last friday night i went to CONvergence, thanks to bertine.

unfortunately, i got caught in the rain right after my arrival, so i was a little bit damp and uncomfortable a lot of the evening. i had to trade the shoes i wore with some of bertine’s shoes, but i fear the damage had been done early on. oh, well – nothing a couple test tube shots and some PBR couldn’t help cure.

i found that there were many, many awesome costumes — but i had no idea what 97% of them were.

i hung out with the snack food glory holes ladies for a little while (they open prior to house of toast to give away mysterious, but usually nice, snacks). when she was able to get away, bertine gave me a tour of the show.

meet my friends, tony stark and pepper potts (aka bill and crystal). side note: jason and i just watched iron man on tuesday night, so i “get” bill’s costume just a few days late.

first mystery shots of the night, made in a mini-shaker (obviously to be found in a mini-store) by a dude who dresses as hagrid (i wish i could’ve seen that costume!). cheers!

the hotel is plastered with posters from room parties, panels, nothing to do with anything, etc. there was so much to look at! but then it was tough to not be in the way for someone else who wanted to get somewhere, so pausing to take everything in was not very easy. the crowd was just a bit overwhelming.

it’s a good idea to duck into the room parties every now and then, sometimes for a break from the crowd but sometimes just to have somewhere to stand still for a moment.

me and bertine at the enterprise. can you tell?

how many costumes do you see? and how many can you identify?

somewhat random life-sized bust of luke han solo in the stone. hmm… maybe i should watch star wars today since i can’t seem to remember what that stuff he was encased in is called.

though i do sort of want a taun-taun sleeping bag.

this is the house of toast in action! they have over 100 toppings to choose from (including octopus and unattended children), but i stuck with some exotic basics: guava and orange jelly on wheat.

it is definitely a popular room party. i went at a relatively slow period and i think i still waited in line for at least 15 minutes.

here i am with optimus prime at the “jews in space” room party. we arrived too late for the matza ball soup, but ate a little bit of hallah bread with hummus.

stopped into the harry potter room party, but everyone was quiet and taking OWLs. so we didn’t stay very long.

at 11:30, we crowded into an already very crowded (very crowded) room to watch our friend, dave, dressed as jareth from the labyrinth, perform some burlesque (boy-lesque, to be exact).

fun to see jessica rabbit and the bride of frankenstein (also excellent costumes, hence the pre-dance photos). no photos of luna rogue, who is a bellydancing burlesquer with a bit of a robotic flair. i was spell-bound – so amazing to watch how someone can undulate and control their body like bellydancers can.

afterwards, i asked the dread pirate roberts for a photo and he hung out with us for another half hour or so — completely in character the whole time.

we wound down around 2am. it was a fun night, but it was also kind of long due to shoe issues. overwhelming, but also quite fun. though i think i probably wouldn’t attend again because not only does it usually cross paths with the 4^th of july (one of the best holidays), but summer is already too busy so committing to attending something like this for 4–5 days and potentially missing some other prime summertime activities doesn’t appeal to me. there is another, much smaller, sci-fi convention in march — marscon. perhaps, if i can pull together a fun costume, i’ll attend that one instead? we’ll see…