This year marked my third Anime USA! This was my first convention that I tackled completely on my own, without any adults, so AUSA is kind of like my "freedom con". It's easily accessible by metro, so I enjoy it for the fact that I didn't have to involve my parents (much) in going to the convention.
Pre-con was a little bit of a mess. There was a lack of planning on my part, and like last year, there was the threat that I wouldn't have anyone to go with. Thankfully everything worked out! I also finished my Hibiya vest in the week before the convention, which was really poor planning on my part. I'm very proud with how the vest turned out in the end, but two sewing machine needles died for the cause ;o;
The lack of planning kind of carried into the con itself. I ended up changing my Friday cosplay plans last minute after deciding I didn't like how it looked on me. There were a few issues regarding communication and synchronizing metro, also because there was track work on the Red line that weekend. (That always seems to happen.) I also didn't vlog as much as I wanted to :(
Other minor bad things that happened: I accidentally spilled my water bottle in my backpack on Sunday and soaked through my lunchbox and electronics bag. I was very fortunate that none of my electronics were ruined!! Seriously, it was a miracle. I did lose my short camera / phone charging cord, most likely in the "oh crap I got everything wet I have to assess the damage" panic, but I have a much longer cord as well. I'm hoping to re-buy the short cord since it's so portable, but since it came with my camera, I'm not entirely sure I can :|
Very good things: I got the Iwatobi Free! jacket I wanted, I got a lot of cool stuff (and still came home with money!), had lots of fun with my new 3DS and checking streetpasses, got to be part of the super cool impromptu Kagerou Project photoshoot and got a couple Hibiya hall photos taken, and I got to wear my Annabeth cosplay down to the Mall and the museums! (Even though my camera died right as we got there.)
I swear I'm going to get more Annabeth photos in the museums one day.
The only panel I really went to was the screening of the first few episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal. It was really fun to see my friend's reactions to such a girly anime (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑ I spent a good amount of time in Dealers / AA and got to play Portal with said friend (and played Streetpass while he played Diablo), and was lucky enough to play DDR twice.
I started calling AUSA "chillcon" last year, and it definitely was chillcon this year, too. I really just like the feeling of AUSA. It's much calmer than Otakon and was at a much nicer time of year than both Otakon and Katsucon. I think it's a wonderful way to break up the 6 months between Katsu and Otakon.
In reflection: I still haven't learned from bad planning and I didn't improve on my vlogging skills like I wanted to, but I still had a lot of fun. I probably don't have to make any new cosplays for Katsucon, so I'm expecting the next almost-year to be very chill. I'd love to start vlogging from home in that time; I just need to gather the nerve to.
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