Weeks previous: I spent a lot of time in the weeks leading up to yaoicon getting my book Coffee Cake ready with the help of my publisher and editors... The biggest disappointment is that all of this hard work was rewarded with heartache the first official day of the con when we found out it had been shipped to the wrong address. This might have been my publisher's fault or it might have been the printer's fault, but as they say there is no point in crying over spilt milk. Nothing could be fixed at that point and that is just how life goes. I'm a fairly optimistic soul, but I am also weirdly a realist so I just focused my efforts on talking to more people and having fun at the con. It is up on
Amazon and you can
preview the first chapter on my site. Honestly if you love me read the first chapter and give me that to entice you in.
Day -1: So Wednesday we got our butts out of bed at an unreasonably early hour (given that I am a nocturnal creature by nature. I think I woke up at like 8 am or something. We got our tails downtown and stopped at one of the many many Starbucks so we could get caffeine. I had on my Dr. Who shirt where it has the TARDIS and the Doctor as an owl which is soooo cute! and the barista (a guy) commented that I should show his *pregnant pause* friend my shirt before blushing and pointing at a guy sitting at the end of the bar. It was utterly adorable. I did show him and while I was waiting for my drink he got up and went over to his boyfriend and was teasing him. It was one of those moments where you swear two people couldn't get cuter. We left and even Scott had to comment on the adorableness of it. He was either new to Seattle (where nobody really cares if you're gay or straight) or it's a new relationship and he wasn't sure if he could call him his boyfriend yet. I am going with option number two because it's cuter.
We flew to Long Beach so when I was packing the husband made me pack my toys in my own bag. I brought them because Bishonen Kakashi asked me to tie him up and I said I would. He said if they stopped me then he was going to claim not to know me. I laughed and honestly hoped they would just to see his reaction. They didn't.
Once we got there we unloaded and went off to find a coffee shop. That's pretty high on the list of necessities with him. They are very low on Starbucks where we were though and none of the very cool independents seemed to have free wifi. Good coffee and tea though. We were particularly fond of The Greenhouse which was very cute and had a peacock feather patterned couch.
Kita showed up and I headed back to the hotel to give her a key to the room. Got hugged a lot.
Day 0: Had breakfast with the husband and Kita and then Kakashi called and I invited him to come have breakfast and hang out. He did. He gives good hugs. Kita wanted to hide in the bathroom and/or kill me. She got over it, his awesome hug helped I think. Then Harial called and I invited her too. It was nice to hang out with friends.
We hung out with Kakashi for a bit after and located a few things he needed for cosplays then went and picked up Iris. *grins* Scott pouted at me that he didn't get to go get her. More hugs! Best hugs ever if just because I got them and Scott didn't. :P
Went to dinner with D, Danielle, and Ro at Asha which was really good and really expensive. I can't remember now what we talked about, but it took us forever to get out of there because we wouldn't shut up. They're the main reason I went down early this year.
Kind of a quiet day to be honest. It was nice and chill and well nice.
Day 1: Got woken up early and got mostly into my corset before Harial called and summoned me down to help with setting up the booth. Got there, helped a little and got things set up then I was going to go get breakfast but Kakashi sent me a text about my promise to tie him up (which we planned to do Friday morning before everything got rolling) so I went and grabbed my stuff and met him in the lobby, snapped a few photos and then Kita, him, and I all went to the hotel bar and I asked them if I could use their bar to take photos. They said we could do whatever we want... *snickers* We got a few looks when I then proceeded to tie him to a chair. (On our way to the bar we also ran into another guy - James- who offered to help me tie him up later in the gym). So after we finished in the bar we went to the gym, James met us there, we did a few things with the ropes including the dragonfly one that I practiced on Sarah. Got pictures.
I ran back to the booth to spend more time there. Scott and Iris brought me food because I still hadn't eaten and I was nice a shared. Spent a good part of the afternoon hoping my book would come while playing cheerleader of other books (namely Derekica's). At around 4:30 was when we found out that my book had been delivered... to the billing address and not to the hotel and since it was 6:30 in TX where they were there was no way to get them in time. As stupid as it was I really wanted to cry. I didn't because I'm a big girl and not a baby and well it would have done squat. I kind of felt useless though. An author at a booth without a book... it just seems kind of lame to me. Hopefully I didn't come off that way and I tried not to let my disappointment show too much.
Had dinner with Scott and Iris at Tapas and had some amazing freaking food - empanadas! (Those who read Coffee Cake will understand exactly how incredibly dorky I am for this) Went from there to a room party involving porn, booze, posing ken dolls, and drawing really bad seme and uke pictures. It was fun. Tried to find Kare and we kept somehow missing each other. Then I went and found Serani and Katt and spent some time with them before finally crashing out.
Day 2: Got up, went to help set up again like a good girl. Ran off for a bit before lunch to take a look around the artist alley, took a few pictures for Harial and I was going to go around with her to look at them at lunch but well Roget (aka male!Ro) texted me and asked me to lunch. Missed breakfast again and had promised to eat with him at some point during the con. Spent a lot of time chatting with him over lunch about all kinds of fascinating things like patterns our eyes recognize and photography. Among other things. He's a lot of fun to hang out with and a terrible flirt.
