AKA, we're a very whacky bunch of fangirls ^^ So, yes, spent this past weekend at Claudia's, along with Mel, Mara, Yuumei, and Kira. Had sushi in Cambridge Friday night, after my hour-long trek to the train station. Also got Mara to buy me a pack of Mild Sevens, which I'll have to convince my mother really are just for cosplay. We also made sugar cookie dough, and probably did more stuff that I can't remember now because I was starting to get rather incoherent at that point.

Saturday was the day of our grand tea party ^^ We spent most of the morning cooking, working in the fashion of our cosplay marathon at AE (Which I really will write about eventually, I swear), although with more sleep and better tea. It ended up being somewhere in between a tea party and a grand feast. There was so much delicious food, I probably couldn't even remember it all. I did, however, get to learn a little about how to make sushi, even if it was just cucumber rolls and mine turned out kind of deformed. We had pie, and bread, and tiny sandwiches, and sugary-sweet little cakes, and excellent tea. And I borrowed a nice red-black shimmery button-down from Claudia, and we all dressed up and everybody looked beautiful ^^ The rest of the day was largely spent watching FMA and making our X sugar cookies. We were going to do Yami, too, but we ran out of dough, and ended up spending many hours decorating the X cookies anyway.

Sunday was more low-key. We got up, took horrible horrible photos with the cookies (They'll be coming eventually, I need to resize them and pick out the blurry ones), watched more FMA, and then were going to take cosplay photos, but Claudia fell asleep, and Mel and I decided that with only half an hour to go before my train, we really didn't have the time. So I packed and took the train home. And that was the weekend ^^

Two notes before I do laundry, pack, and get some sleep.

1) You see the wedding kimono down there? You know how I said I'd get more photos soon? Well, that's happening this weekend, and I am more than happy to do shameless fanservice for you people, as long as it doesn't get me in trouble with the law or people's significant others ^^ So, request away. Will pretty definately have a shikifuku!Subaru, and possibly a Kamui or Keiichi. Or both, but not at the same time ^^

2) A meme I actually find interesting ^^ So:

Leave a comment with your name if you want to know what I really think of you, and I'll reply and tell you. No lies, all honesty.

Yay for studies! Currently free until lunch, will probably do my Spanish homework. So far, none of the classes will kill me, I think, other than possibly Research Seminar. Research projects are the bane of my existance ><; Mr. Menard, the language teacher, is particularly good - very funny. Yay for competence. A lot of the kids are really cool too - I'm not the only silly fangirl! w00t! Anyway, if anyone wants to get a hold of me during school, send mail to my regular account, or preferably my school mail account, as we're encouraged to check that during the day - address for that is rhatch[at]wpi[dot]edu ^^ And I swear, I really will do that AE report. My meager photo selection is up already, so I have no excuse.

Sadly, as of today, it's officially over for me. Which is why I'm sitting here at 7:25 AM dreading going to school. This summer had the interesting distinction of being incredible amounts of fun in some places - Otakon, my Canada trip and AE, the many weekends spent with Claudia or Mara or Mel or all three - while the rest of it sucked massively - NC, work, driver's ed.

I suppose I'll see today what the next year will be like ^^ And do the AE report later.

AE r0xx0red. I had tons of fun, and it was so worth the three hundred dollars it took to be there and up in Canada. There will be photos and con report and such this evening, as right now I need a shower, food, and a nap, as overnight flights suck like that.

However, before I go, I feel the need to share the project Brooke and I have been working on all summer, now that I can, and I'm self-centered and egotistical like that.

You know you love us ^^

Look familiar ^_~? (For those of you that have already known about this, yes, there are hakama, but there were puddles of water everywhere and the hems dragged. I'll get more photos this week sometime)

Here I am, up near the Alaska border, and it's 95F out.(For Canadians, Australians, and other assorted users of centigrade reading, that's about 35C). It hasn't been this hot in Massachusetts a single time this summer.

Anyway, probably the last entry from up here, as my dad's phone and DSL get shut off tomorrow morning. We went in to Prince Rupert Thursday, which was nice, especially the drive. Last night was dinner with some very nice people from my dad's church, and today was the lake ^^ It's largely just been a lot of relaxing, which is something I needed, I think. This summer's been far too hectic, unfortunately, and this school year won't be any better.

