Oh dear god, where do I start X_X

Okay....

Well, first and foremost, we lived! Which is a bigger thing than you think. See, the convention was in Denver, Colorado. We live in the top left corner of New Mexico, making it a 6 hour drive- if you go through the mountains. That would be six hours of two-lane road, jaggedy cliffs on one side, hairpin turns, and DEER. We left at around 2AM, see, to avoid traffic and to get to the con as it was starting. Weelll, I'm the only driver with MORE THAN HALF A MONTH EXPERIENCE. And I've never driven through mountains.

So we wound up getting an alternative route from some friends at this gaming place 1UP. This way, we would actually start out going South to Bernalillo, swing onto the interstate highway, and go up to Denver. This made it a 9-10 hour trip and we did a cool little check-mark shape on the map lol. Completely skirted the mountains. But we weren't out of shit creek yet, oh no. On Thursday I happened to wake up at SIX IN THE MORNING X_X, after only 6 hours of sleep, and couldn't for the life of me go back to sleep. So I got up. I stayed up all day, running around like a headless chicken, and finally got to take a nap at 8. I got up at 9, feeling totally not refreshed at all, and left to get Shi-Chan and Kei. Then we went to 1UP, got better directions, then went to the school to meet with the others.

One of the girls' moms blessed Gillwing (car) with cornmeal stuff. It was kinda cool ^^.

Anyway, so we left at 2AM and didn't stop other than for gas and food. Kei did an excellent job keeping me awake with guessing games, banter, and singing at the top of our lungs to songs in languages we didn't know lmao. Everyone else slept, even through our off-key rendition of 'Colors of the Rainbow' (great song btw).

But GOD I was so tired!!! The highway was like miiiles and miiiiiiiles of straight, flat road. I was holding the wheel with one finger for awhile for the sake of keeping myself amused. We didn't get to Denver until 12 in the afternoon on Friday, at which point I was a heavily caffeinated zombie thing. I almost hit a guard rail, then another car when merging, I was so tired.

Funny thing, though! As soon as we got to the hotel I laid down, having not slept properly in about 30 hours, and guess what? I'm wide a-freaking-wake! I tried to sleep for 15-20 minutes before getting up and asking Kei if he wanted to just go to the con then. He did. We got dressed and walked there, and boy did I ever miss getting weird looks. Farmington's used to my freakish manner of dress and actions, but Denver wasn't XD And I was fully in-character as Switch n_n The looks from passing cars were great.

SO, now to the main event. We arrived at the con at around 4 (yeah it takes forever to get me, Kei, and Shi-Chan into cosplay ready to go). The registration line wasn't that bad this time, since we weren't there as soon as it opened. Right away we started wandering around, glomping and chatting with people. I spotted a Kurama and Hiei pair and nearly died. I only saw one Kurama at NDK 08, so it was nice to spot some YYH cosplay right away. Naturally, I had to go get some huggage, and...and! XD Kurama gave me a rooooose *blush* They were both very in-character, to their credit, and according to Kei I spent the next 10 minutes cherry red, twirling the rose in my fingers.

It was awesome lol.

We wound up going to a very interesting panel on the history of yaoi in Japan, which I enjoyed. I knew a little about it, but not that much! The girl doing the panel was dressed up as Reno (tee hee). Oh yeah, the opening ceremony was great...I think.... I was getting a gnarly case of altitude sickness by this point, along with extreme fatigue, so everything felt like a hazy, surreal dream. I DO remember Chris Patton (voice of Greed in FMA) getting onstage, squirming, and running offstage saying he had to pee. Yeahhhhh. More on that later.

So I wound up being escorted to the hotel by Carmello, Shi-Chan, Hinata Girl, and Aubry (who has no awesome nickname yet *pets her* ) around 9 o'clock. I guess I was acting like a total drunk fool at this point. All I remember is Carmello holding my arm and staring at the sidewalk a lot. Oh, and it was cold. I think I rambled about Karasu a bit. Can't be sure.

