I had been working furiously during the weeks before the con to finish my Fina (Skies of Arcadia) costume, but the start of school had really slowed me down, and when it was the Wednesday before the con and I still had a ton of impossible things to make, I decided to save the costume for another con and just wear Tamayo (Angelic Layer) again. ^^
Friday
Had to go to school first.. which was agonizingly long and boring. FINALLY we got to go home. And for the first time, I drove to a con myself (since I have a car now). It was at the Hotel Inter-Continental like the past two years, which it turns out is only about 30 minutes away from my house and relatively easy to get to. Anyway, Bekah and I left for Animefest around 4 after getting food to sustain ourselves during the con. We got to the hotel, thinking we'd be early, and found EVERYONE already there. Yeah, 'we're leaving at 5' my ass.. anyway, we found Charlie and paid our share of the hotel room (and a bit more cause everyone wasn't there yet >.>) and Charlie got the room keys and we went to put our stuff up in the room. Then we hung out there for awhile, I think.. Then Kat got there, and she and Bekah and I went down to get our badges. We looked around the dealers room a bit, I was sad because I had only brought about $30 to spend (cause I wanted to save the rest) and there was so much stuff that I wanted. Also, I realized I'd completely forgotten to bring a camera, but Allison said I could use her digital one, so I did (happily ^_^), and when she left I used Bekah's disposable camera, so it was okay. :D
Then.. I think we wandered around the con some more and chilled in the room. At 7 I went down to the JPop room and caught the block of Shiina Ringo PVs. That was so awsome!! Shiina Ringo is the best, and it's been a goal of mine for a long time to just go to the damn JPop room and watch her videos. But I can never find anyone who wants to come with me, so I don't go, but this year I just said "Screw it" and went by myself. 'La Salle de Bain' (English version of 'Yokushitsu') is so prettyyyy!! Blonde Shiina is cool, and hearing the English version of the song was damn awesome. *_* I didn't know most of the songs they played because it was mostly new stuff that I haven't heard yet as opposed to earlier videos like 'Honnou' and 'Gibusu' and whatnot, but it was still way cool!! ^_^
Then I went back and chilled in the room with everyone. Got to see Shin K as a sexeh catboy, and Nick and his friend Mitchell dressed as Gambit and Wolverine from Xmen. Kristy and Gamsnark turned up at around 8 or so at night, and around 9 ish, we all went and caught Anime Hell. JUST LIKE USHICON 1!! Well, not exactly, this one couldn't surpass the pure greatness that was Ushicon 1 Anime Hell, but it was still pretty amusing. Eddie the Eagle and the guy's 90s "cell phone".. the STD awareness thing.. and "Don't Copy that Floppy".. and Mr. T's "Beeeee Somebooodddyyyyy".. and the mosquito thing with the seven dwarves.. "Put oil in the pond! And use DDT to make sure everything in the house is DEAD!!".. and the fact that they were all by DISNEY XD Bwahhaa!! It was great. Ashley, Allison and I were cracking up XDD
Then later, Allison, Kat and I went down to the dance and jammed. They were playing hard techno and remixes of move songs, so it was really cool. I was happy, cause the last A-Kon and Ushicon dances were.. not all that great. And I got to wear my cool sparkly brown/gold shirt that I can't wear to school because of its one-shoulder-ness. Also my fox tail <3 People really like fox tails at cons, hehe.. it got pulled a few times and someone (possibly Nick) said it was sexy. XD
And while everyone was watching anime on Gamsnark's computer, Allison and I were SUPER COOL and watched Trading Spaces! We made awsomely hilarious comments that no one else was cool enough to get. Then when we were all going to bed, we had more mad giggling time while everyone else was over talking about video games or some such. Our conversation was better, though, it was hilarious XD
Saturday
Everyone gradually woke up, showered, etc. There was some amusement when we all noticed a HICKEY on Ashley's neck XDD It was obviously given to her by Charlie, who slept next to her. *mad giggling* It was so amusing. Her Luffy (One Piece) costume covered it, so it was okay, but oh man.. we made fun of her so much about it XD Bwahaha!
