Owing to the fact that I get up for work at 6:20 AM every day, and my body clock was still set to Eastern Standard Time, of course I woke up well before the other girls on Saturday morning. I tossed and turned for a little while, but eventually decided that if I was up anyway I might as well make productive use of my time--after all, there were four cosplayers trying to share one bathroom; time was certainly at a premium. So as noiselessly as I could, I washed my face and brushed my teeth and put on as much of my costume as I could without help. Let me tell you, trying to put on a corset by yourself is an exercise in awkwardness, and if it hadn't been a "fashion corset" as opposed to a real one, I wouldn't have been able to manage it at all.

I absolutely would not have been able to get ready without these girls's help. Never mind the fact that Patti and Steph made huge chunks of my costume, and helped me buy the elements that weren't homemade, but it took a joint effort to even get everything on me. Steph came and made sure that I was wearing my corset correctly, and Koi pinned the Batgirl symbol in place. Steph also fought with the loupys that had come with my goggles but were not permanently attached; Koi almost laughed herself into a coughing fit watching Harley Quinn threaten Batgirl's headgear.

But the real pièce de résistance ended up being my hair. When Koi saw the bright orange "Brenna" wig that I had brought with me to use with Batgirl, she had me run it by Steph for her opinion, and they unanimously decided that I should borrow Steph's "Black Widow" wig for the day. Let me just say, as someone who has been waging war with her hair ever since puberty, getting to have glossy, perfect, beautiful auburn hair made me feel like a "real girl" for the first time in my life.

We were supposed to be at our booths to open shop by 8 AM, because the dealer's room opened at 9, so everyone hustled with the finishing touches of their costumes, and though we were still rearranging some pieces by the time the public was allowed in--after all, some pieces were sold so we were reorganizing the merchandise so that there wouldn't be any obviously empty spaces--we were ready in time to face the masses.

Our costumes were a complete smash! I almost felt bad--I didn't want anything to detract from our sales, and we definitely tried to make sure we were never posing for a picture when there was a potential customer nearby. Nevertheless, we posed for a LOT of pictures. Steph managed to blend both the manic and the magnetic that is Harley Quinn, Patti had Poison Ivy's seductiveness down pat, and Koi had that air of casual grace that is particular to Catwoman. The only down side of the us often being busy is that there are very few photos of all of us together--generally it was solo shots or us in pairs, but we got one or two that made it all worthwhile.

It was about this time that we noticed we had started setting a trend...Andrew, the awesome Security guy we had met the day before, was absolutely faithful in making his appointed rounds around the Dealer's Room, checking to see if any of the vendors (or attendees, for that matter) needed anything. And as for us...well, I'm not sure who started this, but the smart money's probably on Steph...well, we had these little embroidered mustaches on sticks. They're adorable. And, well, sometimes to attract customers, and sometimes just because we were being silly, we'd hold the little mustaches up under our noses and joke around either with the passers-by, or each other. (Patti in particular was fond of asking, "Excuse me, I mustache you a question." I tried not to let my hatred of puns affect my weekend.) And somehow, every.single.time. Andrew passed by, at least one of us managed to catch his eye with the mustache up and ready. Soon it got to be a game, to see if we could have mustaches in place before he saw us.

About this time I was getting both hungry and a little "people'd-out"--believe it or not, I'm an introvert, just the most outgoing introvert you'll ever meet. I needed time to hide away and read for a while, so the girls relieved me so that I could go grab myself a sandwich (and bring back a few noms for them), then let me hide myself behind the merchandise behind the desk, so I could prop up my book and read while I ate. I'm super, outstandingly, extraordinarily lucky that I have friends that understand my bizarre little quirks and not only accept them but help me satisfy them. Once I was feeling better, I was ready for another round of selling. I felt I had had good luck with luring people over to our booth when I was more visible, so stood in the little walkway we had created for a while, with one of the little mustache sticks in my hand, and tried to recreate the "catch people's eye" game we had going with Andrew. This was...less than successful. I'm not sure why--maybe people don't like being stared down by a bewhiskered Batgirl. Or maybe they don't like strangers trying to see into their souls while they're just trying to shop. After a few attempts, Koi warned me, "Don't be a creeper, Batgirl", and though I was strongly inclined to then do the "creep walk" through the aisles with the mustache in place, I managed to resist the temptation.

Not long afterwards, I looked up to Merlyn approaching our table! I hadn't seen her since I met her at Nan Desu Kan in 2010, four years before. I hadn't even known she would be stopping by! It was great to see her again, and spend some time catching up. We materialized a chair from somewhere and she joined us in our booth space, chatting and reminiscing.

Around 4 PM or so, sales slowed down a little bit, and Patti turned to me and said, "You've been working really hard today, and we appreciate it, and you deserve a little down time. If you want to take a bit to explore the con, we can manage while you're gone." Now, I wasn't going to ask, but, after I had decided to attend AnomalyCon, I had wandered over to their website to check it out a bit. (Or, I had gone to the website because I had forgotten the exact weekend it was being held on, and I didn't want to admit that by asking Patti and Steph.) And that's when I had seen that Tracy Hickman was one of the guests.

