And my review of the trip to Katsucon
The actual start of the trip out here to D.C. was on Valentines day. Left at 12pm PST from Portland, Oregon and was sent out to the Chicago Ohara aiport. The first part of the flight was long and the cabin air pressure was not helping my poor head. By the time I got to Chicago I was not feeling good. I thought that my blood sugar was too high but at the same time I was really hungry. I gave into the urge and got some food then checked my blood sugar. Turns out I needed the food, my blood sugar was 44. Good thing I got the food. I went to eat at the gate for my plane only to find out that I still had over an hour to wait. The plane was delayed by 30 mins for some reason. Not sure why, but oh well. There was some nice people there that I was able to talk to and I showed off baby pictures.
The next flight to D.C. was really nice. I had no one sitting by me in the seats so I got to stretch out once the seat belt sign turned off. I was really happy for it specially since my head was still pounding. Towards the end of the flight my head was feeling much better and I was so ready for the plane to land.
I got my bag and met Ivey out in the parking lot and we went to the hotel we were staying at for the night. Well we headed that way cept on the way back we got a little lost. The girls got directions to the airport but not how to get back. Took us a few mins and turns and help with Becky on the phone with Miki, but we made it back. It's an alright hotel but it'll do for the night.
Next day we got the car packed up as quickly as possible and headed out to the OmniShore hotel. Now this I was excited about. A suite and it not needing to be paid for. At least by any of us.
We get there and first thing we see for parking is that the entire lot is full. Ack! Not good. We talked to one of the valet people though and he let us in, saying there was one spot left. Heh, we got in and saw a couple of spots available. They prolly put the sign up to keep the parking lot from being congested.
We get in and were going to get our badges first but decide to get our roon keys and put our luggage away. I was glad to find the room had a fridge. It was also very spacious and had a balcony! There was one of the wide flat panel TV's in there too and a walk in closet. Very, very nice. I appreciated it even more after seeing the sign on the door for the prices of the room. $499 a night plus $50 extra a night per person. Yeouch! But we weren't paying that, woo!
Now that our stuff was put away we went down and tried to figure out where to get our badges. Normally we'd go to pre-reg but Ivey was told not to go there. So we went to con ops and they told us to go to Pre-reg. *Face palms* We head back over there and get in line. We all went up to the desk together when it was out turn and they couldn't find any of us in the system. Oy! They called some one over and he was going to double check something about making sure that Ivey was the winner for last years raffle until he heard that we were able to get into the hotel room okay. At that point he told to guy just to let us have our badges. Now don't be fooled about how simple this sounds. It took us half the day to get them.
One of the plans for Friday was to get to Mike's autograph line, say hi and hey while we're at it get a few autographs. I had the Leo ninja turtle bandana that has the plastic face piece and says stuff in the voice of the turtles. When we went to get in line I decided I would wear it on my forehead, since it wouldn't fit properly over my eyes, then I could show I to Mike and see what he said. Crittle and I did run up real quick to wave hi then went back in line to wait our turn. We were about three people away when he spots us again, smiles then points to the bandana saying he has one but it's still in it's box in 'Mint condition'. The betteries in his were way dead, I am not surprised since I had to replace my betteries, so he wanted to play with mine. By then I had taken it off and handed it over to him so he could play with it. My forhead ached and I had a slight soreness right in the middle cause of that thing. Oww...
Mike chatted with Ivey, Crittle, Miki and I for a few minutes.. I think Desi was there too. Hard to remember right now.. We got our stuffed signed and told Mike that we would catch him later. Off the top of my head I don't recall exactly what panels we did... Friday was a little bit of a slow day. We did go to Eyeshines concert and ended up playing a volly balloon ball game. That was a blast. We were really close to the speaker though and the bass or prolly just how loud it was started to be way too painful so I had to sit out the last few minutes of the concert. Of course after I step out Mike found the group.
I am so going to bring earplugs next time I go to a con.
We were heading back to our room, all so very tired. On the way I noticed there was a guy behind us with black hair. I didn't look all that well so I didn't notice anything. I went to shoo Crittle to the same side as Ivey so he could pass us. He says 'Oh don't worry about it, I'm too tired to walk any faster.' Deep voice. We get to our room and he's still behind us. As Ivey and Crittle go in, he passes and goes to the room right next to ours. Now I get a good look at his outfit. All in black and he had a book. Beind nosey I went over and said, 'Sorry but I'm nosy, what does your book say?' He lets me see and it says Defense Against the Dark arts. I blink and look at him again and question 'Severus..?' He grins and holds up a wand, the tip lights up. I go totally fan girlish, hopping up and down doing a small excited clap like motion while going, "Oh my gosh! I love you!" He laughs and says something then holds his arms out for a hug. Of course I hug him. I didn't get a picture though because we were all so tired. But I was hoping I'd see him the next day at the con so I could get his pic.
Saturday we started off by relaxing for a little bit before heading out to say hi to Misty, she showed up at the Con and then Rakka showed up too. We all hung out for a little bit before the two went there own way. One of the panels we wanted to attend was rescheduled for later because Mike lost his voice! Poor guy. All the staff and everyone was trying to keep Mike watered down with honey and tea and keep him from talking in hopes of restoring his voice faster. Later in the evening it was doing a bit better so he was able to do his panels. He did skip out on Guest Uncensored, but I don't blame him on that. It was late and better to try and save his voice.
