Con Report: Anime Los Angeles 2014

Wooooo, kicking off the 2014 con season with a con I only recently started attending — Anime Los Angeles (ALA)! It was held Jan 10 – 12 at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel. This is my second time attending ALA, and it’s definitely the smallest, most chill and relaxing con I’ve been to! hahaha. 

First off I’d like to say THANK YOU SO MUCH HANA AND HANA’S PARENTS for letting me stay over their place on such short notice ;___; !!! A lot of plans fell through and I ended up having to change where I would stay for my Cali trip, and Hana’s family were so welcoming and kind wahhh wahhh never gonna forget. q___q <33333

huehuehuehue

my luggage exploding all over hana’s floor @__@ sorry!!!

My winter break ended up being 4 weeks long this year, so Hana actually had class the week I visited. Thursday morning I woke up somewhat earlier than normal, so while Hana was at school I worked on my costume and ate her aunt’s delicious cookingggggs. Hana’s mom and dad are super sweet, but it was funny at the same time because I felt like a teenage boy right before taking their daughter on her first date HAHAHA SO MANY QUESTIONS! Since I talked with her mom for so long, I ended up not being able to work on my costume for very long before we went to pick her up from school. We got dropped off at a mall nearby and just sat at Starbucks and talked/chilled until dinner. It was so new for both of us, because usually we only get to see each other at cons, so conversations would be super brief. 

Hehe! Caramel frappuccino with toffeenut and peppermint white mocha u w u

Afterwards we went to dinner at Asaka, where I got shrimp tempura and baked mussels. The baked mussels here were so spiceeeee though @___@ was not expecting that….

Hana’s meal!!

Was sooooo goooddddd.

Stopped by the store for some makeup remover stuff/last min con supplies, and then stayed up until 7AM sewing + painting my cosplay @___@ gyahhhhh. Ended up passing out until about 10AM or so!

Woke up around 10-11AMish and spent like half an hour panicking cause I didn’t know how to turn on Hana’s shower. LOLLLLL I think I sent her 3 tweets and like 3 texts cause for some reason my skin was breaking out! Aughhh. I couldn’t figure out why :(! Eventually I asked Hana’s mom and she showed me how… I felt dumb… but I guess everyone has the same problem, so… OTL

Worked on Yuanji as much as I could up until it was time to leave for the con!! We ran a little late so instead of leaving at 3 or so I think we left at… 3:30 – 4?! hahahaha

Closeup of the pretty dye on bridal organza!

WIP as I cut the hem into jagged edges. I totally forgot to bring my clear nailpolish aughh! 🙁 So it frayed a bit while I wore it Saturday….

At this point the cosplay was about 80% done??? yeeeee! 

I didn’t wanna stress on the first day, since I wasn’t even done yet, so I decided to just do a casual mori-kei look. We were checking into the hotel anyways, so I didn’t want to get my costume dirty in any way by having to handle all my luggage.

I loveeeeee my new wig ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ It’s my fav right now *^* Wearing my Super Pinkys in Violet!

Ready to go!!!

Got to the con and saw so many animessssss!! Saw a lot of my friends already, and got really excited *^* hehehe. Ran into Vicky and Albert right away, so I checked in and we moseyed on over to our room… which was on the 10th floor T___T. Slightly disappointed because last year we got a 4th (?) floor poolside balcony, whereas our view this year was of…. the roof…. oh wellll. Julia arrived the same time we got into our room, so we sat around chatting for a bit, before heading down to get our badges, and then to check out the pool! It was so empty though!!! @___@ We were all really surprised, but then again this week a lot of people went back to school, so I guess it made sense… huuuuu

Ended up chilling by the pool chatting with friends until Hana and I got hungry, so Julia, Mike, Pardy, Hana, and I drove to In-n-Out and had…. many adventures with parking……until finally just doing drive-through OTL. Drove back and made a heroic journey to deliver a cheeseburger to a friend, then went back to our room and ate our food, and went straight to painting my costume with Julia!!

lookit these cuties. matchy matchyyyyy

We painted for a gazillion hours before finally giving up on the last details and calling it good! hahaha. Thank you Julia for helping me finish!!! u 3 u

It looked nice in natural light with puddingcam though HAHAHAHA. so sad….

Dienastayyyyyyy my shoes made me super tall….

Got to the pool area and there were sooOOOOoo many people! It was kinda overwhelming, almost @__@ Took a few shots here and there but mostly just people-watched!

Pretty Hana as Himari from Mawaru Penguindrum ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Ren as Makochannnsannn ♥ ♥ ♥

Met back up with Julia and Mike to get some photos by Ted and Julia!! We were super rusty with posing and angles and stuff… ahh first con of the year is always hard LOL

my face wasn’t made for HBIC cold and collected characters…. all I look is unhappy and kinda awkward HAHAHA. with Vicky and Julia!!

