Anime Expo contained ALL the following things for me:
*Pictures!
*Friends!
*Cosplay!
*Too much walking!
And NOT ENOUGH of these following things:
*Sleep!
*Food!
*Sanity!

Wednesday:
I had no classes today! I worked on costumes all day! I stayed up almost the entire night to finish my Kagome and Atelier Marie costumes, as well as Albert's Inu-Yasha costume. I spoke to Jaymie on the phone and she said she could pick us up at my apt. instead of at Albert's place in Hayward. This was good, because it was so late already that we wouldn't have been able to get to Hayward anymore 'cuz the BART was gonna stop running soon. I got everything on the costumes done! Unbelievable!

Thursday:
4th of July! Jaymie, Lodi & Coan picked Albert & I up from my apt. in San Francisco around 9AM. We tied Jaymie's boomerang (hiraikotsu) to the roof and it made a lot of noise bouncing around. [The poor thing didn't seem happy!] We stopped a few times for food and bathroom breaks and we picked up some sparklers and pop rocks from a stand on the side of the road. The traffic down to Long Beach wasn't too bad... finally made it there around 6PM. We checked into the Hyatt and brought our stuff into the hotel room. Then we all went to go pick up our badges. No lines for that anymore, so it went rather quickly, especially since we pre-paid. The dealer's room was already closed so we couldn't go in there today. We walked around a bit and stopped to get some pizza for dinner. I missed seeing most of the fireworks because we waited well over an hour for the food. It was so crowded there! It's OK though - it's not like I've never seen fireworks before. It was just nice getting spend 4th of July with people I care about. (It would have been complete if my family had been there too though.) We lit a few sparklers after eating - the multi-colored ones. Our matches sucked though, so we went through a lot of them. Albert and I went walking around the shops while everyone else finished eating (their food wasn't ready until after ours was). We went into a hat store and Albert bought me an adorable fuzzy blue hat with ears that I wore quite a bit over the weekend to match Albert's dog ears from his Inu-Yasha costume that he was wearing. I love that hat! It's a bit warm in San Francsico now though to be wearing it without a special occasion, so I'll have to wait till it gets cold here again (which prolly won't be long.)

Friday:
Woke up around 8AM today but I thought it was a lot later since there was so much sun in the room. I waited for a turn in the bathroom and then got into my costume. I cosplayed as Jubei-chan today and Albert dressed up as Koinosuke. We ran into another couple dressed in the same costumes and got a photo with them! I didn't think they're be another Jubei-chan at AX. Jaymie wore her Ceres costume and Albert and I were her body guards. Her costume is a bit skimpy, so she needed protectors from any scary fanboys that we might come across. LOL. We hit the dealer's room for the first time and took a ton of pictures along the way. On the way back from the dealer's room I noticed someone sitting in the Hyatt lobby holding a sign that said "FFML". It was Eric and he was looking for other FFMLers to tell him which room we were in. Now there were 12 people staying in our room. LOL!~ I changed back to normal clothes (but I kept my Jubei-chan wig on) and started helping Jaymie with her Sango costume. Then a group of us from the FFML [Final Fantasy Mailing List] went out for Japanese food at WASABI. It was 8 of us total: Me, Albert, Lodi, Jaymie, Coan, Heather, Eric, & Ace. I was starving - I ordered teriyaki chicken (surprise, surprise - not!) over white rice with miso soup and then ice cream for desert. The food was pretty good there, but not cheap. Jaymie and Albert made a bet on who could guess the total bill. Jaymie ended up winning, but it was close. I got a victory photo of Jaymie and some nice shots of everyone at the dinner table. When we got back, I continued to help Jaymie finish making her Sango costume [to wear on Saturday.] It finally got done and I went to sleep some time after 2AM I think.

Saturday:
Woke up at 6AM on Saturday and got dressed as fast as I could in my Kagome costume and headed over to wait in line for masquerade tickets. I grabbed a Red Bull that I'd been saving and threw it in a plastic bag with some ice from the ice machine so I could drink it a bit later. After getting to the line, (there were many people there already, but we were definately MUCH further up in the line than the previous year), Jaymie and Lodi went and grabbed some food to bring back. They got Albert & I some bagels and danishes and I shared the now-cold Red Bull with Albert! YAY! I was so hungry! They gave out tickets at around 9AM. We went back to the room and Albert and Jaymie got into their Inu-Yasha and Sango costumes. AJ joined us wearing her Kikyou costume and we hit the lobby to go take photos. A LOT of people took our pictures! YAY!~ (If you have any of them, *please* send to me or a link so I can see? I didn't get too many on my camera.) We went out to the grassy area & bridge near the Hyatt and took more group photos. Arty and Leland were so helpful by holding my backpack while I was posing for photos so that I didn't have to take it on and off constantly and risk someone stealing it when I put it down. THANKS, GUYS!~

