Convention and Cosplay Withdrawal pt. deux

I was on my way to post this blog when I noticed my fellow blogger and FL-convention attendee Tenchi's post on the same subject. Some some of this will be in response to that :)

*sniffs air* Ah, convention season. So lovely. With basically a month away until AFO, my best friend and I are getting pretty antsy. Thank god for the weekly (and sometimes bi-weekly) cosplay meetings we have at my house, otherwise I'd be going crazy right about now.

Anyways, like Tenchi had said in her post, hotel sharing can be complicated. I'm going to amend that for my blog and say that hotel sharing can be a bitch to organize. I'm still waiting on money, and I've had two people drop out (only one that I'm mad at though).

First, let me start by stating that I am practically the con mom. Despite the fact that my mom still goes (this is not weird since she enjoys it, and considers it a mini vacation), I function as the planner and the leader.

As a matter of fact, there are several advantages to my mom going.
1. She pays for her part of the hotel, therefore, its cheaper on the rest of us.
2. She drives. For the past 5 years she has done the back and forth from Daytona to Orlando on most (and sometimes all) days, and has never once complained about it. Go Mom.
3. I can sometimes convince her to hold my shit, which is helpful :)
4. She is our person-who-protects-your-stuff-while-pictures-are-being-taken. Which is super appreciated.
5. She lets us use her credit card to both book the hotel and buy my ticket :)
6. She protects us from creepers. Nuff said.

And most importantly, she isn't one of those crazy up-your-butt moms either. She's the cool, you-guys-do-what-you-want-i'll-sit-right-here-and-read kind of moms. Which is sweet. She also pays attention at the con, enjoys herself, and has even picked up on some anime. How many moms can you say do that?

In a nutshell my mom is pretty damn awesome.

So back to the hotel diatribe. This year there are 5 of us, me, my mom, and three of my friends. Only one of my friends has given me money, so I came up with a plan:
- First of all, my mom and I get a bed. We booked it, we're providing transportation, we paid first. Fair enough.
- My friend who paid first gets the first spot in the second bed. I decided that whoever pays next gets the last spot in the bed. Whoever doesn't is shit outta luck. Again, fair enough.

Now onto some cosplay related ranting:

So these cosplay meetings that I host are where we get together and work on our costumes. We all decided to do multiple costumes, which takes more time obviously. 2 of my group members sew, me and my other friend (the one who paid). She has two costumes of hers to do, and two for her sister, who can't sew. I have 2 costumes of my own, and I help my friend and her sister because I have the most experience (not bragging, its just a fact). My one other friend decided to do three costumes this year, one of which is already done. Thing is, she can't sew. Thing two is, she wants me and my already-paid friend to do them for her.

Let me start by saying, if I wanted to make 4 costumes, I would. The only reason I'm helping my other friends is because I got further along than they did. And they don't have anyone else that is willing to help them. My 3 costume friend has a relative that can, hence where she got the 1st costume that is already done.

It just makes me really frustrated that she has neither paid me hotel money or made an effort to help with her costumes, or learn how to do them herself. I mean, my friend's sister pins and cuts out all her own shit and then her sister sews it. She is also going to camp for like 2 weeks at the beginning of July. Actually a lot of my problem is her attitude; my friend's sister is helpful and doesn't hover (which I despise), while my 3 costume friend just hovers and makes snide remarks about my already-paid friend, which are way out of line.

So moral of the story, I'm really frustrated and I can feel my sanity slipping away. So if anyone has any advice that they're willing to share, feel free.

-Kitty