All right, so I'm a bit over a week late with this, but here's a summary of my time at Zenkaikon and what have you.

Laura and I could not go to the con until well into the afternoon due to play practice, which we somehow managed to get out of at 12:00 instead of at 2:00 like everyone else. But at the practice, Laura had to apply the scar makeup because it takes roughly an hour for her to do it properly. She also had her Mello contacts in. So, as soon as she finished with the makeup, she got a large assortment of gaping looks from people. Everyone who didn't know she cosplays as Mello thought she had an actual burn on her face. She actually convinced this idiotic stage crew member that she had got the burn in a bad car accident a few weeks prior. On top of that, this one guy we were talking to just kind of added onto her story and was like, "Yeah, and she got eye transplants as well," in not even close to a serious tone. The crew member believed it and when he left, we all more or less peed ourselves.

Later after leaving practice, it took us a good couple of hours to get into cosplay for some reason. For some reason, Laura and I always seem to get really irritated or what have you when getting into cosplay. We just kind of start snapping at each other over ridiculous things. Lame. But yeah, after a few hours, we finally started to head off to the con. I believe we arrived at around 4:00.

Before going, we were pretty excited for the con for a few reasons. One being that it was going to be the first con we've been to since July and second was because it was being held in a bigger part of the hotel than last year. However, once we actually got into the con, it was hot and crowded beyond belief. There was very little space for as many people there as there were. So, almost immediately, my goggles started fogging up, which meant that I had very little vision, especially since on top of the goggle fog, my Matt wig falls in front of my eyes.

We ended up going outside soon after, getting sick of how little space there was. That's where we found Mystel and Bronx and spoke to them for a bit. That was quite a nice encounter since I never get to see Mystel and I had not yet even met Bronx. During this encounter, I was fully appreciating my Matt vest and goggles. Every other time I had worn my vest, I had been dying of heat, but that day, it was pretty chilly and windy. My goggles were helpful with keeping my Matt contacts from drying out in the wind. Very ideal weather for Matt cosplay for once.

After that, the four of us went inside to have some pictures taken of each pair of us for free by cosprints or something of the sort. Then Laura and I ended up buying a couple prints of the pictures. After that, I think we met of with this chick I had met a few years ago through an Avatar forum that I moderate. It was fun getting to meet her in person. :]

I don't quite remember what happened after that, but eventually she left and so did Mystel and Bronx. Laura and I ended up sitting around, waiting for her mom to pick us up. We were originally going to stay until midnight so we could check out the rave, but we didn't think it was worth it to stay that long because we were bored as fuck.

The next day, we got to the con at some point in the morning and met up with a few friends. Not too long after that, we met up with Mystel and Bronx again and they got into Death Note cosplay as L and Light to walk around with us for a bit, which was pretty fun. I leant Bronx my old L wig for the day and she gave me several bars and some truffles of Godiva chocolate. I more or less jizzed on the spot when she brought out all of the chocolate. I believe there was a total of five bars, then a bag of the truffles. So. Delicious. Bronx, I am forever in your debt.

Anyway, later, Mystel and Bronx went back into Hetalia cosplay and went off to meet up with some other Hetalia cosplayers. Laura, these two girls Andi and Molly, and I ended up sitting outside in the shade for the majority of the day, bumming cigarettes from people. We were conveniently sitting in the area where a bunch of people seemed to be smoking, so it wasn't too much trouble. This one guy gave me a Santa Fe mini cigar or whatever it was. I french inhaled for the first time with it and it brought on this really weird head rush. But then I did it too many times and had to lie down. Not the best feeling in the world. After I smoked the rest of it regularly, I did not feel like doing anything at all.

Not too long after that, we went inside to get some food. About a half hour later, Andi and I were walking to the restroom, and on the way, this obnoxious fail!Light cosplayer came up to us and tried man-handling me by means of pulling my vest whilst saying, "C'mon Matt! Let's make friendship bracelets!" Then I snap at him saying no and he kept persisting until I shoved him off of me. Then on the way back from the restroom, he came up to me, more or less doing the same thing but from my front instead of from behind. I ended up cursing at him a bit by saying something along the lines of "I'm not going to make a fucking bracelet, so stop fucking touching me." I think I threw 'cunt' in there somewhere. Point is, I was pissed. I did not slave away on my Matt vest for days and days for some typical douchebaggy anime convention weeaboo to potentially fuck it up. I was quite close to ripping the kid's balls off. -_-

Anyway, sometime after we got back to Laura and Molly, we went back outside, where we waited until my mom came to pick us up. Andi and Molly left and we spazzed out with Mystel, Bronx, and Tori sometime in between. Oh, and at several points during the day, we got to meet up with =airvee. T'was quite fun talking to her because she's a pretty awesome person. Definitely need to meet up at another con sometime, m'dear. :]

On the way home, my mom took Laura and me to Wegmen's to get some food in their cafe, which I ended up getting food poisoning from. Assholes screwed up the shrimp I had or something. -_- Perfect end to a perfect weekend, yes? Oh, and wanna know something funny? Laura and I had more fun at play practice on that Saturday than we did at the con. That's pretty pathetic since all we ended up doing at play practice was sitting in this hallway with the two guys playing the Wizard and one of the guys playing the Scarecrow complaining about how pointless the practice was. We ended up doing almost nothing the entire practice.

TL;DR Zenkaikon was the most boring con I've ever been to. Ever. The con staff were fine, but the hotel staff hated us. The hotel was more or less like, "Yeah, you can use our hotel, just as long as your kind can't been seen by us normal people." It was quite ridiculous. Definitely not going next year. It was extremely unfortunate on several different levels that Laura and I couldn't go to AnimeUSA instead. We would have gone if the school play didn't interfere with it so much. We have a practice this Saturday that goes from 8AM-4PM. Not my ideal Saturday. And since we are so close to the production and we can't have any practice next week, it's pretty vital that we go to this practice. Especially since the play is double casted and several of the lead roles don't know their lines (myself not included, luckily ). The play is more or less fucked at this point. But going back to my original point, I really wish we could have gone to AnimeUSA instead. I also feel horrible that Laura and me not being able to go not only inconvenienced us, but it was an enormous inconvenience for Anda, Maru, and StarTwilight since we were going to room with them.

Straying away from the subject of cons, let's move onto cosplay. So Laura and I are attempting to have a photoshoot of some sort this weekend for the first time in who knows how long. We're gonna try and get a shot for a contest MRSJeevas is holding on MangaBullet. We're also gonna try and start working on CMV stuff because we've been meaning to do so for a good age and a half. Hopefully we'll have enough time to do at least something.

OH! And guess what, guys. I bought new Matt boots on eBay. They're these motocross boots that I somehow got for really cheap. I bid on them at the last minute so the other person bidding couldn't outbid me. XD Now I'll have boots that don't look like crap with non-canon stupid girly buckles on the sides. And they're actually made of leather instead of the faux-suede stuff my boots are made of. And these boots are for men, so they don't look girly at all. It's pretty sweet, man. Though, the boots definitely don't look like Matt's canon boots, but they are a huge improvement IMO. Next I have to work on making the proper stripey pants that I've been saying I'd do since June or July. XD;

And I think that's it for now.