Thursday afternoon had finally arrived. After planning this gig for almost a year, we were a mere 24 hours away from the big event. The Alt.Fan.Sailor-Moon party to be held at the 10th annual A-Kon Anime convention. We packed up the van and took off for the Jacksonville Airport. We were heading into one of the driest summers ever as there had been no rain for weeks. Of course it figures that as we pulled into the airport, all hell breaks loose and we can hardly see from the rain storm that had just blew in from the north. I dropped the family off at the ticket counter and parked the van. I had to run back to the buildings through the driving rain getting soaked in the process. Our plane was already 15 minutes late and then once we boarded, we were told that we would have to wait even longer until the storm passed before we could leave. As a treat, they let us watch Patch Adams. Maybe I was just resentful at having to wait, but I didn't care for it. It just struck me as another one of those movies about a loved by the masses, hated by the establishment hero. Billy Jack did it better. Anyway, two hours later, we finally left Jacksonville. Fortunately, they were able to make up some of the time in the flight to Dallas so that we ended up only 90 minutes late.

As we disembarked, I started looking around for Zoe and the others. I had told Deb and the kids that some friends might be there to greet us. I was a little nervous as I had met on-line friends like this only twice before and never in a group. I distractedly walked past a group of people sitting on the floor when Josh grabbed my arm and pointed them out. They were instantly recognizable as they had not only laid out a sign with my name Phoenix on it, but had also had an entire display of Chibiusa pics set up using various Sailor Moon manga. ^_^

There, sitting cross-legged in a circle, was Zoe, Anakin, Conrad and Erin reading and discussing various manga. They had been waiting at least an hour and a half. It was such a warm, wonderful feeling to see such friends. It truly felt like I was coming home rather then arriving at some strange, remote place. Anyway, they knew exactly where we needed to go to grab our luggage and head into the hotel. As we rode the tram, we chatted about our plans for the next day.

First thing the next morning, we met in the Regency Room on the top floor of the East Tower. There was plenty of coffee, fruit, bagels and such to feed on as we continued working out our party plans. Zoe is wearing her Chinese dress and Anakin is dressed as Hokuto from Tokyo Babylon.

Below are Conrad and Erin, the lovebirds, one of the many couples that met via the afsm newsgroup ^_^

I had my laptop with me most of that first day. Here Conrad is using it to post to the newsgroup, which you can read for yourself on Dejanews.

While we listened to Zoe's Speed CD, Ron is attempting to convince Zoe to dance and sing karaoke for us. If only we had had more time, we might have gotten a real treat. ^_^

Here's a few cheesecake shots. First Zoe in her Chinese dress. Nihao, Ranma!

Anakin brought alot of her fan art to share with us (below).

And here is some of Chrissy's art (lower right).

I had already eaten while we were in the Regency room. However, Jen and Josh were hungry, so we stopped by the hotel restaurant to get a bite. While we were there, we met some friends that had also come from Jacksonville. Price for two breakfasts and a cup of coffee? $30! It will be Burger King in the airport tomorrow.

While we were at breakfast, the rest of the gang had staked out a spot at the head of the line to get into the dealer's room.

The dealer's room was huge! Not only were there hundreds of dealers, there were also plenty of pleasant surprises such as Ippongi Bang in her Pikachu outfit. Here she is, posing just for me (be still my beating heart!)

Below, we run into a few of the folks who will be joining us later in the afternoon for the afsm party.