Still in our costumes, a group of us went for Chinese food for lunch around 3PM. This group consisted of: ME, Albert, Jaymie, Lodi, Coan, Eric, Heather, Arty & Leland. There was enough food ordered to feed half the convention attendees! LOL. The food was nicely priced and they gave large portions. I have a feeling this restauraunt will become an FFML tradition. We spent some time in the dealers' room again afterwards. My friend John had called me to tell him he was working at his friend's booth in the dealers' room and I wanted to try to find him to say hello. I was looking for 'Triple A Anime' the whole time, but later learned the booth was registered under the name 'Orbit', so this attempt ended unsuccessfully. We left there and then went back to the room to change to normal clothes before the masquerade so we can watch in comfort. I wandered around a bit and got some pics of cosplayers in the Hyatt lobby and of the gaming room. I checked out the artist tables downstairs too.

We had pretty good seats for the masquerade. The lower balcony in the second row all the way on the left side. I had a pretty good view of the show. I'm glad they turned off those high-powered lights on the stage though that advertised for ADV. They were shining right in our eyes and very annoying. I must say the masquerade went really smoothly and was really entertaining (with the exception of one time where they couldn't cue the music right and a few skits that were really hard to hear the talking). The costumes were so wonderful! I especially liked the skit done by the Amazon Quartet! They were so adorable and did an amazing job! Sarah was dressed as Besu-Besu -- she looked lovely! Overall, everything was very impressive and worth trying to get a video tape of [hint, hint, Ray... please!?~]. heheheheh

We left right after the masquerade ended though (got a few piccys of winners first), and then we went over to Denny's to get food. We got in there just in time before it started to get really crowded. (Though not nearly as bad as the food situation was after the masquerade for FANIME 2002). I ordered pancakes and a chocolate milkshake! YUMMY!!!~ We went back to the hotel room after eating. Some of the FFMLers were packing already to catch their plane flights home early in the morning. I layed down on my pillow while waiting to use the bathroom to wash my face, but I passed out before I got the chance. It was some time around 2AM.

Sunday:
I didn't have time to wear my Atelier Marie costume today. =*( I[ will have to wear it at Ani-Magic for sure.] Woke up around 9AM and finished packing all my belongings. Check out time was 12 noon. Albert and I rushed to get to the dealer's room one last time and ended up spending around $100 total last minute in the dealers' room. (OK, I only spent $40 of that $100.) Heheheh. Albert bought his toy remote control Celica car thingy that he'd been wanting badly (and he hasn't stopped messing with it since we got back. Almost lost the darn thing too... but it was 'IN THE BAG'. LOL.) I bought the first two graphic novels of Corrector Yui and read the first one on the car ride home. So far it's pretty cute. I like it! I also bought a set of Inu-Yasha figureines. I had some of the Chocolate Mousse Pocky! ::drools:: SO YUMMY!

I also finally got to meet up with my friend, John, after searching for the table he was working at - Orbit. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to talk since he was so busy working. Hopefully he will attend Ani-Magic, too. Most of that stuff we bought on Sunday was from his friend's table though. By this time it was almost noon, so we left the dealer's room and saw Lodi, Coan & Jaymie downstairs in front of the hotel packing up the car. We went down there and was getting ready to leave when I noticed that the figureines I had were the wrong ones! They were a set of Aa, my Goddess figures marked $12, when I wanted the Inu-Yasha ones for $19 and PAID $19 for it. Albert ran back to the dealer's room with the reciept to get it switched. It turned out they noticed the mistake too and were waiting for me to come back so they can exchange it. Phew! They were really busy in there and neither of us noticed they gave me the wrong one at the time. Well, it was taken care of, so no worries anymore. I love the figurines! They're kick-@$$!

We didn't get back to San Francisco until almost 11PM at night! The traffic on the way back was terrible and each time we stopped for food or gasoline, the lines were INSANE! At one point I think we went only about 30 miles in an hour. Blah. That was the longest trip back from the L.A. area I'd ever had. Usually, Albert & I have been able to make it in about 5 hours, not 10. hehehe. Jaymie, Lodi and Coan ended up crashing at my place. It was so late already and they wanted to spend Monday in the city sight-seeing anywayz. It would be silly for them to continue on towards Sacramento and then come back the next morning.. especially since they'd been driving so much already and were very tired. I got up early Monday moring for school (dumb Illustration class) and Jaymie dropped me off at my class on their way to visit Union Square. Anime Expo was over, but thank goodness I was still in con-mode or I never would have made it through a day of class. I'm so tired. Overall, the expeirience was great! Thank you so much Jaymie and Lodi for letting Albert and I ride with you. You guys are the best! ::muah::!!! I look foward to planning and attending Ani-Magic in Lancaster this October! WOO HOO!!~ SEE YOU ALL THERE!~
THE END!