On Thursday evening, Dane, Brain, Jenny, and Trent came over (though, sadly, Trent wasn't able to go to AO with us...), and we slept a little before packing everything up on Friday morning. Brian was a little worried about getting there in time to confirm his room, but we had plenty of time to get some food for the weekend and stop by a fast food place for breakfast while still arriving at 11 am. During our drive a lot of little funny things happened, the best of which (to me anyway) was when some bird flew right at my windshield, almost striking it, and Brian and I (who were sitting in the front) ducked to try and dodge it! *shakes head* Well, it was really funny at the time ^_^ When we reached Exit 53, as always, we were first greeted by the sign reading "WELCOME ANIME OASIS". That always gets me excited! It always shows that we're really there! While we stood in line to check into our rooms, I was giddy at the sight of an Itachi CosPlayer walking through the doors. My first Anime Oasis was in 2003, and my little sister was the only Naruto CosPlayer in the whole con...she played Naruto ^^; The amount of Naruto CosPlayers this time around was a little staggering! I don't think anyone but myself and my friends CosPlayed from One Piece...but no matter! I hate CosPlaying overly done things, so it suits me perfectly. Back to the checking-in, Brian was lucky and his room was already prepared for him at 11, but I had to wait two hours until I could get into my room *sigh*

It wasn't disappointing or boring though, I relaxed in Brian's room for a bit after driving for three hours straight, then I stood in line for the dealer's room ^^ When the room finally opened it was insane! The dealer's room was at least TWICE as packed as it had been during the past two cons. I am still so thankful that I kept up saving my money for so long, it really was wonderful to not have to worry about what I could buy or not XD I spent $163 right away on a stackful of soundtracks (is currently listening to kaze no tani no naushikaa) and some posters. Eric was so nice, he bought a Nerv sidebag for Jenny. She really, really wanted it, but it was $25 and she didn't want to spend all of her birthday money so soon and on just one thing. She loves it, she wore it everywhere, even the pool!! On Friday I didn't really go to many events. I was pretty tired from driving, and I just wanted to relax and take in everything slowly. I swam with Jenny and Brian for a while, then Jenny and I CosPlayed as Chiriko and Nuriko, respectivley. I remember I went to the Artists' Alley for a while when it was completely empty and just sat and drew. Dane eventually met some new friends in the Artists' Alley; he talked to Kitty-neechan's brother for at least three hours! Two girls bought one of my drawings, a paper chalk drawing of a pansy flower from last summer. They complimented me so much -^^- When I sell my art, it's not so much for the money as it is for the compliments and encouragement that I get. I mean, when someone is willing to give me their hard earned money for something that I love doing...there's really not much else that can top that sense of pride I get =D

I did go to a major event on Friday, the Swimsuit Competition!! OMFG...Arlong I love yeeewwww!!!! If you weren't so evil (read: painted with purple stuff) I would have glomped you to the MAX! I screamed so much for everyone!! I was really afraid that I would lose my voice before I went on stage for the main CosPlay event ^^; I didn't though. Man, everyone was so wonderful during the swimsuit CosPlay. Belldandy, Vash, Wolfwood, all the Naruto cosplayers, CORN DUDE (!!), Arlong, everyone!! If I didn't mention you, I probably still screamed for you anyway, I loved it all! I was a little sad that I had to miss the Yaoi night and Unrestricted CosPlay, but my mom hadn't arrived yet and there was no way I was going to leave Jenny alone in the room. Next year!

