It began not in July, that my interest was piqued, but when the screaming hordes of fangirls (and fanboys) of our school in the anime club all chanted to our glorious and now graduated leader, that they'd all be damned if they didn't go to AX this year. I didn't know what a con was until a few years ago, and seeing as this would be my first opportunity to possibly go to, I could not help but to participate. I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts, when our leader's next sentences struck me:

"Everyone who's coming to AX with us is going to stay all five days, and in a hotel. We need drivers, gas money, room money, and pleasure money, which totals up to about... $500."

"$500"

"$500"

WRONG!!! Ahem. As my placed my eyes back into my head, I realized that any stupid bastard who was rich enough to go and stay in L.A. for 5 whole days isn't retarded enough to waste that much money in this economy on anime, manga, art, and porn (the latter of which was never purchased, but I did pass quite a few stalls).

Moving on. Now, at one point last year, another AX opportunity had arose, and my friend had made my outfit for the occasion. I was to go as Shino Aburame, from Naruto. The outfit she made was tailored to my shape (which is spherical, incidentally), and included his coat, makeshift shoes, his pants, and somehow I acquired a pair of glasses perfect for the occasion, as well as the wrong type of headband (the symbol was slashed, I got to be a missing nin cause I was at the con and not in my country, derp). Unfortunately, my parents were in a cash trap last year, so I didn't bitch needlessly.

Anyway, the same thing was threatening this year's trip, as well as another great threat: my grades. DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN. I'm a right-brained fat chick, Geometry and science are evil, and I only passed P.E. this year because my teacher was really, REALLY nice. Fortunately, I skimmed by with a C and a D, so my ass was saved... barely. And my parents were kind enough to give me a little reward money and drive my friend and I down to AX. On July 4th.

While I stood there in my full ninja splendor, next to my friend, who was also in cosplay (as Grell from Kuroshitsuji, which I was absolutely sure no one was going to recognize), we realized one thing: we had no idea where we were going. Several minutes and asking guys with badges later, we found the badge stand and got our passes. We mulled around for a while, waiting for the Booth area to open. Now let me inform you on something here. It's summer, in L.A., in California, in a building with really hot lights, and with little air-conditioning, where probably over 9000 flamin' maniacs with the power of A.D.D. are actively swarming...

IT'S HOT.

And it's not helping that my friend's wearing a wig, and I'm wearing a coat and pants. And the shoes she made are not made of shoe material. They're made of what looks like the skinned hide of cookie monster, and they have no heels or feet support. They're also hot. As we stood in puddles of our own sweat, a few con members recognized who Grell was, and I had to take at least 16 photographs or my friend and other con-goers. When the doors finally opened to the booth room, we were told there was a line. For the booth room. And it started...outside.

Outside. Outside in the sun.

Crawling up the steps to the booth room, determined to not be denied the promised land, I gathered up my strength, and walked in. And then I met God. His promises of heaven were everything he'd ever said.

I walked around for a while, with only $41 bucks in hand, you have to be careful what you spend it on. I perused all the shops (and getting a nasty shock when I realized what some of them were), and finally decided on purchasing two manga, and two posters with a free postcard, as well as a red wooden rose. I also got an autograph. Whose autograph, you ask?

Vic Mignogna's. His very last for the day. I swear to God.

The time was exactly 11:36 a.m. I had dashed into the line with a passionate leap, and the man holding the 'line ends here' sign began to start turning people away just after I arrived. I could feel the envy. But i was nice about it. I took one of the people's who had missed the point of closing's artwork to be signed. I myself got to meet Vic, get my Fullmetal Alchemist artbook signed, and get my picture taken with me giving Vic bunny ears. We also reveled in our Christianity bond, which was awesome.

The end of the day came, and we went to my mom's uncle pat's Independence day celebration, which was kinda sad because we were on a hill, but were so far up that the fireworks looked like little speckles.
We passed out after midnight. When we awoke, however, we noticed something. WE CAN'T MOVE OUR LEGS BECAUSE THEY HURT SO BAD!!!!

And that is how A-con turned into Ow-con.