Anyway, after cosplaying for a couple of hours, my feet started to tire (as did the rest of me), so I shed my cape and mace and went out to hang with Gigi and Queenie in the hotel pool room (pool, as in the big blue wobbly thing you swim in, not the game you play on a table with long sticks and brightly colored balls). It was there, while the three of us were relaxing in the pool, that we were all soon treated to the sight of bishy voice actor Kirby Morrow stripping down to his swim trunks and frolicking around in the hot tub right next to us. Now, it's fortunate for the Dallas-Hotel-Intercontinental that neither I nor my friends are virginal anime characters, because at that moment in time, if we had been, their pool would've suddenly become half-stained with our nose blood. As it was, the three of us put on a rather shameless display, hanging on the edge of the pool, eyeing Kirby in a none-too-subtle manner as the chlorinated water glistened on his oh-so-perfect pecs. At least we weren't as bad as that gaggle of camera-wielding pre-pubescent fangirls who stormed into the pool room and started snapping pictures of Kirby, paparazzi-style. For a minute there, I almost thought they were going to grab him by the torso and pull down his swim trunks, and if that HAD happened, I would most certainly have felt sorry for the poor guy. (While at the same time, cursing to the heavens the fact that I had left my OWN camera back in my room. *Sigh*)

As far as luck goes on this trip, the hot-tub hottie incident was just about where mine ended. Things kind of went downhill for me from there. First off, that very evening, while I was cleaning one of my contacts, I accidentally tore it to shreds. And I had no replacement lenses with me. Just my glasses, although I knew I couldn't very well cosplay with them on, (not without looking supremely stupid.) So from that moment on, the time I spent wearing my Filia costume was time spent wandering the halls in a myopic haze, my mace held out in front of me like a blind man's walking stick, my lips cursing the fact that I hadn't chosen to cosplay as Fuu from Magic Knights Rayearth or Anthy from Revolutionary Girl Utena or any other cosplay outfit where glasses are an acceptable accessory. It sucked to be me.

We have to get Gigi to the airport by seven. We reach the Portal of Hell (I mean, the DFW Airport) just minutes before Gigi's flight leaves the gate. We barely have the time to hug her and mutter our goodbyes before she must rush off to board her plane. (This was obviously BEFORE Sept. 11, when it was still possible to make it to the airport with minutes to spare and still catch your flight). We are sad to see her go. She's a great pal and a great roomie, and we didn't get to spend nearly as much time with her as we wanted to. We turn round and reluctantly head back to our rental vehicle....

It took my remaining companions and I several hours (or what SEEMED like several hours) to get back to the hotel. That's because while we were driving down the road from the airport, we spotted a WalMart, and in the course of our trying to get to it, we became hopelessly lost. Thankfully, after pulling to a full stop and giving the map the rental car agency provided to us a good thrice-over, (Ohhhh.. So West is the OTHER way...) we were soon on the right track towards the Wally World (which, once we got there, we found was just like every other Wally World in the country, except this being Texas and all, it was really really big. About the size of a small city.) After loading ourselves up with snacks and other essentials, Queenie, Chris and I headed back for the hotel where I finally made up my mind to pay a serious visit to the Dealer's Room.

I feel sorry for Gigi. She had honestly wanted to give the dealer's room a serious going over the night before, but for some inexplicable reason, it had closed it's doors at an absurdly early hour (6 pm.) and she never got the chance to do so. A real pity--a tragedy, really-- because at the back of the ballroom, at a booth all by her lonesome, there sat the unassuming yet legendary figure of the Comictones Lady.

There she is. (Isn't she be-YOOT-ee-FOH, as the Crocidile Hunter would say.) ) And look at all the wunnerful things she's selling. Pens, nibs, art markers, screen-toning sheets, comic paper, ink, white-out..... Everything an aspiring mangaka could ever want (or dared hope for.) And it was mine. All MINE!

My mind slipped into a state of pure, drooling avarice and I started buying everything I could get my hands on. When it was all over and I had finally come to my senses, I found my bank account 300 dollars poorer and my hands filled with what was quite possibly the most kickass collection of screentones the world had seen up to that time. I couldn't believe it, but I had spent my entire tax refund check at that one table. Which means, I suppose, that I have George Dubya to thank for my managing to net such a spectacular haul. (Doesn't mean I'll be voting for him in the next election, but I am grateful at least...) Just look at it, people!

I suppose only an artist would get excited over something like this. I do know that when I had gotten home from the trip and had phoned Gigi to tell her of my shopping spree, I felt daggers of jealousy piercing my brain through the receiver. Poor Gigi. As I've said before, I feel sorry for her. But hell, she's got such great pencil skillz, what does she need with screentones anyway? Tones are for lazy people with no talent for drawing backgrounds. People like me....Remember that, Gigi...And try not to feel too bad.......

After returning to my hotel room and stashing my Comictones haul under lock and key (and placing a few dragons, behemoths and fire-breathing Hellrabbits over it to guard it), I once again felt the urge to cosplay, so I donned my Filia costume and wandered from one edge of the con to the other, looking as Golden Dragonish as I could. It wasn't long before I ran into a certain, purple-haired Trickster Priest. (It was Candice, of course, from the day before, looking all resplendent and wryly menacing in her Xelloss getup.) After posing for a few pictures for passers-by, we got to chatting and she was soon telling me about this wild idea she had about our doing a cosplay skit together.....

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