This was my 12th time going to Otakon, and yet in some ways I was nervous as if it were my first. As I'm sure everyone who's reading this knows, 2017 was the year of Otakon's big move from the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, to the Walter. E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. Ergo everything would be new and scary.

This worked *splendidly*. I left as soon as I finished getting ready in the morning, so around 8:30 or so, definitely before 9 o'clock. I thought I might stop for lunch around 12, but as noon came around I was near Baltimore! It seemed a waste to stop so close, when I could just *get* there and get something to eat, so I just pushed on. The traffic actually wasn't too bad (it being the middle of the day rather than rush hour helped, I'm sure), and I only made one wrong turn due to the connivance of the confusion of the D.C. streets, and my GPS's secret desire to kill me.

I saw the convention center itself, spotted my hotel, the Henley Park Hotel, literally right across the street! The trip had really unnerved me by this point, and in my desperation to just BE there already I'm afraid I cut across traffic to pull into the hotel's driveway...the wrong way, no less. (They should have signs. Well, it would have been more apparent to me if I had been following the flow of traffic. But I was really afraid of going around the block and getting lost.) The valets were nice enough to help me out and get me pointed in the right direction, but spit and dirty drawers, valet parking was full. They let me unload my stuff (I had way more stuff than I wanted to try to handle alone--especially if I was going to be walking), and told me how to get to the nearest parking garage. They weren't guaranteeing anything, but they thought there were still some regular spots available there. So after I deposited my bags in the lobby, I jumped back in the car and, obeying traffic regulations this time, pulled back out to try to find the garage.

As I was waiting at the stoplight on the corner, a girl with beautiful purple hair in a beautiful lavendar dress caught my attention. She was crossing the street, no doubt an attendee on her way to the convention center. I turned my head to check her dress out better...and realized it was Lady Terentia, with Chris! Holy crow, what are the odds? I rolled down my window and yelled out to them, just absolutely delighted. They couldn't believe how early I was, compared to Otakons past! I invited them to come with me, but Teren was on her way to some programming--possibly the AMVs, I can't remember. Chris, however, doesn't trust me on my own (and who can blame him), so he literally jumped into my car at the red light so he could keep me company while I got her bedded down for the weekend, and got myself checked in.

Oh my God, in addition to being in an *amazing* location as to the convention center, my hotel was also *beautiful*. It was also comparatively small, and I didn't see many other attendees in it--more on that later. For me, it meant I never had to wait for an elevator, and since I was only on the 2nd floor, getting to and from my room was a breeze. Unbelievable. The room too, was a treat, and had some amenities I hadn't seen in years--like a bathrobe and matching slippers in the closet--and some I had just never seen before, period, like a complimentary loaner umbrella! Perhaps I'm a simple soul, but it really did feel luxurious to me. God I loved staying at the Henley.

At any rate, Chris and I chatted first while I unpacked my suitcases, and then while I got dressed. We not only had a lot to catch up on, but we had a lot to plan as well, as we would be getting together again literally one week later in Paducah, Kentucky, for the solar eclipse. We tried not to get ahead of ourselves, though--we didn't want to miss out on anything this weekend because we were focusing on the next one! "Each thing I do, I rush through so I can do something else." This is one of my biggest problems and one I am working on to correct. Carpe that old diem, seize the fish!

Once I was ready, we walked across the street to the convention center, and ran into Linwood! This was another instance where I noticed the costume rather than the cosplayer--his prince form of Beast from Beauty and the Beast was the nicest costume I've ever seen him in--the lace in particular is to die for. This is when I started cheering up considerably about the new location--this is when it started to feel like the old days of Otakon in the early 2000s, when you didn't have to text your friends to find them, because you inevitably ended up running into them. As might be expected, we decided to join forces and start our assault on the convention together.

As soon as I walked in the misgivings returned. Where do we go NOW? The Baltimore Convention Center had had, at least to me, a natural traffic flow; you entered at what was mostly the most right you could go, so you naturally drifted to the left; then you would go down a level, and loop around and come back again. It was a nice, familiar little routine you could fall into like a holding pattern whenever you didn't have anywhere else to be. When you walk into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, you're initially in this one straight hallway that looks like it just leads...up? And the stairs go up so high, you can't really see where they lead to, or anywhere else to go. It didn't exactly inspire me with assurance. But, with nothing else for it, up we went!

