Ah, the last day of the con. Lou set his alarm, got up, took a shower...and promptly came back to bed and fell asleep. D'oh! So we got moving a little later then we would've liked (theme of Otakon '06, it seems.) Of course the toilet had to clog up one last time, and then it took a while to check out and get our bags stashed (since we wouldn't be rushing to catch a bus, we weren't sure exactly when we'd be ready to leave), so we didn't get to the con center until around 11 o'clock.

We found it with relative ease, but we couldn't find anything for me to treat Lou to, thus ending our (whole, spectacular two year) streak of buying each other presents at cons. ::tear:: Oh, well. It was Sunday--we were running low on money anyway. :)

We got to run into quite a few cool people in the dealer's room, however, including CHris and Carrie, who I hadn't seen all weekend. And I got to glomp a Terry, which was nice. (Gotta catch 'em all? Perhaps.)

My main shopping excursion, however, was to find xxxHOLiC. There's a story behind this. Basically, last year, I was supposed to meet up with Paintobscura from LJ, but due to getting our signals crossed (I had NO luck being on time for photoshoots last year. None.) we ended up missing each other.

This year, we swore we were going to meet up. Then, when she found out I really liked Tsubasa, but had never read xxxHOLiC, and I found out she liked xxxHOLiC, but had never read Tsubasa, we promised each other we'd try to find back issues at Otakon and buy them together.

We didn't PLAN to wait until Sunday to meet up, but with everything going on, that's just how it happened. I didn't mind originally, since you can get really good deals in the dealer's room on Sunday (after all, they'd rather sell their manga at a cheaper price then cart everything back home), but both xxxHOLiC and Tsubasa must've been the hot items of this con, because NO booth had a full set of either left. Believe me. We looked.

Oh, well. I wasn't too upset--after all, Midtown has this great deal where you get $20 back every $100 you spend, which is almost a similar discount as buy three, get the fourth free...right? I never was any great shakes at math. So we parted ways, promising to get our hands on the respective mangas when we got back home. (As a side note, I held up my end of the bargain, and I'm SO glad I did. xxxHOLiC is amazing!)

I did see the creator of Megatokyo, Fred Gallagher, in his booth, but the line was really long, and I had other things to do that day, so I contended myself with snapping his picture and running away. Next time, next time...I didn't have money for a "Sad Girl In Snow" blanket, anyway.

We headed upstairs to meet up with Michi, Ruka, Patti, and Steph, and to have an Utena photoshoot with them, Jamie, and Patti and Steph's friend Fitz.

They looked great! I felt a little out of place, because all of the Adolescence of Utena characters looked just so elegant together, and as someone (I forget who) pointed out, when I'm bouncing around, hopping on one leg and kicking the other foot out, and singing from joy...yeah, I'm not very Utena-like. :) But on the other hand, we grabbed all of our photographer friends we could find: Eurobeat King and Kevin Lillard (sadly, Dave and Tony K had to leave early), and they took SUCH wonderful pictures of us, really showing off how much work everybody (well, everybody else) had put into their costumes, I'm just...beyond pleased, really. (As you can tell if you go to my Utena page--TONS of pictures! I just couldn't bear not to share them all! They all came out so well!)

Patti and Steph had to leave to catch their plane, and Michi and Ruka were driving them to the airport, so...I had to watch them walk out the door. Which is, quite possibly, the bravest thing I've ever done without crying. :) (Well, mostly without crying.) I felt kind of like a lost soul at that point, so Lou took me out for McDonald's, when who should we run into but Ender! Yay! It's not really a con until Ender bends Louis over for a gay photo. I decree this must be a new Otakon tradition.

After food, we decided to go back to Jen and Matt's hotel room and just relax for a little while. I watched most of Fat Albert, which was a decidedly un-anime way to end a con, but it didn't require a lot of brain cells, which was nice. Usagi Seion and Rich picked us up in Gina6 (oh, we named the car, I don't remember if I mentioned that), and we were on our way back to New York.

The End!

Another shot of the Grim Reaper from Guitar Hero.

Stephanie and I.

Another shot of us.

Panty shot!