Friday night/Saturday morning in our hotel room was insanely funny XD I won't go over everything in detail as it will sound like a bunch of lunacy, but I remember searching for the Name of God in our ceiling and throwing cookies at Satoita (stupid Josh protecting her, lol ><). I laughed so much, I haven't been so happy in a long time. Not to say that I haven't been happy, just not THAT happy! I felt really satisfied when I finally went to sleep that night snuggled up to Satoita on the floor (along with Akio and Josh XD), and everyone else in the beds. I think I like sleeping at AO when the room is that full. Not like AO III/2004 when we had upwards of 20 people in the room at one time, no no no, not that full. Just full enough that you still feel connected with the con because your roon is cozily filled with other people who love anime as much as you. I think I'm going to officially raise my room limit from 4-5 people to 7-8 people ^^

Most of my day Saturday was getting prepared for our One Piece CosPlay skit. I LOVE playing Vivi! It's my goal to collect all of her different costumes. Even the ones that are only shown in the artbooks! One Piece, I think, will forever be my favorite anime ^___^ I had a ton of fun all day, even though I couldn't go to many events (did I even go to any besides the main CosPlay...?) It's just amazing when you look around and you realize...WTF I am IN One Piece!! "Oi, Robin-san! Sanji-san! Hey, Usopp-san, what are you doing to Carue??" (that's Vivi speaking, Mika says: "SANJI-SAMAAAAAAA~!!!!"). Luffy-san...all I will say is that he was really upset right before the CosPlay (I felt so sad...but I still never found out what was wrong), but he still did such a kickass job! Everyone performed wonderfully!! It was hard for me to speak up though...I watched a little video of our performance online and you can barely hear me >_< It was mostly due to me trying to speak loudly in Vivi's softer voice (my normal voice is rougher) while my throat was still a little scratchy from screaming during swimsuit CosPlay the day before. I was really ancy while we all waited in the hallway to see who won what. There were so many good CosPlays this year!! I was really happy and surprised that we won first ^_^ Satoita was really upset though, and I think it's because she worked her ass off to get her Tashigi costume to look near-perfect (she looked JUST like Tashigi!!) and in the end, they just cut off her part of the skit. She didn't even get to go on stage after all she did to work on it. I would have been outraged if it had been me...but...well, I think she looked the best out of everyone so she wins there ^_^ It was really fun on stage before the awards were decided, the part where all of the CosPlayers just hung out and entertained that auidence, lol. Sanji-sama hit on Vivi and Robin ^^ And Usopp abducted Carue and Arlong got him in the end (Carue became a lovely hat for Arlong XD)! The whole crew of the Going Merry sang pirate songs, too. It was just a whole lot of random fun.

Later, I attended the one event in all of Anime Oasis that I personally started, the Anime Slumber Party!! It was tons of fun as well. No cookies this time, but that didn't make a shred of difference. All of my plushies, Sanji, Carue, and Grim, had fun together with Satoita's plushie Zoro. Though it was mostly hot plushie improv hentai featuring ZoroxSanjixGrim and any other combination of the three you can imagine. It was awesome! We got pics ^_________^ And Sanji-sama was there in his stripey PJs~ lol, and Bulma was there trying to get Vegeta into some flannel PJ pants, while Goten and Trunks fooled around in their costume from when they sneaked into the Adult bracket of the fighting tournament that one time...I have never seen anyone CosPlay that before! There were a ton of other cool Sleepwear cosplays (sadly, no Narutos this time...) I can't wait to view the video my mom took, I know there is so much I have already forgotten. Oh yeah, tentacles! There were two this year, one was a pimp tentacle ^^; It had a hubcap for bling, lol! After the Slumber Party, I wanted to go to hentai night but I didn't want to go in alone and try to sneak around finding someone I knew...next time someone must stay with me and go in with me too!! I don't want to miss it again >_< Last time I missed because I was one week too young (my birthday is the same as Usopp's!).

Sunday was by far the most fun for me. I have NEVER had so much fun for hours on end!! And Hell, we weren't late checking out of the room or anything!! Just a kickass day all around. Jenny went on the kids' Easter Egg hunt, and while she only found one egg, Jeremy was really nice and kinda helped her locate one...though I heard it took her a long time to finally get it ^_^ We all LOVE you Jeremy-san!! *shakes head* I hope nothing ever happens that would tear you away from your thankful Idahoan anime fans. Without you...we would have nothing!

