Week of fabulousness! ^___^ Posted very belatedly

[prismkitty]

Around New Year's, I took a lovely vacation from work to go to a friend's reception in Cleveland, Chicago for New Year's and to visit various friends, and Columbus for Ohayocon. A week and a day with none of my normal job and lots of visiting much loved friends. ^____^

The vacation started at 6 p.m. on Friday Dec. 28th and not 5 p.m. because I had to work an extra hour that day due to a last minute project that was more involved than the requestors thought. >_< But when it was done, I really felt I earned my vacation time and was very ready for it.


Jeff & Yukiko's Reception - Cleveland, Ohio
Sat. afternoon, Tina and I left for Jeff & Yukiko's reception. They had gotten married in a traditional ceremony in Japan (amazing outfits, I wish I could have been there) in April (I think) and then again in a civil ceremony in California this summer where they live. Their reception was delayed until the holidays because they wished to have it in Jeff's home town of Solon, Ohio and they figured most of his friends would be back in Ohio for the holidays. Unfortunately, this meant that my trip to Chicago was delayed by two days (originally slated to go on Friday) and I had to drive directly to Chicago from Cleveland. o.O However, the reception was so much fun and breakfast with everyone the next day was so much like old times. I miss my BG posse. <3<3 So it was definitely worth the delay to the second leg of my trip.

Highlights/lowlights:

• Jeff and Andy rocking out to "Ice, Ice, Baby" and "The Humpty Dance." Yes, they knew every single word and Jeff broke into his dance routines. XD
• Had my new camera to test out at the reception. Even better because they forgot to hire a photographer. I need to clean up the photos this week due to lighting issues, but hopefully, they'll like the end result.
• Ugh with the aforementioned lighting issues. One: I had no other flashes to bring up the ambient light, so getting crisp pics of people dancing in a dark room either didn't happen on a lot of photos or the lighting just sucked. Two: ringing the room at head level were wall sconces that ruined many otherwise good shots because they cast weird halos and light bleed obscured people's faces. ><
• Reconnecting with Mark Sumerac and meeting his new girlfriend Jess was fantastic. He does comics and worked for Marvel for a while, but now he's back in Ohio and doing freelance stuff. Jess was really nice and fun. ^^ She was also really sweet. Apparently, she was worried she wouldn't have any fun because she didn't know anyone, but we ended up chatting a lot and when she left, she told me she wouldn't have had any fun if I hadn't been there. ^____^ Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, ya know?
• On the downside there was someone trying to "connect" with me (not reconnect, because we've never been friends). I was nice to him at first because it's a reception and he's a friend of a friend. Apparently smiling at him once (it was a "I was smiling at the room and he happened to be one of the ppl I made eye contact with as I looked around") was enough for him to hone in on me and start radiating waves of desperation. >< He also asked Andy if he and I were still together. And though of course Andy answered him honestly, he also was nice enough to block any attempts by this guy (Sarah also helped!) It's annoying because I can't even talk to him as just one of the group because if I show any niceness to him whatsoever he takes that as me being interested. ARgh!! Oh, and he's the guy who kept hitting on my sister when she was 14 and she had come to visit me on campus. Please note, the guy was a sophomore in college. Eww. He also lacked good bathing habits. I have no idea if that part has changed. I didn't stand close enough to him to smell. Though he has gotten his teeth fixed. Luckily I had my camera when that one slow song started. He was obviously hanging about hoping to ask me to dance, but I just grabbed my camera and went into photographer mode as he hovered about hoping I'd stop soon.
• Despite having to dodge that guy whenever I danced or sat at the table, I did have a lot of fun with the dancing and chatting with people. Some of my friends are not the most technically adept dancers in the world, but they dance with such feeling and abandon that it's marvelous and I love them for it. ^__^
• The most painful thing that happened that night was getting an entire pot of coffee spilled on my left thigh. O.O; That involved a lot of napkins soaked in water applied under my skirt, me trying not to cry, assuring everyone I was fine, and to Tina's "I'm sorry!" and concerned inquiries, me frantically replying "Camera bag!! Check the camera bag!!!" Luckily, I had forthought, and though the camara bag was on Tina's side, the camera was on the table on my other side, between Andy and I, because he's generally very careful. After the pain dampened enough, I went to the women's restroom, soaked a ton of paper towels in cold water (and could actually lift my skirt up enough to apply them to the entire area) and proceeded to bawl my eyes out for a bit. My makeup looked horrendous, but that cleaned up fairly well, whew. ^^ I escaped the incident with only a fairly small splotchy red spot on my hip, which seems to be healing fine (I think that my hip got hit the hardest because I couldn't lift my skirt up that high in the dining room to apply a water-soaked napkin).
  
