And then my feet were bleeding..

...The C2E2 Story.

Once upon a time on Saturday, I suddenly realised that I wasn't working on Sunday and had a whole  bunch of friends going to C2E2. Being foolish and impulsive, I decided to go (because why not, right?)  Having decided the night before, I naturally had to cram my usual several months of absolute pre-con panic into one. day.

And oh, did I manage.

All day at work on Saturday, I planned and pleaded with myself, trying to decide what to wear, what panels to attend, what time I needed to leave... It was crazy. I almost decided not to go at several points, but I am nothing if not self-sabotaging, so I eventually just bought my pass online and headed home to decide between my N7 Dress Blues (which I had almost finished) and my Sansa Stark costume (which I had yet to begin).

I arrived at home around 11pm and promptly set about.... eating cereal and watching murder mysteries with my mother. Eventually, however, I knew I needed to begin working so I.... took an hour long bath and listened to music. Seriously, though, I really needed to get to work, so I.... played Super Smash Brothers with my brother until 1am.

At 1:30, determination dwindling, I finally harassed myself into getting started. I began by trying on my dress blues, feeling hopeless, and taking instagram WiPs.

my (still) 80% complete dress blues

Around 2, I managed to lower my self esteem enough to give up on the dress blues (everyone would have thought I was from Fullmetal Alchemist anyway) and begin work on Sansa.

It was a pretty arduous process (which I will totally document later) but around 5am I came to a point of completion (complete exhaustion, that is. I had one sleeve left to do and decided that the whole thing looked stupid on me). I gave up and went to bed.

I woke up with a renewed feeling of determination. I sewed the other sleeve on, packed up my stuff, and headed out.

I misjudged how many people were going to be there, so I wasn't in the main parking lot, which I figured would be okay. And, honestly, it was totally fine. Parking lot B is about a mile away from the actual convention (including indoor walking.... jeez McCormick Place is huge) but I'm no stranger to walking, so I headed in to find my friends. I wasn't in costume at this point (partially because I didn't feel like it, partially because I was afraid of being a weird girl alone in a pretty dress at a convention, and partially because I REALLY LIKE MY STAR WARS DRESS AND I WANTED TO SHOW OFF OKAY).

Like I said, I was wearing some of the stuff from my etsy store... namely my star wars dress and my bowties are cool necklace. Oh, and some enormous gold pumps, just because. I hung around talking to artists and taking pictures of cosplayers for a while, which was totally lovely. I also met up with some friends and got a brief look at the vendors (this whole thing was such a whirlwind),

cosplayers:

Eventually, though, I decided I really should get in costume, so I hiked the mile back to my car (this time with blisters forming on my feet from wearing such insane shoes). I hid behind my car and changed, somehow pulled together a ridiculous hairstyle using my window as a mirror, and headed back to the convention.

ridiculous hairstyle

Before I even got back in the hall, I had been asked to pose for at least five photos. I don't think anybody had any idea who I was, but that doesn't mean it didn't make me feel good. I was especially glad that I sewed giant pockets into the elbows of my dress (big enough even to hold my enormous batman clutchwallething). I'll talk more about that later, though.

I don't really know what to write about the rest of the convention. Mostly....I was in a daze. Everything seemed so huge! I realise ACen is pretty big, and it hurts me to even speculate this but.... it seemed bigger, haha. Gosh, it was just so much fun. I met some really cool people, took a million pictures, looked for the artist that Brittany and I met at STLCC, talked myself out of buying a bunch of things, and wore my feet to bleeding.

cool people :)

The whole thing was just so wonderful and it especially helped because... well, I've been kind of down lately and it was nice to remember that I'm actually really pretty GOOD at this. I don't know, maybe that's just more of what made me feel down in the first place. I promise, though, there was hardly a  second at the con where I didn't have a huge smile on my face. Er.. except when I was having my picture taken, of course. Sansa Stark smiles for nobody, haha. Seriously, though, everything was brilliant.

Honestly, the only slightly nagging bit of awfulness was my own addiction to diet coke, which drove me nearly to insanity. The entire time I was there, I wanted to buy a coke, but I was much too busy with other things to do anything but feel the my stomach's cries for aspartame. It would have been funny, if it wasn't so sad. I ended up stopping by Panera on the way home to put on real person clothes and MORE IMPORTANTLY BUY SOME DIET COKE.

Brittany, I'm sure you know my feels. 

It was also really fun to watch everyone try to work out exactly what I was supposed to be. Here is an abridged list of things people guessed:

-Princess Leyla (yep)

-Cersei
-A Girl Jedi

-Daenerys 

-Arya

-Giselle

-Rapunzel

-Cinderella

Cinderella was actually the cutest. I was waiting for some friends by the escalator when an adorable little girl came up to me and tugged on my dress. The conversation went something like this:

Little Girl: Excuse me... are you Cinderella?

Girl's Mom: No, honey, that's Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones.

Little Girl: Oh.... (looks sad) 
Nora: Oh, hey, it's okay. Sansa's kind of like Cinderella. They're both... really unhappy?
Girl's Mom: ...and wear blue dresses.
Nora: Oh! Right!

At the end of the day, it was suuuper fun, but one day was definitely not enough. Next year (yep, next year) I intend to go all three days. Brittany, I think you should probably hurry up and just move to Chicago, please.

Anyway, the whole making-a-costume-in-five-hours thing was a nice kick in the pants to get ready for ACen, since that's in a few weeks. I'm working on Hawke AND Fenris costumes, so I've got a lot on my plate right now.

I'll leave you with one last photo of my Sansa, which is my favourite picture ever taken of me ever:

-Nora