, and seems to understand that we're her "rival" so naturally she comes over and we have a lovely chat and she invites us to the Miniskirt Army panel the next day. We promise to come, and after awhile she goes off to talk to other people and we... stayed where we were for another few hours. Eventually it comes time for the Ranger lunch, so we headed over to the park, met up with everyone, and then walked to the mall (singing the whole way XD) and ate, talked, and generally freaked out the population. When it was over we parted ways and went to wait in a hallway for C-chan's anime (Soul Eater is love) to start. And that is when doom hits.
There was a dance going on... or concert I can't remember which and so Mustard, Near and I were sitting out in the hall (Near can't handle the music and I have a very, very, very mild form of epilepsy so the flashing lights are a no-no) and I did something (while still sitting, because I'm that talented) that completely screwed up my leg. I was left on the floor in our little corner, with one leg on C-chan's lap while half my body was turned against the wall trying to beat my head against it because my muscle was in so much pain I wanted to pass out from it. Someone, it might have been me but I honestly can't remember, was rubbing it enough (it was just below my knee so anyone could've grabbed it) that the pain eventually stopped enough that I could get a handle on myself. Our Light from the pre reg line came and found us (now as Konohomaru) and he stayed with us for awhile. When it was time to go I had to use C-chan as a crutch to limp down the hallway and sit in the room, Konohomaru-kun couldn't see the subtitles, so he bolted after awhile. By the time the third episode was over, we had to leave to catch a train, and we were off. We got to the end of the line (my mom was there to drive us home in her itty bitty car, but I got the rest of my con money so I was happy) and as soon as we were upstairs.

Sunday: We got to sleep in. 6:30am yay! My costume for that day was the Bunny from Trickster Online, second job. My pretty blue hair was replaced with a brighter blue wig. That was fun getting on. My hair is too short and too thick to be put into that many ponytails… the horror… luckily the cosplay itself was pretty simple; shorts, pink tank top and long purple jacket. Upon arrival we quickly ran to the mall to get my boots (I had to wear my regular shoes there and it did not look good &_& wink and that in itself was fun. We had gone to Ross the night before to see if they had any cheap boots that would fit the cosplay and we managed to find the perfect pair (though they were the wrong color, but nobody really stocks knee high purple boots anyway. And these were only $13!) and we were overly paranoid that somebody would get there before us and buy the only pair in my size. So we made it to the store before it was opened and got to listen to the employees yell at each other for not opening the gate soon enough because a girl who worked there was late and couldn’t get in. Oh fun. We got the boots, freaked out some people by sitting on a bench beside them while I switched into them, and then went on our marry way to the Con space.
That day was the Cosplay Contest, so we spent about three hours after arriving in line for it. The line was outside so we froze, but we got amazing seats. The contest was amazing, of course. There was a group who wrote a love song about how to write a love song, which was hilarious, but I have yet to find a video of it. Sigh. Then there was the One Piece parody of Mambo Number Five called Three Swords Style that was amazing. I want a copy of the lyrics because it’s hard to hear over the cheering. Ninja’s of the Night had their usual excellence with a Death Note skit (unless I’m getting names mixed up) which was brilliant (I’m 100% certain that that is not a lamp &3). And then, the moment we (or I…) had been waiting for *another drum roll* VASH THE STAMPEDE-SAMA! Ahhhhh~! He’s so amazing… the best monologues ever written, and had barely even finished writing it. The only, and I mean only for it was too amazing to have any down sides, bad part about it was that I was filming it and therefore I couldn’t scream my lungs out at him like I so wanted to. But the upside was that we had… fifth or sixth row seats so we got amazing audio (of Near screaming @_@) of the genius that is his speeches. I can’t even describe how amazing that was. I love his old speech, and this one wasn’t as moving as the old one, but it was still standing ovation worthy.
When the Contest was over, there was a Miniskirt Army dinner (on the 15th floor. I hate elevators.) that we hurried to get to (luckily the contest got out early so we weren’t late!) and had free pizza galore. Near, I still haven’t forgiven you for running out and leaving us to carry your crap. -_- We stayed up there for awhile before deciding that we couldn't leave Near along too long, and went downstairs. We found her and the three of us sat down at a table, feeling completely exhausted, and waited for the rest of our party to find us so we could go home. After sitting for a bit, Near saw some of her friends walk by (the ones that made her become Near in the first place, I think) and they joined us while they caught up. Near now had energy. Then the most amazing thing in the history of ever happened.
Vash walked by.
Vash-sama.
I don't think there's any way to properly express how freaking amazing this man is. I start fangirling just thinking about him. Ah.
Anyway.
He walks by. I had the Kumoricon book open, and at the back is the autograph's page that you're supposed to use for voice actors/manga artists and, you know, famous people.
I found a better use for it. I asked around the table to see if anyone had a pen, someone did, and so I ran up to Vash-sama to ask for an autograph.
*Runs around the room squealing at the memory!*
Yeah...
He gave me the autograph.
I need to go scream again.
So.
Our party eventually got there, and we headed over to the MAX station where we met the most awesome James cosplayer ever (note: that picture was not taken by anybody in our group). He was sitting on the sidewalk, rose in hand, and talking to us. He even had the voice down perfectly, and wouldn't break character once. We asked him where his Jesse was, and he looked like he was gonna cry and told us that she left him for another James. Also, he didn't want Meowth around because he always threw money at him ("And frankly I'm tired of it" wink .

