Otakon 2013!

Chris and I arrived in Baltimore for Otakon on August 8 (which happened to be my niece's 11th birthday. I left her gift with my parents ahead of time). It was the first time we'd ever gone to a con a day early. The Dealer's Room was epic! I found and purchased "Lupin the 3rd: Red vs. Green" and the latest DVD of the "Fairy Tail" anime, as well as some hentai. I was also able to (FINALLY!) buy a copy of the book "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle! I even got to have my picture taken with him! Also interesting was watching my cousins enjoy a showing of "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo." (It was their first anime con ever!) Of course, no con would be complete without cosplay outfits! I dressed as Toad ("Super Mario Bros." video games), Rei Ayanami from "Neon Genesis Evangelion", & my purple and black outfit that makes me look like either a ninja or one of the female characters from "Mortal Kombat." I made it a point to take a lot of pictures. Ironically, one of the funniest occurrences happened not in the BCC, but in the hotel room I shared with Hubby Christopher Wanamaker, our friends Kofi & Anwar, and my cousins Rasheena & Tammy. We were all settling down to go to bed for the night, but we were too excited and wound up to sleep, so I pulled up an audio recording of Samuel L. Jackson reading "Go The F*** To Sleep" by Adam Mansbach. We were all cracking up laughing! Unfortunately, that's all the fun that my cousins were able to have. My cousin Lonnie had to pick them up the following morning (Saturday). Saturday was fun for me. I wanted to attend 4 panels, but ended up missing 2 of them (Darn!) The "Ghibli Girls" panel was interesting. As the title implied, it was about the central female characters in movies released by Studio Ghibli. The "Lupin the 3rd" panel was also a treat. Incidentally, "Lupin the 3rd: Red vs. Green" was one of the DVDs I managed to find in the Dealer's Room. Also among my purchases during the con were the 5th "Fairy Tail" DVD and some hentai (some for me, and one for a friend! Don't judge us!) I would have finished this blog post earlier, but it's been utter chaos since Chris & I came back from Baltimore! Among the chaotic moments were coming back from Baltimore to find that my father-in-law went into the hospital the day after we arrived in Baltimore for the con. He has since been moved to another facility, but he is still recovering from pneumonia! Also, we spent September 7-8 back in Baltimore for Baltimore Comic-Con. The best thing I can say about that con is that I got some great 80s stuff on DVD from the Dealer's Room there. ("Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling, "The Hugga Bunch," and "The Popples" were among the DVDs I found). Anyway, now that I have FINALLY finished this blog post, I can concentrate on preparing for Anime USA! Let the fun begin! Oh! By the way, the dates for next year's Otakon have already been announced! August 8-10, 2014! For information on Otakon and other anime conventions, you can go to http://animecons.com/