Anyway, around this point Monica, Crystal, her boyfriend Patrick, and his friend Thien all arrived, cause they'd come for Saturday only. They said they were going to Hooters to have lunch and I was hungry and wanted to go too, and Crystal said she'd pay for me so I went with them ^_^ Hooters.. hahaha. Had never been there before, but apparently Crystal wanted to go XD The food was okay.. something about it tasted a little weird though. Also discovered (through bored perusal of the menu) that Hooters originated in Clearwater, Florida, where I have totally been. And then I remembered that we'd passed by this big Hooters HOTEL they were building while I was there. Hahahaha XD So I was amused by that.
When we got back to the hotel, I changed into my Tamayo costume. Then Allison, Kat, Monica and I wandered the dealer's rooms, and I bought two Chobits posters, both manga pictures of Chii. They're so pretty *__* I also got a stuffed Ein from Cowboy Bebop ^___^ IT'S SO CUTE!! I've wanted one for awhile, so I'm v. happy to finally have one. Waaiiii, Eeiiinnnn!
Ooh, and I bought a nice cold bottle of ramune soda. I LOVE RAMUNE SODA!!! I had some at Kristy's house one time and had been dying for one ever since. It's so good!!! And I love the marble in the bottle. Then Allison bought one too and we swooned over the greatness that is ramune soda and played with the new stuffed things we'd bought (my Ein, and this crazy thing Allison was amused by and bought). Also, people kept asking for pictures of both of us, and since she was cosplaying as Naru from Love Hina, we took turns putting each other in a headlock XDD Just like the characters would! It was great!! Tamayo + Naru = Awesome!
However, there was some Misaki confusage AGAIN. One time I walked by this group of girls and I heard this "Misakiii!" and had to turn around and say "Actually, I'm Tamayo, hehe" u_u but oh well. Lots of people took my picture, in any case ^_^ (But we all know that I will never see 70% of those pictures.. Afest attendees are not known for their con galleries ~_~)
At some point I went with Ashley and Allison in search of the racquetball courts.. apparently they wanted to play racquetball.. but on the way we saw THE SEXY SEXY HOT WHITEHAIRED GUY FROM AKON!!!!!!!!!! *_________* I don't know if he dyes his hair white (WHITE!!! AKA Sarah's hair color of choice for bishounen, and one that she rarely sees in real life) for the cons, or just has it that way ALL THE TIME, but 
either way.. omg.. it's great. So I flailed about happily and they laughed at me and eventually I made Ashley go with me to get his picture. First I took a nice freaky stalker picture though.. cause he was getting his con badge and I wanted to wait until he was done with that to ambush him.. so I went around a pillar and did the whole zooming-in-from-a-distance thing.. because I'm a freak XD But then I did it for real! Went up and asked him and everything. He was with these two cosplaying girls who giggled when I was like, "Can I have your picture? I love your hair!", I guess because he was just wearing normal clothes.. hmm.. anyway, I GOT THE PICTURE OH YEAAAHHHHHHHH
Anyway, then we went back to Allison and played ERS with Ashley's new One Piece cards XD Then at some point I went up to the room to put on my Sakura (CCS) third opening outfit, because I made it for A-Kon 13 and have meant to wear it again ever since, but never have. And I 
brought all the stuff, so I decided to put it on. So I got changed and went back downstairs, where I found EVERYONE sitting around a pillar by the escalators. Zack, Bill, Stephen and all their friends, Eryn, Allison, Allison's new fanboy Aaron, Ashley, Steph, etc. When Zack saw me (cause I hadn't seen him at all yet!) he was like "SARAH!!!!" and gave me this big huge super-glomp hug!!! XDDD It was so cool!! Yay for being glomped! And I helped pay for his birthday present, this hat Eryn got him because he'd had HER hat for awhile. XD His birthday was that Monday, September 1!
