AX09 Review.

So I'm finally getting around to posting this. Gosh I took forever to get to this. It's almost a month later now, haha!

Day 00
We checked into the hotel perfectly fine, and found out that the hotels had no notice of wrist bands at all, so we couldn't even ask for one. We got our four room keys, and the first batch of us(Alex, Aimee and I), went to inspect the room quickly. Then we moved all of the stuff in our car into the hotel room. The elevators this time were so much creepier. I don't even understand why. After we had gotten everything into the room, we chilled on the beds and waited for the rest of our group which arrived about two hours later. (Tanya, Sophie, Jo) We eventually got all of their stuff into the hotel room, and then relaxed for a bit.
We had not gotten ice on the way to the hotel (since we had two ice chests), so we carried it to the end of the hall and filled it with the ice machine. Was SO funny. aaah.
After we had everything pretty much settled and put away nice and neat, it was about 3pmish, so we headed down to pick up our badges. We headed along the same route as last year, our goal, the main room, but lo and behold, they moved it. So we ended up following the masses down the long hall, and onto the balcony, where a GIGANTIC line awaited us. Generally, this would have been no problem, but it was OUTSIDE, with NO shade in sight. Thankfully, the staff was walking around with sunscreen, and misters, so it wasn't ALL bad, but it was still pretty bad considering how hot it was. (as we walked around the con in later days we noticed a tremendous amount of people with sunburns! poor things!)
The line ended up going from outside, to inside, where the familiar lineup of computers awaited us. I scanned my barcode and went to pick up my badge as well as Jo's, but it only printed mine, so we had a bit of an issue there. Jo gave her the papers that we both printed out, and the lady was like "But I need to see your name", which confused me a bit, so I handed her my copy. (which was EXACTLY the same.) and she was like "THAT'S what I need, THANKYOU." all bitchy like. We were hardcore wtf'ing. But we got Jo's badge printed, and were on our way.
After registration, and peace bonding, we headed back to the hotel, and a few of us went swimming (eee!)
That was pretty much it for Day 00. I got to sleep in one of the beds, and found out that Alex and I are HUGE bedhogs.

Day 01
We got up shortly before opening ceremonies on Day 01, and got dressed and headed out to go see it. We ended up getting there a bit late, which was fine, since opening ceremonies didn't even start for another hour. I got to see my cousin at the end opening ceremonies, too! It was fun <3.
After opening ceremonies, a lot of people headed towards the dealer hall, so after a short discussion of what we wanted to do, we followed the crowd.
When we got to the dealer hall, it wasn't open yet, and I had no idea where the line was, and honestly didn't care to find out, so we ended up walking back to the hotel. After a while, we set out again to go watch the Gurren Lagann movie. Unfortunately, there were so many people, and we got such awful seats, that we couldn't read the subtitles to save our lives, and the whole thing was in japanese. So we ended up abandoning that idea and headed to the dealer hall.
I got to hang out with Elizabeth, and we all walked around the dealer hall together. They had the Dealer Hall and the Artists Alley in the same big room this year, so it was a bit odd, but super fun at the same time.
I purchased some art for Kori and myself, and then was pretty much done for the day. We headed back to the hotel to rest up before we went back for the L movie. Which ended up being canceled, but since we were already over there, we decided to check out what else was playing in the video rooms. We ended up watching the first four episodes of Romeo X Juliet, which ended on a huge cockblock, so as soon as we got back to the hotel, we started streaming episode five and such on Jo's laptop, which made for many luls.
We all watched a few episodes together, and then everyone was tired, but Jo and I thirsted for more Romeo X Juliet, so I ended up watching it on youtube on my cellphone with her.
When we had got back to the hotel (while we were waiting for Romeo X Juliet to load) we noticed a barricade being set up on one of the streets we use to access the con, and lots of news vans near it, so we popped on the news, and lo and behold, Michael Jackson was going to be having his funeral at the Staples Center, which is like, on top of the convention center. So that was man interesting twist of events.
We also learned the hard way that the ice chest I had brought doesn't keep ice very cold. lol
Ended up going to bed at 2am. Oops! And slept on the floor.

Day 02
We ended up waking up late, and I missed the Pokemon movie. T_T
Aimee and Tanya were sailor scouts today, as well as the other groups members Lauren, Lalo, and Ashley. We managed to get to the dealer hall okay (I took a picture with an Officer Jenny on the way there! So cute! <3), but once we met up with the rest of the senshi, it was IMPOSSIBLE to move. IMPOSSIBBLLEEE. So Jo, Alex and I decided to hit the shops while the rest of them inched their way towards Artists Alley.
I ended up purchasing the box set season one of Romeo X Juliet. Which were episodes 1~12 for $49. We ended up finding the June Manga booth, and they had all their manga on sale for $3 a pop. So I bought six. c:
From there, we headed to the video rooms to watch the Death Note movies, which ended up being CANCELED. surprise surprise. So we headed back to the hotel so people could change and eat, and we ended up watching episodes like. 6? to 12 of Romeo X Juliet from my box set, and then we watched 13 online CLIFFHANGERFKK. During one of the episodes, the title screens are in italian as well as english, and one of the words was 'puntata' and Jo was like "Tanya, whats puntata mean?" and Tanya was like "It's vaginaboob in italian" and we were all like 'WHATXD'. So now we have the ongoing joke about puntata.
We ended up cleaning up the hotel, since it looked uber trashed. After that was over, we headed back to the convention center to see what videos were playing. We watched an episode of Witch Hunter Robin and then bailed.
We all ended up discussing going to anime expo next year as pokemon. It sounds like such a cute idea. Jo would be Officer Jenny, Alex would be Flareon, Tanya would be Chansey, I would be Bellossom, and Sophie is being difficult.
Ended up going to bed at 1:30am, and slept on the floor.

