KumoriCon "Lite" (long post)

We're cool kids.

Mini convention events seem to be really popular this year with a lot of local cons holding such events. As it turns out KumoriCon is no different! The convention decided to hold a one day event on Saturday June 27th at the Double Tree in Portland.

I had agreed to attend a wedding later in the day so I had to make sure that whatever I chose to wore could either A) be easy to change out of or B) work for both events. I honestly DID want to cosplay but with the weather in Portland hovering around the 100s for far too long I knew it would be in my best interest to dress a bit more comfortably.

Mayhaps in hindsight lolita wasn't the best option but it was certainly far more comfortable than any cosplay I was interested in wearing. I know I keep telling myself I need to have more of a presence in the local cosplay scene ~_~ but at the same time I feel weird leaving my apartment in full cosplay to go somewhere, you know? Lolita, oddly enough, feels a lot less strange for me to walk around the general public in.

I was debating between the black Dream Sky JSK and the blue. Honestly I think the black would have been much less "in your face" but Peter was really pushing for me to wear the blue one since it would attract less heat. I don't think he realized that I was planning on wearing that same dress to the wedding we were going to later that evening >_>;; oops? Oh well! More on that later though,

We ended up getting there a few hours after the event was supposed to open only to be greeted by a HUGE LINE. We ended up finding Nicholes waiting with a few of her friends and asked her what was going on. Apparently she had been waiting for at least 3 hours and the line was moving SUPER slow! We kind of... cut in line... and waited with her. The line was moving as slow as could be and after another hour or so wait we were very close to being inside the event space.

Necklace by KumaCrafts!

I liked how they did the payment option for the event where you could either pay $15 or give them 3 manga (in good condition of course.) I had a few books I had picked up from Goodwill for maybe $2 a piece so in the long run I saved a bunch :3 I had brought enough books to "pay" for Peter and myself to get into the event. When we finally got to the registration area we learned what was holding up the line so bad.
As it turns out with the heat in the space and no AC the printers had to cool down after every badge it printed out. This ended up being at least a minute if not MORE. I felt bad for the people staffing the event :( After talking with the fellow helping us out he informed us that the event was mainly so they could test the new registration system they had just recently switched over to. This means no more of the plastic badges they used to send out for Pre-regged attendees. I know a few people are bummed about it but it does make sense from a cost standpoint for the convention itself.

By the time we had gotten our badges everyone was pretty hungry. We all split up to go grab something to eat. Peter and I went across the street to the mall since it's super close and the selection isn't terrible. Afterwards we headed back down to event space to try and find a few more friends that just showed up; I had been texting with one of them for a bit. It seems as though they got stuck at the back of the line so instead of crowding them about we caught up with another group of friends for a bit and then hopped back to the other group when they got closer to getting their badges

The space the event was held in, as mentioned before, did NOT have air conditioning at all. Considering it was essentially in a parking garage on a day that 100F+ degree weather it was really miserable for everyone to be inside. By then though Peter and I needed to head out for his friend's wedding. I was honestly really on the fence about it... I wanted to stay and hang out with people. I also started having thoughts about just how silly I'd look showing up in what I was wearing. But I -did- promise him that I would go to this wedding (and they had already added me as a +1 to the dinner reservations) so I decided it was best to keep my word and leave the event.

Stole this pic from Jerry! <3

Mind you I was still decked out in a bright blue dress with shooting stars and lace all over it. I actually started to get some serious feelings of anxiety going to the wedding dressed in such an outfit despite the fact that I pretty much never dress OTT. It still made me really nervous and I was trying to figure out what I could take off or do to minimize how completely out of place I was about to look. I wish I had worn something way more toned down. Maybe something black even because then at least I wouldn't stick out like a bright blue sore thumb!

I ended up pulling off my hair bow, almost all my bracelets and wrist cuffs, and putting my wig in a low side ponytail. I wasn't really sure what else I could do to tone it down. I was honest to goodness worried about everything; probably far too much than I needed to be.

Peter told me what he overheard people saying were mostly compliments towards my dress. I really hope he wasn't saying that just to placate me ~_~;; because I really was feeling terrible about dressing so eye catching at someone else's wedding *sigh*

The food was really delicious and the reception was nice. It was a winery about 2 hours South East of Portland. The downside was, again, NO AC (well the bathrooms had it), so a lot of the attendees were really sweltering. The ceremony was super short but still lovely. I don't have too much to say about it since the heat was also bearing down on how miserable I felt at the time :\ I seriously don't do well in this weather. Oregon needs to just stop lol.

After things at the wedding died down a bit we decided to head back to see how KumoriCon Lite was doing. I think we got back around 7 or 8PM so by then it was dusk and cooling off a bit more. I caught up with the original group we left and it turns out some of them "sang" karaoke. I use the term "sang" loosely as I was told they didn't know pretty much any of the lyrics haha.

So tired... so so tired.

As it turns out we missed out on pretty much everything at the event; which I guess really is OK since it was just a big room full of people hanging out playing games, singing karaoke, and reading manga for the most part. Seemed like a good event to keep the younger crowd busy at and to give people and excuse to gather and hang out :) I do wish I could have spent a bit more time there but my group of friends were interested in still hanging out despite KumoLite winding down so we chatted about what exactly to do. By that time we had all taken refuge from the heat in the main hotel's bar. A few people ordered some drinks but I was just thankful to be out of the heat after doing my best to function like a normal human in it all day lol

We all decided to migrate over to Stanford's for drinks and food. I honestly don't remember much after this point due to pure exhaustion and all the day's happenings. I'm pretty sure I just ate sweet potato fries and talked with everyone a bunch while spacing out in between.

I crashed pretty hard after everything. As cute as I feel wearing lolita it feels really great to take off all the layers after a long hot day!
I had a really great time though and enjoyed seeing a lot of people I don't normally have a chance to see outside of full sized cons. I do miss them and hope to become better friends :) so we'll see how things go~
As for KumoriCon's new registration system, I do hope they figure out all the kinks and bumps before the full convention comes up. I learned late last night that the numbers for the mini con ended up being around 500-600 people!! WOW! They were only expecting some 200-300 to show but so so SO many more did! Mind you the first year KumoriCon was held they only just made it over 300 attendees. It's mind boggling how much conventions have grown- even in the Pacific Northwest. But that's a topic worth another long long post all it's own.

OBLIGATORY CUTE MARKIPLIER GIF