Tracy Hickman's one of the few guests I've ever cared about. I read a lot, but the funny thing is, I mostly reread the same books over and over again. Years ago, Louis's father, Lou Sr., had let me borrow the first book of the Death Gate Cycle, and I ended up reading all of them, one right after the other, and then immediately went out and bought them for myself. There are a lot of reasons the series resonated with me--certainly the descriptions of the different characters and worlds are so rich you can practically see them, and the interactions between the humans, the elves, and the dwarves are so varied that it's fascinating, but I think what really hooked me was his concept of how magic worked; how it's all about being able to visualize a possibility that didn't currently exist, and pull it into reality. It just...he writes about making magic in a way that seems logically possible. It's captivating.

Koi decided to take a walk with me so she return to our room to change out of Catwoman (it's a stunning costume, but it's not the least bit comfortable), and, well, let's just say it took us almost a half an hour to make it the length of the hotel. Partly that was because the balls of my feet had finally had enough and were screaming in agony, but part of it was also because seeing Batgirl and Catwoman together makes most comic fans (and most steampunk folks have a variety of outside interests as well) visibly light up, and of course, I'm so incredibly flattered every single time anyone is kind enough to want a picture that I stop and thank them every time. By the time we had gotten to the Atrium, his table was empty--as it had been every single time I had passed by, or snuck a look at it from our balcony. I floundered around, a bit lost because I didn't have a program, and caught the eye of one of the photographers who had taken our pictures yesterday. He introduced himself as Bradley, and after I had hopped up on one of the stone walls to rest my aching feet, he, Koi, and I spent a while just talking about comics and steampunk and cosplay and all sorts of things.

After a bit, Koi and I took a walk around the atrium to see if there were any announcements of where Tracy Hickman was and when he was coming back, and we even asked some of the other people who had tables set up. Eventually, we spotted a TV that was displaying programming changes, and what was going on currently, and it turned out that Tracy Hickman was currently in a sort of question and answer panel in a room right off the Atrium. Koi knew that I really wanted to get Tracy Hickman's signature if I could, so she said she was sure Patti and Steph wouldn't mind, and encouraged me to go sit in on his panel, and try to approach him after he was done, so that I wouldn't lose track of him.

You know, I didn't know I would enjoy the panel as much as I did. I missed the beginning of it, but what I did hear was really interesting. I came in on Mr. Hickman explaining how Amazon has actually hurt more authors than they have helped, and why he wouldn't be able to write a long saga such as the Death Gate Cycle in this day and age, which is really a shame. He also talked about how he believes the reader is an integral part as of the storytelling process, as they're the ones who cast the characters in their heads, and decide most of the stage directions, much as a director does. I had never thought of it that way. Not long afterwards, I looked up to see Koi sneaking quietly through my row to join me, and I was extra glad she did, because the last story Mr. Hickman told before the panel ended was so incredibly moving, that I don't dare repeat it here; suffice it to say that I am not easily moved, and yet I had tears rolling down my cheeks by the end of it. Once the panel had finished, Koi led me up to the table where Mr. Hickman was sitting (because I can get surprisingly shy, and it would not be unheard of for me to chicken out of something I had been looking forward to), and, after thanking him for telling the story that had affected us both (it actually touched on something very special to her in particular), told him, "This girl has come all the way from New York to get your autograph." Mr. Hickman seemed pleasantly surprised, and we led everyone out into the Atrium and back to his table, and he signed two books for me--one being a very special inscription for Lou's father.

By the time we got back to the Dealer's Room--me grinning from ear to ear--the "business day" was winding down, and we were starting to get ready to pack it in for the night. I was able to meet Koi's boyfriend, Squeak, for the first time in person (we had all been on a big Skype call together previously--I want to say New Year's Eve?--and had toasted each other with Jaegermeister), who was an absolute darling and, after we dashed up to the room to change out of our costumes and wigs, took us all out to dinner at a nearby Irish pub called Slattery's. He even ordered the lamb after I had expressed curiosity about it, but was afraid to order it for myself in case I didn't like it. Some boyfriends get a little intimidated when a bunch of female cosplaying friends get together, but Squeak fits right in. The five of us had an absolute blast at dinner.

With dinner done, we decided to head back to the hotel room for the night. Andrew texted us to invite us to a small party, and while my brain very, very much wanted to go, my body very, very much rebelled against the idea, unfortunately. Us girls took off our makeup (oh, that's such a heavenly feeling sometimes) and put on pajamas, and then we all gathered on the bed Koi and I were sharing to play a round of Cards Against Humanity--my first time, after hearing so much about it! I have to say, I'm not very good at it (I'm really bad at "humorous analogy" games, I also stink at Apples to Oranges), but I enjoyed my turn as judge VERY much, and I can definitely see why this game has gotten so popular. (And I will never hear either "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" or "Prince Ali" the same way ever again.)

I was struggling to stay awake at this point, and we had another early day ahead of us tomorrow, so everyone took pity on me. After the round was over, Squeak wished us a good night and took off, and I collapsed into bed and was out like a light.