So, I rested for a whole hour and a half before getting up. Yeah, the con is like crack. I walked back to the convention center and spent another 3 or so hours wandering around and getting free hugs. A few people asked me for pictures, which was very flattering -..;- not a lot of people asked who I was though :/ but oh well. we met a very very hyper boy whose name fails me, and he hung out with us for all of 20 minutes before bounding off after a friend or something. We ran into him intermittently after that, and he always greeted us with huge hugs and an exuberant "Hey! How's your con going??" He also remembered mine and Kei's names very well, to his credit. Okay, I told him my name was Switch, but still he remembered. And I'm pretty sure he knew that was my character name, not my real one.

We all went home around 12 I think, again I'm getting really fuzzy here because no amount of caffeine could have kept me lucid by now. No one in our room woke up until, like, 12 noon. Kei had to literally drag me out of bed, then Shi-Chan (who goes fully fucking unconscious when she sleeps, good lord). We got dressed, had a quick breakfast of Wendy's food, and went back to the con.

I had my anime pants with me, quick explanation: a ragged old pair of white/blue jeans me and friends have been drawing on in Sharpie since the 9th grade. They're my pride and joy of my wardrobe, and at NDK 08 I made a vow to track down cosplayers of all of Org. XIII and have them sign my pants as their character. So I had a list of numbers on my arm of who I still needed. I managed to find a Vexen and an Xemnas, but other than that no dice. Vexen was actually accompanying the Xigbar I'd had sign last year lol. She was quite happy to see her risque Xiggy doodle on the crotch of my pants lol. Vexen wrote "let me be your ice ice baby" near the bum and a doodle of her character.

I got a member of Organization Infinity to sign too! Goxko, #99, The Playful Dreamer. His title made me giggle ^^

I also started tracking down Final Fantasy VII characters and having them sign. I found a really tall Zack Fair, who wrote "embrace your dreams" on the right knee (OMG I was so happy when I read it), an Advent Children Cloud that signed DIRECTLY ON THE CROTCH of my pants, a Genesis...oh god, that Genesis. He was so awesome. He even had the rapier, and we wound up talking to him for a bit. This guy was so dedicated, he actually had all of LOVELESS memorized! He recited lines to me, which I know made me blush like a cherry, after which he signed my pants with "the wandering soul knows no rest" and his name, right by the NiGHTS doodle on my thigh.

After that we met up with Ninja, a really really awesome guy btw. Last year he was in full ninja gear, not a dumb Naruto cosplay but an actual ninja outfit. He has a flipping liscence to be a ninja! We quickly befriended the guy after a few awkward moments here and there, and he stalked us through the con. After closing ceremony Kei got his number and we kept in touch after the con. We got to meet his little sister this year, she is SOOOO CUTE! I'm pretty sure she was hitting on me but that's cool. She's a sweetie.

We also met a really cool MALE cosplayer of Reno, the only boy Reno at the con, who was...really cool. He gave me a hug and doodled Reno sticking his tongue out on the very center of the bum of my pants, then got a picture taken by Ninja's sister. But that wasn't the last we saw him, oh no. Later we had lunch at Wendy's (only cheap food joint in walking distance, so it was swamped with con-goers), and him and his buddies were sitting right across from us! Naturally, I went and asked for seconds on the hugs, which he obliged to happily, as well as a hug from Ninja's sister. Then she started chatting with him, and it turned into a 'will yaoi for yuri' discussion. She said we (me and her) would if they would, and wouldn't you freaking know it! Reno started snogging with his friend!!! She got a picture and before we could do our end of the deal, they left (partially to my relief, I don't like making out. With anyone. Tongue, ewwwwww.)

So that was it, or so I thought. Nope. I was in the artist's alley shortly after, just looking at the jewelry, minding my own Switchy business, when someone came up behind me and hugged me. Not a squishy hug, but a full-body HUG hug- and said "hi" in a low voice IN MY EAR. I squeaked back a hello in reply, recognizing the Reno guy's voice, and he started tickling me! I was in so much shock that it didn't even really tickle, but I squirmed a little and laughed anyway. Then he let go and like fucking vanished.

