| Events: Wednesday | Events: Thursday | Events: Friday | Events: Saturday | Events: Sunday | Events: Monday / Aftermath |
| Picture Index This is a descpritive list of my pictures. |
Picture Gallery Six pictures per web page. |
Shout outs People who made the con great for me. |
Thoughts and Comments My own personal thoughts, opinions, rants and such. |
How to contact me | Links to other sites with AWA6 pictures and reports. |
Wednesday was not good. I had quite a bit of work to do before I left Baltimore to get down to Atlanta. With four exams the following week and three homework assignments due before I left, I was a bit strapped for time. But as always, I took things bit by bit and worked through them. My original plan was to get on the Southbound MARC at 5:30, but this didn't work out. After doing the last of the work I could, I started to pack. Unless I rushed, I'd miss my train. I didn't have to be anywhere by any certain time, so I decided to take my time and the later train. I packed what I thought I would need, including some dirty laundry I'd wash along the way. Costume wise, I wanted to take a lot more than I really could. So I settled for my Spike Speigel costume, my favorite, and Treize Krushinada. Treize I couldn't leave behind after all the work and money I put into it. Unfortunatly, I still forgot to take the gloves and choker with, but those were smaller details.
So I called a cab, went from Wolman, my dorm building, to Penn Station and got on the train. I transfered at Union Station, made my way up to Rockville, where my father lives, and was picked up there. I was glad to find things hadn't changed since I was last there. I did my laundry, got some food, and took care of a few family things. Soon enough, though, I was driven down to my friend's house in Virginia. I hope that's the last time I let my father drive me anywhere, because he just can't follow directions.
I got down there without any real problems, though, and soon actually got some sleep before the long drive the next morning. On schedule, though, I woke up at about 415 am, and after a quick shower, we were off to pick up Danny's friend Ostell. He wasn't quite ready when we got there. Why, I don't know, but it probably had something to do with some costumes he made for two girls we were to meet at the convention in Atlanta. In any case, we were soon on the road long before rushhour would turn the nation capitol beltway into one large circular parking lot.
I was fortunate to be able to sleep in the back seat of the car for a long time on the way down. We had already passed Richmond, VA, and gotten onto I-85 before I really woke up again. Not that much later, we arrived in Raleigh, NC, to meet up with a pair of friends we would be caravaning down to Atlanta with. Walkie-talkies are really useful... if they're used right...
After checking in, we had some various adventures getting food, hooking up a dvd player, and fooling around with the hotel's webTV service. I called up some people I knew in the area, but spent the remainder of the night mostly looking over textbooks I brought with me. >_< But I also spent a fair amount of time wandering the lobby and convention area looking for people to talk to.
The con finally starts! I awoke bright and early to get ready for the first real day of the con. Ostell's friends Cathy and Viv arrived quite early in the morning, and rested in the room for a while before I got up. They were quite polite and considerate, though, letting me sleep in a bit more. When I got down to the convention area, though, nobody new had shown up yet. So I just enjoyed hanging out with friends who came the night before. I got my badge, sliped into Spike, pulled out my camera, and wandered the lobby for a while, taking pictures.
As more and more friends came in, the mood got better and better. Even though I had seen most of them at Otakon 2000, it had been almost two months since. So after catching up with them, I went to the first real con event, the opening ceremonies. It went as I expected, for the most part. The staff heads introduced themselves and told a bit about what they did. Then the guests were introduced in alphabetical order. Well, most of them. After the staff highlighted some of the events happening that weekend, two other guests were introduced. Why they weren't introduced with the rest of the guests, I will never comprehend. Anna Exter was finally brought on stage, along with Doug Smith. For those who don't know, Anna is a translator and worked on the Pioneer release of TRIGUN; Doug Smith works with Studio IronCat and is also a voice actor, who's most notable role is Kintaro Oe of Golden Boy.