Monday:
Last day of Con. crying Mustard and I got to sleep in! Near and Majin had to drive to the convention because of the massive amount of stuff they had to carry in (the masquerade ball was that day, and Maji had dresses and such she didn't want to bring on the train), so we, along with the other girls staying with us, rode the MAX in later. We got there at... sometime... and met up with Near. We only had one place we needed to be that day, so we mostly wandered around in the Dealer's Room and people watched. This was the only day I had my camera with me, so I had many things to take pictures of. Unfortunately, the person I really wanted a picture of left early. VASH-SAMA HOW COULD YOU?!?! T___T
*cough*
So... Maji was in Cosplay Chess... we got in line for that... yeah...
I had my L plushy with me, and two L's saw him, and then had to hug it/me. And just as they were about to walk away, a girl came by saying she was selling Pocky. I offered to buy it off of her. And of course, any good L would never pass up Pocky. So, after munching on it with us, they stayed with us in line (and assured us that they weren't completely cutting because they were in the group behind us anyway). We were in line for about an hour or so... But the line cut off.
Right in front of us. We were sad. But, a lot of people were leaving about half way through the first match, and more people left at the end, so we managed to see the second game. C-chan took video with my camera because she had a better view, and I'll upload the videos later.
After the game, we had nothing to do. At all. So we found a table and sat. I wasn't pleased. We'd been sitting all freaking weekend and I finally had energy! But it paid off. While at our little table, we saw Horse Man walk by. This guy is awesome. Not as awesome as Vash-sama, but he's up there. He had managed to walk through the whole con with a horse mask over his head, and he was amazing at it. We saw him walk by, and had asked him what the story behind his costume was, and he ignored us. However, as he was walking past us, his phone rang. He promptly took off the mask to answer it. So, when he walked past again, we yelled "We saw you break character, now come and talk to us!"
He did.
He explained how his friends all had amazing cosplays and he didn't have anything, so (long story short) he'd ended up wearing the horse's mask and it worked for him. He had many fans. So after talking to us for awhile he said that a bunch of people did take his picture, but he didn't have an "artsy" picture of him. So I took one! He was fun...
After awhile, Dante walked by, and so I got his autograph for Hobo-chan because she loves him. To the point of actually stalking him. I'm not joking. She was trying to get through glass to get to him.
Lunch time came around, so Near, Mustard and I headed over to the mall and got lunch. California rolls are love. It was so much fun being in the mall surrounded by "normal" people, while we're in full cosplay. Near in a big green dress, and me in a bright blue wig and purple cape. We make a great pair.
And that's about it... after lunch we wandered around the nearby park, I took random pictures of crowds and such, we skipped closing ceremonies so there's nothing to report there. We drove home at about 6, got home by 7 and crashed until 11am the next day. Yeah, we were tired.
And that's it. A very anti-climatic ending, I know.
Oh well.
Now all that's left is to wait for Sakuracon 09!

Our group:
Near
Maji
C-chan/Mustard