Bearer of bad news, tall tales, and comical surprises.

Getting my feet wet and muddy is one of the things that rank lowest on my list of favorites.  Divisoria- I don't know what possessed me to turn up there in flip-flops.  On the other hand, I did get  a few nice things there, aside from getting to hang out with family.

I was supposed to spend time with my friends last weekend, but they all cancelled due to commitments which were postponed because of the previous week's icky, stormy weather.  Luckily for me, I had Leverage season three to keep me company.  I am now officially a little bit in love with Christian Kane's weather-beaten good looks, and "Age of the geek, baby" forever!

Two more weeks of class, and then onwards and upwards!

So, it is now 1:35 AM Central, and I am in Illinois, in a hotel room my company reserved for me.  I am typing away on a company-provided laptop, and a couple of doors away is another trainer who will be my neighbor for the next eight weeks.  I am freshly showered and slathered in lotion, and I am looking to two days of getting used to being here before I go to work Monday.  I had to go through the insanity that is airport security, and live through the longest January first of my life (that's because I lived it twice - in Manila and in Japan/Missouri/Illinois), but hey, I did find out that yeah, snow lives up to its reputation by being cold, I got to eat a mountain of shrimp, and discovered that here, their version of 7-up is called "Sierra Mist."

Is this the life, or what?

Sorry for the whining.  Birthing (or is it growing?) pains.  Now that I'm here, I see my company's done a pretty good job of taking care of things for us.  The people who received us here also live up to the company spirit that I've seen from our visitors back home, and it's overwhelming, not to mention very comforting now that the people closest to my heart are very far away.

I was invited to go join coffeebased  and her cousins at the SMX for the Shizen Orchestra con last Saturday.  Since we're nearing the end of the month, there are about twenty million things that need doing at the office.  On the one hand, you have work, my pride and the source of my livelihood, and on the other you have Hope and Lian and Ina ( including, I discovered later, the charming Nadine and their pretty and refined Tita Cathy;  I also got to see limextreme  and JM, and I also met JM's Ron for the first time), plus a few LJ people.     Being the mistress of prioritizing that I am, I of course stayed at work for the usual twelve hours before taking myself off to the MoA area.  (The work didn't get finished - sometimes I think it never will - but I can kill myself getting it done later this week.)

On the cosplayers who were there:  Hard Gay had nice legs, and Hard Geisha was too disturbing for words.  We had some great characters show up, but not many that I recognized. Sailor V was there, and a guy who wore an Urahara hat. (where, o where shall I find a Kaidoh-bandanna? *insert wailing here*)  There was someone else wearing a Seigaku jacket, but like me, I don't think he'd meant to cosplay anybody. And no, Ina, Lian, and Nadine were not cosplaying for some obscure fandom.  Especially Nadine.  Should anyone inquire.

One reason I have found to appreciate the cons: DVDs.  Painless way to snag good copies of series you wanna watch.  I kinda suck at it now, since I do want to watch but dunno where to start, and I'm too busy to work the downloading into my schedule.  But I figure the Avatar, Bleach, and Gravitation should help - I haven't seen Gravitation in eons, it feels like.  I have the official Gravitation release which had subtitling made of equal parts Chinese and abomination.  Very pretty container, but only helpful should I finally learn me some decent Japanese.

As far as the merchandise went, it wasn't too bad.  Aside from the DVDs, there were neat things too.  Mostly to do with hats and hat accessories, and teeny-tiny things for the discerning fangirl.  I got a pair of bear earmuffs, and a pin which says "Anime: Drugs would be cheaper."  Incidentally, Hope got me a pin with the Hitsugaya's picture, the one on my icon, that says "Shotacon: The reason he's the most popular character in Bleach," which killed me to no end.  Next con I shall be getting myself a hat.  And definitely more DVDs, as soon as I figure out which ones I want to melt my brain over.

But what takes the cake was the maid and butler cafe.  And there hadn't even been any cake.  Nikki-chan was the awesomest maid (*pats Nikki-chan's head*) and Gyo-chan rocked!! ^____^  They were such fun, and the 45 minutes spent there were the absolute best.  I have absolutely no idea how maid/butler cafes are supposed to work, but the service there was excellent, and I would totally understand why they're such a big deal if what we saw was at least a fair imitation.  What I adored about the whole thing was how there was so much care and thought involved, and how beautifully it turned out because you know that these people you're talking to are fellow enthusiasts, amateurs in the original sense of the word.  By the way, did you know that the word amateur originally came from French and Latin words meaning lover and  to love, respectively?  Inui is leaving the building now, kthnxbye.

When the crowds became too much for us (and the trauma of repeatedly losing her cousins in the crowd became too much for Hope), we went out and sat down outside the doors.  I took this as a fortuitous time to write a letter to Hope's okaasa.  Unfortunately, I belatedly recognize that all the brow-furrowing and staring off into the distance that I did, thinking of things to tell her, made me look like some sad emo person.   ( I had approximately two hours left at this time before Des was scheduled to pick up the lot and shuttle them to a padasal, which is, for Foreigners, non-Catholics, and you Young'Uns, a period of nine days when the family of a recently deceased person come together every day to pray for the soul of their loved one.)  But I really hadn't seen Des in literally, forever, and I miss her like you wouldn't believe.  Which is why I looked like some depressed zombie when moehoshi and her sis turned up for the con.  I'm SORRY, Moe-chan!  My brain was pretty much fried at the time, having been awake for eighteen hours on little food and lots of worry.  I hope that seeing DenKen made up for my spazzzzzzzz.  *hugs you*  I couldn't even introduce you to everyone because at that point I had trouble remembering my own name, never mind half of theirs.

When I was starting to think that a photo of my letter to Des should be pasted beside the word 'illegible' in the dictionary, we went looking for the Starbucks where Hope's mom would be picking us up.  At last, a blessed table and a frappe!  I went back to writing with gusto, and the kiddies were like, Hakkai, what're you doing? to which I replied that I was writing a letter to their aunt.  I got a second goggling-over, and I had to explain that I was friends with their auntie before I was friends with their cousin, to which they said, "But how old is Tita (Des)?" and "She's old, isn't she?"

Oh, child-RRAAAAN.  *sobs quietly in a corner* 

It will probably take a decade, on the inside, for them to realize that their aunt is a severely cool person to hang with.

Anyhoo, the day ended with me getting to see Des for like five minutes.  Am now officially back to missing her.  And limextreme is made of equal parts of coolness and style, because he stayed with me until I found a cab to take me home (never mind that I'm older and putatively have my shite together).



On a side note:  My boss just sent me a message about courage.  It actually made me a bit... apprehensive about going to work.  Was it her way of telling me that there's something I need courage for when I go back to work tonight?  LOL.