Welcome, minna-san, to my humble abode. So, you're curious about what the Goddess did at Otakon, ne? Maybe you were there, too, and just wonder what I was up to, or maybe you (sadly) missed out on all the fun and want to get in on the gossip. Well, I'll do my best to please you (don't I always?), no matter what you're here for.

First things first - we left early Friday morning, hoping to beat the 4th of July traffic. It worked, for awhile. Once we hit Baltimore my driver got perpetually confused in the maze of one way streets, and some scary crossing guard chick yelled at us. Plus, we lost the car following us in the craze. But, we finally reached the Sheraton, where everyone but me was staying, and the party systematically relieved themselves (hey, you wanted to know everything, right? Besides, you try taking that long of a trip without going. Sheesh). Well, we couldn't check in for a bit, so we stored our bags and headed to the con.

Pre-registration rocks. I just walked right up and got my badge. Though, the choice of characters is always irritating, isn't it? No bish, no shônen ai, and only terribly mainstream shôjo. I settled on the closest thing I could find to a slashable character - Kamui from X (go Fuuma x Kamui!). My group settled down on the floor and attacked the schedule. Soon, cries of "Oh, my god!" were echoing across the Convention Center.

"Oh, my god! I'm missing Touch 1-4!"

"Oh, my god! Someone made a Tyler music video to South Park music! I'll kill them!"

"Oh, my god! Weiß Kreuz is showing!"

"Oh, my god! I get to assault Matt Greenfield!"

And so on. And, no, those did not all stem from my mouth, thank you very much.

We were overwhelmed. So, the Goddess decided to take the matters into her own hands and formulate *drumroll, please* a plan! Yeah! "Ok, we'll grab something to eat, go watch Adventures of the Mini-Goddess (which I've been dying to see), then get in line for the dealer's room while three of us go to check into our hotel rooms." They agreed, because they didn't know any better. *laughs* We ate, it was a rip-off, we went to the show, it was packed. I couldn't read the subtitles at all, and we left after the first three episodes. It was cute, though. I wish there was more of Belldandy in it. Anyway, on to Step 3 of my plan - Let's split up! The group cozied up in line for the massive (and barricaded) dealer's room while myself and two others journeyed forth to get our rooms!

The Sheraton lost points that day. First, they lost our luggage retrieval tags two minutes after being handed them. Then they gave single-bed rooms to both parties, who reserved in January in order to get two-bed rooms. Oh, sure, they offered to order up cots, but it took forever for the girls to get them! Stupid, stupid overwhelmed place. I crossed my fingers and hoped the Hyatt (not the Hilton, damn it, silly me) would be better.

Everything seemed peachy at the Hyatt. There were no lines, the lady was really sweet, I had a key left for my roomie, and in a flash we were marching up to my room. I slipped in the key card, opened the door, and said...

"Hey, they already have cots in here. Of course, I don't need cots, but, hey..."

Then my friend chided in, "Um, there're suitcases here, too..."

"And other pillows?"

"Dude, someone else already has this room!"

So I rushed to the phone as my friend stood in the doorway, panicking that the real occupants would be back in any minute. The front desk was very kind and quickly gave me a new room, sending up a bellboy to bring me the new keys. We ended up on the top floor, with an almost-view of the Inner Harbor. It was really nice, worth the extra $2 a night. But... it was almost 4pm! Dealer's room time! We rushed back just in time to... wait in line some more. *sighs* The upside was that I was wearing my kick-ass Shinji and Kaworu x Shinji tee shirt, and met a really nice lady who's also a huge K x S fan. We squealed together for a bit, then scattered like frightened birds in a mad otaku scramble for sacred anime belongings. I found the one thing I was dying for within 3 seconds - ADAM, the Eva artbook with lovely pictures of my beloved Shinji-kun, and the other males (yes, yes, including Kaworu). But past that, there wasn't much. No cute shônen ai things, not like Katsucon had. I shopped for a bit until it was time for *another drumroll, why not* Weiß Kreuz! I'd been waiting to see that show for months! Woo hoo!

Immeadiately after the show ended, I was assaulted by a very happy to see me Will-kun. Remember, he's my best friend, and we hadn't seen each other since the middle of May. Blah, blah, blah, Akane's personal life, blah, blah...what next? Oh! Not much. *grins* Dinner at the Inner Harbor, then it was time for the light of my life, the Amateur Music Video Contest! Will-kun and I headed over, running into three of my other D&D boys (who I missed so much! Wai!). Turns out there was a lovely stampede out of the convention when a fire alarm went off (rumored to be set by the smoke machines in the dance room). We waited for a bit until it cleared up, then headed in to the show.

No, I didn't get to submit my video this year (gomen nasai, Anne Marie!), and Thanee's got cut, but I was still pretty excited. I'm obsessed with anime music videos. I have tapes of Otakon 1994-1998 and AWA 1998. I wish I had more...*hint, hint* So far, I believe 1998 Otakon was the best year, all-around. I can (and have) watch that tape over and over again. But I had high hopes for this year!

Well, luck was not on my side. The videos weren't so hot (though maybe it was the lame choices of what was submitted, sorry Matt). There were a lot of repeats (2 Escaflowne, 2 Grave of the Fireflies, and 2 "Angel" from Sarah M.), and a lot of videos using obscure songs (which is rarely a plus, in my book, unless it's an exceptionally well-done video). I don't know, I was just unimpressed. Of course, the Grave of the Fireflies "Dust in the Wind" video had me in tears. That song always has me in tears! Damn Highlander! It was good, though.

Sadly, Will-kun almost fell asleep by the time we hit the Action/Scary category, so I skipped the rest and dragged him back to the hotel. I just hoped I could catch the rest tomorrow morning...