Seems like I promised to report back in three days. Turns out I forgot/was too lazy to do it in three weeks. Partial perpetrator is the foul mood and general antisociality I have been experiencing.
Also turns out that Animecon was less fun than I had remembered. Or this year's edition was faulty in some way. I reckon it has something to do with me keeping a lecture/panel in there. It went fne, thank you. I actually ha an audience with interest in the subject.
Train travel has becomen a standard form of transportation for me. No kidding, I'm sure I have more mileage by a train than by a car in a year. Almost more use in total, but car wins with a slight head. Seats were still uncomfortable, I still couldn't sleep and they still didn't let me out no matter how much I cried and banged the windows. This time no-one tried to arrest me, (for I was carrying a realistic prop sword) but I did get the usual weird stares and ogling from the bypassers. I'm confident it's not because of my looks.
Accommodation was as luxurious as a sports hall and a sleeping bag sounds like. I have the habit of not carrying a mattress or pillow of any kind with me for some strange twist of fate. Everytime I still remind myself to pack them. But oh well, we otakus/akibas/insert a social culture here, we make do. The security guards were quite awesome people and I made friends with a couple of them right away. Meeting old friends is always a plus, too. Sleeping without a mattress on hard floor on the other hand isn't, but I fancy myself a trooper. So to say.
The first day at the con went as first days generally do, with te exception of me having my panel first thing in the morning. That also meant that as a part of the staff I got past the 200-meter line (I feel no remorse toward my fellow coexisters in any way) to make it in time. Not that I would have waited in the line if I weren't in a hurry.
Other highlights of the day were sitting about, sweating, meeting old friends, talking about propmaking, meeting Benzaie and acquiring an autograph, sweating, small amount of time taking photos, and sitting. Fairly regular conday, but uneventfullier. I'm pretty sure that's not a word.
The party in the evening was as most of them are for a person like me who doesn't like partying; loud and sweaty. I ended up sitting/standing and talking with people in the yard most of the evening. At some point the group included a handful of people I knew from before and a couple new faces, one of which was this compact(was about to say tiny, my apologies) girl/woman, who propably was alot older than me and a lesbian who forcifully dragged me to the dancefloor and proceeded to perform an action where two persons hold eachothers' hands and wave around to loud music in poor lighting conditions. I believe it's called dancing. Attending to this cultist act was forced on my part, and I didn't find too much if any enjoyment in it. I appreciate the gesture though, but I dislike people trying to pop my bubble in which I consider myself antisocial and repulsive. It was a good try though, I give you that. At this point of the day I remembered that I hadn't remembered to eat.
I believe I covered sleeping already, but in short the floor was still hard. Cold showers too.
Most of the second day I spent, *drumroll* sitting and sweating, what a shocker. For a moment a security guard from the last night joined me, (no longer in duty though) to elaborately explain to me how her costume of a lab coat, corset, a 21cm(important to tell) leather miniskirt, boots, suspicious liquid bottles and a whip(?) was consisted of stuff she had lying around. I'm not sure but this might have been the act comonly referred as "hitting on someone". There was no physical hitting involved. This is all very new to me.
Apart from that slight misadventure with the opposing sex, my sitting went quite peacefully.
Apart from sitting my day consisted of sitting somewhere else and following a bunch of semi-known people carrying/holding a bag who's name was Oliver. I followed this bunch of people to a local McDonalds to watch them eat and miss the one event during the con I had planned to attend. Welp, my bad. Good company compensated the loss though. Also at this point I recalled the day before and the fact that I still hadn't eaten, and planned to buy something to bite on the returning trip.
The worst thing about cons is the fact that you know that they will eventually come to an end, and the thought loomed over my mind during the entire con. And when the moment to leave and say goodbye eventually came it wasn't as bad as it usually has been. Sure I felt bad for having to leave, but events folloing the con might fool my memory. I ended up saying goodbye three separate times to the same bunch of people, but I guess that's someone's way of reminding me that living this far away from people sucks most of the time. I did remember to pick up something to eat this time though, and managed to pay back a lollipo to a friend with a chocolate bar. There is an intricate backstory involved and it contains swiss black leather. (Does not contain dungeons or BDSM, neither dragons. It was pretty much a geek thing)
The way back was pretty straightforward apart from me managing to drop my cellphone while unloading myself from the vehicle we were riding while stopping to refuel. Luckily I started missing it soon after we parted from the said gasoline depot. More luckily smeone had found it and waited for the time it took for us to turn around and retrieve it. That or someone thinks my union with this undyind piece of plastic is still too young to break. The rest of the journey I slept or readed with no remarkable success in either.
We departed around 2000, and I arrived at home somewhere between 0200 and 0300, and after reliving myself from all the bags I was carrying, instead of doing the smart thing and operate the machine called bed I operated the machine called computer and unloaded the photos I took, little in number. only about an hour after the fatigue took the best of me and I slept.
The following weeks were not nice to me neither in body or spirit. It was terribly hot and bright and there was endless amounts of grass to kill, and it nearly took the best of me(I suffered a heatstroke three times in two weeks cutting that green vermin). After returning home those days I realized that eve at home I was still surrounded. The grass has a friend called floor, and it likes to camoflage itself under various forms of clutter left from my adventures in Animecon. Needless to say that clutter hadd to be removed before I felt safe to turn my back to the floor again.
The spirit part I'll keep to myself, but matters with it were dreadful too. At this point I regretted not buying a chocolae bar for myself too.
And now it's only approximately 48 hours before I need to return to develop my tolerance of stupid people. It might be a good thing partially though, I'm pretty sure walls aren't supposed to have conversation with people.
But then again, I'll be speaking about propmaking, being awake for a weekend, not eating sufficiently and meeting friends after a month again.
