Yuricon report: Thursday
Jun. 19th, 2003 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osarabaI went to work on Thursday morning at 6:30am, as usual, but dragging my suitcase behind me. Lugging it up and down the subway stairs, up and down, back and forth. Of course, I hadn’t had much sleep the night before because I only finished packing around 1:30. But I went to work, and had been planning on leaving at 3pm instead of my usual 1pm, so that Fay could come in a bit later, so she could have time to hang out with Yvette and the new baby, Andre.
Of course, I felt like I’d left something at home the whole time, and when I got to 51st and Lexington, I realized I’d left my digital camera at home. There was no way I could go to the con without my camera, and I wasn’t going to pay another $10 for a disposable camera, plus like $7 for development when I could just spend $4 to go back and pick up my camera. First, I tried calling home to catch my mom before she left. She works about 5 blocks away from me, so I’d hoped to have her drop it off on her way to work. But she’d left already by the time I could call. So I went to work and figured I’d ask Angelica to go by my house and pick it up for me. Of course, I wasn’t completely surprised when she said she didn’t want to. Disappointed, a little disbelieving, but not surprised.
So I decided I’d ask Fay if she could come to work at 2pm instead of 3pm, so that I could make the trip home and back to Manhattan in time for our plans. We planned to meet between 3 and 3:30, eat, then leave for the PATH train at 33rd and 6th. So Fay called around 11 or so and I asked her to come at 2, and she said she’d be there, which was really very nice of her, considering I’d told her just the day before that I could stay until 3pm. Anyway, she actually showed up at 1:40, so I left by 1:45 and luckily, I happen to catch all the trains I needed to take as they were coming into the station – so I made from GCS it to my house in a record 45 minutes flat! Including having to wait about 7 minutes for the bus to get from the train station to my house.
When I got home, I ran to get the camera, and found out from my father that we finally got the air-conditioner fixed, which was really, really nice to hear. I left as quickly as I’d come and met Angelica at the train station to go back to Manhattan (she had been waiting for about an hour for me to come back from my house). When we got back to GCS, I went to pick up my luggage from the store where I’d left it, and we met up with Yoshi and Liz and went to eat at Wendy’s.
Which is where I found out that Yoshi’s playing FFX also! What a funny coincidence. Although, the way he plays RPGs is completely different than the way I’ve been playing. We got food and started eating, and after a while, Louie, Maryann, and Lygia came by, and we were sitting at a few tables all pulled together. We all started talking about FFX because all of us have now either played it, or know the characters. And, of course, we ended up staying later than we’d planned.
I finally convinced everyone that we really needed to be on our way, so we all stood up. But then I remembered my camera, and I told them all to sit back down and smile for the camera. And voila!
Louie, Maryann, and Lygia stayed behind; Yoshi, Angelica, Liz and I walked back to GCS and down to the 6 train. We all went up to 51st and Lexington, then transferred for the V train going in opposite directions. Unfortunately, Liz couldn’t come to this con because she’s still under 18, as difficult as it is to remember that. So Yoshi, Angelica and I went to the 34th Street station to catch the PATH train which runs between New York and New Jersey. The con hotel was in Newark, which is the last stop on the train, so we just got seats and rode all the way through. The Gateway Hilton is located across the street from the NJ Penn station, so it was a quick and simple trip.
We got to the front desk, which is one floor up from the street, and checked in. At first, they had me down for a room with one king-size bed. So I asked them to change it because when I reserved it, I reserved 2 double beds. So they changed it and we went up to 529. I was sort of straggling behind. I believe Angelica and Yoshi fought to decide who would open the door. I don’t know who won, but when I got directly outside of the doorway, Angelica turned to me with an immensely hostile glare and said, “Did you ask for a non-smoking room.” That’s right, a hostile statement – no “this is a smoking room, let’s go change it” or “they must have given us the wrong room by mistake.” Nope, obviously I asked for a smoking room so that I could carry out my evil plot against my best friend, who is allergic to cigarette smoke, in order to make her sick and miss her volunteer shifts which I’m counting on her for, so that I will have to cover them, when I’m already doing a few other things at once. She totally found me out.
