Day 2, Saturday January 12th, 2002

I decided while I ate breakfast that if things had not changed by checkout time, I would be on my way. Boy, was I surprised.

As the now fully-manned (or rather "girled") information desk came into view, things started looking up. They had schedule handouts, programs, and a new master schedule. As I roamed the halls I also saw that everything was now clearly marked, including viewing schedules and activities for each of the rooms.

I found the general mood has also changed. What was perhaps the friendliest, confused and frustrated group of people I had ever seen the night before was now laughing, dancing, gaming and basically enjoying themselves to their hearts content. The dealers' room was also full of eager buyers and happy vendors. With the exception of cancellations made by the guests themselves, each of the panels was running on time.

Somehow, someway, the Ohayocon staff had pulled everything together, creating a well-oiled convention machine while I slept.

I attended the first of two Voice Actor Panels, which featured Doug Smith (Golden Boy), Jessica Cavello and Tiffany Grant (Evangelion). The panel was extremely friendly, and all went well as the guests responded to each and every question from the audience. A well-managed autograph session followed without frustration and each fan getting their time with each of the guests in a casual, unhurried manner.

From there I headed up to the "Green Room" to spend some quality time with Angora Deb (Maze) chatting about her work, life aspirations and role models. I also heard her say the word "panties" no less than sixteen times.

Having some time to kill following that, I again set to roaming the halls. The viewing rooms were viewing, the gaming rooms were gaming, the cel painters were painting, and the DDR room was, well, DDRing. Everywhere, everyone was doing their thing. No hassles, no concerns, no frustration, and no complaints. Just fun as far as the eye could see.

Next, I hunted up Jessica Cavello and spent the next hour laughing as hard as I could. I don't know what that chick uses for fuel, but she is the funniest, liveliest, friendliest person I have ever met. Jon Osborne (Gundam0083: Stardust Memories) stepped in on our chat, and it instantly went off the funny scale to just plain insane. Tears were streaming down my face as Jon described Jessica's silicon incident the previous evening.

I then decided to pop into something I had not seen before called an "Improv Workshop." Expecting just to check it out for a second and then move on to more fun things, I ended up there for the full hour. Being run by my new friend Angora Deb, it was the funniest show of the con as she coaxed these folks into doing everything from randomly shouting "No, you didn't!" at each other, to pretending to be wearing clothes made from asparagus. (Click here for the full Improv Workshop report.)