Costume College 2024, Pt. 1

I am home from Costume College, which was, as always, a wonderful weekend!  I flew down Thursday afternoon since CoCo starts promptly at 9am Friday morning.  The flight was blessedly uneventful; I did not get caught up in the security break that affected lots of computers and cancelled flights.  But I did, alas, discover that the Chipotle at SeaTac has unfortunately closed. :(  I read Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone on the plane, found the shuttle to the hotel with ease, and checked into my room at the LAX Sheraton Gateway.  I didn't have a roommate this year - by the time I stopped waffling and decided to commit, there was no one left looking for one.  On one hand, not having to worry about modesty or snoring or late night comings and goings of a roomie was nice... on the other hand, it was pricey.  Ah well, it's a once a year splurge!

The hotel in general was pretty good once I'd internalized the layout.  I ended up in room 667... and was vastly amused that there was in fact a room 666 right across the hallway from me.  I'd half thought the hotel would skip that number out of superstition!  My hotel room was nice and clean, but my god the Sheraton really needs to replace the hallway carpets.  From overheard conversation, they really needed to replace them a year ago too, but... haven't.

Every year CoCo gives out tote bags to the attendees as well as a pen and notebook and the usual program and schedule and such stuff.  This year the tote bag was made of canvas (nice!) and there was a table set up near registration with a ton of Sharpies in lots of colors on it, so everyone could personalize their bag.  I really really hope this repeats in the future; it was a great idea, and makes it less likely that someone might grab the wrong bag and not realize it.

I met up with my friend Brittany and did go to the Thursday night pool party in my 1960s stunt dress.  That was the only one of the major social gatherings I attended - I skipped the Friday night social and the Saturday night gala.  I don't cope well with large crowds; I'm bad at socializing and even if I'm with friends, there's sufficient noise that I cannot pick out their voices and converse.

I love the classes, though!  I'll go over those tomorrow, but for now, here's one of the things I made.  From the 1920s Garden Party Hat class: