I finally finished this. Yay!
I'm home! Okay, so I've been home since Monday morning. So sue me!
ACEN was a blast off at the speed of light! I am glad to be back home in some ways and also really very disappointed that we had to leave. It wasn't that bad though. It was like I had known you guys in real life for years. I know that I've known you online, but it was like I've known you in person for years and that we had done this very exact thing before. It was a very odd sensation hearing myself tell myself that I trust these people that I've known online for years, but never met in person. What was my justification of the logical reasoning behind this? Hah. I'm gonna be mushy and say 'love'.
I love you guys.
I trust you guys with my life.
I am so incredibly happy that we met face to face for the first time in over six years!
THANK YOU FOR BEING ONE OF THE BIGGEST PIECES OF MY HEART AND SOUL!! KISSES FOR ALL!!
Could I say this out loud in real life? Probably not.. so get it while you can. ;)
I am glad that I really do know now that you guys are my friends. I was a teensy bit worried that I might end up not liking my online friends in real life. You know, some people have what is called an internet mask, a personality totally opposite from in real life. I know I can be that way, but it's hardly constant.
I know that I was kind of not... uhm.. ready to be overenthusiastic with the rest of you. I just wasn't sure about things at first. No hard feelings. I know I need to work on the "OMG! Is that... are you... OMG!!" skit but hey. I think the first skit on Friday that was actually real was the best anyway so... hah. >^^<
Thursday night I got my long-awaited BUZZ-CUT!! I got home from working on the finishing touches on my Minushi Monarch costume at mom's house and found Mark playing Everquest while waiting for our laundry. Told Mark he should go to bed while I finish laundry. He waited another full hour before attempting to release himself from the addiction of Evercrack and finally went to bed around four in the morning, knowing that he would have to wake up at nine. He set the alarm for ten. I re-set the alarm for nine. (He apparently re-set the alarm for ten when it went off in the morning. >_<) Finished laundry and packed for an hour and half. Five-thirty AM and I am finally in bed with a shit load of stuff on the livingroom floor waiting to be chucked into the sootball (my car). I had everything from ponies and popples to the DDR pads to my wire wings that don't go with any costume so far yet. I just... like the hell out of those wings! I thought about it a while though and realized that there would probably be a DDR arcade at the convention and I was right, so it's a good thing that I left the DDR. I left the popples, and just took the ponies. Oh I had clothes, bedding and cleansing stuff packed too... don't worry.
Went to Old Country Buffet to pick up my paycheck. Yay. I still think my paycheck was far smaller than it should have been... very odd. Had an absent minded mishap at the restaurant concerning the checks... went to bank and did bank stuff... and then had an absent minded mishap there as well. Went to moms, gave her a froggie teapot as a Birthday present, asked to borrow the GBColor and DragonQuest and I do believe I've had another mishap there. I couldn't find my $250 Hershey's Chocolate jacket in the car and so I hope beyond hope that it is at my mom's or Mark's mom's house. Went to Mark's mom's house and had lunch there and found Mark playing... dun dun dun... Evercrack again. Yay. Finally got Mark off of Evercrack and we were off for Chicago.
DID NOT STOP FOR RAMUNE AND POCKY AT LEE'S!! DAMMIT ALL TO HELL AND BACK!! I wanted to show whitehaiku what ramune sodapop was all about. Such a neat little bottle design and damn good bubblegum-flavor soda. And the Pocky would have been nice to munch on too but oh well.
Mark is such a complete ass as a driver, that it's almost funny when you're not busy screaming at him about how you are going to die a horrible and painful death, splattered all over the blacktop after sailing through the windshield if he doesn't slow down on a sharp curve!! Okay so he isn't *always* that bad but damn he did some stupid stuff while heading down for Chicago. Damned if I could remember it all. Oh, this wasn't his fault but it deems a place in the explanation of the trip down: When we were in Chicago at five o'clock traffic (which I had made Mark swear not to complain about because he knew that we would get stuck in it due to the fact that he didn't sleep when he was supposed to, but he complained anyway of course), the car started to smoke and we had to use a few collect calls to get a hold of his dad and ask what the hell was the matter with the sootball. The answer was simple. The coolant container was leaky and antifreeze was burning and smoking.
