FanExpo!

Finally getting around to making that FanExpo post!

Well, Mike and I worked there for 4 days, and I had an amazing time. Because we worked there, we got to attend the Expo for free, so we totally explored like crazy on our breaks or if we finished early. It was so much fun. We wouldn't have gotten to go otherwise. The first thing I noticed is how incredibly MASSIVE it is! First of all, there were 2 buildings; the North Building and the South Building. We worked in the South Building. But even within each Building, there were multiple floors. And on each floor, multiple rooms. I was overwhelmed! In Montreal, all cons and expos are shoved into one room, even the big ones. I had never been to anything of this magnitude before. Right away I got a taste of just how BIG Toronto does...well, everything!

I love cons and expos in general, to say nothing of fandom-focused ones. To be surrounded by like-minded people--many of them in amazing cosplay of characters I just adore--it's just such a fantastic feeling. You can really feel the energy and passion coming off everyone! I found everybody so incredibly friendly and approachable, and I spoke to so many super awesome people. And the costumes. Oh, the costumes! Such terrific cosplay. There were hundreds upon hundreds of Jokers, Harley Quinns, Doctors, and Spidermans, and quite a few Links, Sailor Moons, zombies, and Jedi, but there were also tons of rarer, more unique costumes--Anthy from Utena! Misato from Evangelion! I did a fistbump with an incredibly accurate Bayamax from Big Hero 6, and chatted up an Advent Children-style Tifa and Cloud. Ah, there's so many I'm forgetting! But it was amazing. I'm including the super common costumes in the category of "amazing", of course. It doesn't matter how many other people cosplay the same character as you--just the fact you're dressing up and going out there in costume (and sometimes in character, too!) is beyond lovely, to me. I love it. I love these people.

And the booths! So many exciting things to see. I got to finally buy my first kigurumi! From a company from Montreal, ironically. I've been wanting to buy from them for awhile. I bought a budgie kigu. I know what I'm being for Halloween! ;) And the art booths...so wonderful. I love seeing fans' artwork. I talked to so many cool people and saw so many wonderful things. Amazing portraits of Zelda boss battles. Family Guy and old-school Simpsons coin purses. Cat capes. Nintendo-themed cutting boards (one was a giant question mark block!). Actual moving mechanical animals. And EarthBound. I found people who did EarthBound art! And while I have a special fondness for the art booths (I think it's called Artists' Alley?...hmm, more like Artists' Gymnasium, with the amount of space they take up, with all their awesome stuff), I loved seeing all the gaming and movie-themed booths as well.

On the last day of the Expo, we didn't start til much later, so we went to the North Building, where all the autograph signings and photo ops were. I saw Rupert Grint from a distance and got awfully excited! Can you see him in the picture? I'd be amazed if you could. ;)

Everyone was crowding around the booth I was at with their phones, trying to get a pic of him. The bathrooms on this floor were right in between some of the booths, so when I left the bathroom, I walked right past Neve Cambell! It was really weird, but cool. She looks exactly the same as she did back in the day! I loved the Scream movies. And who could forget Catwalk?

Anyway, Mike and I went to see Jeri Ryan as we are HUGE fans; we are both WAY into Voyager (we both consider it our favourite Star Trek series, actually--yeah, I know, bring on the hate! lol), and Seven of Nine happens to be our favourite character. So we went to her photo op! It was really exciting. She is even more beautiful in real life than she is on TV! She told Mike she liked his hair which I couldn't stop giggling about after. It was a really great moment, I'm so glad we went! Also, Chandler Riggs walked by me when I was waiting in line, so that was pretty neat, too.