After opening ceremonies, I decided to take advantage of the hotels wonderful pool and hottub. The pool was indoors, but the hottub was in an enclosed outdoor area. It was quite relaxing to feel the cool autum breeze and the hot water at the same time. Soon enough, Studio IronCat showed up, along with other con goers. The next few hours were filled with chicken fights, relaxing in the hot tub, and listening to Steve's stories. (Can't have a con without Steve telling a story.) Eventually, it was time to close the pool. I went back to my room along with more friends and we ordered pizza and watched "Legends of Speed." After that, I wasn't ready to go to bed yet, and went back down to see who else was up at that time. Luckily, I soon ran into a pair of friends who JUST arrived at that late hour. After getting them a parking space and taking their luggage up to the room, it was time for me to go to sleep, too.
Saturday morning I was once again up bright and early. This time, though, I wasn't going to wait to get into costume. As soon as I attched the epaulettes to my Treize costume, I went downstairs to enjoy the con. Reaction was much better than I expected. I felt that my costume had a few subtle but important flaws, like my missing gloves and chocker, and the fact that I had made the epaulettes too big. The great positive reaction was very nice, and I enjoyed walking around and having my picture taken. I even found a Lady Une for a photo op!
After I did some normal con things such as panels and viewing rooms, I decided to change into Spike once more. Even though a problem with the cosplay dampened my mood for a while, I was soon again in high spirits, enjoying the con. (See my thoughts page for more info.) Later, ditching the cosplay, I went to see Excell Saga in one of the viewing rooms. OH, how hilarious it is! Definitly better than the cosplay. (No offence to anybody in the cosplay, though. I'll stop there.)
After another, shorter stint in the pool/hottub, I went to the dance. It was pretty bad, so I left and went back to my room for a little rest. After a while, I went back down. The dance was a bit better, so upon the prodding of a friend, I went in and had some fun. That is, until the BETTER dance started. I went there, had a lot more fun, and when that dance was over, went back to my room.
Up in the room, people were watching "Storm Riders." Good as the movie is, when a friend who couldn't attend the con called, we put him on speaker phone and had a little bit of fun. After a while, thought, it became late and people started to leave. I ended up being the next to last person in the room, and, even thought it was already around one in the morning, decided the night was still young and went downstairs. Though at first I found nothing of interest, soon the anime music video dance room started up. That was fun! After "Magic Carpet Ride" it was time to take a break, though. I sat down with two lovely ladies and spent at least a good hour or two just talking and laughing and telling stories. Finally, though, it was getting very late. I went up, packed, and got a few hours of sleep.
Sunday I awoke again, bright and early, to get down and see people off before I lost the chance because of sleeping in too late. Well, it seemed almost nobody was around yet, so I went back up to my room. I finished packing, and took a short nap. Unfortunatly, by the time I got back down, it seems many people had shown up and left again! At least checkout and packing the car went very smoothly, and since we weren't to leave until three or four in the afternoon, I still had a chance to talk with other people who would be staying for a while. While waiting, I got a whole pizza and gave some of it to other hungry souls.
Time came though for us to leave as well. After saying our goodbyes, we hit the road. Right away, we hit a problem, though; we lost the other two cars we were caravaning with. Since they were headed for Raleigh and we for Washington, we decided to skip the stop in Raleigh and go strieght on I-85 to Richmond. The ride went well, and I got some more sleep. However, the NASCAR racing fans were leaving charlotte around the time we got through there, which slowed us down considerably. And later, we were caught in a large jam do to an accident up ahead which involved a mini-van, a turned-over RV, and a compact pick-up. Dispite all these delays, though, we made very good time. Even when crap like that happens, road trips are still fun!
Finally, we made it back to the greater DC area. My father picked me up at that late hour and drove me back home. Since he wasn't working on columbus day, i spent the night at his house, returning to Baltimore the next morning.
I finally got back to Wolman at about 830 in the morning. I hauled all my stuff up to my room, made a horrible mess with it all, and got ready for classes. I had been gone for close to a week, had done little preparation for my exams, and had little time left to prepare. Despite this, I still think I managed to do relativly well on the exams (Special Relativity, Circuts, Materials Science, and Japanese). I probably owe part of my sucess on these tests to the declining ejukatshon system of America. See my thoughts for more on this.
Unfortunatly, con deprivation kicked in pretty fast this time, and already on Tuesday I was feeling the need for the con atmosphere. All the work I had to do didn't help much either. On the bright side of things, Neko-con is just three weeks after AWA. Onward shall I go...
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