We finally found the O'Hare Holiday Inn and asked the receptionist if our friends were there and unfortunantly they weren't. We called Luis on his cellphone and left a message. We sat down, we paced, we couldn't think of what to do. Finally we asked the receptionist if she could call the other Holiday Inns in the area to see where everyone was. We ended up finding out that we were at the O'Hare Holiday Inn Select and not the original O'Hare Holiday Inn which was down another street. We again, finally found the correct Holiday Inn and parked in the overnight parking.
We headed to the convention, which was at the Hyatt Hotel. We got in line. The really... long... line...that started outside... to buy our badges. In the middle of following the line I saw a long black dress and a white face. No Face. whitehaiku? Then a split second later I saw red-head ssaylagypsystar? and possibly live_for_sunny? They were all in the same group so I got out of line, ducked under the barrier and ran up to the group.
"Guys... ??" I said timidly, not knowing who was who, if any were who I wanted them to be, lest I be embarrassed. They all turned and live_for_sunny said "Al?!" and I said "Al!!" and then we just sorta bear-hugged eachother and screamed bloody murder!! Several heads turned as we all got kisses and hugs and noogies galore!
So I then got back in line with Mark and a half-hour later we got our badges and met the guys in the hallway to the lobby to go check out the convention. We hung out a little, took pictures and then headed back to the hotel and got situated. We met new people, ate some onigiri (otherwise known as riceballs) and watched a small marathon of Gundam 0080, of which I only watched two episodes and then fell dead from lack of sleep.
Woke up to the phone ringing, Luis picked it up and I fell back to sleep for another hour or so. We all got up and started playing around. We laughed and joked and piled a mound of pillows on ssaylagypsystar and live_for_sunny and took their pictures. I took lots of pictures and then we all got on our separate costumes and headed down to the convention where we met up with whitehaiku" and her brother again. We were immediately hit by a barrage of cameras and told that we would be on cosplay.com soon. Schweet. My own original costume on an anime convention site. After a few pictures... I realized I couldn't see any one elses costumes from far away. I had forgotten my glasses. So we went back to the hotel to get them and then came back. Good thing the hotel is only about a block away.
Saturday we just basically hung out. whitehaiku and his brother hit the DDR'Maxxi'pad and did a great job. I am amazed at whitehaiku's ability to follow the music and hit the footpads at the correct beats. He is my idol when it comes to that. Sure, there were people there that could hit 200 combos and such but whitehaiku is a good sport and just does it for fun and I admire that greatly. Oh and whitehaiku was wearing my shoes while he danced!! He gave them good luck. They were lucky already but they are uber-lucky now. Oh yes. XD
We watched anime and took more pictures and hung out some more. I went to a Photoshop panel with Mark and we learned a little bit about layers. I wasn't sure at first but it looked like the instructors for the panel were Yad and Mike from my college! But I couldn't tell... it was a huge room and their voices were being carried over a microphone so I asked questions and waited a little bit and then the panel finished and everyone left. Everyone except me, Mark, the panel instructors, and some other random people. I walked up close to them and lo and behold it was Yad and Mike from college! I took one of their summer manga classes and I learned a lot from them. I always learn something new and fun from Yad and Mike. I don't think Yad likes me much, but Mike is always ready to hear what I have to say and I appreciate him for it! If they both think I'm annoying, I am so sorry!!
At the end of the panel when everyone left, my costume started up a conversation between me, Mark and a guy named Nick, who's also from Michigan. Nick was fun!! He listened to everything I said, whereas Mark kept interrupting. We talked about college and art and the convention and stuff! Like I said, Nick was damn fun to be around! I even said to him: "Whoo! We made a new friend! HI!!" and he looked at me like I was psycho but then he laughed. Nick told me about how he also draws with mechanical pencil and that he found... dun dun dun... COLORED mechanical pencil lead. I am so happy! So far there is blue and red, but if we whine enough to the media (get it?) then maybe we'll get other colors someday! Whee! Taking over the world with mechanical pencils!!
Nick hung out with me and Mark a bit and watched a little bit of anime in the screening rooms. Then we parted. He promised me if we saw one another again that he'd follow us to the hotel room so he could meet the rest of the gang and see some of my drawings! But we couldn't find him after that. We got his email though. Yum.
