We allowed ourselves to sleep in a *little* on Sunday morning, as we had nothing definitive scheduled, and I knew I'd have to be rested for the drive home, but before too much time had passed we were up and getting ready-again availing ourselves of the free breakfast in the common area-to dress in our video game costumes, Luigi and Princess Daisy.  As per our usual, after packing and getting dressed, we checked out of our hotel room (lovely, lovely hotel room!) and checked our bags with the hotel so that we could enjoy the con and just come back and change before we hit the road.

Being on such a long line gave Mario Rob a chance to catch up with us, and while we still need to get Rob's girlfriend Courtney into a Princess Peach costume to complete our little band, having three Super Mario Brothers cosplayers still inspired a lot of people to take our pictures.

I had a bit of an ulterior motive for wanting to visit the Artist's Alley as well-I wanted to see my friend Sammy again, after not having seen her since last year's Otakon.  I'm not sure why I didn't find her immediately on my own, as I really like her art style and I thought I'd be good at picking it out even in a crowded room, but luckily for me Hime-chan, Avi, and someone who was not exactly Lady Terentia joined us not long afterward and helped me find her, so we got to hang out and catch up a bit at her booth.

Next order of business-finding the cameo!  The girl's booth was actually not too far from Sammy's, but she hadn't arrived to set up yet, so we drifted around the Artist's Alley checking out some of the other booths.  Louis got some Nuka-Cola bottletops which are supposed to serve as cell phone charms, but I don't think either of us have had a phone that could support a charm for a while, so I think he's just saving them for future currency when the world inevitably ends.  Avi got some, too.

By the time we had made one complete circuit of the Artist's Alley the artist I was interested in had arrived, and while I didn't want to bother her while she was obviously busy setting up, she took pity on me (or, more likely, didn't want such a suspicious looking character skulking around scaring off potential customers) so she asked me what I was looking for, and in short order, I had me a Sailor Mars cameo!  Now I just have to figure out what I can wear it with, because I rarely if ever wear jewelry, but whatever, I have a Sailor Mars cameo!  It's gorgeous, even my father said so.

Mission accomplished, our next order of business was to finally check out the Dealer's Room, both because we hadn't been there at all yet, and because Rob was on a mission to track down a specific wig for his girlfriend.  We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we power walked from the Artist's Alley on over to the Dealer's Room, and thankfully there was no line to get in.

We ended up power walking around the Dealer's Room quite a bit, too, as it was as huge as ever.  We knew we couldn't really afford any of the big ticket items, such as the weapons or statues, but Louis and I made sure we stopped by the Funimation booth as usual, to see if we could score some new anime to check out, even though we still haven't gotten around to watching Gurren Lagan which we bought last year.  (We did, however, watch Ouran Host Club not too long ago, and we LOVED it, so sometimes buying "random" anime totally works out!)

We ended up having to split up from Mario Rob, which was too bad because we never did get around to getting a true photoshoot with him, which had been my intent, but he was on a mission and we wanted to see Hime-chan off-her husband had just arrived to pick her up-so we headed over to the Marriott.

Getting to see Peter again was wonderful-we had only met him for the first time at their wedding back in March, and of course, at his wedding he mainly had eyes for his beautiful bride, so we hung out in the parking lot of the Marriott for a while just talking about how married life was going and where they were and what they were planning next, and we promised we'd see each other soon.  Hime-chan and I cried to the surprise of absolutely no one and our goodbye hugs are more like goodbye clings because neither of us can give up the other willingly, but now that I drive and things are looking a little better on her end, hopefully it won't be so long before we see each other again.  (And I'm still waiting for copies of their wedding pictures!)

After they had left, we decided to head back to the con and do at least one more tour through the convention before we knew we'd have to start thinking about getting home-although driving ourselves meant we were not tied to an Amtrak timetable, I was planning on going to work the next day, and it's still quite a trek.  So we made our way back to the center and just wandered the halls, once again, taking pictures of whatever caught our fancy.