Day 03
We got up relatively early, and headed down to the convention center to get in line for the free tickets to AXidol. The line was moved from an inside area to an outside area this year (go figure), but we ended up being the first ones there, and the line was supposed to start in this area of sun, and there was no staff outside to start the line yet, so we strategically moved the little stand thing to the opposite side of the building where the shade was, and people started lining up behind us in the shade. xD
Aimee left to pick up Max from the Hotel area while we were in line, and then he joined us in the wait to get the tickets.
We watched AXidol and they had a really nice lineup this year. The singers were really awesome, as well as the voice actors. The last guy who went for voice acting was a nerdy looking kid, tall lanky and white, and they set him up with a Kenshin clip, and people in the audience were kinda rude, and were like "don't fuck it up!" since Kenshin is kinda amazing. So they did the beeps and stuff, and holy fucking shit buckets. The voice that came out of that boy was NOT something that I had expected. I swear to god, I would have thought he -was- Kenshin. He was uhmazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-PwvyeM1jw
There is a link it. Jeez. It was really mindblowing.
Needless to say, he won the voice acting portion. lol.
We headed over to the dealer hall and walked around and such, and then headed back to the hotel. Once we got there, Aimee and Max went for a walk, which turned into them having dinner at the restaurant downstairs, so we ate without them. They ended up coming back, and going right to bed, which they made on the floor in front of the bathroom door.
I also ended up on the floor that night. But I really adore the floor, so it was fine.

Day 04
Max ended up lelaving before any of us were awake, without even paying for his share of the hotel bill.
We ended up using one of our $20 vouchers at the hotel restaurant downstairs, but not before we fought through a crowd to get downstairs.
Since it was day four, almost everyone that was in the hotel were attending the con, and were all checking out in the morning. Tanya, Alex, Sophie, and Jo had gone downstairs to order food, and then bring it back up, but with so many people checking out, it was impossible to catch an elevator back up, so they called Aimee and I and told us to come downstairs and eat in the restaurant. Which was an awesome idea, except for the fact that every elevator that opened on our floor was already packed full of people. We sat through like, three rounds of that before one of the guys standing with us called downstairs to ask if we could use the stairs (since you're pretty much forbidden to do so unless there is a fire), so we took the left staircase (since we didn't know there was another set) and went down. We soon realized however, that the stairs only went to the third floor. (wtfiswiththat If there is a fire in there, people are going to be SO confused.) I remembered a bit of useful information however, that there was another staircase on the third floor through the gym, and onto the pool balcony, and from there you could go inside, and take the grand staircase to the first floor. So we headed to the gym doors, only to be stopped by a plethora of cameras set up in and around the outside balcony area. We were told that it was closed and we weren't allowed to go through. So we figured we were stranded, until we realized there was another staircase on the other side. But it ended up having a fire alarm on it. So one of the guys that was with us ended up calling downstairs and asking if we could go through the doors, and they said yes, so we ended up outside the hotel by one of the outside parking lots, and had to walk around to the front and take the grand staircase to the second floor restaurant.
The food was pretty good, and with the coupon, it ended up only costing us each $5.
From there we went to the dealer hall, and then headed over to wait in line for the Zelda Panel. We were REALLY lucky to have gotten in line when we did. After we got in the line, it ended up expanding all the way down until we couldn't even see the line anymore. We ended up being in the last row in the middle. (mind you this room is kinda.... tiny...) and they let like, 3o more people in, and then had to turn the rest away.
During the panel, they mentioned Starcraft, and Jo and I cheered, and I guess Aimee gave Jo a really rude look, and Jo got offended and they had an argument. So Aimee ended up texting on her phone for the rest of the panel.
We went over to the Petri Hall, where the closing ceremonies were going to be, and the charity auction was still going on, so we took a seat near the back and watched. It really was like a spectator sport. It was really fun, and I hope to actually attend the whole thing next year.
Aimee ended up walking out of the room to talk on her cellphone, and when she came back, she spoke to Sophie, and then left again. I guess Aimee had asked Sophie to tell us after closing ceremonies were over, that she was going home, and had said something along the lines of 'just tell them I'm sick'. wtfever.
Charlotte, the winner of AXidol Singing portion ended up sitting in front of us, and we got her to sign our badges. She's super nice and adorable. <3.
The auction ended up running over into closing ceremony time, so that started an hour late.
We returned to our hotel after that, and Aimee was gone, although she left her mess.
We all packed up a bunch of stuff, and showered, and then headed to bed. I got to sleep on a bed ~

Day 05
We got up pretty early and finished packing, the idea was to be ready to go by 11, which was fine. We ended up having to use the service elevator to bring our stuff down because we called for a cart, and it was too big to fit in the elevator. We ended up in the back parking lot area of the hotel, and pushed the carts to the parkinglot hotel entry area moments before alex's mom arrived. We packed up the stuff in her car and made it home without much traffic at all, which was really nice.

Once I got home, I started a torrent for D.Gray-Man episodes 1-103, showered, and got ready to head to the beach, for the other half of my vacation.
About 10 minutes before I was going to leave the house, mass drama erupted, and Aimee ended up separating herself from the entire group. Or rather, tried to be selective of who she talked to and who she didn't, and it hardcore backfired on her. She saved us the trouble of dumping her. c:


That was my Anime Expo adventure~ It made for lots of fun and interesting times, and I can't wait for next year! <3