Went back to the hotel. Everyone chilled for a little bit to wait out the cosplay contests and masquerades. After the masquerade is when lots of photoshoots are held so we decided to head back after all the hub-bub. We ended up being a little late. Cosplayers and photographers were leaving and the free food was being packed away. We got some veggies and cheese at least. And they cut the last pineapple for us. ^^ I glomped this guy cause he was holding a sign that said that he'd give anyone Pocky for a hug. So I got my Pocky fix finally. ^^ However in the process of wildly glomping the box dude I lost an ear off my costume. :( And sometime earlier that day I had lost a piece of fur too. Oh well.
Then the fire alarm went off! LOL We were told to leave the building so we all calmly walked out of the Hyatt hotel and waited five minutes for them to realize that someone had just been being dumb... I swear this always happens when you get a god-awful amount of people together. Someone always has to pull the fire alarm. When we were allowed to go back inside less than 10 minutes later we went up to one of ssaylagypsystar's friends hotel rooms and ate some chocolate and talked a bit. Then we went back to the hotel and I showered. Took me at least 20 minutes to get all that fucking silver face paint off. It was fun while it lasted though! Everyone else watched a fan parody about Evangelion while I goofed off with my face in the bathroom. Why do all the fan parodies involve Evangelion I wonder? That's how JAFAX's fan parody was when they did "Bad Scottish Dubbing." Tis a mystery that the anime world will never tell me I guess. ;)
The moop2000 gang, which included best friend live_for_sunny, had to leave early that day. Bummer and all that rot. I was barely awake when she had to leave. I prolly looked like a zombie that didn't care at all about her sudden departure. I cared. I did greatly, but I was zonked at the time.. lol I gave her a half-cocked grin and fell back to sleep for another hour or so. Dressed in costume and decided not to do face paint this time, except for the nose. Didn't have enough full face paint anyway. The bottle only had one use. Packed up, loaded the car and went back to the convention for the last day. Decided to browse the dealers room instead of taking the panels for writing and directing. They would have been nice, but Sunday is the best day to get deals because the vendors want to get rid of stuff badly so they have less to bring back with them! I spent for friggin ever figuring out what I wanted. I have decided to keep my tradition of not buying anime at cons. Too expensive and it makes too much sense to buy anime at an anime convention ya know?? ^~ I got two How to Draw Manga books and five Chobits manga instead of anime.
We didn't think we'd see whitehaiku again that day but we met again in the dealers room. He let me keep the My Little Ponies that he had brought for me to buy from him and I am now obligated to pay him back! Don't let me forget! LOL We hugged and kissed and took more pictures before saying goodbye to ssaylagypsystar, whitehaiku and luis. Off they went in their bus and car and off we went back to the convention for a short while to pose for more pictures! I got a few people to be attracted to my costume by standing on the huge statue podium in the middle of the lobby.
Mark and I went to McDonalds for the last on-the-road meal and I got out of my costume in the parkinglot, leaving just the full body leotard on and shoved some comfortable clothes on. For a little while I didn't realize that I still had a button nose... until I went into the McDonald's bathroom. I laughed at myself and washed the damn thing off. No wonder people were staring at me?!
After we ate we slept in the car in the McDonald's parking lot. First Mark slept and I read some of my new Chobits manga, then I slept and he read the Chobits manga. The drive home was just as eventful as the drive there! Mark had me drink Mountain Dew to keep myself awake so that I could keep him awake. We headed out of Chicago and he swerved and passed semis (semi-recklessly that is) and did the famous I'm-so-gonna-bug-him-for-this-for-the-rest-of-his-life mistake of believing that he was on the highway when he was in fact on a three part exit. Needless to say, going 50 mph in a 25 mph sharp curve on an exit is bloody murder screaming scary and hilariously funny afterwards.... ;)
We got home okay and went to bed. Yay. I don't really want to go through the details of that morning. Lets just say I was a bit depressed about leaving the convention and not seeing the guys anymore that I totally didn't care that I was late for work by two and a half hours. Work was okay with it and I got a lousy $11 in tips. Whoo. That won't buy ponies people!!
Okay... now this is new. I took all my pills on time! Why am I bleeding again after only a week? My pills are supposed to regulate me, not disable me!! Oh god, the cramps.... the cramps... they make me bleed!! Ahhhh!!
