The trouble with being nerdy...(Convention Edition)

I've crossed over to the other side of the line; I've toed the boundary between being a nerd and being geeky beyond repair. Currently, I am way beyond any real hope of being fixed--which is completely okay. If there's one thing that is completely ridiculous, it's nerds who feel they need to hide their true form.
Anime conventions (or really any convention) are well beyond the "I am a nerd' stage. In fact, they're practically the guts stuck deep inside the circle of geek. I have gone to these, but, not only gone and meandered...no, I cosplayed. Not once, not twice, but four times. I have cosplayed at all four anime conventions I have attended since 2004, and, if you'd ever been to one dressed in regular clothes, you'd understand.
The convention is a silly place, really. Generally a three day weekened where nerds from all over come to marinate in each other's nerdiness (which has, not surprisingly, led to convention staff enforcing the rule that everyone must shower regularily, and people who stink must be reported and will then be kicked out of the con...) and enjoy a few days where it is acceptible to wear capes and gaudy clothing.
My first anime convention experience came in 2004, when I went to Anime Reactor in its first year down in Chicago. AR has, since, been shut down due to the fact that no hotels will deal with their shit and wild parties. Hm.
Reactor was amusing. I managed to hang out with the loudest group of drunk people around in an elevator, and got hit on by them! For my first con experience, I cosplayed as Princess Zelda, a costume I had made in about two nights with whatever I had at my disposal. It turned out shockingly well, but I still look completely lame with long blonde hair. My friend wore the Summoner Yuna costume I had made out of boredom, and it worked pretty well. I'm still impressed with my ability to whip up costumes on the high end of mediocre in short amounts of time.
That somewhat dismal experience left me wanting more, naturally, so this little con called ACen was approaching in 2005...ACen (Anime Central) is the largest convention in the Midwest, and I had the chance to hitch a ride with a girl I knew vaguely and a few of her friends. Well, I had anime in common with them, but that was it. The seven hour car ride there was fairly uncomfortable, and left me with a lot of time to rock out to music or read (though reading in the car usually makes me sick).
The convention itself was amazing, but there were way too many people there. We waited in line for nearly four hours to get badges, four hours of listening to unshowered Lupin the Third fans singing songs that never end and making jokes that I neither cared about nor wanted to hear. Luckily, a group of my friends from the Chi city were there when I finally got out of the blasted line to greet me, and my con experience #2 was well under way.
This convention left me with even less time to prepare a costume, seeing as finals were happening and I preferred to focus on those. I ended up just wearing a hastily put-together Battle Royale student uniform, which looked absolutely appalling with my then-blonde hair. Still, I had a lot of fun, despite the sardine-packed nerd bodies around me.
Then I hit a lull. For about three years (when I was at UMD) I didn't attend any conventions, although Anime Detour in the cities usually landed on or around my birthday every year, there was always an excuse for why I couldn't attend.
Then, my name was dropped in conversation as being someone who is geeky enough to want to use the extra ticket that Andrea had gotten for her ex. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity. This convention was called KakkoiCon, and it was a brand-new one, in its first year. Better yet, it was geared more towards female nerds! That alone should've put me off to the experience.
The night before the con, I stayed at Andrea's house with the her and the guys. I, Katy, put myself in a situation with people I didn't know very well and went to the cities with these people; I am very glad I now have them as friends.
KakkoiCon was poorly put-together from the start. Yes, it was in its first year and all, but there were so many design flaws, I felt like I was just a dork standing in a hotel with a slew of other dorks. Then there was the horrible idea to make it a convention directed more towards the female nerds. In all seriousness, female nerds are practically the same as male nerds, but with boobs and no penis. Just because a girl is a geek doesn't mean she's a completely different breed than the guys who attend cons.
Well, for this convention, my friends dressed up in FF1 apparel, and I had to break the tradition by being a red mage from FFXI, with the artifact armor. It turned out DAMN well, thanks, but people somehow didn't understand what I was, since the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS WHITE FEATHER was sticking out of my red pimp hat.
Now onto the juicy bits of Kakkoi. This convention was run by a woman who pretends she is Japanese and calls herself Samantha Rei. This woman is NOT Japanese, and she is a hypocritical flake. My main problem with her is that she managed to slight me by denying me access to her super special tea party.
Apparently, S.Rei's tea party was to be attended by persons who were dressed up in Gothic Lolita attire...well, seeing as I was a latecomer to the tickets, I wasn't informed of this, and Miss Rei herself managed to embarass me and kick me out of her elitist party because I was dressed like a slutty pimp mage.
Fine. I heard it was pretty boring anyway. The real kicker: some whining boy came by and wanted to be let in, and S.Rei bowed down to this boy's mother's pleas. THAT is what makes me mad--and I was sure to state that clearly in the KakkoiCon forum complaint thread. Best part? S.Rei personally apologized to me. Hah.
Kakkoi was kind of a flop, but the company I kept was good.
Next up was my latest con experience: Anime Detour. Finally, I got to go to AD! My FF1 group and I (this time dressed as white mage) went and rocked it hardcore. I think AD was actually my favorite convention thus far, because we were photographed a lot, praised on the costumes (many of which I helped with!) and I felt as if I had done something right.
This about wraps up my convention experience, at least for now.