Jack, my pass, and MarioBoo
I feel as if I have been tossed into the sea of intense social experiences over the past week – starting last Friday until yesterday night, I had been home nary 2 nights out of the 9 we’ve had. It’s amazing! And I have pictures. Since I believe it would be absolutely horrendous to fit in all the little details of this weekend through long paragraphs, I will just share some of my favorite moments and then upload the insane amount of pictures that have aided in this personal journey.
Lord knows the two things I’ve lacked this week: sleep and work (halfway like pre-college!)
Memories…
Friday 3:
– No practice on a nice day; sitting in my car near the tennis courts, soaking up the sun and writing poetry
– Trekking through the mud and guck of Bridle Trails Park to scout out locations; Catskill actually joining in; harping on people with the calculating vision; being J’s “friend” or her “acquaintance” [delete me on FB right now!]
– Getting home at late hours, excited and too happy to work on bio or gov
Saturday 4:
– Waking up early and skittering around the house with the intention to tidy up, to read, to work on art, but having an overload and ultimately just having a spa pamper morning
– Eating wonderful Vietnamese food at a new place and soaking in some rare sun rays
– Getting the call of boredom from Molly (who has gone unseen for months) and picking her up in downtown Bellevue; blasting the bass with her iPod in the car as we cruise for something to do
– Wandering around Ardmore Trails for some more scouting, talking and laughing [Molly and I together are perhaps the most embarrassing couple ever]
– Taking Molly to Victor’s coffeehouse for the first time
– Heading back to her apartment for “girl time;” bringing my straightener and cute dress in hopes that we would hang out for Sunday too; watching Pineapple Express and Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo Bay and laughing like idiots on her couch
– Meeting Stella, the little kitty who loves to cuddle and was adopted by Molly last week; sleeping with her lying out on the couch next to me
– Cruising Seattle streets at night just for the randomness and excitement; whipping out our hair and yelling at passersby – man, it’s good to be alive
Sunday 5:
– Waking up early unintentionally; the smell of burnt hair as the straighteners come on; changing into my cute dress (forgetting, sadly, that it’s strapless and having a bra to cover underneath a coat)
– Having to leave early and heading out
– Meeting up with Joshka and taking a photographic adventure [pictures will be provided!] on a Renton beach with the sun falling over itself but still not making it very warm
– Ka-chan’s acceptance to RISD and her overjoyed speech – celebration!
– Celebration on two counts: Peter’s reciprocated feelings and Ka-chan’s massive texting spree (cuteness!)
Monday 6:
– Waking up just to leave again, but not going home
– Going to the doctors; leaving within 10 minutes of getting there, checked out fine
– Randomly picking up Ka-chan and driving to Northgate (shh!) to find dresses and walk around excitedly; having my first Mexican hot chocolate; buying a really cute dress from Forever 21
– Talking, talking, talking; emptying our souls of their burdens including school and boys and girldom and friends and all that good stuff; figuring it out as we go
– I have a strange blank spot in my memory of this day… I’m really not sure why, but after I took Ka-chan home, I really don’t remember what happened. Odd.
Tuesday 7:
– Relax your mind…
Wednesday 8:
– Waking up in my own bed; getting a joyous few hours with the parents gone and the time melting in my hands [I still did not want to do homework – uck]
– Getting a call from ‘Manda to hang out randomly; first declining for the alone time, then jumping ship when the mother comes home with friend in tow
– Meeting up and eating ice cream; picking up Cammi from her crazy house (or at least crazy driveway) and bumping along to Bellevue Downtown Park; walking around and taking pictures [also to be provided] and walking aimlessly until we could reach Stephanie, a Chinese sophomore girl who was super excited to go swimming; taking ‘Manda home and accommodating this wish
– Making three swimsuit pitstops and then seeing the guys as they filmed; heading over to the lake for an attempted swim, but chickening out of the frigid water; instead jumping in the pool at the Bellevue Aquatic Center and hearing stories of Cammi’s lifeguarding class; water slides are frickin’ scary at the top!
– Meeting up with Molly and then dropping off Stephanie; eating out at Red Robin, laughing and talking about our respective guy issues, squirreling Cammi some cash before dropping her off; heading up to Molly’s place
– Side note: Molly’s hurt ankle turned out to be a sprain [joyous.] and she has limped her way around for this week. Ouch.
– Leaving to visit Joshka and watch Fast and the Furious (oh, Vin Diesel…) and coming in late to sleep on yet another couch
Thursday 9:
– Leaving early in the morning to take my car out of the restricted parking spot (psh… apartments)
– Anticipating the Con – Sakuracon, that is; going to Andi’s to put together the costume, with fear that it might not be done/would be completely different than the character; leaving and going on a large accessory shopping trip [wig, socks for gloves, ill-fitting shoes and felt? check.]
– A texting storm; getting the call from Kita for pre-reg pickup, then from Megan for the same reason, then from Molly to come hang out, then realizing that I couldn’t go to the poetry reading and do all of this at once: woosh.