ACEN was a blast off at the speed of light! I am glad to be back home in some ways and also really very disappointed that we had to leave. It wasn't that bad though. It was like I had known you guys in real life for years. I know that I've known you online, but it was like I've known you in person for years and that we had done this very exact thing before. It was a very odd sensation hearing myself tell myself that I trust these people that I've known online for years, but never met in person. What was my justification of the logical reasoning behind this? Hah. I'm gonna be mushy and say 'love'.
I love you guys.
I trust you guys with my life.
I am so incredibly happy that we met face to face for the first time in over six years!
THANK YOU FOR BEING ONE OF THE BIGGEST PIECES OF MY HEART AND SOUL!! KISSES FOR ALL!!
Could I say this out loud in real life? Probably not.. so get it while you can. ;)
I am glad that I really do know now that you guys are my friends. I was a teensy bit worried that I might end up not liking my online friends in real life. You know, some people have what is called an internet mask, a personality totally opposite from in real life. I know I can be that way, but it's hardly constant.
I know that I was kind of not... uhm.. ready to be overenthusiastic with the rest of you. I just wasn't sure about things at first. No hard feelings. I know I need to work on the "OMG! Is that... are you... OMG!!" skit but hey. I think the first skit on Friday that was actually real was the best anyway so... hah. >^^<
Thursday night I got my long-awaited BUZZ-CUT!! I got home from working on the finishing touches on my Minushi Monarch costume at mom's house and found Mark playing Everquest while waiting for our laundry. Told Mark he should go to bed while I finish laundry. He waited another full hour before attempting to release himself from the addiction of Evercrack and finally went to bed around four in the morning, knowing that he would have to wake up at nine. He set the alarm for ten. I re-set the alarm for nine. (He apparently re-set the alarm for ten when it went off in the morning. >_<) Finished laundry and packed for an hour and half. Five-thirty AM and I am finally in bed with a shit load of stuff on the livingroom floor waiting to be chucked into the sootball (my car). I had everything from ponies and popples to the DDR pads to my wire wings that don't go with any costume so far yet. I just... like the hell out of those wings! I thought about it a while though and realized that there would probably be a DDR arcade at the convention and I was right, so it's a good thing that I left the DDR. I left the popples, and just took the ponies. Oh I had clothes, bedding and cleansing stuff packed too... don't worry.
Went to Old Country Buffet to pick up my paycheck. Yay. I still think my paycheck was far smaller than it should have been... very odd. Had an absent minded mishap at the restaurant concerning the checks... went to bank and did bank stuff... and then had an absent minded mishap there as well. Went to moms, gave her a froggie teapot as a Birthday present, asked to borrow the GBColor and DragonQuest and I do believe I've had another mishap there. I couldn't find my $250 Hershey's Chocolate jacket in the car and so I hope beyond hope that it is at my mom's or Mark's mom's house. Went to Mark's mom's house and had lunch there and found Mark playing... dun dun dun... Evercrack again. Yay. Finally got Mark off of Evercrack and we were off for Chicago.
DID NOT STOP FOR RAMUNE AND POCKY AT LEE'S!! DAMMIT ALL TO HELL AND BACK!! I wanted to show whitehaiku what ramune sodapop was all about. Such a neat little bottle design and damn good bubblegum-flavor soda. And the Pocky would have been nice to munch on too but oh well.
Mark is such a complete ass as a driver, that it's almost funny when you're not busy screaming at him about how you are going to die a horrible and painful death, splattered all over the blacktop after sailing through the windshield if he doesn't slow down on a sharp curve!! Okay so he isn't *always* that bad but damn he did some stupid stuff while heading down for Chicago. Damned if I could remember it all. Oh, this wasn't his fault but it deems a place in the explanation of the trip down: When we were in Chicago at five o'clock traffic (which I had made Mark swear not to complain about because he knew that we would get stuck in it due to the fact that he didn't sleep when he was supposed to, but he complained anyway of course), the car started to smoke and we had to use a few collect calls to get a hold of his dad and ask what the hell was the matter with the sootball. The answer was simple. The coolant container was leaky and antifreeze was burning and smoking.
