Anime Iowa...
Guess who's back? That's right :3 Me.
To start this, I'd officially like to note that my journal is no longer going to be friend's only. I'm tired of watching people steer away because the journal doesn't meet their needs after they've already friended me.
So, whatever :3 This way, I know when people add me too because they'll comment, or so I hope.
Moving on... I woke up around 6:30 on Friday morning. Got dressed, loaded the vehicle, and headed on my way. The only thing I'd forgotten was this atlass that Tom had asked me to take along for the purpose of keeping me in the right direction. D: I managed without it, though. Mapquest's directions were yet again flawless in getting me to my second convention. The car ride itself was alright... Though I did get kinda tired and my throat was still a tad sore. I did have a thermas of coffee though which solved both problems :B Iowa is too damn big for one thing. Worst of all, the only thing there is CORNFIELDS D: But I managed to make the trip nonstop in 4 hours. Then I registered, signing my name as Vulgar. At first, the inactivity was horrible... I was miserable after an hour of being there, tired of not finding Bunny yet D: Tired of expecting someone familiar to approach me or something. It was very bleh. But someone announced a Japanese food discussion which I boredly attended. I did get to try some interesting snacks though. Every had squid jerky? It's delicious :3 That was alright, but I was still very bored and very unwilling to approach anyone. Eventually, the dealer's room opened and I did get approached by Sailor Will, who'd attended Anime Central. He said he read my posts at Acen's forums concerning my situation with Bunny, wishing me the best of luck to find her at Anime Central. That was pretty cool, and it really gave me a feeling of confidence in this unknown land of Des Moines. I spent a lot of my time at this convention in the dealer's room... over the course I picked up some interesting stuff :3 I picked up the 4th volume of the Berserk manga, as well as 3 interestng anime DVDs :3 The first is Nurse Witch Komugi vol. 1, which is a very cute looking spinoff to "The SoulTaker." I also picked up the third volume of Haibane Renmei and the second volume of Texhnolyze. All three shall be watched in good time. :3 Besides that, I picked up a Japanese pop called "Ramune," which is the most puzzling drink in existence D: Opening the bottle requires a feat of strength to force a glass marble lodged in the mouth/rim of the bottle inside, so that the drink inside can become accessable. Not only did this require feats of strength, but this is probably the most dangerous drink in existence and should NEVER be released in American grocery stores D: I swear to God, the Japanese make them for the deliberate purpose of watching American kids kill themselves. Besides that, I picked up a wonderful plastic hide doll which I'll set somewhere to watch over me as I surf the net. He'll be my guardian angel <3 Plus, I picked up one of those naruto headbands. It's made of some kind of bendable metal with the Konoha symbol engraved in it on a cloth blue band x3 I also picked up an Anime Iowa t-shirt as well as "Got Pocky?" shirt... both are pretty spiffy :3 Oh, and saving the best for last: I found an OMG from Gaiaonline. I paid fourty bucks for a non-pixilated, cloth, well-made version of Gaia's popular November item n_n
Anyway, there was a lot more to the con then the dealer's room. Eventually I went upstairs and befriended a young lady who'd broken her foot glomping someone (only at an anime con D:). I went to hang out with her (Her name's Becca or Becka ._.) and I met some alright characters: A guy named Mark who seemed very independant and introverted... Also a girl named Ryan who became the most entertaining part of the con. o_o; For most of Friday, I was Ryan's chair x3 It was cute >>;; Though Mark, I met Ian, Frank, and Tom... along with a slew of girls whose names I can't recall immidiately. I spent pretty much the rest of the day with'em, in which we rode the elevator up and down the 11th floor the basement, pushing every button to annoy the other Elevator users >>;; As Friday came to an end, Mark and Ian let me stay in their room which was pretty cool... But God was it hard to sleep D: I pretty much slept in a chair, but damn was it cold. And people kept coming and going... it wasn't a working process u_u But it was cool that they let me stay.
