Dragoncon 2005 pics!

4th Year at Dragoncon!

So! Thursday morning I got up and went over to Ash’s where my mum picked us up and took us to the airport. Ash and I sat around for a while after checking in.

Anyway, Cat and Melissa met us there and… um, do any of you guys remember being in the airport after security? Cause I sure don’t. Then the plane ride was like, the longest EVER. So we got to Atlanta, waited forever on our luggage, hopped on the MARTA and got to the hotel. Hotel was very busy and it took forever for me to get checked in, but the lady at the desk was totally digging my Darth Vader credit card.

So – we’re on the 32nd floor. 32nd floor! But, it ended up being a good thing. A very good thing! Construction was going on on several floors on our elevator bank, which drastically reduced the number of people going up and down on our side. We hardly ever had to wait for an elevator the whole weekend. We just had to put up with a little jackhammering during the day – I say it was worth it!

We dumped our stuff and quickly changed, because we were going to see Phantom of the Opera at the Fabulous Fox Theater! We ate at a place next door to the theater, then went on over to see the show. It was great. Then back to the hotel to unpack and iron stuff for the weekend.

Friday Morning! I, as usual, forced everyone to get up horribly early so we could go get our badges without standing in line for 3 hours.

This year registration was in the Hilton. We didn’t have to wait long. Once at registration we split up – Ash and I in the last line (w-z last names) and cat and Melissa were both in other lines. Ash and I got done first, and then Cath came trudging around the corner, looking supremely unhappy, due to the name Melissa put on her badge for her. Her badge said “IHATEELIJAH” Luckily for her, I’d thought ahead and brought heart stickers – so this is what her badge looked like the rest of the weekend.

Unfortunately at that point, Melissa slipped through a hole in the space time continium, and completely disappeared from the face of the earth. We searched for her in vain for nearly 20 minutes before heading back to the hotel. She had somehow managed to get by us and back to the room. We don’t know how. So we went and had a nice breakfast, then I went and put on Leia and Ash put on her X-Wing pilot.

So then from 12-2 Ash and I sat at the Rebel Legion table. That was fun.

Afterwards I was going to put on regular Leia, but changed my mind and put on my new Rebel uniform Leia instead.

Then I don’t know what we did the rest of the day. I guess we went in the dealer’s room. I don’t know. Eventually Cath and Melissa wanted to go to some panel, and Ash decided to go to, so I wandered around by myself (by this time I was in Arwen, for Evening in Bree).

So then we all got lined up for Bree, and I signed up for the costume contest, and then there was much dancing to be had. I’m amazed I could dance in Arwen like I did, but I did!

Melissa wore my Arwen Chase, her first time ever being in a costume at a con. So anyway, I was going to be in the Bree costume contest, but as the evening went on and the contest never started, I eventually realised I needed to leave, so I could go to the Southern Outpost meeting. So I was sad. But oh well. After the Southern Outpost meeting we went back to the room – by now it was nearly midnight. So we crashed for the night.

So, Saturday morning once again saw us up bright and early, since all of us had to get dressed for the parade. I wore Mara, Ash wore her X-Wing pilot, and I put Cath in my Leia and Melissa in my officer uniform. Then we were off!

Melissa and I stood over on the 501st side for a long time… which was bad because the park totally smelled like pee.
But, since the 501st goes last in the parade, I was able to run over and take shots of the earlier parade groups. I got up to Arms of Middle Earth before I ran out of pictures and ran back over to get back in line.

Afterwards I ran upstairs to put on Rebel Leia, then we did the Rebel Legion photoshoot. Luckily the weather was incredibly nice – we still got hot but not as bad as it’s been before. Ash was still soaked afterwards though… there’s no way to stay cool in that outfit. WHY ARE YOU SMELLING YOUR HELMET.

Then I ran upstairs and put on Slave Leia again, and Ash got out of her X-Wing uniform. She decided not to participate in the MOTF contest because she could not put that thing on again. Then it was time for the Leia photoshoot.

So then I decided not to do MOTF either, since I didn’t want to enter without Ash. So we hung around until about 3:20 when suddenly I decided I DID want to do MOTF. Actually got changed and made it on time!

I have no idea what Cath and Melissa had been doing in the past couple of hours, but they came over and joined us to watch MOTF. So then I put Slave Leia BACK on (yes, by this point I was tired of changing Leias) and we ate, and then hung around in the Hyatt bar for a while, and then went upstairs and wrote our skit. After we’d written it, we went back downstairs and hung out for a long time.

Sunday morning I got up before everyone so I could paint myself orange for Starfire. By the time the others dragged themselves out of bed, I had already gotten dressed and was ready to go. I was absolutely starving so I left them in the room, went and got myself breakfast, and hung out downstairs watching the 501st gather.

So then they marched, and I spent the afternoon wandering around and just hanging out and taking pics.

Then it was time to get ready for the masquerade, which took FOREVER. The three of us princesses got into our costumes and Ash packed up her Stitch stuff and we set off for the Hyatt. We sat backstage for the longest time. Ash got dressed. Then we did our thing on stage and it was way fun, Stitch got a great reaction!

Afterwards we did the camera gauntlet (not as fun as other years) then we made an attempt to get back to the bottom floor of the Marriott! It took quite a while, since we got stopped for pictures very often (not that we minded) So we hung around for a looong time.

We finally went to the room around 3… there was some movie on HBO FAMILY about some crazy chick who likes to take off her shirt and kill people. I fell asleep before seeing what happened, though.
Next morning we got up, threw everything in our suitcases, shipped my boxes, and I went and got the new Emerald Rose CD, and we went home.

Everyone but me almost missed the plane, though. WTF! Too busy buying magazines to come get on the plane.