After glaring at her instead of answering, so that she started backtracking and stammering (which was so completely worth it, I must admit), we went back down to the front desk and I requested a non-smoking room with 2 double beds. They said they’d have one available in ½ hour and would we mind waiting. We didn’t, so we played Geography:
After about ½ hour, we got our new room keys and went up to the room. We just unpacked and stretched out for a while, changed our clothes (well, I think I was the only one who changed clothes, but I got to wear my new camouflage bondage pants which are sooo~ kawaii~!), and finally decided to go out to find something to eat. We walked around for probably 45 minutes, looking for places to eat, and trying to find a nearby mall of some sort. We found a Walgreens, which was really nice, and bought 2 12-packs of 20 oz. water bottles for $5! (Having lots of water with you at a con is a really good idea!) Then we lugged them back to the room and ended up having… fast food from inside the station. They had a McDonald’s, a pizzeria, a Zaro’s, and some other small shops (liquor store, flower shop, bookshop, etc.).
I have to say it makes me shudder to think of McDonald’s because we ended mostly eating McDonald’s all weekend because it was one of the only places nearby that was open. Yech. More on that in later posts.
After eating, we just hung out in the room, this time playing something called the Name Game. Let’s see if you can get it by example:
Anyway, sometime near 9pm, Laura, one of our roommates showed up. She came to NJ all the way from Denver, Colorado! And she’s afraid of flying, so she took a 2-day bus ride to get there. Kowai. So she came in, we all started talking about random stuff. At 9:58 I realized that the staff meeting I was supposed to go to was in 2 minutes, so I got up and dragged Angelica off with me. I think this was where we had the most fun.
When we got to the room, there were about 8 people sitting around a long oval table. Most of them knew each other, I think, but not everyone. Anyway, they were all waiting for Erica to come in. (Erica’s the Con Chair – she’s the one who really organized and put all of this stuff into motion, with the help of others, of course.) So, what happens when you have a bunch of people who don’t know each other in a room together? You start chatting, of course. Or in my case, you listen and laugh while other people chat. ^^ We met most of the committee staff at that time (Angelica was technically not really supposed to be there, but she was my staff – not just another volunteer, so it was okay. ^^) and some of them were really great. Like this one guy, Jim, who we both recognized from other cons we’ve been to. He’s the one who was taking care of all the sound equipment stuff. Jim’s a really funny guy, but there’s more on him later, so I don’t have to go into it all right now.
Anyway, someone got in touch with Erica and found out that she was on her way back from her dinner with the guests of honor. And apparently it had started to thunderstorm; when she finally got to the meeting room, she was a little drenched. She came in and told us a few things, asked us a few things, and tried to make it a pep talk. It succeeded for the most part. A one point, someone brought in a Hello Kitty vibrator from the next room, saying that Erica had given it to her in thanks for her work. Ooooh~, how Angelica and I wanted one. It’s been the butt of our jokes for years, having to do with certain characters ::coughOmicough:: and other things. So after a while of chatting and stuff, we finally went back up to our room.
I can’t remember what we did, but eventually we fell asleep.
Of course, I felt like I’d left something at home the whole time, and when I got to 51st and Lexington, I realized I’d left my digital camera at home. There was no way I could go to the con without my camera, and I wasn’t going to pay another $10 for a disposable camera, plus like $7 for development when I could just spend $4 to go back and pick up my camera. First, I tried calling home to catch my mom before she left. She works about 5 blocks away from me, so I’d hoped to have her drop it off on her way to work. But she’d left already by the time I could call. So I went to work and figured I’d ask Angelica to go by my house and pick it up for me. Of course, I wasn’t completely surprised when she said she didn’t want to. Disappointed, a little disbelieving, but not surprised.
So I decided I’d ask Fay if she could come to work at 2pm instead of 3pm, so that I could make the trip home and back to Manhattan in time for our plans. We planned to meet between 3 and 3:30, eat, then leave for the PATH train at 33rd and 6th. So Fay called around 11 or so and I asked her to come at 2, and she said she’d be there, which was really very nice of her, considering I’d told her just the day before that I could stay until 3pm. Anyway, she actually showed up at 1:40, so I left by 1:45 and luckily, I happen to catch all the trains I needed to take as they were coming into the station – so I made from GCS it to my house in a record 45 minutes flat! Including having to wait about 7 minutes for the bus to get from the train station to my house.
