Usually, I don't report on getting ready for gatherings in the morning, but this morning was particularly... Stressful. Which made it hilarious for anyone I told about it (not many people though), so I'll share. Getting ready started with hunting through my dresser drawers to find three pairs of tights that I could layer so I wouldn't be cold. I found a pair of panyhose (flesh-toned tights) and two pairs of white tights. Both pairs of tights had holes in them in different places, and I couldn't find my one good pair. I couldn't pick an order to put the tights on in. I changed them three times before giving up and just putting the ones with the best color on top.
Then came the ears. The night before the gathering, it suddenly hit me that since I was going to be cosplaying Link, I got to wear my elf ears. I was extremely excited. I love elf ears (way too much, in fact), and had been looking for an excuse to wear mine for weeks. So of course, in all of my excitement in the morning, I go to put them on, and they won't. Go. On. I spent a good fifteen to twenty minutes trying to put them on. The experience is best described as a conversation between me and the ears (I'm not crazy, I swear).
Me: Yay, elf ears!
Ears: Forget you~
Me: Okay... Wait. No. You know what!? Forget you!
Ears: No wait, come back, we love you!
Me: That's what I thought...
(I didn't actually have this "conversation", it just went through my head as everything was going on.)
Essentially, the ears were a pain in the butt, but I got them on anyway, and they looked fabulous.
Now on to the actual event.
After a bunch of mild freaking out the night before, trying to figure out who was driving and whatnot, as the masters of leaving on time, the four of us ended up leaving around 12:30 in the afternoon. Our original departure time was 12:00pm, but, as I sarcastically said, we are the masters of leaving (and arriving) on time. (The gathering officially started at 10:00am.) We arrived some time after 1:00pm, and followed a car with a Gurren Lagann bumper sticker around the parking lot for a little while before finding a parking spot.
I was pleasantly surprised that shortly after getting to the gathering, I was pulled away for a photoshoot. I felt really bad leaving my boyfriend right away, since he had only come because I went, but he was okay with it and hung out with our friends while I was gone. I was also pleasantly surprised that I got three photoshoots almost right away. Again, I felt bad running off on my own, but at the same time, at least I got all of them out of the way so that I had the rest of the day to just hang out. I was asked for photos by random people throughout the day, but those go by so quickly, they're barely worth mentioning.
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| Me with my fairy in a bottle Photo by Oscar C Photography |
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| Bubbles! Photo by BlizzardTerrak Photography |
Shortly after this, it was time to take a group photo of everyone in the gathering. I found out later that there had been another group photo earlier in the day that we had missed, but at least there was a second one that we could be included in.
Photos by Bart Zidane Kamiki
My friends and I played with one of the Frisbees I had brought for a while, with cameo appearances by other people from the gathering. I found it a little strange, since Frisbee is usually insanely popular at any gathering that I've ever been to, yet no one seemed all that interested that day. Oh well. I got bored soon, maybe because there were only four of us playing, I don't know. We decided instead to go adventuring in the park. We had all talked about it, but we finally decided to just walk and see where we ended up. This turned out to be my favorite part of the day.
We grabbed some sodas and water from the gathering and snacked a little before beginning to wander. We decided to follow the road alongside the nearby train tracks, but a park ranger in a truck needed to pass us in the road, so we ended up walking on the train tracks. The ranger saw us walking on the tracks and didn't say anything, so we figured it was okay to be there. They were small tracks, and any train that would fit on them would be moving slowly enough that we could hear or see it and move out of the way (it turned out that the tracks were very, very old and there was no train anyway).
So we were walking on the tracks, one of my friends was out in front with a large stick that someone had found earlier, my other friend was behind him, in front of me, and my boyfriend was slightly behind me, walking next to the tracks. Nothing eventful is happening, other than me really enjoying walking on train tracks for some reason, when my boyfriend says, "I feel like we're in Lord of the Rings." We all laugh, then he explains, "We're adventuring, and we're being led be a really talk guy with light hair and big stick." We marvel at his genius, and then I remember that my friend that's walking in front of me hates being called short, and consequently hates being called a hobbit. So of course, I had to say she's a hobbit. We continued walking, some other Lord of the Rings comments were made, and it suddenly hits me, "Guys. I'm an elf!" It was all too perfect, which made it hilarious. My boyfriend didn't know who he was, so I told him he could be Aragorn. He didn't want to be Aragorn, and we briefly discussed the possibility of him being Gimli, but I cannot stand the Legolas-Gimli pairing, and as the elf of the group, I was not going to let my boyfriend be Gimli, there was just no way that that was happening.
Eventually, it was decided that we were done being Lord of the Rings and we were Star Wars instead. Then we were super heroes. And then I don't even remember the rest. Basically we were gigantic nerds, it was a lot of fun, and I regret nothing. The train tracks looped around past where the gathering was and came to an end (this is when we realized that there was no train). From the end of the tracks, we could see a giant bridge, and we decided that we wanted to cross it. We climbed a small hill toward an open gate, where we found the entrance to the Sleepy Hollow Park and Zoo. Random people made baffled comments at us being in costume. It was a little rude, but more amusing than anything. I mean, what did we expect? We were at a zoo (albeit on accident) in strange costumes, people were going to make comments.
We made our way to the bridge and began to cross it. There isn't much to say about the bridge other than it was a giant cement bridge. For some reason, maybe the lack of train tracks, my feet felt unstable, but no one else seemed bothered when I mentioned it, so I guess my balance was off or something. Maybe it was my shoes. Anyway, at the end of the bridge, there were bathrooms. Yup. Bathrooms. Oh, but the bathrooms were closed. There are also a circle of benches that looked like rocks, so we all sat/stood around being stone statues for a little while before heading back to the gathering.
Things were pretty uneventful once we got back, the most memorable things I can come up with are being given a paper target that looks like Navi (The Legend of Zelda), and me sitting on a rock near some water finally getting to play my ocarina. A random lady took a picture of me playing (at least I think it was a random lady, I only saw her out of the corner of my eye), though I really wish I could see the photo. Sitting there playing felt really calm and serene, it would be cool if the picture that she got reflected that.
We left for home around 5:00-5:30pm, the gathering ended at 5:00pm anyway. We stopped by In-n-Out before dropping everyone off and going home. Which reminds me that we were really disappointed to have paid $5 to attend a gathering that did have any actual food, only snacks. All in all though, a really fun day.
(More pictures coming when I can get them.)
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| Photo by Oscar C Photography |
You are very beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love your take on link. It is unlike many I have seen in the past. I love how feminine you made it. Great job.
Thank you so much! The basic design was based on fan art that I found online, and I added details from his Twilight Princess tunic, because I thought that made it look better and less thrown-together.
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