We finally found the O'Hare Holiday Inn and asked the receptionist if our friends were there and unfortunantly they weren't. We called Luis on his cellphone and left a message. We sat down, we paced, we couldn't think of what to do. Finally we asked the receptionist if she could call the other Holiday Inns in the area to see where everyone was. We ended up finding out that we were at the O'Hare Holiday Inn Select and not the original O'Hare Holiday Inn which was down another street. We again, finally found the correct Holiday Inn and parked in the overnight parking.
We headed to the convention, which was at the Hyatt Hotel. We got in line. The really... long... line...that started outside... to buy our badges. In the middle of following the line I saw a long black dress and a white face. No Face. whitehaiku? Then a split second later I saw red-head ssaylagypsystar? and possibly live_for_sunny? They were all in the same group so I got out of line, ducked under the barrier and ran up to the group.
"Guys... ??" I said timidly, not knowing who was who, if any were who I wanted them to be, lest I be embarrassed. They all turned and live_for_sunny said "Al?!" and I said "Al!!" and then we just sorta bear-hugged eachother and screamed bloody murder!! Several heads turned as we all got kisses and hugs and noogies galore!
So I then got back in line with Mark and a half-hour later we got our badges and met the guys in the hallway to the lobby to go check out the convention. We hung out a little, took pictures and then headed back to the hotel and got situated. We met new people, ate some onigiri (otherwise known as riceballs) and watched a small marathon of Gundam 0080, of which I only watched two episodes and then fell dead from lack of sleep.
Woke up to the phone ringing, Luis picked it up and I fell back to sleep for another hour or so. We all got up and started playing around. We laughed and joked and piled a mound of pillows on ssaylagypsystar and live_for_sunny and took their pictures. I took lots of pictures and then we all got on our separate costumes and headed down to the convention where we met up with whitehaiku" and her brother again. We were immediately hit by a barrage of cameras and told that we would be on cosplay.com soon. Schweet. My own original costume on an anime convention site. After a few pictures... I realized I couldn't see any one elses costumes from far away. I had forgotten my glasses. So we went back to the hotel to get them and then came back. Good thing the hotel is only about a block away.
Saturday we just basically hung out. whitehaiku and his brother hit the DDR'Maxxi'pad and did a great job. I am amazed at whitehaiku's ability to follow the music and hit the footpads at the correct beats. He is my idol when it comes to that. Sure, there were people there that could hit 200 combos and such but whitehaiku is a good sport and just does it for fun and I admire that greatly. Oh and whitehaiku was wearing my shoes while he danced!! He gave them good luck. They were lucky already but they are uber-lucky now. Oh yes. XD
We watched anime and took more pictures and hung out some more. I went to a Photoshop panel with Mark and we learned a little bit about layers. I wasn't sure at first but it looked like the instructors for the panel were Yad and Mike from my college! But I couldn't tell... it was a huge room and their voices were being carried over a microphone so I asked questions and waited a little bit and then the panel finished and everyone left. Everyone except me, Mark, the panel instructors, and some other random people. I walked up close to them and lo and behold it was Yad and Mike from college! I took one of their summer manga classes and I learned a lot from them. I always learn something new and fun from Yad and Mike. I don't think Yad likes me much, but Mike is always ready to hear what I have to say and I appreciate him for it! If they both think I'm annoying, I am so sorry!!
At the end of the panel when everyone left, my costume started up a conversation between me, Mark and a guy named Nick, who's also from Michigan. Nick was fun!! He listened to everything I said, whereas Mark kept interrupting. We talked about college and art and the convention and stuff! Like I said, Nick was damn fun to be around! I even said to him: "Whoo! We made a new friend! HI!!" and he looked at me like I was psycho but then he laughed. Nick told me about how he also draws with mechanical pencil and that he found... dun dun dun... COLORED mechanical pencil lead. I am so happy! So far there is blue and red, but if we whine enough to the media (get it?) then maybe we'll get other colors someday! Whee! Taking over the world with mechanical pencils!!
Nick hung out with me and Mark a bit and watched a little bit of anime in the screening rooms. Then we parted. He promised me if we saw one another again that he'd follow us to the hotel room so he could meet the rest of the gang and see some of my drawings! But we couldn't find him after that. We got his email though. Yum.