• Last thing of note from this leg of the trip was that we had the most fabulous waiter at Cracker Barrel during breakfast. He knew his stuff and was amazingly friendly. ^_^



Clubbing with Jim
Sunday evening, I arrived in Chicago. Plans were to go to Neo with Jim. Unfortunately, I forgot my I.D. >< It ended up in a bag I gave to Tina to take home from the reception. So Neo wouldn't let me in. Berlin did, after a moment's hesitation, which was really cool, but unfortunately it was all Prince music, all night long. o.O It was fun to watch the flamboyantly gay men lip sync and do their little routines to the songs, and it had a beat, but not my first choice for music by a long shot. But that is entirely my fault, because Neo had much better music. I would like to state that Jim is a fabulous dancer. He kinda does this hybrid pop & lock/liquid/flow/god-knows-what thing. When he finally got enough space to dance, I was quite impressed. He's also a really good guy to go to a club with. At one point, I wandered off to get some water but didn't tell him (I was just there one moment and when he turned back I was gone), so he went to find me to make certain nothing happened. It's nice to have guy friends you can go clubbing with who are polite and look out for you. ^^

After club was food at Clark's, which had menus featuring cheesy 50's photos and bizarre commentary. ^^ Walking to the diner, there was random guy who I think said something about wanting to put his face between my boobs and would potentially be willing to pay? o.O I'm not entirely certain. Jim heard him more clearly than I did.

Besides that one odd incident and me forgetting my I.D. (sorry, Jim!) I had a fun night of dancing and hanging out. ^_^ Jim, next time, Trae and I are both coming to visit and you're taking us out on Friday and Saturday! ^_~

Hanging with the Chicago Boys + Chels
Most of my time in Chicago was spent hanging out with my Chicago Boys + Chels (group dubbed as such by me because the whole group was male until Artie got married and they were the first friends from Chicago I made. ^^)

Jess was very nice and let me stay in her apt (across the hall from Artie and Chels) while she was out of town.

The New Year's party was at Tom's (per usual) and it was so great to see everyone. ^^ Also, per usual, Wii (Rayman Raving Rabbids 2!) and poker were played. I played Rayman, but just watched the poker. My first time with Rayman 2 was a bit off (I finished last), but it was totally worth it because my Rabbid was then brutally pounded over and over by passing trucks and cars!! It was brilliant and hilarious! ^_^ The second time I played I kicked ass and full comboed a DDR like mini-game. ^^

My New Year's drink of choice was a bottle of plum wine I brought. Which led to me being tipsier than the boys had seen me, (I don't think most of them have ever seen me slightly tipsy) and backing into a chair and china cabinet after I hugged Nick goodbye. I didn't want to drink the entire bottle, so I kept offering drinks out of it to a few of boys. Ken joked at one point, "You're just trying to get me drunk so you can have your way with me." I shot back, "Ken, I don't think I need to get you drunk for that." To which he responded something like "::pause:: Can't really argue with that." LOL

Approx. 5 of us were up until 7 am chatting (at about 6 I think I started the light party topic of abortion.) Then two and a half hours later, they woke us up to go to breakfast! I knew it was coming, it happens every year, but dang, that sucked. To wake up those of us sleeping on the floor, Tom proceeded to lay across our feet and roll up our entire bodies as if he were a steamroller. We actually got slightly less sleep than 2.5 hours because others got up much earlier and were chatting in the kitchen. I apparently still have crazy skillz in logic after little sleep because I kept answering Tom's mom's questions about the early days of car manufacturing.

