November 9, 2011

Youmacon Report #2 - It's Finally Here!

Now that I've recovered from the hurricane that Youmacon was, I can provide you guys a decent report now!

FRIDAY

Friday was pretty much a blur for me. I spent a lot of it up in the room (Sorry to those who visited for badges I would have loved to say hi) I'm still learning how to do costume commissions for other people, so I'm a bit rocky at it at the time. So naturally I didn't plan things out for myself well and the last free time I had set aside to finish the costume (as well as finally the time fabric and my machine weren't trying to die), I ended up getting sick for 3 days and couldn't move much. Couple that with 40-hour workweeks, and I run out of time.

I'm getting better at it though!

We got into the Rencen at a pretty early time, did some searching, found the Alley wasn't open for set up yet, so we checked into our room.

In trying to get up to our room, we were met with signs indicating that we could only get onto the elevator on floor 3. I WAS SO HAPPY. Why you ask? Well you see, last year it took us approximately at least 45 minutes to get an elevator to get up to our room. ALL DAY. What this did was provide an organized manner to get people up the elevators. No more shoving, no more cutting in line. It was amazing.

So after checking in, we decided to go get the booth and take it to the Alley and wait for it to open. We had one problem though:

Our wire frames were too big to fit up the escalators. 

Naturally being in good spirits, and not letting a little mishap get me down, I went searching for a staff member. After going in about 3 circles cause I can't see over a lot of people in costume, I found a LOVELY registration staff member. I wish I had gotten her badge name cause she was awesome. We explained our situation, and she was determined to get us upstairs even if we had to carry it part by part.

She took us to the elevators and we found out that the all the 4th floor buttons had been deactivated and her card wasn't working. SO we continued our quest to the dealer hall/game room area because they needed to use elevators there and there CERTAINLY must be something there. After a few roundabout travels, we were brought through the game room to the back of it.

Which is actually the first time in 6 years I've ever been in Youma's game room. It was really nice looking, and had I not been getting claustrophobic vending I might have spent some time in there. They led us to the back and LO AND BEHOLD and elevator was there. The freight elevator. One of those ones you see in those survival horror games with the doors plus some sort of chainlink fence door and big clanky buttons and big enough to put a truckbed in. Yeah. Those elevators.

So they took us up there, we ended up being behind main events, and traveled out to the alley. It was quite the adventure, and was pretty entertaining. So THANK YOU ELEVATOR STAFF MEMBER!

Anyway, we got up and ended up waiting in line, and after hearing some convoluted things about registration - managed to get lucky and got a table on the outside ring - the ones with the backs to the center area. Which is great. Because of the lower ceilings and wall to wall people, I've had a problem with getting claustrophobia induced anxiety attacks. Having that open back is a LIFESAVER.

We set up, and then I vanished upstairs all day to work. Which I did and was successful.

Also almost all my badge sets were bought on Friday. I can't really complain but GUYS! You totally depleted my stock! I could have swore I had enough *makes notes to bring more next year *

SATURDAY

Costume Sans Wearer!

I brought down the finished commission, and I also dressed up as F'lhammin on Saturday. Business was SO CRAZY BUSY that after about 3 hours I said "SCREW THIS" and ran upstairs and changed. THANK YOU ELEVATOR QUEUE LINE.

While I was hanging out at the booth, I was visited by a good friend of mine, who happened to be dressed as Tohru and her BF as Shigure. We went and did a little mini photoshoot off to one side before it got crazy. (Taking pictures while dressed up is HARD! Egh!)

Oops!


"Tohru... You will... make me a sandwich!"

Having little amounts of sleep, I didn't move much from the table. Took some commissions, and then attempted to venture into the Dealer Hall. Which was a terrible idea.

Remember that claustrophobia problem I mentioned earlier? Well I've never had a problem navigating crowds (I've been to Disney on 4th of july where it's full of INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS and their groups), Anime crowds react different to me. I think it's all the random stopping that just ticks me off, and then I'm also usually dressed up, trying to keep my badge on me, and getting shoved around. Needless to say it causes me to have anxiety and I fled before I got a good look at anything. I spent the rest of the day working on commissions, and selling things.

For those not believing me, I took these pics around 6 pm on Saturday Night. 6 PM!!

I guess they're headed to the Masquerade? Hmm?


SO. MANY. PEOPLE.

Around 6:30 our lack of sleep caught up with us, and we packed up and went upstairs. Where I proceeded to watch all 3 Back to the Future movies cause it was on TV in a marathon sequence.

....It was the first time I had truly "rested" in probably 3 months. It was weird.

SUNDAY

I had intended to cosplay on Sunday. I had wanted to wear ShortHair!Luke, however, we ran into a problem: I had no black undershirt. And with it being a belly baring coat, well... let's just say it would be kind of indecent to only walk around in my chest binder. So that was out. I was tired anyway.

We packed up, and took a look at the little receipt telling us how to check out. I was worried I'd have to go wait in a long long line cause I slept in a bit. WELL FEAR NO MORE. Since I had put the room on my card, all I had to do was call in to the number provided, give my name and room number, and leave the keys in the room. That was it. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. I didn't even have to wait in a line.

I left a lovely tip for the maid service cause they did such a nice job, and we headed out, put stuff in the car and then sat at the booth for several hours. I spent the time catching up on the last couple of commissions.

I also spent some time finally getting to go into the dealer hall and wandering the Alley. I found art books, some T-shirts, got a couple of wigs I'm planning on working with, and much to my delight - I got to see the Creator/Writer/Artist of Dominic Deegan! I'm a long time reader, and I was super excited to be able to shake his hand and tell him he's awesome. I only hope that I'm able to draw as many comics as he does.

Some of my commissions throughout the weekend!

Returning to the booth, I worked on finishing the drawing commissions, and when they were done we had some late lunch (we forgot to eat again, shame on us!), and then started packing up the booth. Of course that's when everybody tries to buy what you have left. Hahahaha, thankfully people were just looking for buttons, and I was okay with that. I sold a few, we packed up and...

The 4th floor elevators were working again!


Huzzah! So we easily got to the car, and headed home. Where we sat on the couch and fell asleep.

OVERALL

Wow what  a con. It was chock full of people - I'd believe the reports of 12,000 if they're true. There were so many people I could barely leave my booth when I was there Saturday through Sunday. You guys really helped lift my spirits as an artist.

Thank you all for stopping by and I plan to see you again next year!


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