Anime Detour: 2005


MOCHI > The Scrapbook > Convention Memories > Anime Detour > 2005

Location:	The Thunderbird (Mall of America Ramada)
Date:	March 11-13th, 2005
Type of convention:	Young and growing
Summary:	A great chance to meet up with friends and explore the city.

This was a landmark convention for us: for the first time in nearly two years, all of us were at an anime convention at the same time. Crazy how real life can catch up with you! It was a homecoming of sorts, with one of us returning from a long trip abroad and two others getting a chance to return to some old stomping grounds.

It also was going to be a rare occasion where none of us were supposed to be working for the convention. Not that there weren't people who tried to help where they could -- it was nice, for a change, to not be under any outside obligations.

Pre-con shennanigans

MOCHI descended upon the convention in roughly three contingents. Contingent A (Sugar Bomb and Daifuku) would be coming up as part of a longer road trip, arriving early Thursday afternoon. Contingent B (Toasted, Grandis, and company) would be assembling late Thursday evening at Toasted Mochi's house, which was about 10-15 minutes away from the convention. Contingent C (Spiky) would be arriving sometime Friday afternoon.

For all of us, this is an area we know well, so we had no adventures from trying to use useless Mapquest directions. [Yay! -Daifuku] Although this was the first year that the con was in this particular hotel, some of us were very familiar with it from the days when it held TwinCon, a Twin Cities gaming convention.

Due to Spiky Mochi's timing, he managed to hit some serious snow. Given that he had nearly gone off of the road, along this same road, earlier this year, he decided to slow down. This proved to be a wise choice as he watched two semi-trucks jack-knife and another five cars create a pile-up right in front of him. Even the ambulances were having a bad day, so we were all very glad when he made it to hotel.

All of us were also interested in seeing how well Toasted Mochi would hold up over the course of the convention. He was coming back from a trip to Japan -- and pretty much heading straight into the convention. Would the evil forces of Jet Lag finally be able to conquer the Toasted Mochi's inner Energizer Bunny? Only time would tell ....