As you may imagine, we slept in on Sunday. Quite a bit. Thank God we had planned for comfortable costumes. We took our sweet time getting ready, and headed for Starbucks before we did anything else. I don't even drink coffee, but I was in need of some serious carbs. (I had stuck to my resolution of not drinking, but just being up way later than usual was enough to throw me off balance.)

Speaking of Broadway plays, I don't know HOW it came up in conversation (possibly because he was wearing wolf ears?), but it turned out that both Andrew (who we stopped to shoot the breeze with on our way our--somehow the weekend had gotten away from me and we never did get a chance to hang out) and Lexi were in love with the musical Into The Woods...so of course they broke out into "Hello, Little Girl", complete with spontaneous choreography. It. Was. AWESOME! Anyone who tells you that musicals are tough to watch because it's hard to believe that people break out into unconstrained song, needs to hang out with my friends. Andrew and Lexi were phenomenal and I only wish I had had the presence of mind to get it on video.

There were a LOT of Love Live cosplayers on Sunday, too; more than I expected, if only because Sunday usually isn't a big cosplay day. Quite a few of them had the lyrics and the choreography memorized for the song that went with the costume they were wearing, too; me, I *still* haven't learned all the words to "Moonlight Densetsu" by heart, and I've been a Sailor Moon fan for almost twenty years now, so...I'm pretty hopeless. (One of these days, I swear.)

Let me just say, too, that I really loved how many Ouran High School Host Club cosplayers there were at this con. When Ouran first hit the scene it was REALLY REALLY BIG for a while, and you'd see full groups almost everywhere, but its 15 minutes of fame ended pretty quickly, and it doesn't seem to have the staying power that say, InuYasha has had. (Maybe it's related to how long a series is? Because come to think of it Gurren Lagann--which I still haven't seen--was also mega huge for like one or two years, but I don't think I saw a single Yoko the entire weekend. Anyway. Moving on.) One Tamaki even had a bouquet of violet fabric roses that he gave out to all the women who took his picture, so I came home with *two* flowers from random cosplayers, which is just the nicest thing ever.

It was also really fun just getting to roam the convention in a group with matching costumes again, too; while I really, really love doing photoshoots (and not just because I get to put them on my website after the fact, although I admit that's part of it), too often too much of our time is spent in getting ready, going to a photoshoot (which is often not on the con grounds proper), and then heading back to the hotel room to change and get ready for *another* photoshoot. You get some really beautiful pictures that way, but you don't get a lot of the "con experience", which I had missed. Plus, you can make a *lot* of in character jokes--we kept insisting that we were "idol trash" and Heather actually took a selfie with a garbage can, so...I don't know, maybe you had to be there, but we laughed our heads off like idiots. Which is really the point.

We sadly didn't have as much time together in the morning as I would have liked, because of course all of us non-locals were flying out at different times. So we found ourselves in the time-honored tradition of camping out with our luggage in the lobby, saying goodbye to our friends one by one. I made sure we got some group shots of us in our costumes together before it was time to go. Heather, sadly, was the first one of us off, so we sent her on her way with many kisses not only for herself, but some to take home for Ambellina. (Next time, baby girl!)

By this time it was nearing noon, and I really wanted to grab some lunch before getting on the plane (you can never be sure whether they're going to offer food or not, and it's overpriced anyway even if they do), so we left the con center one last time for this place called Zoup, which had a surprisingly diverse menu considering the name. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so we ate at these little tables out on the patio, and Patti and Steph ran into another friend of theirs whose name escapes me at the moment because I was running on very little sleep (for me), but was super nice.

We returned to the con because there was one thing in Artist's Alley that I really wanted to buy: a necklace and matching earrings made out of tiny teacups for my friend Skye. Skye and I were planning on cosplaying Alice and a genderbent Mad Hatter at New York Comic Con the following month, and my Mad Hatter NEEDED tiny teacup jewelry. Not necessarily to wear with the costume; just to have. (Skye is a fan of minature things in general.) The woman who made the jewelry ended up having to make them on the spot, since the colors I wanted were not fully finished yet, so that gave us time to take a last walkaround the main area.