Tom's dad bought us all breakfast like he normally does, which is so nice (Ken bought my lunch and Artie bought my dinner, so I had day of free foods!). I ordered a vegetarian egg-white omelet, but instead of onions, I substituted gyro meat. ^^ The waiter looked confused. Most of that day was shot because I was so friggin' tired, but we ended up at Nick & Matt's apt where some of the boys played miniatures. As I don't like miniatures, I ended up taking a much-needed two hour nap and then Artie and I went to go hang out with Chels and watch Ghost Hunters and eat pizza. Side note: it's sad because Matt thought he wasn't invited to Tom's party. :( He was, Tom just didn't extend formal invites to everyone. Hopefully, Matt will come next year.

On Wednesday, before I left to go visit Stephen, Artie showed me some clips on youtube. I should post the links later. ^^ I also saw the ending to Portals. XD

Oh...and one final thing...I made a character for WoW. ::ducks head in shame:: I had been resisting the pretty, shiney game for so long, but Artie plopped me down in front of his computer and convinced me to make a character and run around for a bit. I now want to buy it even more. **sigh** I'll probably cave sometime before summer.

The Heartland with Stephen and the Spoony Bards
Wednesday evening was spent with Stephen and members of the Spoony Bards. It unfortunately took me about two hours to get to Stephen's apt (traveled from way west suburbs to near lake and had a massively ice-covered car to thaw and scrape), but once I was there, we got tasty Thai food then went to the Heartland for open mic night (during which the Bards do the opening and intermission.) We were unfortunately a little late, so Stephen missed the opening. Of the Bards, Jer, Dave, and Jon were there. It was funny to see their you-exist-outside-of-cons?! reactions. ^^ The place was packed, which was nice but that meant the intermission set was only two songs long and Jer didn't get to play for it. Stephen, Dave, and Jon played the Sore Feet song (full version with the stealing!) and a They Might Be Giants song. ^^ The crowd there was pretty cool and I had fun chatting with people. One of whom suggested a type of beer to me, but I unfortunately can't remember it (Ale maybe?).

The main act was pretty amazing. I didn't like her first poem, the second was good, but the third almost made me cry. Very raw, very powerful. I made sure to compliment her after. (And yay for getting an appreciative look-over by a lesbian! So at least I seem to be attractive to women, too. I just need to find single ones in my area).

Afterwards was hanging out with Stephen and chatting until about 2 am, then waking up and leaving at about 8 am. I need to get more rest during vacations.


Ohayocon 2008 - Cosplay Staff
Working Cosplay staff at Ohayocon was fun as usual. ^^ I love getting to interact with the cosplayers and skit performers and have bunches of fun organizing them for the masq. On the "eep!" side Trae almost didn't make it due to illness. Overall, I thought there were a lot of great performances and some cool costumes this year. I particularly liked the hallow on stilts and the Vash with the deconstructed coat. There was a lot of drama this year, too, but I guess you have to expect that with cons. For the most part, I really enjoyed working with the cosplayers/performers this year. They were a pretty good group. ^^

I didn't cosplay on Friday, I just got all dressed up with spikes and deconstructed stuff. A few times people asked for a pic, but mostly people were just like, "OMG! You look so cool!" which was nice. ^^ I didn't let the pic requestors take my pic as it wasn't a costume. One guy responded to my, "It's not a costume," by blurting, "Well, what is it then?!" WTF? They're my clothes, idiot.

I wore Belly Dance style Wonder Woman on Saturday. That is always so much fun to wear. ^^ Highlights: Hot Korean guy saying (in Korean) that I looked pretty but him not realizing I know that Korean word and understood what he said; tons of girls going slightly out of their way so they could tell me I looked beautiful; getting my pic taken with a whole squad of guys cosplaying soldiers (Wonder Woman surrounded by men in camis with large guns = hot! XD); being recognized as being the Wonder Woman from Youmacon, even when I wasn't in costume; and limebarb and Julia both complimenting my costume (they know construction, so a compliment from them on a costume means a lot).

