Back from Momocon!

It was a lot of fun. I’ll try to recap.

We got to Atlanta on Saturday around 11:30 am. We went to the hotel and put on our Aeris and Zack costumes. Except Ben’s hair didn’t want to spike and my wig wouldn’t stay on. I went ahead and dropped Ben off at the con so he wouldn’t be late for the Soul Calibur III tournament and then I went back to the hotel to mess with my wig some more. I finally got it tolerable and headed over to Georgia Tech.

It took me forever to get to where Ben was because I had to stop for a picture every 5 seconds, hehe. I just wish my wig looked better from the front (i.e., not showing the front of my hair and the bangs got flat from where I kept trying to pull it forward). I ran into another Aeris, from Kingdom Hearts II, while I was looking for him as well. I finally made it to the tournaments building, and we hung out there. Ben made a good showing in the competition, but ultimately did not win.

After that, we were tired of messing with our costumes (Ben’s shoulder pads kept falling down), so we went back and changed into our mage costumes. After we got back to the convention, we went to see the costume showcase. There were some really cool costumes, unfortunately I didn’t know what half of them were cause I couldn’t really hear. Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, won first place (you can see a picture in the gallery). We hung out for a little while longer, mainly wandering around, before going to the hotel and going to sleep.

The next morning, we donned our mage costumes again and headed back. We went to a panel on voice acting first thing. After that, I bought some Pocky (yummy!), and we went to eat at Arby’s. While we were there, a man came up to me and asked me if I was with the ritual. ???? I guess my white mage costume makes me look like the leader of a cult or something. That was pretty weird.

We hung out in the board game room after that, and learned how to play a game called Spooks. It was a very random card game. Then we went to a panel on prop making that was very interesting. It was led by people who mainly worked on Star Wars costume replicas. After that, we went and played a few more random games, and then decided we should head home.

All in all, it was pretty fun. I didn’t get a chance to get a whole lot of photos, cause it was a bit of a pain to get out my camera in my white mage costume, because it was so big and I didn’t even know where my hands were half the time. But I got a couple and they are in the gallery. I also posted some pictures of our mage costumes in the cosplay section.

With Momocon coming up this weekend, I need to make a list of things to do.

- Sew the sleeves on my white mage robe
- Applique triangles onto robe
- Dye hair
- Buy red and black gloves
- Finish altering Aeris dress
- Sew Velcro onto Aeris jacket
- Spray paint jacket cuffs
- Check staff for chipped paint and do touch-ups
- Help Ben make face mask
- Find green striped pants for Ben
- Style Aeris wig
- Pack!

I don’t get paid until Wednesday, so anything involving money (gloves, pants, hair dye, etc.) has to wait until then. I have hair extensions for my Aeris wig sitting at the DHL place, so as soon as they get delivered I can do that. I’ve already got the millions of triangles cut out (and a nice-sized cut on my finger from my rotary cutter to prove it), but I can’t put them on the robe until I get some Heat’n'Bond, which I need money for as well. So until Wednesday, I need to finish up any sewing (robe, dress, jacket), and I think I still have spraypaint left over, so I can do that stuff as well.

For anyone attending, we will be wearing Zack and Aeris on Saturday and our mage costumes on Sunday. Yeah, it’s apparently a Final Fantasy con for us.

I can’t believe it’s so close! Then as soon as we get back from Momocon, I’ve gotta start working on stuff for MTAC because it’s only about a month away. I’ve got to finish up my Fuu costume (finish painting flowers, style wig, and buy shoes) and make my entire Miwako costume! Luckily, after MTAC, I have a 5 month wait before the next convention (AWA or Dragon*Con if I’m not completely broke), so that will be plenty of time to get Lloyd and Presea done. Ah, the busy life of a cosplayer.

The Strokes concert rocked!

I have only two complaints:
1. When I bought my tickets on Ticketmaster, it said that our seats would not be obscured in any way (they normally say either obscured view or partially-obscured). However, all we could mainly see were the speakers. Any other seat in the auditorium would have been better, I’m sure. I will remember this in case I ever go to the Ryman again.
2. The Eagles of Death Metal are terrible. They are not the Eagles, and they are not death metal. They are reptitive and have the tendency to shout out, “Let’s hear it for the ladies!” after EVERY SONG. I’m not even sure how the Strokes allowed them to open for them. It’s my theory that they must be like a friend of a friend or something.

Otherwise, the concert was perfect. I can’t find a setlist, so I’ll just try to list the songs they played.

From Is This It: “The Modern Age,” “Barely Legal,” “Someday,” “Alone, Together,” “Last Nite,” “Hard To Explain,” “Trying Your Luck,” and “Take It or Leave It”
From Room on Fire: “What Ever Happened?,” “Reptilia,” “12:51,” “The End Has No End,” and “I Can’t Win”
From First Impressions of Earth: “You Only Live Once,” “Juicebox,” “Heart in a Cage,” “Razorblade,” “Vision of Division,” “Ask Me Anything,” “Electricityscape,” “Ize of the World,” and “Red Light”
Other: “Life’s a Gas” (Ramones cover), “New York City Cops”

I think that’s right. I took some (terrible) 30-second long videos with my phone. I tried taking pictures but all you could see was light. Which is really all you can see in the videos as well, but oh well. The sound is also a little distorted because it was so loud but at least you can tell what they were playing (unlike when I tried to record stuff at the APC concert). They are pretty bad, but if you want to see them: “Red Light” and “Alone, Together”

I hope I can find some good photos of the concert soon.

Also, on the way there, my car hit 100,000 miles.

It’s March and I still don’t have a job. :-P

Anyway, some upcoming dates of importance:
Saturday, March 4: Board game party @ 8:00
Monday, March 6: The Strokes concert and Steve’s birthday
Saturday, March 18: Momocon in Atlanta (through Sunday)
Saturday, April 1: Ben’s birthday
Friday, April 21: MTAC (through Sunday)

Sabrina will be visiting sometime in May.

Ben and I were having an interesting conversation last night about how hard it is to make friends when you get older. It came up, because I constantly (well, not constantly, but occasionally) talk about how I miss all my old friends and I wish they were here. I get jealous of Ben and his friends, because they are still all together, and I’m not really close to anyone besides Ben around here. I mean, I have friends, of course, but they aren’t like my friends were back in high school. No real BEST friends. And, of course, everyone tells me that I should just make friends like it’s so easy. Anyway, we were discussing this last night, and I think I’ve discovered the reason why I have no best friends here is because ever since I moved here, I’ve known this is not where I am going to stay. I don’t want to make all these great friends and then have to leave them all behind, because I did that when I left for college and it sucked.

What I would love more than anything is to live close to all my best friends instead of across the state or across the country. Unfortunately, that is very infeasible, seeing as they are all married and/or have kids and have their own lives to lead, and I can’t just dictate where they live. I suppose once I settle down in the place where I plan to live for the rest of my life, I will make new best friends, but until then, I am just stuck in this half-lonely void.