There were also some changes to the con itself. It was held at a new hotel, the Adam's Mark in downtown Dallas, easily accessible off the DART rail and considerably larger than the hotels of the past (I mean, there were multiple towers, for crying out loud). But the increased size also became a detriment, as it soon became apparent that it was now impossible to find any of your friends once you'd been separated. The con guests were forced to make do with cellphones and walkie talkies. It's slightly amusing until you realize how vital it really is. So I was a little annoyed by that and the fact that to get anywhere, you had to walk all over the hotel, and despite the increase in floor area, every inch seemed to be packed with people at all times anyway. It really makes you yearn for the coziness and familiarity of smaller cons like Ushicon.
Friday
The night before, Allison, Eryn and I had gone to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and then gone to Eryn's dad's house in Dallas to spend the night before driving to the con the next day. In the morning, he made us breakfast (yuss! Awesome!) and then around 2 we left for the con in Allison's car. Get to the hotel, find a parking garage, drag our crap to the lobby. I check in (yeah! First time doing it! Whoooo's awesome!!) and we go up to our room and eventually round up everyone else staying in it and they bring their stuff up. Everyone was a little annoyed with us for getting there so late when they had been dragging their stuff around since 9 a.m. or so... but it really wasn't my fault, since I wasn't in charge of when we left, and I regret that we didn't coordinate our arrivals better. Anyway, I went down and got my badge and then checked out the dealer's room. 
I was immediately scopin' it out for the Shiina Ringo and Maaya Sakamoto CDs I wanted 
(Karuki Zamen Kuri no Hana and Shounen Alice, respectively) because those were the only things I really wanted. I knew they'd be expensive ($35 apiece), but on yesasia.com and all those sites, you have to pay $14 for shipping, so I figured this way was cheaper. So I shelled out $79 and got them, and I'm so very happy. They're both very good. My two favorite Japanese artists <3 <3 And I own official CDs! Considering I downloaded mp3s in order to get a lot of their music, this is a big thing.
Then.. hmm. Went across the skyway (wiiith.. Kristy, Jose, and Allison) to the Plaza of the Americas food court for dinner. Got some KFC popcorn chicken, which wasn't excellent but it was better than nothing. Wow, that food court was SO convenient. I was really happy. At almost every other con, there are NO fast food places within walking distance, but yeaah downtown Dallas baby!
Forgot all the late afternoon/early evening stuff. At some point I bought Kare Kano 9 in the dealer's room :D. Then around 10 Kristy and I got in line for Rocky Horror. That was annoying, because it turned out there was an error in the schedule and it was actually starting at 11:30. So we had to sit there for awhile, and we also had to get our IDs to prove we were of age *laughs* There were some crazy people nearby, including this one yaoi fangirl who let us browse her doujinshis. Heehee, JamesxSirius and VashxWolfwood. V. amusing. Speaking of yaoi, it was SO widespread there. You couldn't move an inch without running into a girl with a "WILL HUG FOR YAOI" sign or.. heh.. a guy with a "YAOI FAIRY" sign taped to his chest.. holding hands with his boyfriend. Heh heh. I dunno, it just hasn't been like this in the past. And just when I'm all "yaoi, cool but eh" and not crazy about it like I used to be. Aww, bad timing. Oh well.
So! Rocky Horror. Allison, Jose, and Amy joined us as we were going in. The live cast was pretty good. The Frank N. Furter was AWESOME. Acted just like him, and wasn't afraid to do some gratuitious fondling of Rocky that was so not in the movie at times XDD V. amusing. They totally kissed, too. hee. There were a lot of girls playing guy roles (like Brad, which annoyed me, he should have been played by an actual guy *grumble*) but at least Rocky and Frank were played by guys. But yeah, sometimes the audience participation got a little out of hand. It got to the point where you couldn't even hear the lines 90% of the time. I need to watch this movie once without an audience and THEN learn all the things to yell back. So yeah, that turned out to be one of the best parts of the con.
I don't know what happened after that. I was looking forward to the Friday night dance, but because of the THREEE COOONCERTS and all (ugh, can you say 'cut back on bands'?) the dance never happened. Camino didn't finish until like 2 a.m., so it was just as well, but still. I kinda wanted to see Do As Infinity, but didn't make it down. Ah well.
Again, we picked up some extra people (Shin K, as I suspected would happen, and then Zack and his friend. Zack actually paid us $20 to stay, which I was kind enough to distribute out among everyone who did pay ;D Yay Zack!) but it was fine. We didn't go to bed until 4 a.m., and once again, as soon as the lights went out everyone started talking and we had another great in-the-dark conversation again. I don't know why that always happens, but I love it. :D
I've forgotten a lot of stuff from Friday, but seeing as how I was overly angsty and emo for most of the con, I think it's for the best that I don't describe my inner rage and pain to the fullest extent. Hee.