That being said I do want to say Otakon planning was as thoughtful as usual--although I was a little too dazzled by the New and Scary to notice it at first, registration was immediately to your left as you walked in, and the Photo Suite was to your immediate right. There were also info desks at many locations throughout the convention center. But, as I said, the massive staircase pretty much filled my entire field of view, so, we climbed the stairs.

I have to admit the convention center feels a little more colorful and newer, and it seemed like there *was* a lot more space--I marveled to the boys, as we climbed, that there were a lot of little nooks and cul de sacs; plenty of places for people to just stop and sit if they needed a break, without being in the way of traffic. That's good both for the walkers, and for the people who need to be a little less stimulated for a little while. And when we reached the second floor, we were in this big, open landing that made it so much easier to take pictures of cosplayers without creating gridlock. So that was really nice, too. But I *still* didn't know where we were going.

A big pair of doors faced the top of the stairs, and had a big sign that said "Video Gaming". Fair enough, I know what that is...and I knew some people who would be in there, too! Since both Chris and Linwood were just as interested in getting to know the lay of the land as I was, we decided this might as well be our first stop. Plus, it never hurts to see what new games all the hip young kids are into these days.

Sure enough, right in the middle of the big staff table to right after you walk in, I found my friend Nick. He recognized me immediately (I was dressed in Lolita instead of a costume with a wig, which may have helped), and I introduced him to Chris and Linwood and shot the breeze for a little while. I was interested to hear what his take on the new location was, but I also wanted to be mindful that he was there to do a job rather than just indulge me (which to be honest should count as a full time job of its own, with benefits), so after I had bent his ear for a while I let him get back to work, and we kept walking. They had DDR machines in the back of the room. Had I not been wearing 4 inch Mary Janes I probably would've given it a whirl. Yes, I've got my own metal pad at home, but no one to play with. Also a very low ceiling, but I digress.

My next order of business was to find Mario Rob, and Rob's cousin Justin. Justin was just finishing up a rather epic round of Magic: The Gathering. When I saw he had some chicken fingers left--another interesting thing about the Washington Convention Center, there are food stands tucked away in the *oddest* places, and you're never very far from any one of them--I realized I had forgotten to have lunch due to my timing, so I stole one and tried to content myself until dinner--we had plans for 5 PM, so I figured I'd be all right.

With Justin's game over, both he and Rob figured they'd join us on our rounds, so on we went. I can't remember now if we decided to try to find the Dealer's Room, or if we just started wandering the hallways, but as we were walking we ran into Avian Firefly's sib, Josh! Josh was wearing The Dress That Broke The Internet again--I had seen it on them in photographs, but this was my first time seeing it on them in person, and they looked simply *gorgeous*. Josh asked if I would mind taking a few pictures of them in the dress, since they only had some selfies from the last time, and I turned into instant photographer. I will never be as good as David Ng or Terry Chu or any of the other *incredibly* talented photographers over the years, but you don't spend 15+ years on one side of the camera without picking up a *few* tips. I wish I had had a better camera (and more experience...and more talent, to be honest), but I could at least get Josh into a few poses that just heightened their model-like beauty. Honestly Josh would be pretty intimidating, having both looks and their brain, if they weren't also so incredibly thoughtful and nice.

It was around this time--possibly while I was admiring Josh's shoes--that I realized one of the adorable matching decorations had fallen off of my shoes already. I knew I had had them on the walk up the grand staircase, because I had stopped to check, but it had fallen off since. Since I hadn't even gotten a picture in them yet (although really, who looks at my photos to stare at my feet? Don't answer that), I asked everyone if they'd mind if we doubled back and took at least one quick trip around the Game Room again--I wasn't going to stress it if they didn't turn up, but I did want to make at least one pass. So, my friends being incredibly good-natured, back we trooped. We didn't find the little bow, but it wasn't a total loss because we ran into DJ Ranma S as we were coming out of the Game Room the second time. He was busy, as he always is because I swear to Christ he knows absolutely everyone ever, but I did get one fast picture of him. This would turn out to be one of only two times I saw him all weekend, but I didn't fuss about that too much because he's one of the few people I actually see more than a couple of times a year.