Went back to the hotel. Everyone chilled for a little bit to wait out the cosplay contests and masquerades. After the masquerade is when lots of photoshoots are held so we decided to head back after all the hub-bub. We ended up being a little late. Cosplayers and photographers were leaving and the free food was being packed away. We got some veggies and cheese at least. And they cut the last pineapple for us. ^^ I glomped this guy cause he was holding a sign that said that he'd give anyone Pocky for a hug. So I got my Pocky fix finally. ^^ However in the process of wildly glomping the box dude I lost an ear off my costume. :( And sometime earlier that day I had lost a piece of fur too. Oh well.
Then the fire alarm went off! LOL We were told to leave the building so we all calmly walked out of the Hyatt hotel and waited five minutes for them to realize that someone had just been being dumb... I swear this always happens when you get a god-awful amount of people together. Someone always has to pull the fire alarm. When we were allowed to go back inside less than 10 minutes later we went up to one of ssaylagypsystar's friends hotel rooms and ate some chocolate and talked a bit. Then we went back to the hotel and I showered. Took me at least 20 minutes to get all that fucking silver face paint off. It was fun while it lasted though! Everyone else watched a fan parody about Evangelion while I goofed off with my face in the bathroom. Why do all the fan parodies involve Evangelion I wonder? That's how JAFAX's fan parody was when they did "Bad Scottish Dubbing." Tis a mystery that the anime world will never tell me I guess. ;)
The moop2000 gang, which included best friend live_for_sunny, had to leave early that day. Bummer and all that rot. I was barely awake when she had to leave. I prolly looked like a zombie that didn't care at all about her sudden departure. I cared. I did greatly, but I was zonked at the time.. lol I gave her a half-cocked grin and fell back to sleep for another hour or so. Dressed in costume and decided not to do face paint this time, except for the nose. Didn't have enough full face paint anyway. The bottle only had one use. Packed up, loaded the car and went back to the convention for the last day. Decided to browse the dealers room instead of taking the panels for writing and directing. They would have been nice, but Sunday is the best day to get deals because the vendors want to get rid of stuff badly so they have less to bring back with them! I spent for friggin ever figuring out what I wanted. I have decided to keep my tradition of not buying anime at cons. Too expensive and it makes too much sense to buy anime at an anime convention ya know?? ^~ I got two How to Draw Manga books and five Chobits manga instead of anime.
We didn't think we'd see whitehaiku again that day but we met again in the dealers room. He let me keep the My Little Ponies that he had brought for me to buy from him and I am now obligated to pay him back! Don't let me forget! LOL We hugged and kissed and took more pictures before saying goodbye to ssaylagypsystar, whitehaiku and luis. Off they went in their bus and car and off we went back to the convention for a short while to pose for more pictures! I got a few people to be attracted to my costume by standing on the huge statue podium in the middle of the lobby.
Mark and I went to McDonalds for the last on-the-road meal and I got out of my costume in the parkinglot, leaving just the full body leotard on and shoved some comfortable clothes on. For a little while I didn't realize that I still had a button nose... until I went into the McDonald's bathroom. I laughed at myself and washed the damn thing off. No wonder people were staring at me?!
After we ate we slept in the car in the McDonald's parking lot. First Mark slept and I read some of my new Chobits manga, then I slept and he read the Chobits manga. The drive home was just as eventful as the drive there! Mark had me drink Mountain Dew to keep myself awake so that I could keep him awake. We headed out of Chicago and he swerved and passed semis (semi-recklessly that is) and did the famous I'm-so-gonna-bug-him-for-this-for-the-rest-of-his-life mistake of believing that he was on the highway when he was in fact on a three part exit. Needless to say, going 50 mph in a 25 mph sharp curve on an exit is bloody murder screaming scary and hilariously funny afterwards.... ;)
We got home okay and went to bed. Yay. I don't really want to go through the details of that morning. Lets just say I was a bit depressed about leaving the convention and not seeing the guys anymore that I totally didn't care that I was late for work by two and a half hours. Work was okay with it and I got a lousy $11 in tips. Whoo. That won't buy ponies people!!
Okay... now this is new. I took all my pills on time! Why am I bleeding again after only a week? My pills are supposed to regulate me, not disable me!! Oh god, the cramps.... the cramps... they make me bleed!! Ahhhh!!