And I didn't see him again.

....I kinda wanted to.

Not a lot, but...just to say hi again. You know.

Oh, shut up!

So I came to the conclusion that Switch must have a thing for redheads. Between Kurama giving me a rose, Genesis reciting poetry to me, and the encounters with Reno, it must be that. Or something! I met a lot of cool guys and girls dressed as guys, but I only blushed and fangirled like a nut with those three redheads.

So...yeah. The girl that drew us our awesome con tags last year was in the artist's alley again, so we got new tags made. She's improved a lot! XD I got a card for her devart, but it's way in the car...I'll get the link later . She's really cool, she even redrew Kei's for him when he lost it! I'll scan it as soon as my scanner stops being dumb.

After getting our tags and wandering some more, we got in line for Chris Patton Shares Too Much. The line started forming 3 hours before it started!! It was nuts. But Kei loves Chris, and I like him pretty well too, and we heard this panel is a RIOT, so we sat in line. We got moved after awhile.

I was wonderfully surprised when a Double D came up to me, smiling widely but not saying anything for a moment. Being me, I got up and gave her a BIIIG HUG, after which she was like "Are you Tai?" And I was like "Yeah!" ...gears turning...gears turning...OMG!!! *glomp* It was none other than the lovely ! We chatted it up after that while waiting in line. I was so happyyyyyyy to get to meet her! And very much envious of her Glimmer pin. But oh well.

A con attendant came by informing us to have our IDs ready, after which I realized MY ID WAS GONE. I dug around for it for awhile, since the last time I'd had it was to get into the yaoi panel, but it wasn't anywhere. Figuring it must be at the hotel, I proceeded to MAD FUCKING DASH all the way back to the hotel, which was a BITCH in the cold and with my less-than-par endurance in running. I upended the whole room looking for my ID, but no dice. Finally Kei calls, announcing that the dumb thing was at Con Ops lost and found, so I MAD DASH all the way back and retrieve it. I wish I'd had my skates TToTT

So we got back in line for awhile, then there was a freaking stampede for the door. I got lost in it X.x and didn't get to say bye to Nightingale ;o; Which made me a sad Switchy.

The panel was fucking insane. It was basically an "ask whatever you want" thing and Chris would answer, no matter what the question. I learned things about him that I didn't know I wanted to know. Liiike: his type is the young, cute, intelligent boy, his first time was on a waterbed with a girl, he's had sex with a fangirl that kept calling him Kosuke (or something like that), he's bi but only goes for boys now ("strictly dickly" as he put it), New York does not want Chris Patton there, and so much other shit that made me blush and giggle and fangirl. He got Creed's voice by making Greed gay XD, and we found out he likes to ponder the sexuality of characters he voices. Wendy Powell (Envy) was there too, and OH GOD she is a funny drunk! We'd gone to her How to Be a Villain panel that she was sober at, and she was a sweetie then. But Chris's panel she was slammed for. She is hilarious! She kept slipping into Envy's voice by accident. I nearly peed watching her imitate giving Chris a blowjob, then showing us how big he is with her hands.

It was nuts. After that we headed for the rave, but on the way in I spotted someone I thought I knew. So I went up to him, suddenly shy again, and asked "This might be a bad case of mistaken identity, but uhh, are you..." then he held up his tag and said, "well my name is right here. See? Kyle Hebert." And I think my eyes turned saucer-wide.

I'd been intending to get in an autograph line for him the next day. This guy did the voice of Karasu from YYH, and to date Karasu is my favorite villain in the series...and maybe in general. His voiiiiice, it's so silky and awesome! He asked how my con was going and I spazzed and said "Good. Really good!" and then I asked him to sign the picture of Karasu I'd printed for the occassion. He seemed happy that I was asking him to sign a pic of Karasu, but I might've just been too far into fangirl land to really see his reaction. He signed it and bid me a good con, then we went into the rave.