I only wore the Sakura costume for a little bit though, cause it makes me feel like a little girl, and no one was taking my picture anyway. But I made Eryn take one of me, and Crystal took one too, so there's at least those. Anyway, then I changed into normal clothes (well.. as normal as one of Kat's seethrough black shirts can be XD) and met up with Elsa, Ashley, Monica, and Bekah to get in line for the move concert. After everyone was seated, the MC killed time until 7 when it was supposed to start. Except that this was the SAME MC FROM LAST YEAR'S AFEST COSPLAY!! THE SUPER-SUCKY ONE!! >__< Why they would ever ask him back is beyond me. Everyone in the audience totally HATED him. Uuugghhh. But his jokes were a little better this year, and he seemed to have accepted his hatedness, so it was okay. But then he introduced this con staff woman named Boots! And do you know who she is? She's the one who promised Elsa she'd send us all BoA posters and CDs and stuff after we were nearly first in line for their concert at Afest 2001 but then had to leave before it started and she NEVER DID!!! :OOOO We should have gone up to her and demanded free move stuff, but we didn't XD;
Anyway, the concert! The opening act was Ramen & Rice, aka Kim and Michelle Kwon, these two Asian-American girls (everyone, myself included, thought they were Japanese until they started speaking in flawless English) playing the cello and the violin, respectively, and performing instrumentals to several anime/game BGMs. It was so cool and pretty! :D And apparently, they listen to the original scores and arrange their own versions by ear!! Wahh, how cool.
Then move started!! And they did Gamble Rumble first!! I never learned the entire Para Para off J-Euro, but I did some of it. Then all the rest were songs I hadn't heard before, and it was really cool and jamming yaaayyy. Yuri's voice is beautiful, and Motsu is amusing with his rapping and crazy mohawked hair XD But, ugh! They had everyone in chairs, so how are you supposed to jam that way? People were just STANDING and listening!! I felt bad for move, huge sections of the audience must have seemed so lifeless. Only a few were dancing and waving their arms and stuff. Blaaahh. Bekah said for the Duel Jewel concert at A-Kon, there weren't any chairs, so it was a lot easier to jam. Why couldn't they do that? Blah. Oh well! move was great!!
After the concert we got in line for autographs, and I just stood with everyone cause I had nothing better to do, but now I'm glad I did cause they signed my badge! So now the back has pretty silver signatures from Yuri (who has sparkly fingernails!! And really cool sneaker-boots!), Motsu (rapper guy XD) and T-Kimura (producer/keyboardist). Yaayyyy!
And then we got Crystal to take us all to McDonald's since we were hungry and she diiidddd! So we had fun McDonald's times. Elsa and I got Happy Meals and Ashley and Elsa had too much fun playing with Elsa's Hot Wheels toy XDD and Crystal made the sweet and sour container talk and OMG IT WAS SO GREAT XDD "What's the other half?" ahahahaa XD
Then Crystal dropped us off back at the hotel and drove off with Patrick and Monica. In front of the hotel, there was this fire truck and ambulance and me and ashley's first thought was "Fire!? OUR STUFF!!" but, thank God, it wasn't a fire. Just some guy who'd fainted during the dance, apparently. Anyway, we met back up with everyone, and chilled until we all went into the JPop room at midnight to see The Eye. Ooohh, that was a cool movie. Really creepy, but really good. Mmmmmm sexy clueless doctor guy ^____^ He was so great. Me and Allison were like "...oooohh XD"
Then after the movie, we found Stephen dead asleep on a couch outside a video room, and we couldn't bring ourselves to just leave him there, so we sat around him and talked. Then this con security guy came by and said that people can't crash in plain sight, so we had to wake him up, so we did, and we kept talking for awhile until we all drifted away.