Once again I was struck by just how many cosplayers there were for a Sunday--including a Terry Bogard! TWO IN A ROW! This one was really nice, too, not only letting me hug him, but suggesting he do a second pose, too--one of Terry's victory poses where he throws his hat in the air. I'm not used to posing with a Terry Bogard where I'm *not* draped all over him, so I just worshipped him with my eyes as best I could. Swoon.

I love Terry Bogard.

We also found a side room--I think it may have been the Funimation booth?--that was selling SO MUCH LOVE LIVE STUFF. It was virtually a shrine to Love Live, and was showing some of the live...Lives (okay the name can be a little inconvenient gramatically at times, I admit it). There were box sets and CDs and even the little glowsticks that they sell at the live performances, which have different color options so that you can pick one that represents their favorite character (Maki is red; I swear that's not why I picked her). Everything was a little outside of our budget, but we had fun just looking at everything, even watching some of the Live that was playing on a little TV in the corner, and dreaming.

The jewelry didn't take that long to finish, so after we had seen everything there was to see in the side room and the main floor, we made our way back to the Artist's Alley so I could pay for my purchase. We took one more last walk around, just kind of window shopping, before I realized that that time was running out on me, and I would have to be the next to take off. It really sucks being responsible sometimes.

I really didn't want to go, but what choice did I have? As I had told Squeak the night before, it wasn't like I could "call in Colorado" to work. I had arranged for the Super Shuttle to take me from the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel to the Denver International Airport, so we headed back up to the main lobby so I could take off my wig (the TSA agents inspect your ID pretty closely, and I definitely didn't want to look like I had something to hide--not after what happened the last time I tried to fly out of Denver), brush out my hair, and get some of the red out of my eyebrows. The shuttle arrived soon afterwards, and I actually had it to myself! The driver was really nice, too, and gave me a little bit of a guided tour as we drove back to the airport.

Side note: I almost never use lures--why bother?--but I used one at the Denver Airport and just stocked. up. on local Pokémon. I've got a great screenshot on my phone of two Pidgeys, two Paras, one Hypno, and one Ponyta, because I was just dumbfounded at the sheer amount and variety compared to what I run into in New York. Completing your Pokédex is not a good reason to travel to other states, but if you're there anyway...

The flight back was no trouble at all, and I was back in my own apartment soon enough. Since I had traveled on a Sunday of a long weekend (the next day was Labor Day) I actually had a day to recuperate before heading back to work--most of which I spent online trying to find a figure of Maki in her maid outfit for my own souvenir. (Which I found. I clearly need to have my head examined.)

I'm not really sure when I'll be back; Koi and Squeak are getting married (yay!) so I will do my best to fly out for that, but that's not, uh, exactly a con. (Even I don't go to weddings in costume! Unless specifically requested.) I'm not sure if that will affect my attending a convention with Patti and Steph in 2018, but that's a long way in the future, you know? I could hit lotto and start going every year. I could decide I'm too old to cosplay anymore and decide to quit. The former is incredibly more likely than the latter, but still: anything can happen, is what I'm trying to say.

In retrospect I realize it kind of sounds like we didn't do a lot of "con stuff", and in fact there were a few things we missed--like the Lolita Tea Party (but to be fair, that would have cost extra, and we *were* trying to be at least somewhat good), and the Cosplay Cafe (see above.) But to be fair, I definitely don't go to cons to watch anime, especially when so much of it is available to stream for free legally, and even the panels don't usually call to me. I go to hang out with my friends. I prefer to hang out in costume, and it makes slightly more sense to do that out in public with other people in costume than to do it in the confines of our own homes, if only because that's how you meet other people who are just as obsessed with playing dress up as you are. But really, as long as we're together...that's really all that matters.

So August had Otakon, and September had Nan Desu Kan. There was one con left to go...

Sailor Chibimoon

Sailor Pluto and Super Sailor Moon

Steampunk Sailor Neptune

Prince Endymion

Lexi and I took turns as Maki

Another shot of the cheerleader Love Livers

My hero!

The first of the last selfies of the weekend!

Could I *LOOK* any shadier???

Idol Life!