Yeah, there's a flash on it; taking a photo of a photo is kind of difficult. ;)

The North Building had so much cool stuff that the South Building didn't have; in addition to the autographs and photo ops, the shops and booths were quite different, and there was a lot of Doctor Who stuff set up, which I'd have taken a picture with if I hadn't done so already at ComicCon in Montreal back in 2013. I also found Sailor Moon's wand! ;)

By far the coolest shop in the North Building though was this little kiosk that sold genuine, legit retro items from the 1980s (and older)! I saw so many things from my childhood, it was amazing. And I do mean actually from the 1980s; not modern-made hip nostalgia stuff. Actual stuff from 30+ years ago.
I had this exact E.T. when I was little. I couldn't believe my eyes! And check out that Pac-Man. Whaat! o__O

Look at all this stuff. Up near the top toward the middle is something called a Keyper (the white creature with a purple shell and blue hair that kinda looks My Little Pony-ish. If you follow that creepy doll's gaze, it's kinda looking in the Keyper's direction). I used to have one of those.

They even had a Polkaroo! How Canadian can you get?

I am really happy and grateful we got the opportunity to work at FanExpo. I was on a high the entire time I was there. All this cosplay makes me want to dress up really badly, and I guess the timing is perfect for that--just a few weeks until Halloween! Ooh, my first Halloween in Toronto. I can't wait!I gotta find where the Rocky Horror Picture Show is...

Torontolicious Tales

So we're settled into our new place in Toronto, in a nice neighbourhood called the Annex. It's really close to downtown, and as I discovered today, about 10-minute walk from Yorkville. If you're familiar with Toronto, you know where that is. If you're not, Yorkville is a really posh part of town with cutesy expensive-for-no-reason shops and cafes, bars, very visually appealing super narrow walkways, and a snobby suburban feel that I get such a kick out of, as you walk another 5 minutes and boom! You're on Bloor street, near Bay and Yonge, which is skyscraper central.

Toronto is such a diverse mix of non-stop forever moving busy-for-the-sake-of-busy utter lunacy. I can definitely understand why someone wouldn't want to live here; big cities are not for everyone. I dared to hesitate for maybe half a second at a major transfer subway station one day and nearly got trampled. But I adapt quickly to picking up a city's vibe because I love. Big. Cities. I live for this stuff. I've always wanted to live in a big city ever since I was a small child, and growing up in Montreal, I always felt fortunate to at least live in a proper city (and a really awesome one at that!), even though it wasn't a very big one. I've always wanted to live in one of those skyscraper-laden labyrinthine concrete mini-universes that have buildings that disappear into the horizon, perhaps serving as our generation's precursor to a Blade Runner LA type deal, or even Coruscant. I can't foresee myself living in Shanghai (yet), and Tokyo's off the table for the time being, but for now, places like New York and Toronto will most certainly do.

I can't wait to explore more of it and see what this city has to offer. So far it's been beyond great. I feel like I belong here, and today I said as much to Mike. It's so weird. I've never felt that way before. As much as I love Montreal, I am so glad to leave it as Mike and I both have such wanderlust and just can't stay put. I feel finally moving at 34 is so late in life to be doing so, although for what it's worth we would have moved two years ago if it weren't for my cancer. But still, a lot of people get up and move when they're in their late teens or early 20s and here we are, mid-30s and finally changing up cities for the first time? Ha! Well, certainly better late than never, and that's an understatement. This feeling is incredible. It's like I've been wearing the same jacket or sweater for forever because I love it so much and I'm so comfortable in it and it's grown to fit me just right after all this time, stretching out to my shape. But it's starting to fray at the ends and the colours are fading and suddenly I buy a new jacket and of course it'll never replace my old original jacket, not my jacket I grew up with, with all its sentimental value, but wow, does it ever feel amazing to have a brand new jacket to wear that isn't all tattered, that I haven't worn 8 billion times. I didn't realize how tired I was of wearing the old one til I tried on something brand new, new and fresh which I can style in so many different ways I never even imagined. It's so new and shiny and sparkly, I feel so rejuvenated in a new outfit. I realize it's finally time to move on and try something new, something different.

 ...I don't know, maybe this is a terrible comparison. But it's what popped into my head first. I'll have to think of something better to help describe how I feel about changing cities and starting a new life here. But suffice is to say, so far I love it so much. I have so much exploring to do. I didn't do too much of that yet as pretty much as soon as we got here, we started working a little gig at FanExpo, which I mentioned in my last post. Now THAT was quite the experience! A post about that shall be next. :)