Totoro cosplay

Encouraged by the fun I had cosplaying as Shippou at ToraCon 2007, I decided to make a different costume for Anime North in Toronto. I settled on cosplayin as Totoro from the Miyazaki movie "My Neighbor Totoro," but in a kind of non-literal way. I made the costume from a (mistake #1) charcoal-gray sweatsuit with (mistake #2) charcoal-gray mule-style slippers for the feet. I used a short silver wig because I didn't think my red hair would look right. I also made dangling "Soot-Sprite" earrings with little black pom-poms with "wiggle eyes" glued on. I made a Totoro cosplay-cap BEFORE finding the instructions on how to make one, and I was not really satisfied with the result. At least the fans liked it... This convention was on Memorial Day weekend, and I quickly realized that a costume made from a sweatsuit was NOT a good idea. I was slowly melting all day on Saturday. Then I lost my two friends I was hanging around with, and I couldn't remember their last names or the hotel room they were staying in (I was going to stay overnight with them.) A fan suggested that I take the shuttlebus rather than walk to the different hotels to find them. All was fine, until I went to get off the bus. Mistake #2; DON'T EVER USE MULE-STYLE SLIPPERS FOR COSTUME FEET!!!! My heel slipped off the corner of the step as I was stepping off the bus, and I fell down the steps on my back. ("Totoro fell off the NekoBus...!") The fans were great-- after making I was okay, one handed me my "foot," and said, "That's why they call them 'slippers'..." After checking all the other hotels and convention center to no avail and getting yelled at by a convention staff member, I trudged back to their hotel to wait for them. I was NOT a happy Totoro. "I'm hot...I'm TIRED...Lost my friends...Fell off the bus...Got yelled at by 'Con Nazi..." There was a group of fans walking behind me, and suddenly I heard a girl's voice say, "Excuse me...can I HUG you...?" YES!!!!!! She gave me a hug, and so did her friend. Feeling MUCH better, I headed back to the hotel to sit in the lobby, and my friends found me after half an hour.