...I climb through the window and down to the street. I'm shining like a new dime...

My Animé Los Angeles report, part 2: Day Zero Setup. (See also part 1, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, and part 7.)

( Registration on Thursday was in the Staff Lounge room... )

Tony Benoun has agreed to take charge of Reg for next year. I'll ask him to look at this activity report. Friday after 3:00 pm, the maximum badges we issued per hour were fewer than a third of the maximum issued per hour before 3 o'clock. So (assuming we have similar traffic next year) about half his team can probably quit for the day at 3 pm Friday, and quit for the weekend by 1 pm Saturday, if they like.

Many, many thanks to library_lynn for running Reg this year, for the help we got from Tony and the rest of the team working at Reg, and to missmea for volunteering to keep one Reg station open late at night as long as things were interesting enough to stick around.

( The Dealers Room was a source of drama on Thursday... )

The convention got most of the space Thursday at 6:00 pm. We opened Registration back up. The room (Marquis 1-2) that would on Friday have Artists' Alley was quickly set up to hold a dance. (right)

The Dance had ice cream (Jeanne's idea) but it was set up in the back of the dance, in the dark. I think that was a mistake -- we should have put it out in front of the room, or had lighting, or something. (left)

Earlier that evening, I'd been walking across the pool deck and Catherine the Great stopped me and asked how many people were coming to the ice cream social. I pulled a number out of the air, because I knew a lot of people would be around doing some kind of set-up and would enjoy a bit of ice cream, in addition to everyone who might just stop by to pick up their badges or go to the dance. (right)

The reason I had to make up a number, though, is because my phone was dead and I couldn't check with ala_mokita, and that was because I'd left my charger home Wednesday morning. And I may have overestimated our ice cream demand, because we ended the night with about half of it left over. Next year if we do ice cream we'll order less. Or not do ice cream, and get something non-perishable that we can serve the next day.

Set-up happened all over most of the ballroom level -- the truck got unloaded, with a lot of the stuff going into a few rooms as a staging zone, the Decorating Committee trimmed and posted the posters, the beanbags were distributed far and wide (and a bunch ended up inside the dance, as a big cuddle puddle), and the art benches were assembled.

Greg Hemsath brought power tools, and worked on the benches... next year we need to make sure it's not a one-man team doing all the work! A few power screwdrivers and a small crew would make things go a lot more smoothly. (left)

Once everything was closed up for the night, I realized I really had to deal with my forgotten phone charger. Tadao, summoner_lenne9 and I went back to my house. I didn't need a minion on this trip, but I wanted someone along to keep Tadao alert on the drive as I expected to fall asleep as soon as I stopped moving and sat down.

And oh, the fog... it was scary, it was Fresno fog come down to play in Orange County that night. Tadao missed my exit, and we didn't get turned around until we'd gone all the way to Corona. Very bad night for driving. Wish we hadn't had to make the trip. But at least I had my charger for the weekend.

Sarah summed it up, in her inimitable style:

OH! Forgot to mention yesterday the 3 am Doctor Who times! Thursday night (Ok, Friday morning) Tadao, Chaz, and I drove to Chaz's house to get his cell phone charger. He didn't have it, and Chaz without a working cell phone is ALA falling apart, lol. (Mind you, reception sucked anyway, but oh well.) Tadao offered to drive (GRR AT LAUREN FOR NOT BRINGING MY HEROES SO I COULD HAVE HIM SIGN IT! :D) since Chaz was dead, and I offered to be the front-seat keep-driver-awake-person because Patty, the head-minion-pro-tempe, or whatever, who stepped in once Melissa was sick... was beyond dead. I had soaked in the hot tub for an hour and a half, which is better than caffeine I swear to god, and had tons of energy.

So off we go! And the drive there was WEIRD. FOG LIKE WOAZ. I've seen worse, of course, going to school in Bakersfield, but going 80 miles an hour on the freeway in fog is scaarrryy. And then we needed to get on the 91, and the sign came up saying it was coming up, and we went to get on it... AND THEN IT DISSAPEARED.

ME AND TADAO: o______________________0. IT WAS JUST THERE!

But we got there, albeit with lots of being lost. Lol. Damn fog! But I got to hear alot of Tadao's stories, which are, of course, amazing. And then Chaz answered alot of emails at 2 am and printed out a map for ALA with his HUGE HUMUNGO PRINTER OF DOOOOMMM. That thing is amazing. (I also learned the fashion designer person from The Incredibles is, err, a girl. ... I thought that was a little gay man. HUH? She's- I was sure it was a he man- is also Ala's mother. Her full name is Ala Mode. So we had an ice cream social. WE HAZ LOTS OF IN JOKES.) And waiting for it to finish... Chaz started up Itunes and started playing some Who tunes...

Which led to the, albeit short, 3 am dancing to Doctor Who. And yes, it was only for a few seconds and due to the lateness of the hour, BUT CHAZ AND TADAO DANCING TO DOCTOR WHO? OMMMFFGGG! Maybe the best part of the whole con. :D :D :D.

To be continued...