ladyofthethread | Katsucon Report

Caught up with sleep and paperwork after Katsucon so I guess it’s time for a con report. This was my first time attending Katsucon and my first time judging. Ended up not doing much con stuff otherwise but saw friends, including some I hadn’t seen in ages, and finally get to meet a few people who I’d only talked to online before. And the hotel was gorgeous; for a family vacation back in the 90’s, we had stayed at the Opryland Hotel (owned by the same company) which was similar in that it had a huge atrium with gardens and little shops but I think this was even fancier. *_*

My brother had class on Thursday morning so I met up with him and his friend afterwards and we caught a 3PM bus to Washington. Bus ride was really boring and I dozed most of the time but felt a bit headachy afterwards. Got a taxi and arrived at the hotel around 8. Checked in, unpacked, picked up badges and went out to look for dinner. Made it back to the hotel around 11 and ran into a lot of people in the lobby including

sillywhims,

blackmarth,

ryoko,

jezeroth,

neoangelwink,

athena_chan,

loudnbothered, and

lionboogy. Sorry if I forgot anyone. ^_^; Chatted a while and then went back to the room to iron costumes and get ready for bed. Somehow, it ended up being 2AM before I went to sleep. (Why does it always seem to take me two hours after I make it back to the room before I can get to bed? -_-;)

Got up at 8 Friday and sat on the balcony drinking flower tea before changing into Kyoya. Wandered around a bit to see where things were in the hotel and finally met

sailor_asteroid in person. Did some photos with my brother in the lobby bar; unfortunately, the ballroom/gazebo area was set up for some other event so we couldn’t take pics there as we were hoping. Wandered more afterwards and did some shopping in the dealer’s room. Got the new volume of Saiunkoku manga, a volume each of Godchild and Ghost Hunt to fill in my collection, the second Tsubasa artbook, the new Kaleido Star season 2 boxset (already own all the single discs but wanted the OVA which hadn’t been licensed before), and a cute little kimono print cow. (My family kind of collects cute cow stuff.)

Changed into Ryuuren around mid-afternoon for the Saiunkoku group. Sadly,

kitsunesqueak’s Eigetsu wig didn’t arrive in time although she finished the costume otherwise. ;_; So, it was just me, athena and neoangelwink. (We’re going to try to repeat the group sometime, probably at AnimeNext. We have to recreate that picture with Ryuuren ~~strangling~~ hugging Shuurei and Eigetsu!) We also hit a few other snags with timing so we weren’t ready to shoot at 5 as originally planned. My brother got so busy with photos that he didn’t get lunch until nearly 5 and the others were running late too. But athena introduced us to Mab from risingsun.net and we did a shoot with him; looking forward to seeing the results from that. :-) And we rescheduled with my brother for after 8 since athena and neoangelwink had to get back to their booth.

The later time wasn’t ideal since the hotel was dark and crowded by then. We ended up going outside where there was room for my brother to set up one of his umbrellas for lighting. We got in a few photos, including some silly ones, but it was too windy to shoot for long. And when we were on our way back in, the wind went crazy, causing neoangelwink and I to grab our wigs/hair so stuff wouldn’t blow away. She had a bit of a panic, thinking her badge might have blown away, after we got back inside and she realized she didn’t have it; we helped her look for it but fortunately, a nice person had found it and turned it in to security!

Somehow, after getting a pizza for dinner, putting things away, getting ready for bed, and painting my nails to be Count D the next day, it was 2AM again before I got to sleep.

Saturday was 19th Century Count D all day. Got some photos with the phoenix in the morning, hung out by the gazebo for a while, and met

gothic_lolita. Wandered a bit and got pulled in for a cameo in the How to Train Your Dragon shoot that

viewpoints was doing since she wanted a picture of D taming a dragon. Ah, random crossovers. XD (I actually haven’t seen the movie. ^_^;)

Got lunch and then went in to start craftsmanship judging with Scootkadoot and Koumouri at 2:30. We didn’t finish until after 6 so it good that Fire Lily arranged for sandwiches for dinner and the runner brought snacks, too. The masquerade was supposed to be at 6:30 but started about 45 minutes late since seating started late. I was surprised how empty the room was when we came back to announce awards; it looked like nearly everyone other than the participants had left. O_o; I’ve seen people leave after the skits in the past but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a room that empty before for awards.

Thoughts on judging… It wasn’t too bad but it is a considerable time commitment and I often find myself feeling a bit short on time at cons. And although I tend to be super critical of my own work, I usually don’t like to be too nitpicky about other people’s cosplay since it is a hobby. If I’m going to do something beyond just cosplaying, I’d prefer to do stuff like run the seam finishes workshop that I’ve done a few times before and teach people things to help improve their sewing. So, if asked to judge again in the future, I’ll consider it but I can’t picture myself actively applying for judging positions.

Anyway, it was about 9:30 when things finished up. Chatted with people for a bit and then went back up to room to pack up most of my stuff and get ready for bed. Once again got to bed at 2AM. I’m seeing a pattern here… >_>;

Got up early on Sunday to finish packing, change into D’s artbook kimono, and check out. (Glad that we managed to get check out taken care of early because there was a huge line that went to the front door at 11!) Checked our luggage and then spent the next few hours wandering around. Finally found

waynekaa and got some free Eden of the East goodies as a result. (I actually had just watched it the weekend before, too!) And I bought a set of fake bangs from Arda Wigs (they gave me a discount on them! ^_^) which should be useful when I do Ryuuren’s costume from the end of season 2. I also wanted to get a clip-in ponytail for that outfit but they were out of black ones. My real hair isn’t long enough since somehow, Ryuuren’s hair grows a foot in the half a year or so that he doesn’t appear. He has a high ponytail that goes past his waist by the time he reappears at the end of the season! :-P

Said bye to people, got our bags, and took a taxi back to Washington to catch a 4:30 bus home. We ended up on the same bus as

dressdragn and got back to NYC around 9.

My brother is working on putting up preview shots on his Flickr but he’s not sure when he’ll actually have all his shoots done since he has classes. And I’m still working on gathering pics so I’ll do a photo post later on.

Meanwhile, here’s my brother’s preview shot for Saiunkoku. We were being silly so Ryuuren and Ryuuki were acting like brats and giving Shuurei a headache. XD

And I’m feeling a bit more motivated now to work on costume stuff so I’ll have to sort through what I’d like to make and come up with some plans in the next week or so. ^_^ Seeing people at the con helped; I’ve felt a bit cut off the last few months since not that many still post regularly on LJ and I hadn’t been to any cons since October. I think that along with the winter weather and my last couple of cons not being great were making me feel blah about doing new costumes.