Back to the Dealer's Room! It was CAVERNOUS--there's really no other word for it. Both the Dealer's Room and the Artists Alley are right next to each other on the lowest level of the con; you can overlook both from one level before taking an escalator down to the floor. Wide, WIDE open aisles--I think most of the attendees could have fit in there at once if they had needed to, though I'm bad at estimating so don't quote me (or try it.) We figured we'd start at the far end, and work our way backwards--or as much as we could, as Chris and I had, as I mentioned, pre-existing dinner plans at 5.

The first thing I saw was a purikura--a Japanese photo booth! Every anime and manga fan has run into these in pop culture (it's even sort of a plot point in Love Hina), so I've always wanted to try them. I took my first ever one with the girls of OPIB in Mitsuwa Marketplace back in April when we stopped in on the way home from Kitty's wedding to celebrate Reinii's birthday (...yeah, it's been a surprisingly busy year)--so why not try to shove six people into one now? I feel compelled to admit that this was 100% my idea and my insistance...but see what I said above about having incredibly indulgeng friends, who are willing to go along with my madness. It took a while to figure out how to work the darn booth: you couldn't just put in money, you had to go around to the back to buy tokens from some actual human operators, and then there was some confusion over where the line should form because you could enter from either side. It was a tight squeeze, but we really did manage to fit all six of us in there, although the machine tells you to pose SO FAST that it took us a few times to figure out where the boundaries of the picture were. Nevertheless we had a ball taking the pictures, and although we ran into another "What do we do?" when we tried to get our pictures (and I completely dropped the ball and only remembered to try to get the digital copy from the website JUST after the window to do so expired), I was happy when we walked away with our strip of silliness. (At least the strip is a fairly decent size, or I'd be really mad at myself.)

We walked as much of the Dealer's Room as we could, but it was getting on to 4:30 PM, and while as I said my hotel (where our dinner plans were) *was* right across the street, I also didn't know where we were in the convention center (and was apparently too stupid to pull out a map), or where the exits were, or where we'd come out--if I left through an exit I hadn't seen before on a street I hadn't seen before, it was entirely possible I'd end up walking in the complete opposite of the way I had to go. Worse, I wouldn't realize it right away, because instead of being a nice, chronologically numbered grid like Manhattan, Washington D.C. is a confusing mix of numbers, letters, and the names of the states for avenues--and if they're in any particular order I have yet to discern it. So, we decided to get an early start.

As Chris and I made our way in what we hoped was back the way we came, I got a text from PopeCerebus, asking if I wanted to meet up for a photoshoot. I *really* didn't have time for a full shoot, but I did want to see him, and it turned out he was relatively nearby, so we shot just about the fastest photos ever in the hallway of the convention center. I was super grateful, too; people tend not to take your photo when you're dressed in Lolita, preferring to pass you over for recognizable or impressive costumes. I don't blame them, it's something I do myself, but I do like having pictures to feature on the costume pages of BS&G, so, thank you! After a few photos Chris and I really did need to go, so we said goodbye and headed for the nearest exit.

One last thing--I FOUND ANOTHER TERRY BOGARD. And a phenomenally good one, too. One of these days I really *will* commission a Lily McGuire costume and wear it. (And that will be the year I run into absolutely no Terry Bogards. Well, I'll keep wearing it until I do. Hey, we all have to have dreams.) I tried to keep my fangirling to an absolute minimum (and failed, miserably, but at least I didn't gush) and then, beaming from ear to ear, left for dinner.

To absolutely no one's surprise, Chris and I had no idea where we were once we hit the streets, but we managed to backtrack without too many problems, and found our way back to my hotel. Now, for a bit of explanation, when we decided to wear Lolita on Friday at Otakon, we were hoping to find a place that had some sort of tea service, much like Alice's Tea Cup here in New York City, which we had all worn Lolita to when OPIB came up to visit me in March of last year. Originally there was going to be a Lolita Tea Garden hosted by Otakon where you could get snacks, but apparently Crabby (not MY Crabby, of course...well...that I know of) had gotten into the sweets, so it had become just a meetup/photo location. Annalee and Terentia had done some searching for alternate locations and found some pretty good options, but none of them had a tea service, exactly--more like bakeries, you know?

