I'd like to take a short minute to rant here.

Who the hell decided to put the cosplay competition as the last event (except for closing ceremonies, of course, but I'll get to that in a minute) of the entire convention?? Having it on Saturday is a MUCH better idea. That way people can wear a comfy costume if they choose on Friday, when they're tired from traveling to the convention, then wear the "money" costume on Saturday for the competition, then have Sunday to relax, pack, say goodbye, and leave. But having the competition on Sunday--Sunday NIGHT, no less--means that everyone's tired (and probably cranky--just what you want when the decisions are announced!) and, not only that, but God forbid they actually TRAVELED to get to this convention, now they either have to start their trip back late at night when they're tired, or stay an extra day.

"Only with you, Crissy," Jess kept saying. As if that were a BAD thing.

So, we filed into the Green Room. It kind of sucked that this year, we couldn't watch the skits that went before us. They kept us on one side of the Green Room, then as skits went on they moved you to the other side, and then finally three groups at a time back stage, and then of course finally onstage. Once you were done, you could go out into the audience (the place was PACKED, by the way!) and watch the ones after you. Of course, if you were some of the last acts, this particularly sucked for you, but oh well.

Because, you know, we never did get around to practicing.

They had us stand in front of a round table with some judges backstage for costume construction judging, which went by very fast. We all started getting nervous as we got closer and closer to going on stage. Finally, they lead us backstage, where we waited with Anna, a fellow NYO! member who has performed with us in the past, but was serving on BAAF staff this year.

Somehow, the Emcee (or someone) messed up the order, and we were called to go onstage a little sooner then we expected. As we walked out, with me in the lead, we wait for the opening line to play.

Not a sound comes forth.

I got to about halfway across the stage (and heard someone scream, "CRIIIIIISSYYYY!" but I don't know who!) and stopped. Still no sound. The audience began to snigger. Just as Oshi started to suggest that we should try to remember the lines as well as we could, it finally began to play.

I have to admit, a lot of the credit has to go to CHris, our writer. In case you're curious, the skit went along the lines of the women (me as Tifa, Oshi as Celes, Carrie as Aeris, and Jess as Rinoa) of Final Fantasy arriving at BAAF to do a skit, but they can't find Squa--er, "Leon". The girls snipe at each other a bit, Tifa makes fun of some of the rather overplayed FF skit ideas, and they walk off to try to find bishies to watch kiss. Rinoa wonders what happened to Squall.

We walked off and watched the rest of the cosplay--everything was wonderful, except for one brief moment when I was afraid the audience was going to start chanting, "Chair!" I promise you, someone would have died at my hands, had that happened. But then, after it was all over, we got the bombshell dropped on us--even though the cosplay had ended at twenty to 7, the winners of the cosplay competition wouldn't be announced until the closing ceremonies at 9 PM! WTF??

Nothing we could do, though. After not having eaten since 10 AM that morning, by 8 o'clock that night, I was dying. Jess, who originally wanted to go home with her friends (who must've been bored out of their minds waiting for us, gomen, guys!) agreed to stick around in costume to wait for the results, and then agreed to accompany me outside for a hot dog. We killed a little (okay, a lot) of time, then filed back in at 9.

I had a bit of film left, so I decided to photograph all the winners. First, the nice piano playing Squall and his group won Best Novice.

Now, the group I was in was entered as Journeyman, because while I have never won an award or even remotely made my own costume before, other members of our group, such as Ranma, have won several.

The moment arrived...

We won! I don't have a picture, because I was too busy jumping up and down screaming like a madman, and then flying onto the stage to jump on my other skit members like a madman. But it was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

I also missed photographing the next skit that won because we were busy congratulating each other (and divvying up the prizes, ha ha. You know,I didn't even take one. Winning was prize enough for me.

I did get most of the rest of the winners, though, until my camera ran out of film.

The really big winner of the night was a girl dressed as Sumomo from Chobits, who won the grand prize, a trip to Japan. I think she might have been the only one happier then me that night. :)

I think they also gave out prizes to all the kids who entered, which was really nice of them. (There were more then the ones I have here, but as I mentioned, I ran out of film.)