Soon the morning came far too soon and I was forced to make due with my little amount of sleep. Saturday started slooooow. I spent the majority of it hanging out with Ryan and Becca at the dealer's room whilst they volunteered and worked. That wasn't too bad, but eventually I caught up with the other guys... Frank though, he was really giving me an attitude. After I asked him what was up, he'd told me how he didn't like me. ;_; How he found my extroverted attempt at making friends and gathering attention annoying. At the moment, I wanted to beat his white hillbilly ass... but I shrugged it off. From that point on, I pretty much kept my distance from the rest of the guys, only talking to Ian occassionally whenever he was around in the Con Suite. Me and the girls kept it pretty cool though, so that was good :3 I don't think Frank had a good time >> He spent most of the con to himself, and when he wasn't not talking he was busy being the staff's bitch :( Way to have fun, kid. Anyway, after that happened me, a very interesting native to Des Moines, and another girl spent some time exploring the basement of the hotel. That was interesting... but we'd gotten bored and each did our own thing. Unfortunately, in doing that I ran into some girl who wouldn't stop worshipping me, saying that I was the cutest thing she'd ever met. And she kept making these implications about how she wanted to fool around with me, it was disgusting. Ugh, that was a hard one to escape D: On the bright side, I did meet a very close friend of Lanzer's, which is pretty cool. She told me how she's known him and the other mods/programmer's since college and how she always giggles whenever she meets Gaia users. She was teh leet coolness <3
The day soon came to an end... And it happened to be Ryan's birthday. So, I got her a plushie thing of Puchiko from Digi Charat :3 She had some art of her in her sketchbook, so I figured she liked it the character a lot. And surprise surprise, she did n_n And I got rewarded with a kiss on the cheek o_o;; Which is a lot better than the kisses I'd gotten from the 14 year old girls and boy at Acen D: Yay for her being 17 ^^;; Anyway, she went off to the dance which I strongly avoided. Bleh... Those dances are so filthy and unpleasent. Anime fans can be awefully vulgar u_u I did help a guy reach a con record of recieving 400 hugs O_O Yay :3 After that, I spent a time talking to two girls who had previously hated me for wasting their time on the elevator the previous evening. xD Anyway, we talked for awhile which was cool. She's from Minnisota(sp?) and I've concluded that I feel bad for everyone who has to live there. It sounds like stereotypical Canada, which is pretty bad. Me and one of their brothers had talked later on, he trying to help me in the search for Bunny. Though he did seem genuinely interested, it didn't help much for that evening. But eventually he went to bed like everyone else... While I, roomless for the night had stayed up chatting with two fellows about gaming. One was your stereotypical n00b. He didn't even use correct grammar while speaking D: The other was cosplaying Final Fantasy X's Brother, and very well I might add. He was interesting to talk to because he made some interesting discussion about Final Fantasy. We pretty much spent the evening hanging out which was cool... keeping busy until the morning with random things. I would've caught his email and such, but unfortunately he leaves for the Navy in a couple weeks. He says that this was his last con for 6 years ;.; During the duration of us hanging out, I met the most gorgeous girl ever. I can honestly say, I've never met a girl as pretty as her... Her name was Emily, and she was pretty cool though. Not the type of girl I'd go out with, but boy was she attractive ._.; She got a picture of us two which was cute >> Though I feel kinda bad for her friend Sarah who sorta got ignored while me and her were hanging out whilst we did u____u;; Note to self: Never let your shallowness show again D: But yeah, that was cool. If she posts in the con forums, I'll see if I can find that picture she took with me. I'd really like to ^_^ Oh, and I also saw an interesting anime which I'd like to invest some time into purchasing called: AirMaster. It's like Street Fighter, but in High School Shoujo-ai form x3
As the morning arose, I partook in viewing Anime Iowa's very first Soy Sauce drinking competition. Nothing is more entertaining then watching a preteen kid drink a cup of soy sauce and run to the garbage can to vomit. Nothing. Me and some other guys were hanging out too, so that was cool. Meeting new people, doing new things :3 Eventually though, I got too tired to stay up any longer... Which was around 8am. So, I snuck off to my vehicle and took a nap in the front seat, waking up at noon. Then I returned inside to hang out with Becca and Ryan for the rest of the day... which was pretty fun :3 We went to the StarBucks a couple blocks away which was definitely an interesting time. Them dressed in their anime gear and me playing ze "goth" role. Some weird old guy walked up to us and told us that he thought we were disgusting freaks ._.; Though I ignored it, I found it particularly interesting the wey he kept staring at my two female friends D: Asshole pervert. u_u
After that, we went back to the lobby to hang out. Closing ceremonies for the con had ended and we were just hanging out really. Me and Ryan seemed very... close. x_X It was a bit odd for a girl who I'd only met a couple days before, but it's my opinion that me and her had something on some sort of level. x_X;; Bleh, who knows? Anyway, they left and she gave me some drawings and another kiss before leaving ^___^;; Afterwhich, I left and spent the next 5 hours driving home as I fell asleep at the wheel. I was so tired, and it's a miracle I didn't get into an accident as darkness had descended upon what was left of the daylight. But I made it home around the same time as Tom had returned from gaming with his buddies. The house was a mess, unfortunately, which I'd cleaned up D: I swear, if I wasn't around that guy'd live in his own shit. Anyway, yeah... Intersting weekend.
Now here's an interesting question: Do you know what's missing from this story? Rikku/Bunny. That's right... I'd been stood up. I broke all the rules, pulled all the stops, and went 400 miles and 200 dollars out of my way to meet a girl who didn't show up for even one day. The con would've been great, had it been for that.
So much for promises.
-Vulgar.