During the day I'm telling Ivey I hope I see the Severus cosplayer again and that I would so love to see someone dressed up as Lucius. That I would totally fall over for. As long as he's a good cosplayer that is. Once again we're heading back to our room and this guy with white blond hair, a black cloak with the snakes Lucius has on his cloak and the cane, Lucius cane is seen coming towards us. It's the same guy!!!! He stops recognizing me and I go all fangirly again, lol. First he quotes Lucius from the second movie on what he said to Ginny. Totally got it right. He hugs me again and says he was thinking of me all night long and that I made it 'hard' for him to sleep. He was joking though... at least I think he was... so I was totally cracking up. I got a couple pictures taken with him on Ivey's camera (I need those copies!!!) Then afterwards he kissed me! I was in lala land for a little while, stupid grin on my face. I told my hubby about him and he's all laughing at how silly I'm being.
Sunday the only panel we went to was closing ceremonies. We did go to see Mike again in the autograph line but he wasn't there. I was so bummed cause I had to leave at 330 to get to the airport to head back home. So I didn't think I was going to get a chance to say bye to him. Well, we're outside the closing ceremony room at about 315 when lo and behold, here comes Mike! I was going to get to say bye to him after all! Yay! He was coming to meet up with us so he can talk to Crittle about what banner he liked the best for a website she runs for him and to just say hi. At first he said Hi to Crittle's son who was very excited to meet Mike but also very shy at the same time. We had a bunch of pictures taken with Mike's camera, my camera, Ivey's camera... and other people's cameras, lol.
Miki had done a picture for Mike which was also going to be the prize for the banner Mike picked for his website. Problem was we needed a way to print it out. A guy who was there said he had a really good printer in his room and would do it, so Miki went with him while we all just sat and visited for a moment. I was telling Mike about my baby and hubby and he was wondering why they didn't come. I told him it was too exspensive for all of us to fly out specially since it was Washington State we were flying out from. He winced and nodded in understanding. We then talked of cons and he was wondering what next con I would be going to. Sadly I said I didn't know because of exspense and that my next trip I definately wanted hubby and baby to come with me.
I made mention of a con that is run in Seattle, Saku-con I believe it is called, and he told me that he would love to go to that con cause he heard that it's run well, but he's never got an invite. I told him that I would contact them and make sure they know that he would definitely love to go to that con. First thing I did yesterday was send them an e-mail to let them know of Mike's interest. It's in March though so he might not make it for this year. There is Kumoricon as well here in Portland, Oregon. So I sent them an e-mail too to invite Mike. We'll see how it goes.
At the con we're still waiting for Miki but time has passed for when it is time for me to go. It was now 4pm. I gave Mike another hug and told him that I was happy I got to see him and to take care of his voice. Ivey and I rushed to the car to find... Crittle's suitcase is in on the drivers seat! Her boyfriend came out to get the suitcase and we were off to the airport. I was nervous that I might miss my flight because of increased security at the airport and I would be arriving at 4ish instead of four. Heh... I actually got to the airport at 505. I gave Ivey a hand/hug cause we didn't even have time to let her get out of the car, grabbed my bags and ran into the airport. The ticket counter I got right up to the counter, phew, so that went through alright. Security was my worry, because if it was busy I was screwed. Time now was 515 and according to my ticket the plane is now boarding.
At security it wasn't busy! Woot! I went right threw.... only to have to wait as they inspected my book bag. I left two water bottles in it and a bag of ice in with my insulan. *Sigh* I told them to obviously keep or toss those, whatever, and then booked it to my gate. As I thought they were boarding but that's okay. Means the plane didn't leave yet. I got on and there was some one in the seat by the window but the middle seat was empty. So we had extra room. With a four hour flight I liked that. My stop this time was in Denver, Colorado. First the sign said the plane was on time but then it was ten minutes late. That's okay I can deal with that. We are waiting to board when the gate alarm goes off. Something in the tunnel passage was off. Took them a few minutes to get it to stop. Oy!
We then go on boarding and get seated in a crowded plane. What is it with people going to Portland, Oregon all the time I have no idea. But at least it was only a 2 and a half hour flight. We're on the plane and waiting... and waiting.. and waiting... Finally I get up wanting to stretch and spoke with the flight attendents only to find the reason we haven't left yet is because we are waiting for the drinks. Took them an hour to get us those drinks. A woman on the plane started to cry and I thought she was going to flip, so I ran up front to get the flight attendent so he could make sure she was okay. Later I find out it was because her father had passed away earlier and that she had two hours to get home to see her mom before her mother might pass. Hell, if I had known that I would have lead a revolt or something to say leave with out the drinks. We had some water, we all would have been fine.
The plane was suppose to arrive at 1037 but we didn't get there till midnight. Then we had to wait a while for our bags to come out of the baggage claim. It took them a while. So after getting my bag and heading out of the airport, I didn't get home till almost one am. I tossed my stuff down and just crashed, after seeing my baby girl. I was soo tired.
I hope that woman made it to see her mom.
Overall the trip was a lot of fun! I'm talking to hubby about heading to Con's that are closer in this area, get Kira use to it, and look into going to an East coast con sometime, all of us.
I think that will be a blast!