When I got home, I ran to get the camera, and found out from my father that we finally got the air-conditioner fixed, which was really, really nice to hear. I left as quickly as I’d come and met Angelica at the train station to go back to Manhattan (she had been waiting for about an hour for me to come back from my house). When we got back to GCS, I went to pick up my luggage from the store where I’d left it, and we met up with Yoshi and Liz and went to eat at Wendy’s.
Which is where I found out that Yoshi’s playing FFX also! What a funny coincidence. Although, the way he plays RPGs is completely different than the way I’ve been playing. We got food and started eating, and after a while, Louie, Maryann, and Lygia came by, and we were sitting at a few tables all pulled together. We all started talking about FFX because all of us have now either played it, or know the characters. And, of course, we ended up staying later than we’d planned.
I finally convinced everyone that we really needed to be on our way, so we all stood up. But then I remembered my camera, and I told them all to sit back down and smile for the camera. And voila!
Louie, Maryann, and Lygia stayed behind; Yoshi, Angelica, Liz and I walked back to GCS and down to the 6 train. We all went up to 51st and Lexington, then transferred for the V train going in opposite directions. Unfortunately, Liz couldn’t come to this con because she’s still under 18, as difficult as it is to remember that. So Yoshi, Angelica and I went to the 34th Street station to catch the PATH train which runs between New York and New Jersey. The con hotel was in Newark, which is the last stop on the train, so we just got seats and rode all the way through. The Gateway Hilton is located across the street from the NJ Penn station, so it was a quick and simple trip.
We got to the front desk, which is one floor up from the street, and checked in. At first, they had me down for a room with one king-size bed. So I asked them to change it because when I reserved it, I reserved 2 double beds. So they changed it and we went up to 529. I was sort of straggling behind. I believe Angelica and Yoshi fought to decide who would open the door. I don’t know who won, but when I got directly outside of the doorway, Angelica turned to me with an immensely hostile glare and said, “Did you ask for a non-smoking room.” That’s right, a hostile statement – no “this is a smoking room, let’s go change it” or “they must have given us the wrong room by mistake.” Nope, obviously I asked for a smoking room so that I could carry out my evil plot against my best friend, who is allergic to cigarette smoke, in order to make her sick and miss her volunteer shifts which I’m counting on her for, so that I will have to cover them, when I’m already doing a few other things at once. She totally found me out.
After glaring at her instead of answering, so that she started backtracking and stammering (which was so completely worth it, I must admit), we went back down to the front desk and I requested a non-smoking room with 2 double beds. They said they’d have one available in ½ hour and would we mind waiting. We didn’t, so we played Geography:
Yoshi: Afghanistan
Angelica: Nepal
Sara: Latvia
Y: Anaheim
A: Maryland
S: Denmark
(… do you get it?)
After about ½ hour, we got our new room keys and went up to the room. We just unpacked and stretched out for a while, changed our clothes (well, I think I was the only one who changed clothes, but I got to wear my new camouflage bondage pants which are sooo~ kawaii~!), and finally decided to go out to find something to eat. We walked around for probably 45 minutes, looking for places to eat, and trying to find a nearby mall of some sort. We found a Walgreens, which was really nice, and bought 2 12-packs of 20 oz. water bottles for $5! (Having lots of water with you at a con is a really good idea!) Then we lugged them back to the room and ended up having… fast food from inside the station. They had a McDonald’s, a pizzeria, a Zaro’s, and some other small shops (liquor store, flower shop, bookshop, etc.).
I have to say it makes me shudder to think of McDonald’s because we ended mostly eating McDonald’s all weekend because it was one of the only places nearby that was open. Yech. More on that in later posts.
After eating, we just hung out in the room, this time playing something called the Name Game. Let’s see if you can get it by example:
Yoshi: Clark Kent
Angelica: Keanu Reeves
Sara: Robert Redford
A: Rei Hino
Y: Helen Hunt
A: Holly Hunter
Y: Harry Potter
S: Pierce Brosnan
(The only thing is, the names you use must be known by most of the group, and they can’t be one-word names.)