Saturday
Robert came by and dropped us off doughnuts from Charlie! AHHH HOW NICE I LOVE YOU CHARLIE. So everyone had some yummy doughnuts and it was tasty and wonderful :DD
It took awhile for everyone to get up and showered, and I was the last in line to shower, and by that time everyone had already gone downstairs (thanks for waiting for me, guys!). It was okay, though. Bekah and I went and browsed about the dealer's room and talked about how much not-fun we were having (we were both feeling sick, too, and kind of just wanted to go home). I got Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE 1 :DDD Sho happeh. Of course, I've already read the scanlations, but I like supporting the official licensors whenever possible. It's such a good story :D I love how Sakura is like an Indian princess. I want to make her outfit! Eee wish I had the sewing skillz to do so. Maybe when I finally buy that Indian-dress pattern.
Hm.. Saturday afternoon. No idea. I think Kristy and I wandered about a lot. I know I saw Ashley and Amy in their Gothic Lolita dresses (Ashley sewed hers herself! It was soo pretty! Both of them looked quite nice :D) and Michael in his Battle Royale costume with the leaves that he STOLE from the HOTEL AND FOOD COURT XDDD. Eryn's reenaction of that was hilarious.
Around 6, I called my LJ friend Chloe who said she was on her way, but at that point we were on our way up to the room so I missed her. I thought that meant I wouldn't see her at all, but as future events proved, I was wrong~! (Ooh.. foreshadowing.)
Then, possibly, a bunch of us hung out in the room. Don't really remember. I know that Elsa, Kristy, and I went over to the food court and got McDonald's for dinner. Around 9, we went down to the j-pop room to watch Gackt and Hyde's movie Moon Child. It was semi-interesting and a little humorous, but after about 30~40 minutes Kristy and I left and wandered around. Our meanderings eventually led us up to Ashley's room, where Kristy had a close encounter of the Gamsnark kind. Oh man.
Okay, so here's what went down. We sat on the bed and were listening to Michael and Doug be losers and sing along all girly and high-pitched to "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, and Gamsnark (for those not up on it, Kristy's ex-boyfriend and crazy stalker type who really did not like that she broke up with him and blocked him from AIM) was safely across the room, occasionally making small talk with her and Kristy replying because she's too nice to kindly tell him to fsck off. Suddenly he moves over to a chair by her, and the following conversation ensues.
Him: So what's your AIM screenname?
Kristy: Um, still the same one *ramble ramble*
Him: So do you still have me blocked?
Me: .....
Kristy: Uh, yeah, my parents are still all *ramble ramble*
Him: I wish I could talk to you. I miss you.
Me: ..........
Ashley: *asks something about the game*
Him: *turns to answer*
Me: Kristy, you want to get out of here?
Kristy: Yeah.
Both: *dash out*
But apparently some people can't take a clue, because he continued to accost her for the rest of the con. And he might possibly see this someday, and if he does... well, I'm not sorry. He knows how I feel, and he doesn't think he did anything wrong. I talked to him on AIM when I got back from the con, and he said Kristy should have just told him to leave her alone. If he thinks that anti-confrontational Kristy could have really said something like that to his face, he doesn't know her at all. =_= The conversation ended with me telling him he had been "unbearably rude" to her and blocking him (the opportunity I'd been waiting for!). OHHHH!! Whatcha gonna do noooowww! Yeayuh >D
So we escaped to our room, where we hid out for awhile until it was wandering time again. Then at 1 a.m. we went to the dance. Okay, DJs? Rock/heavy metal music? NOTSOMUCH WITH THE DANCENESS!! And they were making the devil-horns HARDCORE rock sign out to the crowd as if that was some sort of excuse for acting like this was a Metallica show. Excuse me, but it was NOT. This is a CON DANCE, also known as a RAVE. We are WHITE PEOPLE. Our dance music is TECHNO. GIVE US THE TECHNO AND DANCE MUSIC! Eventually they played some, but still. Also, it was a little creepy, because this weird guy asked me to dance with him, and I was so surprised I just said "Sure" without thinking but apparently 'dance' is a thinly veiled excuse for 'attempt to grope', because he kept trying to put his hands on my hips and feel me up and i was like HOOO THERE DON'T THINK SO. After about 30 seconds of that crap I just turned away. He wasn't even hot, and like 30. Bitch plz.
Also, we had this little group of 6 girls dancing + Jose, and as soon as he left this like, crazy group of guys moved in. These three random guys were like, trying to bump and grind with us, and we were like BEEETCH and left. The first time a random guy tried to do a little swivelly dance around Kristy, Eryn had to go off to the side and laugh to herself XD. Then this Asian guy came up to Elsa and was like "Do you go to North Garland? You look familiar" and she was like "Uh, I graduated from high school." He was like 15! Figures that he thought she would be from North Garland, as that -is- the Asian high school, but come on XD
I don't know what happened here, so I'm going to rant about the idiot people with signs. On the slanted hallway connecting the two main Adam's Mark buildings, it became like sign central. Especially at midnight Saturday night. Kristy and I would walk through there and just be ACCOSTED by these people shoving obnoxious signs in our faces. "GLOMP ME PLZ" and "FREE HUGS" filled my vision. Okay, I'm not going to hug some sweaty stranger, so wipe off the sad puppy face when I attempt to discreetly sidestep your advances. I mean, really. That was sad. And also really annoying. I know it's not just me, Shin K commented on it too, and it's true--the fans get more annoying with every year. I know at A-kon 12 I ran around like a 14-year-old idiot with my friends, but these people were quite a bit older who really should have known better. Anime fandom is no excuse for obnoxiousness.
