Katsucon 12:  Going Commando!

For the longest time I was kicking around the idea of going to Katsucon this year, the same way I have in previous years, except last year when I went the whole weekend but commuted each day instead.  This year was the first time I went to Katsucon just for Saturday, reflecting my desire to cut back on conventions.

Up until a few weeks ago, I was going to show up with my friend Stacy, but then she had a few things come up and then Tim said he'd like to go.  Alrighty then, I'm cool with that.  Around Friday, I thought I would take half a day off from work and show up anyway, but then it got too busy, so then I thought I'd go anyway, but the idea of spending extra money on a full weekend badge and an extra day of parking just to get to the dealers room in time for them to close wasn't a good idea to me.  Off to home I went.  Besides, I had too much other stuff to take care of anyway.

So Saturday morning, Tim shows up at my place, and we hit the road.  There's some snow flying around, but I'm not worried.  With a couple stops for lunch and buying new speakers for Ai-chan, the trip itself took a bit over 2 hours.  Finding a parking space took over half an hour.  My original plan was to park at a Metro station and ride in like many had suggested, but for some reason I felt confident to drive the entire way.  Anyway.  We found a nearby parking garage that miraculously had a space or two left over, probably due to some unsuspecting schmuck that left for some reason or another.  Oh well, that happens.  We get in the hotel, and eventually find the registration.  The signs for it were large, but since there must have been a zillion people milling about, they weren't as obvious as they could have been.  No big deal.

"I am not finding Transformers.  I am not happy about this."

First things first, we went off into the dealers room to buy stuff, stopping at the AUSA table along the way.  So far so good.  I had things in mind, as did Tim, which for him involved buying 60 lbs. of doujinshi.  But my searches were less successful.  My primary objective was to find some import Transformers, which I eventually did find, but not the ones I wanted.  At least I didn't walk out empty-handed.  (Besides, when I got home, I found them online anyway.)  I had brought my convention loot bag, the one I got from Great Smoky Mountain National Park, in anticipation of me getting a ton of stuff, but Tim had more use for it than I did.  The dealers room itself, wasn't really in a room, but part of the parking garage.  Yes, that is correct.  How did I know this?  Well, let's see.  Near the walls, where the temporary carpet didn't cover, there were the typical white lines of parking spaces, signs on the wall advising people to lock their cars, relatively low ceilings, and towards the back the floor inclined like crazy.  But hey, it works.  If I were running a con and that option was available, I'd make use of it too.  They at least laid down some carpet for the event and shut most of the doors to keep the cold out.  There was usually one left open, letting in a chilly but welcome breeze.

Before this convention, I had a suspicion that just by moving into the middle of DC, they would lose people, and to an extent I was right.  However, I had failed to take into account how many more people would show up just because it was in DC, and that number turned out to be a lot.  I'd say a good bit of them were there because they didn't really have to venture too far from home and it was near a Metro station, which I had also considered doing.

After that I went back to the AUSA table again, hanging out and talking to people about coming to AUSA.  Damiano69 was also there, also on a Saturday badge.  To show how much the convention has grown, I would sometimes hand a flyer to someone, and they would say "I'm on staff" and I'd be like "ah, ok" even though I'd never met them before.  Long gone are the days when we could have large-scale staff meetings at a local Wendy's.  But I digress.

"If I were Salad Fingers, this would be better than rust."

We mostly wandered around, both together and on our own, after that until around 7 when we met in the main lobby and decided to have dinner at the hotel's restaurant.  Dinner there was a bit pricey, but well worth it.  I had a beef tenderloin that I could have cut with a dull plastic knife and damn near melted on my tongue, almost giving my taste buds an orgasm, and Tim had what could possibly be the most perfect bacon cheeseburger ever.  Usually when I eat out, I don't bother with dessert, but after a meal like that, we had to have that too.  I can't remember the names, but the taste will stay with me always.  All this while I was wearing cat ears.  As the manager came by to see how we liked our meal, and we didn't hesitate with our compliments, I quickly asked "Interesting clientele this weekend?"  He laughed, and said everyone was normal.  Now, it didn't hit me immediately, but later on I did have to wonder what he could have possibly seen that he would regard as otherwise....

From there, we figured we'd check out how the dub for Mai Hime would be.  We didn't find out, because they were showing the dub of Kannaduki no Miko instead.  Not bad, but I'm still favoring the original.  Right outside the door was James, who had also seen it.  We hung out for awhile, sharing thoughts on various anime, then we parted ways checked out the Negima dub, a show that Tim didn't like in the first place.  It was more for a Statler and Waldorf experience.  Discovered my badge developed the ability to free itself from my con-issued lanyard, so I hooked it up to my super-lanyard.  There was supposed to be a panel on hentai that evening, but that got cancelled, so we decided to call it a night and go home.  Tim remarked that it was the most corporate convention he had ever seen, and while he was satisfied with going for a day, he was glad he didn't make a whole weekend out of it.  Same with me, but for different reasons.

We find our way into the parking garage, and unload our stuff into Ai-chan.  Crazy cold outside, and $23 for a day of regular parking sucks.  But since I had a better idea of what where and how, we got home in well under two hours, including a pit stop at a gas station.  I know I wasn't awake for much longer after I got home.

Loot:

Eiken manga #3
Maburaho DVD 6
Hanaukyo Maid la verite DVD 3
Maid in Heaven SuperS DVD 1
Tokimeki Check-in game
couple of Midori Days clip-on things
pair of hand-made cat ears
Washington DC snow-globe magnet

All things considered, I'll probably do this again next year.

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