Will be in Nanaimo Monday evening, and until then, I shall relax amoung the trees ^^

(Also, Safeway cream soda is bright pink. This is mildly frightening)

I find myself in one of my lovely, strange half-lucid states again. They don't come very often, but I enjoy and revel in them when they do. They're hard to describe - it's kind of a not quite inspiration, where I feel the beauty in the world, in the night, all around me, and desire to add to it. I think the Mara may know something of this, as she's spoken of it, and her work often evokes it in me ^^

...And now I've gone and gotten distracted by the actual process of being creative, so I may be back in a bit with something new ^^

First real day in Terrace, which has meant a lot of me getting introduced to all of these people at my dad's church. Tonight was also an airshow up at the airport, which was very neat - got to sit around and talk to people too. For the grand finale, they actually set off fireworks from the planes, in-air. I shudder to think how dangerous that was, but it looked awesome. There was also a very choice quote from one of the women - we were looking at a magazine that had a photo of Kerry, and she said "He'll probably be the next prime minister of the United States", before correcting herself a minute after that to 'president.

Anyway, nice town, nice people ^^

Logging in from way up in Terrace ^^ Flights were uneventful, although the customs officer in Vancouver kind of scared me, by asking lots of questions and not smiling ._.

And I took a nap on a park bench outside the airport...I feel like a hobo now! Also, The Day After Tomorrow really was as bad as I thought it was. And Emily was right, it's kind of unintentionally funny ^^

So, leaving in about an hour to head over to the airport for my 7:25 flight to Vancouver ^^ I'll definately have internet access from my dad's house in Terrace, so I'll post tomorrow night when I get there, although I probably won't be on AIM or whatever much. I will call people who's area code I'll actually be in at some point tomorrow, most likely ^^

....And...I know I had something else to say, but it's early, and now I've forgotten ^^;;

And now, I attempt a con report ^^ If something doesn't make sense, I blame it on reading Anarchy at the same time and the fact that it's 3 am.

So. Thursday night was our official mad costume rush. This largely amounted to me helping everybody else with their outfits, as I was done already, and apparently am the one with actual organizational skills. After roughly four hours of sleep that night, we set out the next morning on our great Otakon adventure.

And then got stuck in traffic. For an hour. Damn NYC. Anyway, we eventually made it to Baltimore at about 9:00 PM or so. Checked into our fancy hotel (The Hyatt, w00t!), and then Claudia and I changed into the two shikifuku, and Mel and Winter put on some nice regular clothing, and we all headed over to the hotel, amid worries from me about not being able to pick up our badges (Sakura-Con made me paranoid). We wandered the con some, I tried to find Heather and Sihaya, and failed, and we met several different people who we would see later and I would totally forget I met before, as I don't think I was entirely with it that night. And that, more or less, was Friday.

Saturday got off to a slightly more coherent start. We all did X, and Claudia and Mel were very cute indeed as Kamui and Subaru, while I spent far too long admiring how good I looked in the mirror. Seishirou makes me egotistical, yay! Having good hair for the first time helped a lot. We wandered around, had lunch with a Yami group we met the evening before, and I managed to finally find Heather and Sihaya and their group, who looked wonderful and cute in the PoT 115 outfits. My favorite cosplay group of the con, along with the Yami shikis Sunday ^^ Got a lot of photos of them, wandered around the artists' alley, tried to convince Heather to sell me pr0n to no avail (it's alright, I understand why you wouldn't ^^), and got mistaken for Ari XD The conversation went something along these lines:

Fangirl: *typical oohs, ahhs, 'Can I have a photo?', and then...*
Fangirl: Hey, you look familiar. I think I've seen you before...do you have a website?
Me: *makes an educated guess* ...Yuuzai?
Fangirl: Yeah! That was it!
Me: ...Actually, uh, I'm not the Yuuzai Seishirou, I just run the site - only in one photo, as Hokuto. Their Fuuma is over there as Oishi, though *points at Heather*

Needless to say, I was highly amused, and highly complimented, and procceded to run and tell Heather and the rest of my group of this occurance ^^