Got back, spent a little bit of time at the booth then ran off to yaoi911's panel on Artifice because I talk to him on twitter, said I would, and well wanted to cuz I'm a bit of a fangirl of his. Fangirled Hamlet when I got back because who doesn't? I kept running off on poor Harial for various things though I can't remember exactly all of them. I got a commission from an artist that draws for the L5R card game which I used to play of my boys which was neat. Apparently my retarded squealing over the cuteness made her very very happy. I act like a complete moron when it comes to art of my boys... seriously it like melts my brain faster than anything else.
After the dealer's room closed I forget exactly, but I attempted to have dinner with Ro, male!Ro, D, Danielle, Kita, Iris, and the hubby... after realizing that it was 8 and we still hadn't gotten food I abandoned the idea and ran off to the auction because I'd promised Kakashi I would get some good pictures of his performance and he was the second act. Got there and even got let into the staff area just for taking pictures of Kakashi because one of the staff members was super awesome and totally understood.
My friends who won Kakashi at the auction invited me to hang out with them (cuz they're awesome like that ^.~ and so I spent the dance hanging out with them. Best part of the whole thing was I hadn't had a chance to spend time with Devon and DOL at all and I got to! I've been online friends with them for years and totally missed the chance last year even though we were both there. Well and you know also got to dance with Kakashi who is so much fun. I got them to play party rock so we could watch him dance and that was fun. Went to a room party after which was fun and loud. Got a hug from Jay and Reno which was awesome. Hung out in DOL and Devon's room after it got broken up for a bit then went back to mine only to realize it was so late that Iris would be getting up in an hour and a half so I had to stay up or I wouln't be able to wake up and say good bye to her. Did that and well ended up getting about 2 1/2 hrs that night. I was soooo tired.
Day 3: I cosplayed Egypt for my Hetalia friends (D, Danielle, and Ro), there was booth set up and then I had to run to the Hetalia panel where I won a FrancexUK doujin (which I gave to Kakashi for various reasons I won't go into) I got back from that then helped Kakashi find some books and gifts for somebody which was surprisingly hard in the dealers room. He got frisked by the cop and I got pictures. Then we went to the artist alley and since I have such a wonderfully loud mouth I shouted out to ask if anyone had Axel and Roxas art and found somebody who did. That was MUCH more efficient than just prowling around looking for it. Then I went back to the booth up until closing ceremonies where I slipped over and got front row seats to watch the spankings and get more lovely pictures.
After we attempted a Naruto photoshoot and I was going to do a starfighter one too, but that didn't quite work out. Next year, better planning we'll get it done. Grabbed dinner at a pizza joint (that was awesome) came back took pictures at the pool for Kakashi and also just some casual ones because damn it's just nice to have a few casual pictures of people having fun Reno brought cards against humanity but we got shooed away before I could play since I was busy with the photo shoot stuff (which Reno was sweet enough to pretend to drown for). I got this utterly adorable picture of Devon (seriously it's cuuuute!) and a lot of very nice sexy ones of Kakashi and Reno and some nice ones of the Haku, Kisame, and Kare(Iruka). I need to touch a few of them up, namely Kisame's to blue her skin up.
Went to another room party and watched Avengers and played a drinking game which was fun and no I didn't get drunk.
Day +1: Had breakfast with the hubby and Kita then caught up with Kakashi and Kita and I went with him to run a few errands. He was sweet and bought us tea and banana bread (what a gentleman). We got back spent a little more time with Kare (she is wonderful) and Danielle even. Watched some of Kakashi's videos that he's done and he signed my boobs and my yaoi paddle. After he left I went swimming with Danielle and Kita and the hubby. Then goofed off with D and Ro too until pretty much bedtime. Helped them finish off some alcohol they had that was surprisingly good (I'm NOT a fan of the taste of alcohol) it was like American Honey or something.
Day +2: Got up while zombiefied and got off to the airport. The TSA agent went through my bag, sees all my naughty stuff... and makes me check the yaoi paddle... Which meant I had to take it to get it checked and she asked me what it was and I told her it was for spanking pretty boys after I tied them up. She was highly amused and asked if it was my husband I was traveling with and I told her it was and then had to tell the whole thing to the lady checking bags and they were giggling over it and asking me various questions. By the time I got through security I was cackling insanely and had to of course tell Scott which involved lots of giggling. A lady sitting across the waiting room from us found t incredibly amusing too.
Finally got home and pretty much crashed the hell out... I am still tired to be honest. Got up today/yesterday and went to Sarah's to cheer her up and watch Lost Girl. It was fun and I am utterly exhausted.
Also I don't normally text much or talk on the phone but damn if I didn't drain my battery multiple times this week from my nearly non-stop texting and talking. I have a prepaid plan where I pay for the days I use it and normally I go a week or two without even using it except to tell Sarah when I get downtown if that. I am also sorry if I came off incredibly spazzy... sleep deprivation and it being my absolute favorite con in which I get to see friends I haven't seen in a year is to blame. I am far far FAR calmer on a normal day. If you meet me at any other time you'd get to see that. At cons I feel like I have to be high energy... it's uh complicated as to why that is, but involves having been at cons with a lot of drama and getting blamed for not making sure absolutely everyone felt they got my attention and affection. It's also why I try so hard to make sure I see all the people I'm friends with who are there if at all possible.
Oh and random note... who was the person dressed as Kakashi (obviously I don't mean Shishio) in the elevator who called me Kiterie... I feel like a dumbass, but you know what you were in cosplay and I was totally fried.
Also if you want pictures that I have of you please let me know. I will try to get them posted this week but I want to touch a few of them up so I might be slow to do so.
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