Now, I love techno. And I like glowsticks. And I enjoy going to dances. But the thing is, I don't dance unless it's on a DDR pad. I love to watch people dance, observe the scene, feel the music thrumming through my bones. But I don't really participate. Last year I was so hyped up on caffeine I actually wound up dancing and being stupid and yeah. This year I just did my wallflower thing and watched. Stalked Chris Patton a bit when I spotted him, but I lost him when the conga line went by.

We left after a few hours because Kei was being all emo goo about his girl Shi-Chan hanging out in the artist's alley with an Ed and Envy duo. I laid down on the floor and started to babble, exhausted, to a guy dressed as the green-haired dude from One Piece. We went home after that and slept. Kei talked to Shi-Chan and they made up. It was a little awkward sharing a room with them lol, but they're really vanilla in their relationship so it was okay.

Next day you could feel that the con was exhausted. We looked through the art auction, talked with a really cool Demon Yusuke, got Kurama and Hiei on camera making out (must get that off Eli's phone later), and generally just flopped about tiredly. The closing ceremony was cool, not as cool as last year but eh. Last year one of the guests cut his hair onstage for charity, so that's kinda hard to top. Chris got onstage and announced that he didn't have to pee this time, much to the knowing laughter of the people in his panel. As it turns out, he DIDN'T have to pee at the opening ceremony. At the panel, he admitted that for no reason, just out of the blue, he had a half an erection at the opening ceremony and wanted to get offstage ASAP before anyone noticed. So yeah. Con closed, and we went and got ACTUAL NOT WENDY'S food with Ninja and his sister.

Ninja, you are a saint. Not only did he treat us to pizza, he took us to Safeway and let us get snacks and Monsters for the trip back, as well as some Excedrin for the headache I had, and 20 bucks to help with gas. What a guy, right? We made sure to leave a message on his phone the next day with all of us shouting "THANK YOU" into the speaker.

The trip back was a lot better since I was actually rested (and had a four-pack of Monster). We stopped in a little hick town just inside New Mexico for pee breaks, wound up eating at the Bear's Den cafe place. It was a cool little joint, the lady gave us a whole pizza for like 4 dollars since it'd been sitting out for awhile. Apparently the village- not town, village- has a total of 300 residents, 75% of which are senior citizens. Their graduating class was three kids. Their school is a joint kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. The grocery store is also a bank, gas station, and town hall. It was adorable. The cafe had games set up and a computer with Internet, and apparently the school kids like to hang out there while waiting for their ride home or just to hang out for awhile before walking home.

It was cute. Anyway. We got home with no incidents. Other than a dick tailing me with his brights on for 20 miles. Yeah.

So that was con. There's gonna be a New Year's ball hosted by NDK in December, which me and Kei really wanna go to, but eh. IDK with the way my hours have been spliced to almost nothing. I'm considering getting a different job. I caught up on my homework just fine, so yeah. Back to normal life.

It was so fun to be Switch for three days, heh. I mean, I usually am pretty hyper and childish anyway, but con was my excuse to completely let go and be how I wanted to be. It was exhilirating (sp?) and I loved it so much. I felt like I was glowing the whole time! I really want to be at a point where I can do that all the time, just be myself and be happy and not get alienated or bashed for it. I really hope that I can someday.

*end emo moment*

Oh, and I think my camera has a vendetta against me cause I CANT FIND IT *cries* I'll post pics as soooooon as I can!! I've also gotta get hold of Kei's pnone to get pics off it, and get Ninja's sister to email her pics to me. Anyone sees Switch cosplay pics floating round the internet, lemme know. A lot of people asked me for pictures so I might just be up on some site without knowing it.

Need to take some proper cosplaying photos too, the ones we got were, like, me hugging Jack Skellington. I didn't really pose for any pictures we took, I was taking pictures with other people. so yeah. *puts that on to-do list* Will post those after I do em!

Ta ta for now~~~
Tai