Photo by Julia!! Eurghh, I’m not sure if I like my contacts anymore…

Probably gonna stick to smiley chars u__u selfie with Hana and Natsu!!

Sorry… this post is just full of selfies…. T___T didn’t get many shots I liked of my costume because I didn’t do my concealer + foundation very well today. Acne + dark circle life strugglessss.

Played ACNL in the lobby with Julia and Mike for awhile, when “Dad” (see traumatic incident here) stumbled over to our corner…. roaring drunk and very happy but scary T____T He essentially barreled straight into Mike and Julia, LANDING ON MY CAMERA BAG, in a huge beartackle hug, and then he gets up BUT SHOOTS BACK INTO A GROUP OF CONGOERS WALKING PAST AND SPILLS HIS DRINK, RAMS RIGHT INTO A POOR GIRL, and I swear a fight was about to break out because this huge guy grabs him by the collar and shouts at him to calm down and aughhh!HHHH!HHH!!!!! ;______; I was so scared, again…. and then he sits down and asks me over and over again why I’m so terrified of him, and why I’m shaking and omg. LOL DOUSHITTEEEEEE. Eventually Mike and Julia calm him down, but then he starts asking me to be his Hinata…………………….. then he went outside to go smoke and we ran off to go eat Denny’s. LOL

While we waited to be seated, we saw some strange folks…. who got WAYYYY too into our personal space. T___T it was very stressful because my name was called but this girl was IN MY FACE BEING CREEPY and blocking my path to get to the server and ughh!!! whyyyy!!! but we eventually got to our table… and all 3 of us ordered free refill iced coffee…. and it took forever to get our food, but it was so worth it in the end. LOL! Mike drank like 3 iced coffees, but I could only handle like, 1 and a half… we had a lot of fun talking, and stopped by the Hilton for a little while and hung out with Mike’s hotelmates. After that we all went down to check out the panels, but I decided to go meet up with Vicky and Albert to sit and chat instead… for a few hours…. but then this super creepy guy and his friend came by and asked some weird questions, and tried to take my hand to kiss it (???) and I was just… nnnoOOO do not want do not want leave me alone! Eventually they left but ugh…. felt like washing my hands of his behavior T___T why people gotta be gross and weird at cons. Tim found us and sat down for a spell, but eventually we all started heading back to our room — when I ran into Jim Bittssss! He was really drunk, and he didn’t recognize me at first, BUT WHEN HE DID HE STARTED CRYING AHHH I WAS SO SHOCKED AND NOT SURE WHY BUT IT WAS ALSO REALLY SWEET CAUSE WE HAVEN’T SEEN EACH OTHER IN AWHILE ;__; Jim was one of the first people who ever took photos of my cosplay when I first started out, and we go way back to the early Gasukan days!!! Maybe it was the alcohol making him all emotional, but I felt like crying when I saw him crying too LOL! We said our goodbyeeees after much bearhugging, and then I ran into Rikki as we got into the elevator!! Rikki was also very drunk, and he ended up kissing me on the cheek and sliding down to the floor of the elevator. When it was our floor, I waved goodbye to him but he held out his hand longingly and called out a somber “my wifeeeee~” before the doors shut. LOL drunk peopleeeeee.

AHHHHH BUT TONIGHT WAS WHERE EVERYTHING WENT WRONG LOL. As I was taking off my costume, I was absentmindedly massaging my abdomen and neck, scratching my head that was free of my wig, thinking it was just because my costume was kinda tight and fitted — but I broke out in hives ALL over my body ;___;!!! My torso, neck, face, and some of my back was completely red all over, and welting too!!! It was sooooo scary and it just kept getting worse and worse. I took benadryl and tried to take a cold shower to make it go away, but it was reaaaaaally really bad still. Usually I only get hives if I’m super stressed and panicking and it’s always as a result of my eczema flaring up (finals LOL) but the whole week I was really relaxed and chill about everything. So it was really strange!! Then I tried to think of all the things I’ve eaten, and all the things I’ve touched the past week or come in contact with, cause I do have a dust mite allergy… but process of elimination I realized that it must’ve been an allergic reaction to the new dye I used for my Yuanji cosplay. AHhhhhh I looked so awful that night ;__; it was horrible and I wanted to cry LOL. Vicky and Al even got me a photoshoot for my cosplay the next day with one of their friends, but there was no way I could wear my costume again after what I saw it did to me….. I think we went to bed around 3 – 4AM, but if my skin was still bad in the morning, I figured I would just be in casual clothes and take photos of other people instead TT____TT huuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Last day of the con today!!! My skin was still bad when I woke up, so I took benadryl, and put on my makeup + clothes slowly, trying not to stress too much about it. Thank you BB cream and foundation for hiding the redness LOL…. my skin underneath looked so ravaged and ugh 🙁 ! I reluctantly packed away my Yuanji cosplay and checked out of our room…..

