Wow. That's about all I can manage when I look back on Ani-Magic 2002. I had wanted to go last year, but things had come up last minute and I was unable to attend. This year, since it fell in line with my birthday, I decided this con would be essentially a "self present" and I would go no matter what. Thankfully, Shey, Matt, H, and Cecilia all were coming too! This is what happens when you take 5/7ths of the Dragon Fang Gang to the Autumn Dream: Ani-Magic.
Thursday - It's good to be the king I was in ASAP, the on campus tutoring center, about 2 pm or so, and only one thing was really on my mind. It was along the lines of "crap the hotel info and driving directions are at the apartment." I was almost afraid that I wouldn't have time, but Jake helped out with covering for me so I could leave early. I got back to my apartment, grabbed the last few things, and then was off for fun and excitement. Little did I realize at the time that I had left my contacts in my room. I didn't think of this until later. So I drove up to Santa Cruz, classic Street Fighter music in the background, and picked up H and Cecilia at crown. It was then back down out of campus to get Matt, and with that group assembled, it was time for the fun to begin! H gave me a Lain doll for my b-day, which is cool enough until I saw she even came with her own little laptop computer! We played some music, got back down to Monterey, and thanks to traffic, didn't pick up Shey until about 6:30 or so. That was okay though! Back in Monterey, I had a chance to grab my contacts, which would make it easier to do Icchan. Now, it's not that I don't mind not having contacts, but since my Icchan glasses weren't prescription, it would have been really hard to see. Everyone packed and ready, we were about to set out, but first: dinner.
The Burger King in Sand City has always served as a decent place to get food, and since I wanted to do a car wash before the trip, it was all the more convenient. While in the BK, somebody, I forget who, decided that since it was my birthday, I should wear one of those cardboard crowns. Since Matt's birthday was the coming Monday, he too was crowned. I don't think I have ever actually had one of those crowns before, so it was rather amusing. Between that and all the looks people were giving us (a side effect of being really nerdy in public) we had a blast. Finally, it was time to hit the road. Going through the pass (hwy 152) was pretty painless, and there was hardly any traffic. When we hit Santa Nella, it was time to bear south on hwy 5, and that was when the CDs were really broken out. I got to play some MM, and I was surprised H didn't like lash out and make with the Jakob-killing honestly. ^^ I managed a complete trip through the Mini Moni / MM CD before it was replaced with Slayers Try Treasury Box. We talked about everything possible on the drive, and it wasn't until 4 minutes before midnight that the one bad thing happened. Speeding Ticket! On my birthday!
We were coming through the grapevine on hwy 5, when I looked down at my speed. It said 80 and I was thinking to myself okay, only 5 miles over isn't bad and this is a downhill so that's okay. We go by a CHP on the left shoulder, and when I see the lights flick on, I get a sinking sensation that unlike the rest of California, this section of hwy 5 isn't 75. I pull over, he follows, I quickly slip my cat ears to H in the backseat since it would probably be a bad idea to roll down my window wearing them. Turns out the speed limit is 65 through there. Shit! I am thinking as I hand over license and registration. Well, I knew that I was probably going to get a ticket. He gave it as 83 in a 65 zone. That makes me wonder just how bad it is, since there isn't anything I can actively do about it until I go home anyway. Leave it to fate laughing that one mile later was the exit to 138 and Lancaster. I was pretty off-kilter for the rest of the trip, and ducked away when someone in the backseat tried to put my cat ears back on. We got to the hotel pretty late, and Shey and I checked in. The hotel, in their infinite wisdom had for us exactly one key. So, we made do with what we had, got to the room, and got ready for the next day. I claimed the area under the table, one of my favorite spots to curl up and sleep, which seemed to be met with protest from everyone. Apparently, since I was the driver, I was supposed to get one of the beds. Well, I declined, and somehow H ended up kicking me in order to persuade me. I fell asleep during the kicking. Thankfully she didn't start kicking my head or anything. Matt took the bed, it was settled, and then the morning came.
Friday - Covert ops We all got up for registration, but since Cecilia and I have pre-registered, we had almost no line to stand in. Everyone else quickly filled out forms. We then hit the dealer's room, and I quickly slipped out to go up to ConOps to see how things were going. I walked in on what was pretty much chaos. I jumped on the volunteer boat and was sent quickly down to registration. While there, I got all the at-con registration into the database and then was told I wasn't needed anymore. I returned to Ops and things more or less clicked. I offered to organize and help out, and turned out being an important piece of ConOps. I became the only con Rover, which basically translated into me being a runner for all departments including ConOps, especially since there was an issue with the radios. Someone thought it would be cute to mess with official convention transmissions. Since important things couldn't be discussed, we had to communicate another way. Enter the runner. So that was what I did for a lot of the day, and was able to eventually escape back to my group, who had a (lighthearted) few choice words about me working at a convention I said I wasn't going to work at.