After checking out, I went in for one last round in the dealer's room. Brian was nice enough to stand around while I looked through every last pnecil board and clear file so I lent him $50 so that he could get a Naruto headband that matches mine ^^ He'll have to now go through the pain of bending it to fit his forehead just as I did...lol, ninja training! I bought a ton of stuff once again on Sunday. I got all of my family members something they wanted, and I was able to get everything that I really wanted (One Piece pillow!!!) plus some stuff that I am growing to love even more now. Something I bought at Anime Oasis that I will always treasure is a weird ass Naruto doujinshi. It's IrukaxKakashi...well, it could be considered Kakashi-robotxIruka-robot, too. If you ever find a doujinshi with a picture of Iruka, Kakashi, and a green Gundam on the cover, buy it! You won't regret it! There are a bunch of cameo anime appearances throughout the thing, and just a bunch of funny shit XD You don't even need to read Japanese to find it funny. When I was finally satisfied in the dealer's room, I headed out and did some random stuff. I was going to hit the cooking contest until I found out that Sanji-sama wouldn't be entering!! Without my hero/obsession to scream for, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it. I played a couple of DDR songs with a nice girl in a white Chinese dress and with Zach. I wish I could have played more, but it was time for Micheal Coleman to speak! It was the last time he would host a panel, and I was not going to miss it! It was really interesting and I learned even more about the voice acting industry. The most important thing that I learned (yes, I was a perpetrator of this before I went to AO this year) was that if an English voice actor sounds shitty and doesn't match your expectations, it's NOT THEIR FAULT! If you have one shred of sense in you, take this to heart: don't blame the voice actor for a crappy voice job. It's all up to the directors and producers. If you don't like what has been done to your favorite character's voice *chough*4shameentertainment*cough* don't blame the voice actor, because they are just doing as they're told.

Michael Coleman was the first in a landslide of awesomeness to come for the rest of the con. After his panel it was time for the experimental Battle CosPlay. I must say, from the bottom of my heart, IT ROCKED! It was my favorite thing! I screamed like I did at the Metallica concert last year! ICHIGOOOOO!!! Kurosaki Ichigo was there! He did BU HA HA!! I glomped him the day before. His costume was awesome! His zanpakutou was PERFECT!! Not many people know about Bleach, but I am sure that it will be just like Naruto: while there was only one person CosPlaying Bleach this year, in two years, EVERYONE will want to CosPlay Bleach at AO! It's THAT awesome of an anime. I screamed for Ichigo everytime, even when he fought another of my favorite ever characters, Vegeta. Brian reminded me that Vegeta has the Dragonballs, so Ichigo needed to win! In the end Ichigo's team won the whole tournament!! In my little world, I like to imagine it was all because of my fangirl screams of encouragement ^_^; After the friggin' awesome Battle CosPlay (which was slow at the beginning, but the slowness eventually turned into excitement at waiting to find out what was going to happen next) it was time for always-sad Closing Ceremonies. I don't remember much of what was said, except for that AO is going to be in the same hotel, Jeremy had run out of witty lines to say, and all of AO's debt was completely paid off from this con! I also remember screaming after, like, every sentence that was said, just because I was so pumped up by Ichigo by that time ^_^ I was sad that it had to end when I was finally getting super-pumped, but all that energy is just now going to fuel me until NEXT AO! I have so much stuff planned, but that's not for discussion here ^_^ I didn't attened the sushi party (the line was REALLY long...) but I've never attended it before so I wasn't disappointed or anything. I was too pumped to be made to stand in line for something.

A few more things happened to us after we left the con before we started the drive home, mostly aggrivating things, and I did start to lose some of my Ichigo-pumped-ness, but when we started the trek home and listened to MGS3, Ocarina of Time, and Akira, I felt much better again ^_^ I am already starting on prepeations for Anime Oasis V - 2006. I hope I get to see everyone once again, and maybe even more people who weren't there this year! Mata ne!!