Can you Keep up with Caddie??: September 2010

On Saturday the 4th, Andrea and Jeff took me to Kumoricon! That morning my dad spray painted my hair blue. My mom and I were going to temporary dye my hair, but she forgot that we have to test it first in case I'm allergic. So because we didn't have time, my dad just did it by spray paint. If my hair was lighter you would have been able to see the blue better; but because my hair is a little dark we can't see it as well.

We left around 12pm borrowing Matt's car for this trip. The convention was 2 hours away, in the city Portland. We went to Walmart to get some snacks. Then we got to our hotel called La Quinta.

Andrea read online that the room we got was supposed to have a sofa for me to sleep on; but we got in there and there was no sofa. Andrea went to the front desk and told the woman, so she gave Andrea the key for the room across from ours. We tried unlocking the door but the key card wasn't working. Jeff went up to the front desk and told the woman, and he came back and it didn't work again; so he went up one last time and this time the woman came to unlock it with her key. This time it worked, and she told us that she would call someone to look at it but for the time being we would have to ask someone at the front desk to unlock the door for us everytime we wanted in.

We first relaxed and ate some snacks. After a while we started to get ready. Andrea had sewn her costume but she didn't have time to quite finish it; so she didn't know how to wear it because one part wasn't finished that she needed. She tried a few different things, but none of them were working, so she decided just to go in her regular clothes that night since it was 7pm.

Us right before we left.

The convention was at the Hilton hotel and we had to drive there. Inside, on the 2nd story we went to the desk to register to get our badges so we could get in. I saw this girl dressed as this character named Inuyasha, and she had a huge sword. I got out my camera to take her picture, but by the time I got it out she was in a different room and I didn't know where. But I found her picture online.

We actually couldn't get in that night because they were already closed. Normally they close at 8pm, but because they were so crowded they closed at 2pm. They didn't even put up any signs or anything letting people know that they closed 6 hours early. So we had to leave. Instead of going back to our hotel we saw Inception. The theater was right by the hotel, so we just walked there. The theater was kind of fancy. People were kind of looking at me cause I was in my costume. I don't think they thought it was too weird though because they're probably used to seeing anime people.

It was a pretty good movie. A little confusing though but still good. Andrea fell asleep because she was super tired, so now she has to watch it again.

We drove back to the hotel with the windows all down. We smelled something funky with Matt's car. Jeff looked at it when we got to the hotel and said it was probably something with the engine. We went back to our room, and asked this guy to unlock it cause I guess the guy who was supposed to look at the door never came. So unprofessional.

The guy who was going to unlock our door was new. He was around my age and it was his first night working, and he couldn't figure out which key to use. Over and over he tried all keys, but none of them worked. He was kind of laughing and didn't know what to do. Jeff asked him if he wanted him to try and the guy said yes. He was able to unlock it and the guy was like, "whaaaat."

Day 2.

We were so tired that we slept in and missed breakfast. So we were going to go to Denny's, but first we were going to register because we didn't want to take a chance that we can't get in again. Once we register we can go inside anytime, even if registration is closed. Oh yeah, and kids who are 12 and younger need parents or guardians at all times; minors (17-) need to go home at 12am, and they send people out to look for minors and send them home. Everyone else who is 18+ can stay till 6am. It's pretty awesome, lol. You can tell who is who by their badges. They have certain colors.

S0 anyways, we left for registration. Someone told us that we have to go down to the parking area (the hotel parking lot) and register. So we waited in line. This line was soooo long. There were a ton of people. There was one line for entering, and one for exiting, right by eachother. And people exiting would give all the people in the other line high fives.

By the way, most of these pictures I didn't take. I took a number, but most I found online.

Oh and we didn't wear our costumes since we were just going to register.

That's the start of the line.

People don't just dress as anime/video game people at anime conventions. You can see anything in there, lol.

That's a little creepy.

That was at a park nearby. We never went there because we wanted to be at the convention. But we said we'd go there next time.

Oh, and the two guys are pulling her because in the game they both like her.

