PUDDLE 2011 Trip Report

Had a reasonably uneventful day leading up to my flight. I got to the airport about an hour before my plane left. I was flying out of Atlantic City, which is a tiny airport so getting there 3 hours early would’ve been incredibly unnecessary. I, personally, was very worried about the new TSA regulation rigmarole, and had been asking fellow fear-stricken fliers on a few non-pullip messageboards (those do exist, it turns out! LOL) what I should do, but I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Flying on Spirit Airlines meant that one of the benefits was a relaxed security. As I put my bag through, it was already in the x-ray when the guy remembered to ask me about liquids.

“Oh! You didn’t have any gel, liquid, or aerosols, right?”
“Well, there’s a small aerosol hairspray and some liquid makeup.”
“Oh…well..*shrug*”

Hm. Good to know all those ridiculous regulations actually mean something. Oh, wait, I guess they don’t. I guess it’s just arbitrary rules to inconvenience people under the guise of safety and no one is actually any safer! I suppose that’s a lengthy rant for another day. Point is, both ways I was subjected to a metal detector and an x-ray of my bag. No pat downs, no image scans.

The downside of my airline was that I would’ve been charged $30 each way if I wanted to bring luggage (same price for checking a bag as it was for the overhead compartment!). So, I didn’t. I had to pack everything into a bag no bigger than 16x14x12. I managed it! It wasn’t easy, but I did it.

The plane was all set to take off, but then there was a mechanical problem, so we ended up waiting on the runway for over an hour. When we finally landed, there were so many people without luggage that I figured the people with stuff in the overheads would be conscientious enough to wait until other people were off before holding up the line, but I was very wrong. Even though the last time I flew, I waited for people to get by before getting my bag, I guess I should be used to the fact that people in this world just aren’t polite to each other. I ended up missing the shuttle and waiting another extra hour, not checking in until around 9 pm. (I did remember this when returning, and just sat in my seat until all the people in front of me got their luggage and finally lumbered off the aircraft before I got up.)

Here in Philly, it had been about 90 degrees all week, so I packed for 90 degree weather. When I got to Chicago, it was COLD!! And I had nothing but light tshirts and capri pants!! Luckily, the longest I had to stay outside was waiting for the shuttle. Once inside the hotel, it was fine. In my bag, I’d remembered just about everything. The only thing I’d forgotten was…bum bum BUMMM!!! My camera!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! So all my pics are from my camera phone.

I showed up just as everyone was settling in for the Friday night teaparty, and got to see a few of the interesting little desserts picked up at the asian mall where some of the PUDDLE peeps had dinner. The lovely Babelglyph taught me a bit about tea (and was my roomie!) and we had our first hangout where I met TrueFan and ravenwcatz in person (waves!) It should be noted at this point that the jaccuzzi was out of service for the ENTIRE weekend!!!

We went to bed that night somewhere between 10:30-11, and got up at around 7:30 am which Trillian is not used to doing at all! I was totally groggy until I made coffee. The morning was spent setting things up, and with me running back and forth to the room for things I’d forgotten because, as I said, early morning is not my friend. I was at a table with babelglyph, ravenwcatz, DelightfulFreak, Zakuro/Matsuda, and TrueFan was technically at our table, but hardly sat down.  Gift bags were gotten, and I got a bunch of cool stuff! My favorite item was the cute little crane jumper by effiethedal. My second favorite was the awesome artwork on the bag, which was a picture of Charlotte Dal by DelightfulFreak.

ravenwcatz, the beginning...

Ravenwcatz was discussing in chat the dolls she needed, and it was suggested why not bring them all? So she did! She brought 14, by far the most at our table, in the running for the most at the event! I brought Oryx and Silas, Babelglyph brought 9 girls, among which were Lark and Lola.

The Fabulous Lola

Lark and Silas

DelightfulFreak brought lots of her dolls as well, including Mori! My favorite! Next time she has to bring Levi too, as the two of them just seem to fit together. Yes, I know, they’re just friends, but still!

Babel's Chance, 3 of Delightful's dolls, and Oryx on the end

First, if memory serves, was the BST. I traded my Nosferatu wig for a Haute NY wig, which is great because Oryx needed a green wig for her collection. I also got a fabulous Leeke World wig for my new Bonita (whom I did not bring to the event, but will post a pic of later).  Sadly my Chill and Principessa stock didn’t sell, nor my Ende or Zuora wigs, but I’m not worried about it. I got a lot of loot from DelightfulFreak, so my Namu Tyler now has boots and won’t have to wear ill-fitting Star Trek boots anymore! I also got (from her) a partial Missionary stock, two really cute stuffed kittens with big heads

After the BST we did the group photo, which for some reason I sat down right in the middle of. Apparently I am secretly an attention whore. I was with Oryx though, so maybe she just rubbed off on me.  I will post the group photo as soon as TrueFan does.

**It will be posted right here**

Then we did the door prizes. Apparently door prizes were done differently last year, but this year you got a number in your gift bag, and that was the order in which you lined up for your door prize. The lining up, I think, was a great idea because it got people out of their chairs and mingling. After they got their prize, they were more likely to wander around the room since they were already up.

Anyway, I got number 8. Not all the gift bags were taken, so there were some gaps in the line, putting me at number 4 in line. I decided to take a “mystery bag” that had an assortment of things from the last PUDDLE, so I now have 3 outfits by effiethedal. The crane one will go to Lenore or Ofelia, the turtle dress and pjs will go to Mercy.

While wandering around I picked up a very cute spider dress from KeelyVH for Lucy.