And then...there was the concert. I sort of got pulled along, as Claudia wanted to go, but it turned out to be quite fun. The random English interludes were the best, although I had to explain the crab line to everybody else in my group, being the only one who has ever really been to Maryland before. Though, I wonder exactly how the people near the front have any hearing left at all - we were in one of farthest rows from the stage, and the bass was still near the level of an acoustic massage. The only two things I wish were different were that they had a video feed from the stage onto the big view screens for those of us in the back (particularly those of us in the back that still had Seishirou contacts in ><), and that I had known more than one of the songs they played (READY STEADY GO, I'm a sad FMA fangirl like that ^^). That night largely ended up with fun fun Yami and X shoots back at our hotel, including SpontaneousCasual!Fuuma, who was actually a Tsuzuki cosplayer we had met at the con, who we talked into putting on jeans and a black t-shirt for some photos ^^ There was also FanServiceKitty!Kamui, along with faked blowjobs XD

Sunday was a little more low-key. I dressed as Tatsumi, and made a few passes through the dealer's room, picking up Fruits Basket 3, a Kamui plushie, a Kamui keychain, presents for two friends, and some free stuff from Viz and Funimation. I also ran into EAG, and after collecting some of my Yami group, and some of her friends, and we all went to lunch. At Hooters XD Yes, we have photos. After that, it was off to the Yami shoot, which had a surprisingly large turn-out. There were a number of shikigami, several Muraki and Tsuzuki, two Watari, and even one Oriya, who has apparently been dubbed World's Tiniest Oriya ^^ I was the lone Tatsumi, though. More wrong photos were taken - EAG had a riding crop :D At that point, the con was basically over, and we sat around and talked some before security made us leave. Also ran into some GetBackers cosplayers, one of whom lives on the other side of the hill from me.

That night, we met up with some people that Claudia knew from previous cons, went out for sushi, and horrendously over-priced but oh-so-good cheesecake. I got chocolate raspberry truffle <3 There was much packing, and then the drive home Monday morning. And that, my friends, was Otakon 2004.

Photos
This is only a selection of my favorites, or particularly memborable photos - The rest of them can be found here

-The shikifuku with proper hair color!

-Black and white (With a cute Tsuzuki, too!)

-Obscure!Yuzuriha and Satsuka, yay!

-Giant Mokona

-There were a _lot_ of FMA cosplayers...

-What happens when there are no Fuuma cosplayers

-...Of course, we found one later ^^

-The kick-ass PoT 115 group ^^

-It came out kind of dark, but Cid Highwind and the Vincent bear

-Apparently she did actually play the Devil's Trill for anyone who asked

-"There is no escape, Subaru-kun."

-Subaru makes the best pet ever <3

-Seishirou got accidently semed ;.;

-Kamui is such a pervert ^^

-Seishirou regains his rightful place, on top

-Haha, we mock you and your X14, rabid Subaru/Kamui fangirls!

-There were a _lot_ of FMA cosplayers...

-"Now, where did those ukes go?"

-"...Wait, why do we need ukes?"

-Fuuma takes the initiative

-All your Fuu/Sei are belong to us!

-The morning after

-"Fuck you, Sakurazukamori."

-"Why you little-!"

-Muraki: *STALKS*

-Come on, you _know_ they so read shoujo manga

-X orgy!

-S/S can be cute! ...Sometimes

-Seishirou is a possessive little bastard

-Poor, unsuspecting Muraki

-THUD!

-Sei/Muraki ^^

-Yay for glass elevators

-Always a gentleman

-Psuedo-porn ^^

-FanServiceKitty!Kamui <3

-The battle commences

-Why yes, I _do_ shamelessly rip off the TB artbook

-Yami + Hooters = XD

-Giant Yami group of DOOOOOM.

-Obscure!Hisoka

-Tatsumi is not pleased.

There will be Otakon ramblings in photos in good time, by which I mean when I'm not tired and feeling irrationally bitter and self-pitying, most likely tomorrow ^^

Also, has anybody else had any problems with the Fork releases of FMA 41 and 42? I had some major video problems in both Windows Media Player and Winamp, curious if it was just me.

And there are things that I should apologize for out of good conscience, but I'm mean and don't actually feel very sorry about them...never let it be said I'm insincere, I suppose.

(There was sense in that post somewhere, although I'm not exactly sure where)

To all my dear friends, as a lot of you have been having problems recently:

I love you all, and if you ever need anything, or someone to talk to, just ask.

*hugs all*

(Oh, and Marion, when are you going to be in Boston? I live near there, I could come in for an afternoon if you wanted to meet up or something ^^)