San Diego Comic-Con!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have to go again next year. Dear lord, that was probably the most fun I've had at a con (well, with one downer).

mognetcentral, tsukinobara, dsw_777, and I flew down Friday morning. It was not cheap (once you added the tickets together), but dang was it convenient. One hour in the air vs. 8+ hours in a car. Yes please.

katiem00 gave us a ride from the airport to the hotel. She is a goddess for bringing us delicious bread and sandwiches. Those were some damn good sandwiches. NOM NOM NOM.

While everyone else changed into Foster's, I headed over to the convention center to go to the Billy and Mandy panel. Grey DeLisle wasn't there- WOE- but it was still pretty awesome. Maxwell Atoms (creator), Greg Eagles (Grim), Richard Horvitz (Billy), and Vanessa Marshall (Irwin) were the panelists. I wish I had brought Mandy with me. The only cosplayer in the room was dressed as Major Dr. Ghastly. She looked pretty damn awesome. I sat near three people who were also sitting alone, highly friendly, and all turned out to be from Arizona. I wasn't planning on sticking around for the Foster's panel, just staying long enough to save seats for the others. But there was no gap in between the panels, so no one was let in for seating, and they were shut out. ;_; The Foster's panel was fun, though. Tom Kenny's cute in a dorky gangly way.

After that, it was back to the hotel to change into costume! Debuted one new costume at Comic-Con- Shego, the villainous sidekick from Kim Possible. (Got to thank robstoppable for introducing me to this cartoon back in the day.) pikacello and hoshikaji asked me after Fanime if I'd be interested in joining them for SDCC, and although I was scared of the bodysuit, I said yes. And I'm so glad I did! It was so much fun wearing it with them. Thanks to ziggybecket for taking pictures of us all, and a big thank you to Kim and Amber-D for touching up my seams and evening out the paint after I put it on. If I ever do another painted bodysuit in the future, I will know to ASK FOR HELP and not try and do it on my own. That was stupid of me.

AMBER-D MAKES THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ZOE EVER.

NEIL GAIMAN LOVED LYDIA'S DEATH COSTUME. Really, you can't get better than compliments from the creator.

We ate dinner with Oscar at the hotel bar. They had excellent Diet Coke service. Lydia and Kim fed Oscar and we took pictures to further the fact that he totally has a harem. Not a rumor. FACT.

We woke up mega-early on Saturday to get ready for the Avatar panel. I had borrowed moriyama_umi's Katara costume, and although I'm roughly eight inches taller than she is, it worked. (For the most part. The belt and necklace were quite snug.) I browned myself up (or more accurately, gave myself what looked like a bad sunburn) and headed over to the con to save us all a place in line. And whoa. SDCC had clearly underestimated the public's interest in Avatar. We were pretty close to getting in (maybe about twenty people back?) when they shut the doors. FAILURE. However, through persistent nagging, we were able to get in for the Q&A session. This was, sadly, after their costume contest, and after the season 3 trailer. ARGHHHHHH. But thanks to Kim's fleet feet and remarkable nerve, we were able to meet a few of the panelists afterwards and get pictures. After the panel, we met up with slave_to_anime and did a photoshoot. I then started to panic about making it into the Futurama panel, so I lined up with the BSG fans. And surprisingly enough, I made it into BSG, too!

Now, if you know me in real life, you may know that I am veryvery behind on BSG. I have watched the miniseries and the first three episodes. I do plan on watching the rest of it someday. I am fearful of spoilers and would always cover my ears and go LALALA whenever one of my friends would start up a conversation about BSG (even if it was just, "Dude, do you think we could mod that toaster to look like an old-school Cylon?"). And now I know far too much. Actually, I'm probnably okay, a lot of it went over my head, but still, amusing. It was super-awesome to see Lucy Lawless. She hot. So was Katee Sackhoff. And the chick who plays Six has a massive smile. Many teeth. And it was cool seeing Ron Moore speak, since he penned a lot of my favorite ST:DS9 episodes.

But then it was time for the Futurama panel and I turned into a gibbering fangirl SO HARD. I hope I didn't embarrass Oscar. Billy West! John DiMaggio (who, by the way, has lost a ton of weight and is kind of cute now)! Katey Sagal! Maurice LaMarche! I DIED. They did a TABLE READ. Creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen! Writer Ken Keeler (who, although cool in his own right, I accidentally got mixed up with Lew Morton [who worked on both Futurama and Newsradio, making him super-mega-cool])! My reaction to all of this was basically on the level of a 14-year-old in the 60s going to a Beatles concert. I seriously had tears in my eyes for most of it.

Riding the wave of SQUEEEEE!, I went next to The Film Crew panel. The Film Crew is a new venture by the guys behind Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was an essential part of my preteen to teenage years. Mike Nelson is aging well, he still looks cute. Kevin Murphy is a big ol' teddy bear, I just want to hug him. As time goes on, Bill Corbett looks and sounds more and more like Colin Mochrie from Whose Line? Although the panel was very entertaining (and now I know what I'm getting for Ryan for Christmas), I was distracted by the fact that I was flanked by people who were totally overflowing into my personal space. I need my bubble, people!

I stayed in 6B after the panel to watch the masquerade. The A/V feed wasn't great, but whatever, I enjoyed it. Congrats to everyone who participated! (Videos have started appearing on the ACParadise YouTube channel, if you're interested.)

And then on Sunday we flew home. I went to my brother's newly sold house and ate cheese.

PICTURES!
I uploaded a shot of Shego to my cosplay.com gallery. GO LOOK! :D
And here is the only shot I've found so far of our Avatar group. (I've got some at home thanks to Mich and Kim, but I don't have those online yet.)