Anyway, sometime near 9pm, Laura, one of our roommates showed up. She came to NJ all the way from Denver, Colorado! And she’s afraid of flying, so she took a 2-day bus ride to get there. Kowai. So she came in, we all started talking about random stuff. At 9:58 I realized that the staff meeting I was supposed to go to was in 2 minutes, so I got up and dragged Angelica off with me. I think this was where we had the most fun.
When we got to the room, there were about 8 people sitting around a long oval table. Most of them knew each other, I think, but not everyone. Anyway, they were all waiting for Erica to come in. (Erica’s the Con Chair – she’s the one who really organized and put all of this stuff into motion, with the help of others, of course.) So, what happens when you have a bunch of people who don’t know each other in a room together? You start chatting, of course. Or in my case, you listen and laugh while other people chat. ^^ We met most of the committee staff at that time (Angelica was technically not really supposed to be there, but she was my staff – not just another volunteer, so it was okay. ^^) and some of them were really great. Like this one guy, Jim, who we both recognized from other cons we’ve been to. He’s the one who was taking care of all the sound equipment stuff. Jim’s a really funny guy, but there’s more on him later, so I don’t have to go into it all right now.
Anyway, someone got in touch with Erica and found out that she was on her way back from her dinner with the guests of honor. And apparently it had started to thunderstorm; when she finally got to the meeting room, she was a little drenched. She came in and told us a few things, asked us a few things, and tried to make it a pep talk. It succeeded for the most part. A one point, someone brought in a Hello Kitty vibrator from the next room, saying that Erica had given it to her in thanks for her work. Ooooh~, how Angelica and I wanted one. It’s been the butt of our jokes for years, having to do with certain characters ::coughOmicough:: and other things. So after a while of chatting and stuff, we finally went back up to our room.
I can’t remember what we did, but eventually we fell asleep.
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no subject
Date: 2003-06-19 08:44 am (UTC)Just curious: how does one get a little drenched? *giggle*
I'm looking forward to hearing more about the con. I can't wait now for Otakon. I should warn you that I may not be going to Shoujocon this year, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to Yaoi Con. Like 100% pretty sure.
WHAT?!
Date: 2003-06-19 02:00 pm (UTC)I thought of that at the time I wrote it... I considered changing it, but I thought despite its oxymoron-ness, I think it described her state well. She wasn't completely soaked through, but she was pretty wet from the rain. Apparently, she ran the last block or two, so the rain didn't really get to soak in, but... maybe plastered would be the right word? I think that describes it well too.
Okay, now you're going to have to tell me why you're not going to Yaoicon this year, even if you'd rather say it in a private email or whatnot! Half the fun of going to cons is hanging out with you! And since you're 100% sure you're not going to Yaoicon ::sniffsniff:: then please do try to make it to Shoujocon! It'll be lovely to see you at Otakon, but being as big as it is, it isn't the right con to get to hang out, if you know what I mean.
I'll be posting more about Yuricon soon.
Re: WHAT?!
Date: 2003-06-19 02:23 pm (UTC)Jay's pretty sure that he's going to get laid off from work in the beginning of September. I switched my plans from going to Yaoi Con to going to A-Fest instead, since I can pay for that before anything bad happens. It's a lot cheaper than going to Yaoi Con. DC might still be going to Yaoi Con, just not with me.
then please do try to make it to Shoujocon!
If I go, it'll be just for the day on Saturday. DC and I are talking about doing that. If we do, I'm sure we'll want to meet up with you and hang out as much as we can.
I'll be posting more about Yuricon soon.
Cool! *hugs*
Re: WHAT?!
Date: 2003-06-19 02:31 pm (UTC)I'll definitely look forward to hanging out with you at Shoujocon, if you do go. I know I'm going to miss you at Yaoicon, though! Where's A-Fest, btw? Do you have a website I could look at? (Look, you have your very own stalker! ^^) Not that I think I could make it if I even tried -- I definitely CANNOT afford another con -- but I'm just curious.
A-Fest
Date: 2003-06-19 02:44 pm (UTC)It's in Dallas. Here's the site addy: http://www.animefest.org/AF2003/
You're welcome to stalk me. The reason I'm going to this con (aside from visiting with a friend of DC's) is to stalk, I mean see, Scott McNeil. I'm crazy about the guy. I've met him twice and I am now officially addicted to seeing him. You've seen the pics of me with the GW dub voice actors, right?
We'll find a way to hang out with you. I promise!