And then, about a week and a half before the convention, during a conversation with Doc which reminded me to look into what the options for breakfast were at my hotel, I learned that the VERY HOTEL I WAS STAYING IN offered high tea between 4 and 6 PM! A full tea, just like at Alice's! Tea! Scones! Little finger sandwiches! I really wish I could take credit for discovering this but it was *completely* by accident (and makes me wonder why it didn't rank higher in Google's search results, because I *know* Teren is a very thorough researcher.) Regardless, we were *super* excited with the discovery, and ended up booking a table for twelve people.

We. Had. A. BALL! It was me, and Teren, and Avi, and Reinii of course, and Alyce, and Annalee, and Chris, and our friend Stevie and her sister Lauren, and Baltimore Lauren (who wrote an article about Lolita and our tea party for Bleeding Cool News), but in another one of those crazy coincidences I really can't wrap my head around, my friend Lani from high school ended up getting into anime and cosplay after we had both graduated and lost touch, but we recently reconnected and she goes to Otakon every year! So she and her friend Corrine joined us.

I can't tell you how simultaneously surreal and heart filling it was to have my OPIB girl, such a major part of my life these days, hanging out and talking with Lani, who was such a pivotal and influential part of my high school days. It doesn't hurt that Lani is hysterical, and tells just the BEST stories and does the voices of everyone she's talking about--picture a smaller and female Gabriel Iglesias. She had them completely won over before our tea was finished, and it just made me so, so escatic, I can't even begin to describe. These weekends suffuse me with love.

The only other thing any of us wanted to do was Lolita Bingo, and we had some time before that started at 8, so we took one more short walk around the Dealer's Room. I was really too broke to think seriously about shopping, but I'm always on the lookout for awesome cosplayers to photograph, and regardless I'll take almost any excuse to hang out with my friends. We didn't get too many aisles in before we decided we should see if there was a line for Lolita Bingo, so back we headed into the halls. I had another ships-passing-in-the-night encounter with Brian--it seems we alternate between actually having a chance to hang out and shoot, and just barely being able to say hello and goodbye, every other con or so. But really, I'm glad to get to see him at all.

As anticipated, there *was* a line for Lolita Bingo. Most of us girls had worn our cutest, hurtin'est shoes, so I resolved not to stand on ceremony (no pun intended) and plopped down in all of my ladylike finery flat on the floor. Lauren had brought a deck of cards, so we started playing...a new card game that I have forgotten already (you'll have to forgive me, I'm writing this in the middle of a fairly serious calcium deficiency--a fun story that belongs more to this year's New York Comic Con report than now, but it is affecting my memory and overall mental capacity.) Soon after, Eric joined us with my new favorite card game of all time Red Flags, and to make it even *better* he had the Nerdy expansion pack, and we laughed so much our sides hurt. Honestly I think at this point only Teren and Avi and maybe Alyce really cared about getting into the Bingo game; the rest of us were having a grand old time playing outside. In fact, when we finally did get to the front of the line, they only had room for two people (since they were only letting people in as people left--and really, who's going to leave a Bingo game while there's still a chance of winning?), the rest of us shrugged, got off the line, and flopped down on the other side of the door so we could continue our game.

Justin and Artiga came by to say hello, and even joined us for a round or two, but as it got closer to 10 I really wanted to get to bed; I'm a terrible sleeper and wake up almost the same time of morning every day regardless of what time I went to sleep, so the sooner I get to bed, the more sleep I get. Doc texted me as I was leaving, and I really did want him to see me in my pretty dress, so we ended up meeting outside of Hiro's Lounge in the lower level of the attached Marriott. He snapped a few photos of me, and then as he was posing the other girls, Chris noticed the swing music coming from the Lounge. He really would have liked to have gone in and danced, but 1) I really wanted to get to bed, and 2) it seemed like it would be SUPER loud in there, so we had our own impromptu little dance right there in the hallway. Then, as Artiga and I told the story of the first time we met, we started singing RENT as we headed up the escalators and out of the con. It really was a perfect way to end my first Friday at the new Otakon.

Sailor Cosmos

Hotaru and Chibiusa

Sailor Moon

The lighting was perfect

But coming up with poses on the spot was difficult

I wish I had a better camera

I wish I were a better photographer, too.

I don't know why the sunglasses are necessary, but here we are.

Me and Lauren

I wanted at least one picture of my dress in case we didn't run into any photographers.

Taking a selfie with Buster Wolf Cosplay

When Lolitas Attack

OMG YAY!