What's more, these people are really tragic and lacking in social skills--and it's kind of sad when you realize that these people really have no life at all. Nowhere was that evidenced more than the dance. We witnessed this 40-year-old skinny balding guy trying to get down by himself, and then this troll-like woman doing a retarded do-si-do move when she wasn't trying to copy us, and it's like THE DANCE IS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, GET OUT OF HERE! So I just kept thinking "Was I always annoyed by just about every other fan here?" I know I mostly come to anime cons now to buy stuff and see my friends from other cities, but dude.. even if you're a "real fan," don't be so pathetic. You're just proving true every single anime-fan stereotype, one by one. (This sounds really elitist of me, and you know what? OMG I DON'T CARE!)
Then at some point Saturday night, I was walking down the big hallway on the second floor (the one that goes from the elevators) and I see this guy who looks like John Mayer coming up the escalator, talking to some guy. He looked like he was looking for his room or something. I thought "Wow, that guy's really tall, and looks a lot like John Mayer!" and continued on. Then I get home and find out that Allison saw him, recognized him, and it WAS him!!! DAMMIT!! I don't think he's like super sexy omg, even after seeing him in person, but I love his voice and I love his music! I would have LOVED for him to sign my "Heavier Things" CD! (Which I didn't even bring to the con, but that's beside the point.) I could have at least told him how much I'd been loving it lately! Agghghh x______x So... stupid...!
I found out later that he was there for some blues festival in Dallas, so that expains his presence, though I am amused that the festival staff didn't do their research and thus put him in a hotel currently hosting an anime convention (ha! Or maybe he's a secret anime fan XD). In either case, I hope he enjoyed gawking at all the freaks XD
So yeah, once again we didn't go to bed until 5 a.m. Apparently Zack came in an hour later and collapsed on the floor, hee.
Sunday
Agh. Took so long for us to drag ourselves out of bed. At noon I had to go down and check us out, and I was fully expecting everyone to leave the hotel room at that time, but... no! Despite the fact that it was my room, I basically let people walk all over me at this point, because Eryn and Allison wanted us to just stay in the room as long as we could despite having technically checked out. I really didn't like this idea, but, well... I was a pussy and didn't challenge them. In the meantime, we all packed up our stuff and stored it in Allison's car in the parking garage. Bekah and I thought Eryn and Allison planned to leave soon after, but especially with the declaration that they intended to keep the room as long as we could, it soon became clear that they didn't plan to leave until 4 or 5 p.m. But it was too late by then; our stuff was locked in Allison's car and we had to do what she wanted (because she was the driver, so that gave her Nazi-like authority, naturally).
In the meantime, random people came up to our room and chilled there (some I didn't even know), and I fell asleep for a little bit. Allison and Eryn came back with Chinese food from the food court and Bekah and I realized that they really didn't intend to leave for quite awhile. Voicing our concerns about that, however, was ill-received, but somehow we managed to obtain Allison's keys and go to get our stuff (then we'd call our mom and have her come get us).
By this time, both parties were incredibly irritated with the other, and we found out later that when we'd taken "too long" in bringing the keys back, Eryn and Allison had stormed off after us. We never saw them, though, and we were honestly trying to go as fast as we could; however, I will admit that one thing hindered our progress back to the hotel: 
As Bekah and I were dragging our stuff back to the front of the hotel, lo and behold, I saw my LJ friend Chloe (and two of her friends) on the street! I wouldn't have recognized her if not for all the pictures she always posts in her journal. I called out "Chloe?" in a tone of astonishment, and it was really her! She was wearing a cute Sakura costume, so I took her picture and we chatted for a bit until Bekah and I resumed our slow trek to the hotel. I took the car keys back up to the room and left them with Kristy, and my mom arrived soon after I returned to the bottom floor. I don't think she was very happy about having to come pick us up, and believe me, Mom... we didn't want to have to resort to this either. Looking back on it now, although I am still a little annoyed, I can pretty much just chalk that bit of drama up to miscommunication: Bekah and I just assumed that we'd be leaving after check-out, and Eryn and Allison, accustomed to staying later on Sunday, assumed we'd be doing that. :/ Nothing anyone can really do about it now, and if either of them reads this later and is unhappy with me for recording the story here, I'm sorry, but it -is- my report.
I won't write the con off as a total bust, since I did get to go to Rocky Horror, see Chloe (and John Mayer), and buy two CDs I'd been wanting... but I was just really annoyed by the behavior of some of my friends at this con (and the way I dealt with it wasn't particularly stellar, either). It's all right, though. Eventually I just realized that I didn't need them and hung out with other people instead, which is really all you can do in those situations. Now I look back on it and I just accept it as a particularly miserable experience for me. I'm not glad that it happened, but I won't stamp my feet and throw a tantrum about it (anymore). It's all in the past now, and again, hopefully next year's will be better.