Well, I have some time to kill before my next class so I'm going to take a moment to talk about my experience at ALA 2012 as well as cosplays that I'm planning/thinking about for the future!

This was my first time having to get on a plane to go to a convention, so it was a little hectic trying to figure out what flights to take and what times. Also tried to pack as light as possible knowing I would have to carry everything on me at a time, unlike when I just sort of throw everything in my car. I stayed with for the few days before the con, so we flew out from PDX at around 8 in the morning and made it to L.A. by 1. We couldn't check into our room yet, so we sort of just chilled in the lobby and talked about things we were excited for! Eventually the rest of our room mates arrived, and we were finally able to take a look at our room. We were only on the third floor, which was nice since the lobby was on the second. It was decently sized and had a lot of mirrors which is always great when you have 5 girls in one room who are all cosplayers. The best part however, was the view. We were really lucky and got a balcony overlooking the pool deck so we could always see what was going on! It was so amazing to be able to stand up there and point out people, and was also pretty helpful when we needed to look for anyone. Me and put on our Madoka costumes and toured around a little so we could get a general idea of the layout. Right away when we hit the pool deck we had a sort of sudden mini photo shoot with one of the photographers. We had a lot of fun doing creeper Homura pictures looking up my skirt and doing the Tango. We had been up since 5 in the morning to get on our flight so even though this was Day 0 it practically felt like Day 1

The next Day was the first of the two Tiger & Bunny gatherings that I somewhat threw together. Right after putting on Kaede I already found a Kotetsu and Barnaby from my balcony, and later met up with some Google+ bros who all looked FANTASTIC. The gathering was a little chaotic at first, I've only hosted a gathering once before and it was a much smaller group at a less crowded con. Eventually though we got started and we got some pretty funny pictures, plus it was just great to see everyone and talk about T&B. Later I changed into Madoka again and once again we ended up in a full out photoshoot! A couple of photographers spotted us from our Balcony so we ran down and started taking tons of silly pictures. During this we saw a really good Mami and asked her if she would take a few pics with us as well, and later a Kyouko also joined us! While taking a group shot, Katie turns and sees a couple of Morning Rescue cosplayers and chases after them. Then ensued all sorts of ridiculous pictures of them carrying me away from scary creeper Homura while holding a bottle of MORNING LESCUE. It was getting darker by this point, so after going inside for a few more pics it was time for a Seagull meet up. Shit was crazy, but tons of fun. I just wore my Kigurumi since it was colder at night, and after we got kicked out of the pool deck area for being too loud we headed down to the ballroom before going to Denny's for a late night dinner.  This whole night was awesome and in my opinion made the whole con worth it! I met so many amazing new friends, I can't wait to see you all again! The next day wasn't very exciting, Katie was sick with food poisoning so we barely worse out costumes together. The T&B gathering on this day was an excellent turn-out though, and there were a lot of hilarious pictures that happened. I definitely want to come back to this con, I'm really excited now that I have a feel for what goes on.

As for costumes I want to do in the future, there's quite a few ideas I have based on things I've been watching lately, so here's a brief list mostly just for myself to help keep track:
Kaede Kaburagi (ice skating outfit) from Tiger & Bunny
Fan-art design of Kaede in a Kotetsu inspired outfit
Thumbelina
Kitty Pryde from X-men Evolution
The Doctor's Wife (aka human form of the TARDIS from Doctor Who)
Amy Pond from Doctor Who (except maybe they younger version? Otherwise I'd be the shortest Amy ever)
Luka aka Gokai Yellow from Kaizoku Snetai Gokaiger

We might try to go to Fanime so we can see all of our Cali friends again, so in addition to what I'm wearing at Sakura-con I might make 2 or 3 of these costumes. Let me know if you have other suggestions!