Then, we went up to the room and stayed up for awhile, and then went to sleep. People kept POURING into the room, especially cause Steph and Eryn stayed here instead of at Nick's like they had Friday night. One group came in at 4 a.m., then another at 8:30, until we had like 15 people sleeping on the beds and on the floor. I can't even remember who all it was. Ashley, Charlie, Elsa, Stephen, Steven (Gamsnark), Shin K, Kat, Steph, Eryn, Bekah, Allison.. gah.. craziness. >.<
Haha, looking back on all that, Saturday was the best day. Oh yeah XD
Sunday
People got up.. showered, etc. Eryn and I went down to the dealer's room cause Monica had given me $40 to buy a move CD. I found a best selections CD that the girl behind the counter said had the most songs from the concert on it. (Monica let me copy the CD before I gave it to her, so I did, and WAAHHH IT'S SO GREAT!!! move is totally jamming. I love it ^_^ It's "move super tune -best selections-" and I highly recommend it.) And it was $25, so I got it, and was supa-happy because there was all this leftover money that monica had said I could spend as long as I paid her back, so I went back and got this great HATSUHARU PIN i had seen in the other room!!!!!! ^_____^ They never ever have Hatsuharu Furuba stuff!! IT IS SO GREAT!!!!!
So I squee'd over my pin, and we watched a bit of this game show hosted by Greggo cause Eryn wanted to see it, then I bought Eryn this Kyoh pin (which she is going to owe me forever for, apparently!!).
At some point JJ arrived (yay, JJ returns to cons! XD) and she and Kat went wandering. I was quite bored for most of Sunday afternoon and spent it either trailing behind them or perusing the dealer's rooms by myself. It was okay, though, because after spending so much time in a room pretty much perpetually occupied by other people, I really needed some solitude. After JJ left, we didn't feel like going to cosplay, so Eryn took me, Steph, Bekah, Kat, and LUKE (who has no more haaaiiiiirrrr) to Wendy's to eat. It was probably the last time we're going to see Luke, since he's joining the Air Force and won't be going to cons anymore!! ;____; I'm glad we got to hang out with him one last time though. Siiiigh.
Then once we got back, I went and caught episodes 2-5 (missed the first cause we were eating) of Ultra Maniac, because I'd recently read the first manga chapter. It's a really good story by the same artist who does Marmalade Boy, so I was happy I got to see those episodes. ^_^ I think it could become one of my favorite series. It's so cool! And has a lot of hot guys. Waii. The awsomeness was only detracted by the annoying people in the room, and the fact that I was sitting by myself the whole time (making me an easy target for fanboys. Luckily, I was not ambushed).
Then I met back up with everyone else up in the room. At some point, Nick and Kerry came, and Kerry was telling us all these great stories about Cameron and how he liked to tell everyone about his Indian background, so they called him Tonto, and oh man XDD So great. Then, randomly, Kerry was all, "Texans are great. If you start singing 'The stars at night are big and bright' everyone around will yell back 'DEEP IN THE HEAART OF TEXAASS!' " so for whatever crazy reason, we decided to run downstairs and test it out. We yelled it at a few random groups of people and cheered whenever they said it back. I was disturbed, however, that we had turned into the same kind of people who formed a big group that would chant "Love and PEACE! Love and PEACE!!" all retarded like. Eryn and I were so annoyed by them. Also by these Chii girls who pretended to BE Chii in the elevator. They were all, "We have reached the lobby. We have been wanting to go here" all mechanical and GAAHHH IT WAS ANNOYING!!
And because there was a big wedding reception in the ballroom on the first floor of the hotel, and we could hear the jazz band's music all the way up here, we did crazy dancing. Kerry showed us all how to do Zack's crazy dances, like the Trashbag, and the Snakebite, and the new one, the Matrix. XDDD omg it was hilarious. Bwaaahahaa. Then we went to the con dance for a little bit, but the music was really not very good. It was radio-station generic techno stuff. Uuughhh not cool at all. So we went back up to the room, where we all eventually fell asleep. Thank God, not as many people slept in the room Sunday night. x_x
Monday
Packed the rest of the stuff up, tried to use up some more pictures on the camera, last-minute visiting of the dealer's room, then back up to the room to gather everything up before Bekah and I went home. Yaayyyy for going back home :D Animefest was pretty fun this year, better than last year's at least. Not better than A-Kon 14, though, so it was disappointing in that respect. Oh well! ^^