Alright, back to the story. So we're still in line waiting to register. People would randomly yell "I lost the game!" and then everyone would be like, "noooooooooo! I lost the game too!" it was funny.

These pictures are from inside the parking lot.

Thee perfect Jack Sparrow! Along with the Mad Hatter, and Sweeney Todd.

Lol xD

This wolf stopped and waved at me.

It took like an hour to finally be able to get in. Inside was the shopping area, and we had no idea where to go. We asked one of the workers and she told us that we were at the wrong place, and we had to go inside the hotel on the 2nd story. So someone had told us to go down there either on accident, or on purpose to be mean.

Up to the hotel we went, and the person at the desk led us to this room to register. Once again it was the wrong place. This guy took us to the right desk this time. Sheesh, you'd think workers knew how to get in the place, right? Nooope ~ they're all losers. Just kidding. Kinda...

Finally, we got our badges and booklets. Yay!

By the time we were going to eat "breakfast" it was around 1pm. We decided that since it was kind of late to eat breakfast, we just had lunch back at the hotel. By the time we left the hotel it was around 3pm. Andrea got to wear her costume this time cause we figured it out =D

I didn't wear my white boots though cause I am not used to wearing heels. Even though they weren't that big, I still didn't want to wear them all day. So I wore my sneakers. Matt's car had gotten worse, and we figured out it wasn't his engine, it was his electrical stuff. Everything was going out; we couldn't even see how fast we were driving anymore. We called a taxi to take us to the convention.

People are really friendly at conventions. They act like we're all friend's and family. Apparently it's popular for people to hug everyone, and to wear signs that either say, "hug me" or "free hugs." Everywhere you'll see someone hugging someone. Or glomping them. Glomp is a violent hug. People will jump at someone and hug them, and I heard it can hurt. My friend told me that she got glomped by this girl, and she couldn't breathe. Crazy anime people. I love it! Haha.

This girl walked up to me and was like, "I want a hug before I go." Another guy walked up to me and hugged me, then Andrea, then he kind of looked at Jeff awkwardly then walked away. I think he felt awkward because he knew Jeff was with us, and maybe felt bad not hugging Jeff, lol. I don't think Jeff was sad though. He probably preferred it that way.

We heard people yelling, "Marco!" "Polo!" it was random, but great. I love random stuff. And one girl had a "free hugs" sign around her neck, but no one was hugging her; so she started yelling at people to hug her. Still no one did. Eventually she got frustrated and yelled, "hug me darn it!!"

One younger boy walked up to me and said, "I need a hug." He hugged me then Andrea. It was cute.

I was trying to find my friend's Mandy, Adriana, and Victoria, but I couldn't find them anywhere. So we walked around aimlessly and got some pictures. Once again, most of these aren't mine. Sorry, a number of these pictures are dark. But I am not editing them since there are a lot of pictures.

This guy is from the same show I cosplayed from. He poked me with his big hand on my back. I turned around and he waved at me.

Those two are also from the same show. They were cool and talked to me for a while.

By the way, they let people bring in real weapons. Pffft, yeah right, that's a toy gun.

That's the desk where we registered at.

I never found my friend's, but I found their picture online. The Hello Kitty girl is Mandy, the Mad Hatter is Adriana, and Alice is Victoria.

The crowded 2nd story. That's where most of the fun was.

I love her outfit!

I love that Jack Skellington is holding pocky. The animal guy was really cool. He's dressed as this cat/dog animal named Red XIII from a video game.

Since Andrea was Zelda she wanted a picture with a Link. I don't know why but, all of the Link's she asked were mean. The first girl just ignored Andrea, and this girl didn't like her asking, but she let us take the picture anyways. I don't know what their problems are.

I'm pretty sure he's dressed as Tiger Woods. See what I mean? You see anything here.

Must be a hassle to do stuff with her hands.

Don't ask me what that is....

The guy reminds me of Mcdonald's.

The girl with the colorful leggings is my friend Luna. The other girl is my friend Kimi. I actually saw them, but didn't get to hang out because they were eating lunch. I don't know them that well anyways.