For dinner, we met up with Zach and a bunch of people for who I can only remember half of the names and we went to Nick's Pizzeria. It was really awesome to have 15-20 people at a pizza place, and there was so much pizza there too. Our group grabbed a 20 inch sausage and olive pizza. The pizza was so big they had to cut it into squares, so forks were needed at times to eat it. After that, it was back to the hotel room, where SSBM was had by all. I remember being locked in a final 1 on 1 battle of Marth v Marth and H saying something, but I was so focused in on timing, I had no idea what was said. After that match, I watched a few more, and then it occurred to me to ask Cilia where everyone was. She had no idea, but Zach told us that they had gone back to the room to grab some stuff and come back. 35 minutes later (plus the 10 or so before I realized they were gone), worry set in, and Cecilia and I decided that we should go see if everything is okay. We told everyone we would be back, and we walked back to the hotel room. When we got there, the door was locked, nobody answered, and from the backside, we could see the bags holding said "stuff" on the bed, but they were nowhere to be found. Well now Jakob entered severe-worry mode, something I make a point of not doing except in instances where friends vanish and you can't get back to the room or find them anywhere. Thankfully, on the way back to the Inn of Lancaster, we saw them. The aftershock of worry mode hit, and I handed H her jacket (which she entrusted to me earlier) and walked back towards the room in silence. Once there, I tried to make myself stop being mad, and decided that I needed to take a walk. I used the excuse of going to check in with ConOps or something. Cilia decided to come too. We came back and they were passed out, so we got ready for bed, and slept.
Saturday - Pools, Panels, and the Jakobo When morning came, I found a text message on my phone from Shey apologizing for the night, and I ended up writing her back via phone since everyone was still asleep. Eventually we just stepped outside and talked. It was nice to be able to talk to her about it, though by then I wasn't really mad anymore. Anger that exists because of worry often quickly fades, as was the case with this. We went and got some lunch eventually, and had some time to kill before J's Giant Robo panel that we all said we would attend. Giant Robo itself was rather amusing, and Matt won a tape set for it. After that was the Anime Club Panel, which went a lot better than I had initially thought. At first it felt like nobody was going to show, but over the hour, more and more people trickled in. For those that wanted, we continued poolside, and were able to just relax for the rest of the day. When the evening rolled around, after we grabbed dinner, it was time for the masquerade. I reported in as scheduled, checked in with Lisa, and decided to control backstage from green room to stage. I put Felix in the pit, and had some staff that wanted to do gate control, and Scratch and Jess said they would be runners. Everything from the back end ran beautifully. There was some chaos, scrambling around to find missing people, but everything seemed to work out okay. Just like at Fanime, and just like at Recca, I was blessed with a staff that wanted to work and wanted this to be a complete success. I owe a lot of the success to my staff behind the scenes who did everything from checking for microphone needs to helping keep the pool area safe when everyone was trying to clear out. I think the Masquerade reminded me why I liked working these things at conventions. I could look out, see people having fun, and know I was helping them have fun. ^^
After the Masquerade, I turned in my radios back at ConOps and went back to the room with everyone. H and I stayed up for a while, talking and stuff, and it reminded me a lot of AX on the balcony killing time. Eventually, I felt my body dragging my mind into the realm of unconsciousness, and so H crawled up into her bed, and I curled up and fell asleep. I even had a pillow this time. :)
So where does the Jakobo fit in? Well, I gave H a few piggyback rides, and with the formation of the Chocobo theme song underway, the name just sort of popped out. I thought it was kind of cute, and I didn't protest. Besides, I had never had a nickname before. But a chocobo says "Wark" and a Jakob (cat) says "Meow". What in blazes does a Jakobo say? Mewwark? Warkmew? Purrwark? It's a comic identity crisis! ^^
Sunday - Wrap it up and send it home Sunday was our day to pack and depart. This was also the day I spent money in the dealer's room. I figure if I can limit my trips, I spend less, and I can go in knowing exactly what I was looking for. I had two things I wanted this con. Slayers stuff for my walls, and stuff for my car since my poor Camry lacks any kind of anime things on it. I did get my slayers stuff: a wall scroll, pencil board, and a bunch of pins for my bag, and Cilia got me an Angelic Layer thing as a birthday gift. I got my t-shirt as a volunteer, and had to leave before the gripe session. I will probably send my comments in by email or something, because I really do want to see the convention as a success.
The drive home was pretty good, especially when we played the "Who am I" game. We played a game that dealt with movies and actors, and I realized just how far removed from that media I am. For every 6 movies they mentioned, I may have seen or heard of one of them. When we switched to "who am I" I did a bit better, especially since I knew what questions to ask to narrow things down. That made for a lot of the trip. One last stop in Santa Nella, and then we made our way up to SC, dropped people off, and Shey and I returned to Monterey, marking the end of the convention officially.
Epilogue - Do it again; do it again now Now with this all written, I am almost certain there are things I forgot. As I look back through, I can remember things like redoing the Live Programming schedule, meeting Scott McNeil and waiting with H to get Liz's GW poster signed (GW swoon), the idiots on the FRS radios messing with convention chatter, and dozens of other things. I could probably even write an entire posting about some of the staff and people I worked with, but that is all for another time. I will assume they will be addressed in the staff gripe for now.
I can't wait for the next Autumn Dream. It was a very good closing note for the convention season, and was nothing more than a vacation with my con friends. I don't think I could have asked for a better present. ^^
Shoutouts See post tonight? ^^
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