After that, we did the gift swap, which made me kind of sad. I gave a GI Joe outfit, and included a rucksack and an M16 made out of metal. The most valuable part of my gift (and what I considered to be really cool) was this M16 machine gun that opened at the middle of the gun, so you didn’t have to put it over the doll’s head to get it on. Everyone I showed it to thought it was boss, but then it ended up with TrueFan!  Out of all the people at the swap, she was the only one I was 100% certain wouldn’t want it. She said later it’ll probably be in the free box next year.

I got a Liv doll pajama set with slippers that will definitely go to Ofelia. It’s nice and demure but still modern, which is her style.

After the swap I went with ravenwcatz and we got some Quiznos. We came back and sat on the stage with babel and delightful and discussed dolls and doll related things.

Then the setup started for the doll contests, of which I entered Oryx as a modified doll. She did get lots of attention at the tea party with her awesome purple wig and purple outfit (Mir looks good in everything!) . She didn’t win anything, but she did get a vote from someone for best modified.

The winner for best modified was actually a boy belonging to DelightfulFreak, who is on a Volks body (which you don’t see many boy Volks)

Best Modified

The winner for fan favorite modified and fan favorite overall went to babelglyph for Ninja Yura.

Totally deserves it.

Sadly, I don’t remember exactly who all the other winners ended up being.

After the contest was the customization forum and workshop, which turned out really to be a group of us sitting together on the stage doing modifications for inexperienced people. I did an obitsu body on an Angelique for a nice young girl, babel did some chip changes, other simple mods were going on. We all kept commenting on how much fun it was to modify things as a group. Usually when I’m doing it, I’m alone at my desk screaming expletives about where my screws disappeared to.  We were heavily aided by Asashi’s…guy? We’ll go with guy. Asashi’s guy who brought a massive toolkit and a dremel tool which helped bunches and bunches when rebodying the T4 body type.

Babelglyph changes eyechips

Then there was the fabulous and awesome Dress Like Your Doll contest. It is truly the staple and calling-card of PUDDLE, whether or not you participate.  I, of course, could not participate as I could not bring any luggage. It is still fun, even just to watch.  I helped out with the contest by hand writing the entry slips when it came to TrueFan and Babelglyph’s attention that no one had brought any. lol It was fine, I was superglad I could help.

There were a total of 9 entries for the contest. You will have to forgive me, as I don’t remember everyone’s names.

Group of participants for Dress Like Your Doll

Back row from left: Ravenwcatz as Melissa, TrueFan as Lunatic Alice, I don’t know this girl’s name but she wore a black wig to match her doll’s and they both wore yellow shirts and purple minis with black boots, Mandee as Clara with her doll Chloi, Brian with his Dal in matching outfits (his Dal was in an awesome harness attached to his shoulder!)

Front row from left: Girl dressed as Fanatica, Girl in matching checkered dress with pink lock of hair in front, Asashi and her doll in pink lolita, PullipKat and her doll in matching silkscreened octopi shirts she made herself.

The winners this year:

Winners for Dress Like Your Doll contest

From left to right: Tie for third place PullipKat, Fan favorite Fanatica, second half of third place tie Checkered Dress, second place Ravenwcatz, first place Mandee!

This contest was a blast to watch. The best part was when raven flashed us her Melissa garter, and showed that her legs were wrapped in plastic to prevent “staining or melting.”

The final event (not counting dinner) was the raffle. There were 5 dolls raffled off this year, I entered for 2 of them but did not win a doll. That’s fine though, because I DID win an awesome Lunatic Queen framed puzzle which I really, really wanted!!  This year’s Requiem custom went to DelightfulFreak which was so fantastic! I’m glad it went to someone I know (just because it’s cool to know the person who won it, lol), and someone who knows Requiem.

After the prize raffles it was all cleaning and straightening and then off to dinner.

Silas was a popular guy.

There is Silas with babel’s Chloi at dinner. He was quite the popular guy at PUDDLE this year, Dorian will be plenty jealous!

Dinner was fun, though the fog machine at the bar set off the smoke detector and we all started to clear out before they told us it was okay. I had a turkey burger that was pretty yummy. DeLightfulFreak had to leave early so when we were finished eating, myself, babelglyph, and ravenwcatz went into the lobby and sat down for a while where we were pretty disturbed by the very, very, VERY loud party down the hall.

A while after that we held another tea party/pajama party. We actually had no tea kettle, so everyone brought down their coffeemakers from the rooms to heat the water. We asked for extra cups from the front desk, and the night desk manager asked us to bring him back some tea and biscuits! So of course, we did. Yay for “fancy biscuits.”  He was very nice and very silly, and told ravenwcatz that she “looked very nice in her police dress.”

Hanging out and meeting everyone was the absolute best part of PUDDLE. I will become a staple, as there is no way I could just do this once.

The next morning I had to catch a plane at 6:40 am. So, I got up at 3:45 and got myself together. Luckily I’d packed the night before, so there wasn’t much to grab. This didn’t stop me from forgetting my phone on the bed so I had to wake up babelglyph to open the door for me, but I got to say goodbye. I also left my charger plugged in in the bathroom, and did not remember that at all. I went down to the lobby and waited for the cab, when the cab showed up I decided it’d be a great idea to leave my kindle sitting on the lobby coffee table.

I realized this when I got to security at the airport. Did I mention morning and I don’t get along?

So my PUDDLE experience continues, my kindle is with some nice dolly people who also live in Philly so they won’t have too far to send it.

For more photos and PUDDLE goodness, hit my photo stream today and again tomorrow as I will get home and take more photos of all my PUDDLE haul!

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