Chaco
Parents woke me up this morning to tell me Chocolate was dying. She was fine when we left for Arizona, but when I got back Mom told me she must have had a stroke or something. She had goop around her eyes and running down her chest, and she was acting weird, not eating or drinking, and yelping and running away from Mom and Dad sometimes. When I went out to see her most of the time she would just stare out into space like nobody was there, though a few times when I went out she actually looked at me and wagged her tail kind of sadly. She never yelped and ran from me, but I did see her do if from Benji, and from a piece of ham (Seriously. I held it above her, she looked at it like she didn't know what it was, then me, then opened her mouth very slow and wide to let me put it in, and then her eyes bugged out and she yelped and ran. Then she looked guilty, like she thought she was disappointing me somehow, and after I went into the bathroom and came back, the ham was gone, even though I'm pretty sure she had no appetite ^_^;). Mom fed her watered down dog food, but she was really just too old. I think it might have been a little cold when she was born, and we have movies of her jumping after us in tracks and footprints in the snow, so maybe she was born in 91 or 92 when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. I know I wrote a postcard to her for a school assignment I have somewhere, so maybe I could check that way. Anyway, that makes her 15 or 16. Very old poodle. When I went upstairs she was laying in her bed and not doing much but breathing kind of hard, and eventually she just breathed a little harder, spasmed a little, and died. Most of the time she was just staring off at nothing, but sometimes she would start moving her tail back and forth for a little while. She was still staring at nothing so I figured it was just a muscle thing, but Mom saying she was wagging her tail because she was glad we were there still made me sad. It's a shame she didn't live till huckleberry season, they like going a lot because they can run around without leashes, and she liked eating the berries off the bushes, and it's supposed to be a good year. And it was always cute to watch her whine and worry when the family got too far apart so she couldn't keep an eye on all of us at the same time, and would start constantly running back and forth between everyone to check up on us. Her mama died when she was really small, so for a surprisingly long time she seemed to be convinced I was her mama. I guess after she got older she started considering herself all our mamas instead. ^_^; I guess she wouldn't have liked to go in the state she was in, though. It would have been even sadder to have to leave her locked up behind.
And sorry for not giving a nice, snarky report about YaoiJam. The planning for it was absolutely horrendous (it was a first year con so I kind of expected that, but geez. Of course it being my first I'm not sure how it compares to other first year cons, but I can't help but think they must be a little better.), but other than that I just had nothing amusing to say, because all but a few of the people were nothing like the otaku I'd met in person randomly or in Japanese class and such. The ones we talked to were all fairly cool, down-to-earth, people. They all loved series I didn't, of course, but when a person actually has a pleasant personality, suddenly it doesn't really matter what they read in their free time, anyway. Even when there was a panel with pure yaoi smut being projected onto the wall and being read aloud, instead of hooting and squealing about how omgtotallyhawt it was, the entire audience mercilessly heckled and snarked at the writing, art, sound effects, and just about anything they could get their hands on. It seemed to be the point of the entire panel. Even when during certain events the crowd did act a little more like silly hormonal teenagers and it DID get a little tiring, I always still got the feeling they were just kind of playing along with the mood and weren't really as insane as they were pretending. I have a hard time believing the company at all anime cons is like this, much less all yaoi fans, though. Part of it was probably just the main group we ended up in (by the end of the first day people had settled off into little clicks. I fluctuated between trying to ignore how reminiscent it was of high school since the people really were better than high schoolers and I felt rather bad snickering....and, well, snickering. Aaah. I'm an old lady), but I dunno. I feel like I have to go to another one just so I can meet horrible, embarrassing, annoying people so that I can ridicule then and REGAIN MY HONOR. Not enough to actually do it, but, you know.
Speaking of old ladies, though. GUESS WHO WERE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO I RAN INTO THAT LIKED THE SAME SERIES AS ME. ...Ok, they weren't THAT old. Like, early middle aged, maybe. *really bad at guessing age* But yeah. And then when I was in the dealer's room I found myself listening to two (even older?) ladies shopping and recommending things to each other, since their opinion sounded a lot more reasonable to me than all the younger people running around squeeing about what they liked. I guess I have the taste of an old woman. Tch. FINE. I REGRET NOT MY OBSESSION WITH OOFURI. ME AND TAJIMA WILL SHOW THEM. SOMEDAY THEY'LL ALL BE OLD, AND THEY'LL FALL VICTIM TO HIS IT'S CHARMS. GENMITSU NI.
If you see me in person, no talking to me too much about Chaco. I'll think about her too much anyway, so, you know.
EDIT: Here are videos of us at the con. I know it's lame I'm not in any of them, but, well, recording. But if you like to see Jenny laugh. (And who doesn't?)
And sorry for not giving a nice, snarky report about YaoiJam. The planning for it was absolutely horrendous (it was a first year con so I kind of expected that, but geez. Of course it being my first I'm not sure how it compares to other first year cons, but I can't help but think they must be a little better.), but other than that I just had nothing amusing to say, because all but a few of the people were nothing like the otaku I'd met in person randomly or in Japanese class and such. The ones we talked to were all fairly cool, down-to-earth, people. They all loved series I didn't, of course, but when a person actually has a pleasant personality, suddenly it doesn't really matter what they read in their free time, anyway. Even when there was a panel with pure yaoi smut being projected onto the wall and being read aloud, instead of hooting and squealing about how omgtotallyhawt it was, the entire audience mercilessly heckled and snarked at the writing, art, sound effects, and just about anything they could get their hands on. It seemed to be the point of the entire panel. Even when during certain events the crowd did act a little more like silly hormonal teenagers and it DID get a little tiring, I always still got the feeling they were just kind of playing along with the mood and weren't really as insane as they were pretending. I have a hard time believing the company at all anime cons is like this, much less all yaoi fans, though. Part of it was probably just the main group we ended up in (by the end of the first day people had settled off into little clicks. I fluctuated between trying to ignore how reminiscent it was of high school since the people really were better than high schoolers and I felt rather bad snickering....and, well, snickering. Aaah. I'm an old lady), but I dunno. I feel like I have to go to another one just so I can meet horrible, embarrassing, annoying people so that I can ridicule then and REGAIN MY HONOR. Not enough to actually do it, but, you know.
Speaking of old ladies, though. GUESS WHO WERE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO I RAN INTO THAT LIKED THE SAME SERIES AS ME. ...Ok, they weren't THAT old. Like, early middle aged, maybe. *really bad at guessing age* But yeah. And then when I was in the dealer's room I found myself listening to two (even older?) ladies shopping and recommending things to each other, since their opinion sounded a lot more reasonable to me than all the younger people running around squeeing about what they liked. I guess I have the taste of an old woman. Tch. FINE. I REGRET NOT MY OBSESSION WITH OOFURI. ME AND TAJIMA WILL SHOW THEM. SOMEDAY THEY'LL ALL BE OLD, AND THEY'LL FALL VICTIM TO HIS IT'S CHARMS. GENMITSU NI.
If you see me in person, no talking to me too much about Chaco. I'll think about her too much anyway, so, you know.
EDIT: Here are videos of us at the con. I know it's lame I'm not in any of them, but, well, recording. But if you like to see Jenny laugh. (And who doesn't?)