That guy is from the anime Death Note; and his character is L. That guy was the most perfect L ever~! Andrea asked him if we could take his picture, and he said, "sure." Then she asked if I could get in the picture too (since he's one of my favorite anime characters) I looked at Andrea like, "...what?" and he said ok. So I got a picture with him. I'm glad she asked =)

That girl would just stand there and wave to people who walked by.

Not sure what anime that is from. But Kabuto is a name. San is something they add to the ends of names.

Now that's just weird. NOTHING to do with anime.

We asked that guy if we could take his picture. He said, "ok, but I'm not putting my food down cause it's too hard to move around." It makes the picture funny anyways. A suit of armor eating Carl's Jr.

That girl was excited to see me because we were dressed as the same person. She was like, "Eruka!! You're the only other person who dressed as her!" and she gave me a hug. She was cool and nice. She looks more like the actual character (Eruka) because I didn't have too much time for my costume, and I wore my sneakers. But I think I did pretty good with only about a week, lol.

We decided to wait in line to go into the shopping area. It was so disappointing though because they were already closed! They close shops at 3pm. We went back inside the hotel and continued our search for my friend's; but after a while we gave up because with that many people around it's hard to find someone. So we looked at our booklets that have a map inside to see what was going on.

There was a karaoke room on the 2nd floor, so we checked that out. While entering, there was another girl cosplayed as Inuyasha. She had a Death Note and ran up to me and asked if I could sign it. I signed it and she was like, "yay! My Death Note is filling up!"

Most of you don't know what a Death Note is. Probably only my brother's and Cheree know. Take my advice: If you see a real Death Note, don't ever write your name in it.

In the karaoke room the only songs that were sung were anime songs, and I knew most of them. Andrea was really tempted to sing a song and asked me if I would sing. I was like, "no way!" She didn't end up singing afterall. We just watched. Most of the people singing would just stand there all awkward-like; but a couple of people actually silly danced. It was entertaining. After much walking around we saw that the time was 7pm. Andrea and Jeff were hungry and wanted dinner. I was too excited to eat; but gave in for them. We went to a Japanese restaurant called Koji Osakaya that was just down the street. It was a pretty cool place.

We sat at one of those tables.

As you can see, you sit on the floor. But they have a big hole underneath the table so people can put their legs down there. (Since they're not used to sitting on their knees) You also have to take off your shoes before sitting.

I got ramen. It kind of smelled like fish. It tasted good, but they gave me a lot, and I had to take the rest back to the hotel.

The pregnant lady is hungry!

Jeff's food.

Andrea's food.

My food.

Jeff was kind of bored and wanted to go back to the hotel after dinner. He likes some anime, but it's really not his thing; he went for us. So he took a taxi back, and we went back to the convention.

More pictures!

That's Elizabeth Swan.

Jareth (David Bowie) from Labryinth.

There was a person inside there. It was kind of creepy, lol.

Is that a big gun, or what?

Red XIII again. He had a long tail. And he was right next to this ballroom dance room. They don't really dance ballroom-style; it's more like crowding together tightly, jumping up and down to loud music with strobe lights. A lot of people had those necklaces that light up. You know, the light up necklaces you get in the parade.

I was waiting in the lounge area while Andrea was in the bathroom; and this girl just came out of the dance room, and she was all sweaty and panting. She washed her face and was like, "man...that was crazy.." *pant pant* For sure I didn't want to go in. I don't think Andrea would want to be in there anyways, being pregnant.

This guy had this sign that said, "If you're an early riser and an early nighter, then you don't watch enough anime." I liked it.

Andrea and I went into this room where they were having a dating game. We were curious what it was like. While waiting in line we saw this guy.

Andrea: "Why does that guy have a banana on his head?"

Me: "That's Cloud."

Andrea: "Why does Cloud have a banana on his head?"

Me: "......That's his hair."

We started laughing, and asked if we could take his picture. Andrea took it because I was afraid I'd laugh; she was trying not to laugh when she took it.

Now we call him Banana Man.

The character looks like this:

We got inside the room where the dating game was, and sat down.