OOTD! I felt a lot better after I changed into clothes that make me happy, my favorite hat, and my favorite wig ;__; simple motivatorssss

My skin calmed down finally! huhuhuhu

After we put away all our luggage, I met back up with Vicky and Al and followed them around while they shot other cosplayerss! I got to meet a bunch of Al’s friends from SD too, so that was really nice because I was feeling so crappy ;~; lmao. They were all super funny and kind, and I’m really thankful for that hehe.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BUT OKAY SO HIGHLIGHT… OF MY SUNDAY….. LOL I’ve been following Peter Adrian’s lookbook for a few years now, and it’s safe to say he’s one of my top favorite, if not THE #1 favorite, style bloggers. My face looks so weird here but I don’t even careeeee because PETERRRRRR ;___; I wanna own everything in his wardrobeee…. he was so sweet and cheerful, which made it a bit easier to ask him for a photo! hahaha

Selfie with Vickyyyy! hehe

Vicky disappeared, and then Albert went to go find Vicky…. so I wandered over to find Julia and Mike sitting by the pool! We talked for awhile, before going to get KBBQ at Sanya! 

I took more benadryl, which made me suuuuuuuuper drowsy… so I fell asleep in the car both ways, and after KBBQ I had the biggest food coma in the world. LOL They dropped me off at the hotel again, and we said our goodbyes ;~; Managed to find Vicky and Al again at the lobby, so I waddled over to hang out until I had to leave. I was so, so, so sleepy from the benadryl LOL so I don’t remember a whole lot… but it was a lot of fun just sitting and talking with new friends u w u

AHHHH AND THEN WE SPOTTED A CRAZY AWESOME SAMUMENCO COSPLAYER!! Which turned out to be Dustin!! I think this is the 3rd picture I’ve taken of/with Dustin, and we follow each other on tumblr, but I’ve never formally introduced myself… cause I never realize it’s him until…. 5-10 minutes later… ahhh someday I’ll properly introduce myself I’m sorry I’m so bad at this hahaha I’m also stupidly shy I’m so sorry!! Last ALA he cosplayed a really awesome Hiccup ;~; too cute.

Mmmmmm, at 5PM it was time for me to goooo! Hana and her dad picked me up, and I could barely respond to Hana on the drive back to her place because I was soooooooooo sleepy LOL! I ended up staying awake editing photos while Hana did her hw, when we got hungry and I cooked ramen and eggs for her at midnight whichhhh!!! then became my birthdayyyyyyy! hehehe. All the wonderful birthday wishes I was getting in person and on fb made my crappy skin allergic reaction not so bad… I always feel super loved and blessed to know all these beautiful people ahh ;__; ♥ 

After eating, I remember dozing off, when Hana said she wanted to recite all 50 presidents aloud to me for practice, AND I FELL ASLEEP WHILE SHE WAS PRACTICING LOL. SO EMBARRASSING. She even took a snapchat of me HAHAHAHA. 

I slept in until 1PM on my birthday, breaking out in hives again, which began to make it hard for me to breathe a bit, and my food allergic reactions were happening at the same time ;__; ! aughhh. I’m so lucky that  Hana’s dad is a surgeon, and I happened to always carry my fluocinonide cream, so with benadryl it helped reduce the inflammation considerably… what a way to spend my birthday though ;^;

SUPER DETERMINED TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF ON MY BIRTHDAY so I’d been saving this outfit until today!! hehehe. It definitely made me feel better LOL

It was pretty relaxed up until it was time to leave for my flight, Hana’s dad dropped me off and we talked about oldies music and technology hahaha! I got to my gate in good time, so I stopped by to grab some coffeeeeee.

yum yum yummmm

mmmmm, stayed awake for awhile watching the city lights from my window before dozing off for the remainder of my flight. Got picked up by my mom, and headed back home to get ready for a full school day the next day @__@

PHEWWWW. That concludes my ALA report, this time not made months after the actual con happened…. All in all I had a wonderful time at ALA, albeit it made me feel really old for many reasons LOL. I’m glad I got to hang out with the friends I did, I’m glad to have made the many new friends that I did, and yet I’m also sad I didn’t get to see everyone I wanted to see! 🙁 BUT!!! Such is life, and I’m excited for the next con all the same, as well as for more awesome, crazy shenanigans and inside jokes to come!