Otakon report! I forgot about it! What’s really good?
I like to talk about Thursday. It’s an important part of the experience to me. Sure, the con isn’t open and nothing anime happens, but it’s a great day: everybody’s stuck in a car together and buzzing with excitement. So let’s talk about that.
Last year I traveled with Ed Chavez of Vertical and friends, and it was such a fun and painless way to make the trip that of course I did it again. Here I’d been riding Greyhound all these years! What was my problem? Six of us (me, Ed, Erin and Noah of Ninja Consultant, our friends Niki and Laura), and all the books, actually made for a relatively comfy ride. Of course, I was never in the driver’s seat. Talk to the drivers about all that! (good job you two)
Of course, nobody wants to start their voyage from midtown New York City, but we obviously had to load the books from the offices. The way the books and luggage were packed into the back of the van, the very back seat was this book-bound fortress of solitude. You had to hop in from the front, with the window to the right of you, books piled up to your head behind and to the left, and of course your lovely fellow passengers to the front. And then the van is gridlocked too!
If you ever get a chance to experience NYC gridlock, please don’t take it. We were stuck for two and a half hours before the Holland Tunnel: the street vendors were hawking to us as we sat in place, and more than one driver hopped out of their ride and bought a hot dog and soda without ever having any trouble. You get used to it. You resign yourself to it. You treat it like a vacation, and you talk some more.
Once we finally got into Jersey, it was smooth sailing into Baltimore. Like I said, I’m fond of everybody in the van and I see nothing but fun in shooting the shit with them for a couple of hours at a time. The running theme of my Otakon was good company and good times.
As it’s been for a while (even on other Otakon visits with other friends), the highlight was dinner at Waffle House. Those of you with access to the chain probably don’t think of it as anything special, but it’s different when you live up north and you’ve never seen one anywhere near you. Hell, I’m still not even used to how cheap everything is over there: I thought $8 Chinatown meals were cheap but I just didn’t know. I hadn’t eaten all day in preparation, because I was just that excited to carb up (eating meat at Waffle House has, in my experience, been inadvisable).
Just like last year, we got in late at night and way after pre-registration had already closed.... but not too late for a room party! All the Internet Cool People were in attendance, of course: Mike hosted, I finally met my boss at ANN, I had the unique pleasure of introducing friends to the irrepressible wah over drinks. If you want to hear a little bit of what that was like, Erin was podcasting there and I drop in for a moment to share a sad story and the revolutionary host club marketing concept of “nyanpa”, which I had discovered on the way over and plan to build a franchise around.
(The second image on Erin’s podcast page is the gravy-smothered plate of hash browns I ate at Waffle House, incidentally. No regrets.)
I had stopped by the hotel for a room key beforehand (thanks Al!) and at two or so I just popped into the place and passed out on the floor. I may stay out till all hours of the night nerd-partying, but I don’t make any noise when I get in-- okay, aside from the snoring. Thanks for having me, everyone!
I’m told there was some anime convention the next day: I’ll talk about that next post.
August 10, 2011
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