For starters, well just say that Map Quest sucks!!!!

To start off we ended up leaving almost 3 hours later than planned and as if that wasn't bad enough, when we tried to follow the Map Quest directions, we ended up getting lost and wasting 2 more hours (grumble). So now 5 hours behind schedule we finally get going in the right direction, only to come face to face with the worst DOWNPOUR I've seen in years.

So we struggle along, in the rain for several hours. Suddenly we notice that the road seems a LOT darker than it was before. We decide to check it out so we pull over at the next rest stop, just thinking maybe that one of the headlights burnt out. While pulling into the station, I flicked the high beams to see if they were working and I was greeted by about 2 seconds of brightness and then complete darkness.

Wonderful. I had one replacement available, but I didn't know if I should bother if they were getting shorted out from the rain. So at almost 2am we decided we would wait out the storm at the rest stop and wait until morning before we got on the road again, so that headlights wouldn't be an issue.

We spent about 2 hours watching the cool lightning show and another hour or so after that waiting for the sun to come up. We finally hit the road again at about 5:30, playing a well rounded game of "Interstate Leap Frog" with a couple of 18 wheelers.

We FINALLY got to our hotel at about 7am checked in, asked for the latest possible check out time (we were staying at a different hotel Friday night) and went to bed. We slept until about Noon, packed the car up again and went down the road to our hotel. We checked in and were unloaded at about 2, then decided some food was in order, hoped back into the car and down the road to the Wendy's to pick up food we brought it back to the hotel, and actually happened upon Tiff in the hotel lobby. Me being the fan girl I am started tugging on Brian's shirt (for those who don't know Brian is my boyfriend) saying "there she is that's Tiffany!" but I kept it cool when we actually rode up on the elevator with her and she commented on my Pu Chuu shirt I was wearing (I made it) I introduced myself and told her I was her "designated slave" for the next four hours.

I met up with Tiff again right before her panel on Voice Acting, and as I was now officially at her disposal, I was being as helpful as possible. We walked into the room and immediately Tiff (who is SUPER skinny and wearing shorts and a tank top) was half frozen it was so cold in there. She asked me to go up to her room and get her sweater for her acting all embarrassed to ask me to do something for her, I told her that's what I'm there for and happily scampered away to collect the missing sweater (LOL).

After her panel we wandered over to the dealers room to see what we could find she found a couple of little Asuka and Unit 02 figures that were just like things she already had, but they were clear, so she had to get them, she also found an Asuka figure that she didn't have, the only catch was the it was $599! It's a beautiful statue, full body full color about a foot and a half high, but that's a lot of $$$ so we kind of oohd and aaahd over it and then moved on.

We then wondered about the con until about 7 when Matt Greenfield was supposed to arrive. (For those of you who don't know, Matt is Vice President and a writer/producer/director at ADV films, as well as Tiff's fiancé.) We then of course had to show Matt the big giant Asuka figure which of course Tiff didn't expect him to get for her.

After that I caught the tail end of the AMV contest, which I am proud to announce I received 3rd place, and Brian took home 2nd. Then it was bed time, somehow driving in rain and spending 4 hours at a rest stop takes a lot out of a girl.

The next day right at 10:30 I had a "round table discussion" about the mainstreaming of Anime, and a group of us got together and discussed things we could do to help Anime in general become more widely available. It was really interesting to hear different ideas on that.

Then it was off to my NEXT "round table discussion" which was about the different genre's of Anime (Mecha, Magic Girls etc.) again, interesting discussion, some good comments made by lots of people.

Then it was off to my AMV panel, where I discussed how to make an AMV as well as showcased several of my own and my favorites from around the web (all with the permission of the creator) I think it went off really well. I had probably close to 100 people in there so I was nervous but it was fun.

After that I went upstairs and got dressed for the cosplay contest, I didn't come away with anything this time but I definitely had fun talking to my fellow costumers about techniques and materials etc. On a side note on my way to the cosplay I ran into Tiff again and she was wearing a Pu Chuu T-shirt that I made for her after she liked mine so much :)

After the cosplay, it was again bed time, I had a a busy day :)

Sunday I was to be with Tiff again and while looking for her I found her coming out of the dealers room excited because Matt was buying the big giant Asuka for her (what a great guy, I hope they got it back to Houston OK) after that the con was pretty much over (only closing ceremonies left really) so we went upstairs to Tiff's room where she packed then decided she needed to go down to the dealers room one more time to see Stan Sakai one more time (he is the creator of Usagi Yojimbo) and a couple of fan boys asked her to take a picture of her kicking them in the crotch. Tiff agreed and the picture will hopefully turn out well :)

After that Tiff and Matt had to leave for their plane, I said good-by and saw them off.

There were just so many awesome things that happened I will probably never remember them all. Tiffany Grant is a fun person to hang around, and it's because of hearing her say time and time again "if you wanna be in the business you gotta live where the work is" that I'm now gun-ho about moving to Houston TX at the end of next year :)