VidCon

It might seem like the thing to do here would be to make a video about VidCon, but I already put up an Apple store vlog, and I feel like my subscribers would begin to get annoyed. Also.... I don't know. I just really don't feel like doing that. So...VidCon.

Well, first off, I arrived in the LA area early on Wednesday. At the airport I blew right past my friend Eric as I made a beeline for the restrooms. Eric harassed me later saying that I hadn't seen him because he was standing near other Mexicans, but the reason that I didn't see him (and I had an eye out) was because he was shorter than I'd expected. I guess he'd told me his height before, but that was really just a number until I was walking beside him. This would prove to be one of the main things I'd notice during VidCon: expected heights versus actual heights.

As we were waiting for Peter to come pick us up from the airport, we found a place to sit on a bench outside. At one point Eric turned to me and asked: "are you feeling that?" to which I replied: "you mean, you're not rocking the bench?" No matter what he says, Eric was totally freaked out by said earthquake. He was ready to hop a plane back to Texas. (Though once it was over he kept saying he was sad it didn't last longer so he could enjoy it --- liar :P )

After Peter came and got us, we put our stuff in his apartment and went out for vietnamese sandwiches and poked around downtown Disney. (Signs said Nightastic!, Peter said that the only thing Nightastic about it was the name change) We stayed for the fireworks and I would later learn that some of our other favorite YouTubers were also at Disney for these same fireworks. Shame we didn't run into them.

Thursday we went out for Dim Sum (Peter insists that he eats non-asian food, but I'm starting to doubt the validity of this). Dim Sum would have been a scary experience if Peter wasn't there ordering for us. Thankfully he didn't make us get the chicken feet.

Some time in the afternoon Sharayah came and met us and we all drove to LA. As soon as we walked into the lobby of the hotel, we were greeted with hugs by Steve, Karen, Rohan, Paige, Lizzie, Ryan, and probably Laurel. Lizzie and Karen? Shorter than I'd expected. Ryan? Taller.

Many of us left and went out for some inexpensive sandwiches and ice cream....sandwiches. As we were walking out of the hotel we all pulled out our cameras to record URL turned IRL. I think that everyone presumed that the whole conference would be like this, but beyond this moment of ridiculousness, it really wasn't.

I've discussed this with a few people -- there were times when VidCon felt a little bit like high school. You see the popular kids mingling and you know who they are, of course you know who they are, but you feel that they're unapproachable.

I think the difference is, unlike high school, the unapproachableness was really more of an anxiety than anything. Though I mostly harassed Tay Zonday, I had a fine time chatting with Phil DeFranco, Craig, Michael Aranda, Todd, Hank seemed mostly stressed but I tried to encourage and praise him when I could, and who could neglect to mention the obligatory time spent at the bar with John Green?

There are also people that I've had some sort of an internet connection with but never had been able to spend extended periods of time with, and I found them to be lovelier than I could have hoped. Namely: Caitlin Hill.

I also found it interesting to watch YouTubers that I admire get excited about other YouTubers that I admire. It sort of broke down any walls or hierarchy, as I had obviously placed them all on the same unattainable plane, and they just didn't see it that way.

As is to be expected, hugs abounded at VidCon. When you spend so much time listening and talking to and interacting with people through pixels, you can't help but be excited about touching their flesh. I like to think of myself as a good hugger [insert joke here about my last name], but I'm pretty sure Tom has got me beat. My hugs are all arms, and maybe some picking up. Tom just sort of wraps himself around you and brings his chest close to yours. When I was in high school I gave the worst hugs. I was so terrible that my friend Sarah called me out / gave me a lesson in hugging. I used to sort of hunch forward so my hugs were all shoulders. I've come a long way, but apparently I haven't reached the pinnacle of good hugs yet:)

Hank said something about not defining VidCon as a conference or a convention so you could really make of it what you wanted. I'm glad I paid for the insider's track so that I really could feel like I was at a conference - which I went around telling people in the weeks prior. "I'm going to a convention in LA for people who make internet video."

When I first had looked at the schedule, I remember feeling conflicted: 'oh no, this insider track thing I want to go to falls at the same time as the DeFranco Nation meet-up." It didn't even take several hours of hanging around the hotel to decide that meet-ups weren't for me. Meet-ups were times to take pictures and get autographs, but I really just wanted friends. Apparently, Steve said something to this effect at some point, which was tweet-quoted by Erica, and retweeted by myself. While talking to John Green at the bar, he brought up the friends versus autographs thing. "I've seen your tweets, I'm totally on your team."

Speaking of twitter, I've never glanced at so many people's phone twitterfeeds before. I actually regretted not having a fancy tweet-able phone for a few days there. Whew! That takes doing.

So, then....Friday was really intense. There were lots of things that I wanted to do, and I went to nearly all of them. I remember sitting at the opening remarks and looking around the little section I sat in and just marveling at all the amazing people I was surrounded with. It continued to be this way. Friday ended up feeling like three days. Saturday felt like a normal day, and Sunday just felt like crap. I've discussed this with several separate parties who all agreed precisely. I mean, we DID watch the World Cup game with John and Tom doing commentary, but then no one scored for several hours and John kept the mic away from his mouth mostly, and then Spain scored and the game was over. (I saw nothing but Orange shirts in all the airports on my way home...sad...pero me encanta España.)

I know a lot of people came home to VidCon withdrawal, but I had less than 24 hours at home before I headed to NYC to meet back up with some of the people I had been in LA with. It was fun to be bicoastal with Tom, Erica, Caitlin, and Karen, and I think that spending that time was a nice way to step back into my own little life. Especially because NYC is a place that is much more "home" to me than LA.

I don't know....I had a glorious time dancing and learning and hugging and eating and talking and cuddling with everyone.
Also, I have to admit that the vacancy left on my youtube crush list (by the boy who spent two months not-being-my-friend) has been totally filled by Tyler Oakley. That boy is fabulousness bottled.