We also got to see Lauren and Pat again, and see Ashley for the first time this con-she gets prettier every year, and if you don't believe me you have seven years of Otakon con reports to browse if you feel up to it.  I really wish we got to hang out more, but hopefully one of the days they are planning a New York City trip I'll be able to meet up with them, and reciprocate the round!

After a bit, we found PopeCerebus for a Luigi and Princess Daisy photoshoot, which he was kind of enough to conduct for us outside, and just as we wrapped up that and were thinking of heading out, we ran into Eurobeat King on the inside, and did another shoot!  That has to be a new record for me, doing two photoshoots virtually back to back like that, and it just goes to highlight what an individual photographer brings to a shoot; you can take the same cosplayers in the same costumes in almost the same setting, and yet the overall feel of the shoot can vary greatly.  I'm not even saying one is better than the other, but I am saying that each photographer is an artist with their own vision, and it's interesting to compare the finished results.  But I digress.

Louis and I left the con center after that, and we knew we probably wouldn't be going back.  We tried to find a cheap place to get out of the heat for a little bit-I think Sunday was the hottest day of the weekend-and grab some food because we hit the road, because apparently I turn into the wacky dad in every road trip movie once we're traveling, and obsess over "making good time" and not wanting to stop for paltry things such as "food" or "bathroom breaks".  (I'm kidding.  Mostly.)  One of the best things about Louis is that he's wonderful to just relax with away from the chaotic crowds, and if he wasn't already married I'd be totally fixing him up with all of my single girlfriends.

Sure enough, we headed back to the hotel, but as we were walking Chris texted us to let us know that he wanted to give us some souveniers he had picked up for us from Japan!  We got our (too many) bags and changed into our regular clothes, and as we were waiting for the valet to pull our car around (an indulgence chosen more because the free parking lot was full than out of decadence), and even aside from the gifts (which were incredibly heartfelt and brought me again to tears, although I suspect my emotions may have been running high that day), watching a friend see us off and wish us a safe journey home reminded me just how lucky and blessed in love and friendship I am.

Final thoughts?  Well, I hadn't shared this with too many people previously, but the theatrical in me had made me consider whether or not this should be my swan song from cosplay.  Certain things were just too significant to ignore: my first con was in 2001, making 2011 my tenth year of cosplay.  A nice round number to go out on.  Two, as I mentioned in Day 2's report, Hime-chan and I had met through our mutual love of Chibiusa, so after ten years of begging her to be the Chibi to my Rei, I had finally accomplished my goal.  And third, the very first ever photoshoot I did had been in this same red artbook outfit with David Ng-wouldn't it be fitting if that "costume" was my very last photoshoot as well?  Plus, I'm going to be 31 this year.  I can't cosplay teenagers forever (although I admit I seem to be holding up pretty well.)  Why not retire?

This weekend reminded me why not.  Oh, first and foremost, it does no good to read too many portents into the wind-sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, if I may mix a metaphor.  Ten years is a nice amount of time to spend cosplaying, but so is fifteen, or thirty, or forty.  Or thirteen.  You can't decide too much of your life by assigning arbitrary meanings to random numbers.  (Or, at least, I choose not to.)

Two, I finally got Hime-chan to agree to cosplay with me-why quit now?  There are LOTS of Chibiusa and Rei costumes we can do together-rewatching the Sailor Moon S season reminded me just how much time the two actually spend together (I had forgotten, and assumed I was imagining much of their relationship based on Hime-chan's and my own.)

Third, I still have SO MANY Sailor Mars costumes I want to do.  Someday I'll tally them up (and if I'm not even halfway, I may get a little discouraged.  May) but.you know, the rest of OPIB is younger than I am.  They still have many years of cosplay left in them.  I don't want to leave them.  So I'll stick as long as they'll have me.  As long as I feel I can pull it off.  There haven't been any complaints so far.

But lastly?  I love the con scene.  I love the fun of dressing up in costumes.  I love spending time with my friends.  I'm going to take my own oft-repeated advice and say here: the time to quit cosplay is when it stops being fun.  Not a minute before.  And everyone, I'm still having a ball.

The weekend isn't over until I glomp at least one Terry cosplayer.