Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Otakon 2011

Otakon is over. It was an interesting experience, and yes, feel free to interpret "interesting" any way you like. So, here's what my weekend was like:

Thursday: We left the in-laws' house first thing in the morning--Logan spent the weekend with them. We stopped at the Misenheimer house, finished packing up and cleaning up what little was left--mostly stuff for Otakon. We loaded up both our little cars with the last couple of boxes and the four cats and turned over the keys. Good bye house in Misenheimer. From there we went to the Garner house where we unloaded stuff and the 3 older cats. We dropped Kisa off at my aunt's house since she's still a little young to be left for a weekend. With all of that settled, we finally got on the road to head up north. We spent the night with another aunt and uncle who live in northern VA just an hour or so outside of Baltimore.

Friday: Onward to Baltimore. We didn't get too lost finding our hotel, and I only had to circle the block once to catch the entrance to the overpriced parking deck. We checked in, and then left to haul the table stuff to the convention center. If we do this again, we will hike to the convention center, get our badges, then come back and haul the table stuff. XD It was really hot, and the walk to the convention center was miserable with the heavy bags. They had a pre-registration lane just for Artist Alley and Panelist people, so we didn't have to wait too long to get in. Check in at the AA went smoothly as well. The worst part was actually finding the right pre-reg line and then getting to AA. The Baltimore Convention Center was huge and I had to stop and ask directions about a dozen times. I got everything mostly set up just in time for AA to open. I wasn't 100% happy with Friday's display. It was a little rushed and I didn't get everything out. After AA opened the day pretty much flew by. I got some great pictures, but my phone's internet was really spotty down in AA so I didn't get many pics uploaded to Tumblr--I'll be uploading them over the next couple of days.

Saturday: On Saturday, I kind of wanted to go to the Lisa Ortiz autograph session, but I hadn't remembered to bring anything for her to sign, and I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the number of people at Otakon. I was generally content to sit and hide in my little spot in AA. Saturday was especially crazy. Usually when I'm in AA, people come in clumps, but there are lulls between them where I can sit back and relax and watch people and check out the nifty costumes and such. Not so this time--not that I'm complaining; I got to talk to some great people. I loved watching people read the text on the "What Would ___ Do?" set and on the backs of the badges. Whether they bought something or not, I really like seeing people enjoy something I made. That is the main reason I do the whole Artist Alley thing. Saturday was long and exhausting, but it was fun. I finished 2 new mini-plushies, and I got some really fun commissions that I'll be finishing this week. I'm very excited about those.

Sunday: AA was supposed to only be open for about 3 hours on Sunday, but it ended up staying open for an extra 2-3 hours. I finished a 3rd new mini-plushie for the weekend--I was being extra productive. =D My husband and I came up with some fun ideas for a new set of stuff to draw while sitting at the table--it had me in stitches, so even though I don't really need anything else on my list of stuff to do... I think there will be another massive set added (massive as in it just might dwarf the Anime Tarot set) to my list. I'm hoping to have part of it finished by AWA. The drive home that afternoon/evening was long and tedious--traffic was horrible almost all the way to the NC border, so what was supposed to be a 4.5 hour drive ended up being almost 8 hours. @_@

Will we be going back to Otakon? Maybe. I think I'll probably just leave it up to chance--I'll send in an AA application next year, and if I make the lottery and get a table then I'll go.

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