Highlights/lowlights:
• Michael's Mini-Fridge
• Jim brought me really dark beer
• Someone else drank it
• No Spoony Bards! :( Seriously, WTF? They totally make the con atmosphere.
• But Stephen was at the con, which is always fun. ^^ He also brought us Vampire wine, which is awful (he knew this ahead of time, but it was more for the fun of trying red wine called "Vampire"). The faces we made when we sipped it (no one drank more than a few sips, I think) were hilarious.
• Being on stage during the award giving was fun. ^^ I got a lot of cat calls, which is flattering. Someone yelled, "You can tie me up anytime!" which I found amusing. I hope I was standing with good posture while I was up there. I worry about that, esp. in the costume I was wearing. Bad posture=squishy looking tummy.
• Rave was fun. Danced a lot.
• Had Angel Moxie artist draw pic of character Tristan dressed in my Wonder Woman costume. She was not amused. ^^
• Obligatory stop by Tavicat's booth. I love Ranklechick and his Three-Legged cat. I just hope they finish the story one day. :(
• Bought a cute Lolita hat that kinda makes me think New Orleans-style macabre. I will either design and outfit around that or remove the skeleton and add more flowers. Not certain which way I'm going yet.
• Searched the whole dealer's hall and found no 4-6 in. black Mokona plushie. Grrr!!!!
• On my way to pack up my car (after walking down 18 flights of steps with a giant duffel bag and a laundry basket full of cosplay goodies) a good Samaritan carried my duffel bag all the way to the parking garage, even though he had to go an entirely different way to get to his garage! ^___^ And he wasn't trying to hit on me or anything, he just did it out of the kindness of his own heart. (we got to the garage, he set the bag down, I said, "thank you!!!" he said, "you're welcome" and left)





Aegela Monsters' Holiday Party
The party was Sunday Night. I basically had time to drop my stuff off at the apt., throw on a nice sweater, then dash out the door for the party. I was crazy tired, but I'm glad I went. The food was fabulous (the Grape Leaf Mediterranean Restaurant), the gift exchange was fun to watch (I didn't participate because I forgot about it), and watching Holly perform is always entertaining and educational. ^^

One funny thing was that I didn't realize that because they only see me in class or at a performance, most of the girls didn't know I wear spikes all the time. Most of them liked the spikes, but it was funny because they reacted as if I had done something special to dress up for the party and I was like, no, I just happened to be wearing a spiked collar and four spiked wristbands today. ^^

One of the girl's husband made me slightly uncomfortable because he finds me so hilarious it's kinda too much attention. I honestly feel like he's never met a cosplayer or person who wears all black and spikes but is really cheery before, so I almost feel like he views me as some sort of interesting alien species that was plopped down in a zoo. That and he needs to understand that there is no way in hell I am ever participating in a wet t-shirt competition. I feel like I'm giving a really bad impression of him. He's overall pretty nice and him and his wife run with the Ren faire crowd and she's a self-proclaimed wench and they know a lot of people for whom a wet t-shirt competition is no big deal. She, at faire and parties, does this thing called a Woogie (I think?) where you take a guy's face, stick it in your cleavage and then shimmy. I know that makes her sound trampy, but she's not, just think of it in Ren Faire context and it makes more sense.

It was really fun at the party, I loved talking to everyone and hanging out with them, but I was glad to get home and go to bed. ^^ Course, I couldn't go to bed right away. I had to talk to Tina, tell her about my week, call Ken because he wanted to make certain I got home safely after all my crazy driving around for the week, and call Andy to discuss all the dirt and dish from Chicago, Ohayocon, and the party. ^^

And on Monday, She Rested
Monday was a day of sleep in really late, get up watch project runway, and relax all day. It was quite beautiful. ^^

Random bits from week that don't fit anywhere else:
"Simba getting expelled from the pridelands" is now our code for things we can't talk about.
"Potential problem?!"
Side note: with the amount of shared drinks I partook in over the week and Trae's plague, it's amazing I didn't get con plague this time. Strange.