There was a girl who was part of the game, and she sat on stage. But she had to first leave the room because the announcer was going to randomly pick 4 guys to see who would win a date with the girl. As soon as the guys were on stage, the girl was allowed to come in. She had papers in front of her face so she couldn't see the guys; and she sat behind a screen. Then she would ask them questions. There was a lot of crude humor going on; but the event was still funny. There was this funny ninja who always did funny stuff. At the end the guys were supposed to do a catwalk. Not for the girl, but for the audience, just for fun. Then the girl chose her favorite; he didn't really win a date with her. He just got a little photoshoot with her.

The couple.

I couldn't find any pictures of all the guys. But there was a next round, and this time 4 girls were on stage, trying to win a date with this guy.

I didn't get a picture with the guy, but the girl in yellow won the "date." (photoshoot)

There was another round after the girls', but we didn't want to keep watching it so we left.

We didn't really know what else to do since a lot of the stuff we wanted to do was already over. There was more stuff happening on the upper floors; so we took an elevator to see what was up there.

This guy was funny. He was one of the 4 guys in the dating game. Andrea and I were waiting for one of the elevators, and this guy walks in to get in one too. He was telling us that it's hard to move around in that costume, and that he can't get into elevators with other people because there's not enough room. His elevator was starting to open, and he was like, "please be empty...." like in a desperate voice. When he left we were laughing.

It was kind of confusing on the upper floors. Some people were playing chess, and there were doors that were shut with no signs telling what was going on. Andrea looked at the booklet to see what was up there, and in one room there was something with Final Fantasy females. We tried looking in there but it had nothing to do with Final Fantasy females. All we saw was that some people were watching this weird video from India. We were like, "ummm...ok?" and left. Andrea was getting kind of tired, it was around 12am and we had been walking for hours. There was a manga library down the hall, so we went in there to sit and read. This is the library.

The library was pretty empty when we got there though. Only a few people were there. The librarian was giving away free posters.

(I took this when I got home)

It was around the time when minors were supposed to go back home. The librarian sent two girls out to search for them and throw them out. They were so excited and dashed out to find them. Andrea's badge was backwards so they asked her to turn it around to make sure she wasn't a minor. When they saw that she wasn't they were like, "oh darn!" and ran away. I wondered why they didn't ask me since I'm younger, but I guess my badge was the right way so they saw it. In the distance we could hear them saying, "let me see your badge!" Later I heard, "hey I caught one!" It sounds like fun to do that, lol.

Andrea was wanting to go back to the hotel because she was tired. We got a taxi again and went back. We were supposed to leave that night, but because of Matt's car, we couldn't. We were trying to figure out what to do, and we were calling my dad to ask him what he thought. He thought we should stay one more night; and to call a tow truck to tow Matt's car to a mechanic; and then my dad would pick us up the next day and take us home. We went with that and stayed another night. Since we didn't get to go shopping that day we planned on going in the morning before my dad came. When everything was decided, we had dinner, got cleaned up, watched tv, and fell asleep.

Day 3.

This time we got up in time for breakfast, around 9:30 am. I had a couple of waffles and some juice. The waffle maker took forever to use. There was a line for waffles cause it was the best thing for breakfast, and the line moved so slow. We went back to our room and got ready to leave. I didn't have any blue in my hair because I had washed it the night before. And since we were only going to go shopping, it wouldn't really matter a whole lot anyways, since we weren't going to be there for too long. Jeff stayed at the hotel because he was getting our stuff ready to leave. A taxi came and took us to the convention. This time there wasn't really a line for the shopping area. We saw these two exiting the shopping area, and asked to take their picture.

Now that was a nice Link.

Took a couple of pictures when we got back to the hotel.

Andrea made him do that, lol. He was checking us out of the hotel.

We changed into our regular clothes, and soon afterwards, my dad arrived. The tow truck came and we followed him to the mechanic. After they dealt with stuff, we left for home.

I was sad to leave. I had a really good time! I really hope I get to go in 2011!

I took pictures of the stuff I bought when I got home.