– Taking buses to Seattle and getting lost finding the convention center; feeling bad for making Molly walk around and listless from having my period show up conveniently before Con; meeting up with Megan and the excited anime lovers, some already in costume, and feeling charged up after drinking a hazelnut cocoa and laughing with college kids
– Being picked up by Da and going home to assemble my costume [as opposed to working on the biology packet] and get more and more pumped for Con
Friday 10:
– Waking up at 6am (ugh!) to get ready; picking up Kita and Anthony [who had to run back and get his badge]; getting my costume and Andi at her house (seeing her awesome homemade kimono and putting on all the little accessories to my Machika costume – which will be pictured!)
– Driving into Seattle with bags aplenty and heading to the Sheraton where a sour-faced bellman took them from our strange costumed forms
– Heading into the Con and waiting for Andi to get her pass; eating an everything bagel and hanging out with Kita and his bro until the time came; realizing that there were a lot of people there…
– Opening ceremonies! The chairman, funny as ever, and the consulate general of Japan, still the cutest old man alive, announcing that we now have April 10th as Sakuracon day [established by the mayor, whoo!] and tiny kimono-ed dancing girls and Taiko drummers and the opening of the festivities [and, as always, starting 15 min late]
– Meeting Gina and Taggzan, our roommates, and heading up to put our bags in the hotel room; changing out of ill-fitting shoes (curses!) and doing some last minute bag check stuff; finding that Cheddar Bunnies and Bunny Grahams are awesome (and in excess due to a Costco run) and extremely addictive – hence, eating a ton of them
– Heading back down to the Con for dealer’s room madness; Kita buying a Gundam model and breaking Andi’s Con/manga virginity with Chobits; goggling at all the hot guys and girls and being embarrassing while taking pictures; being recognized, actually, as Machika (woot!) and letting the hours drip away
– Watching an epic live action called Reckless and making fun of it throughout
– Eating part of Kita’s burrito and going crazy over its great taste [probably one of the few real food items I ate all weekend]
– Watching the girugamesh (ah the inside jokes on this one…) concert and finding out that their Japanese metal ness suited Abby quite well; leaving early to take Kita home and grab shoes from Da
– Making masks for the masquerade [then having them be ruined, gah, but slow-drying glue]; donning a little cocktail dress and heels; trying to learn to tango, but failing in large part; going to the Masquerade Ball and dancing with people (Andi with two men who were quite nice and I with one 23-year-old who reminded me of Grant, just more cocky) and having an overall great time [circle of single girl randomness!!]
– Stepping out to eat a burrito and a brownie before heading to the Anime Dating Game panel (which was run by Sarah and Candice, IHS Anime Dictators of old!) and laughing our way through multiple rounds of Katamari love winning, Hardgay and the pimp hooking up, the lusty God of War, and a woman from Guilty Gear who I just can’t remember the name of! I don’t heart myself.
– Heading back to the hotel and conking out after showers and bunnies
Saturday 11:
– Waking up relatively early and then going back to sleep for 10 extra minutes; hearing people talking through my half-sleeping haze; getting eye drops because of a bustable eyeball (and then having to figure out how to use them… ehehe); setting ourselves up for another day of cosplay madness – so many girls and so many hair products; trying to tease Taggzan’s hair into place, but failing miserably
– Heading out without Gina and Taggzan; getting a cute professional picture taken of ourselves; meeting up with Joshka and Britt after they got out of the registration line to find they had 3-day-passes [haha]; watching the cosplay competition for all its hilarity [royal Shakespearean cosplay theater… Sora the Explorer… Haruhi’s Boredom – those were my favorite acts; I didn’t really like the walk-ons, except for one: hottest Hellsing woman EVERRR!!]
– Returning to the hotel for womanly matters and hanging out there for just a tadbit before moving out to the dealer’s room, where I shuffled through many many volumes and hard decisions before making my final purchases (but they were the best purchases ever, I think! Glomp Me sweatshirt, skully bag named Jack, 3 out of the way mangas and Aria first season box set!)
– Walking around on my own to take pictures and watch some anime and be alone without people; eating expensive cheesecake with Joshka (and being gifted a really really cute MarioBoo! I heart it, a lot); talking to Charlotte on the phone about how happy our lives have been, which seems strange but we’re going to ride it till it fades away
– Texting Heathy as I watched comedy AMVs and having her guess that I was watching yaoi (bahahaha!)
– Lurking around before the Hangry Angry concert, just eating and chatting in our room; sneaking in the three boys overnight (shh, again!) to sleep on the floor; finding out that Hangry Angry is really a great band and cheering up Abby as they played; singing Happy Birthday to Hangry!; rocking out with our socks out…
– Returning to the hotel just for a bit before zooming back down to the rave; finding out that Gina and Kita are Gundam model nerds and letting them stay to build and Andi to sleep; going to the line and shouting excitements as we entered the rave and danced to Smile.dk and their para para dancers; feeling the intense excitement of being back there… being free…
– Dropping all of my stuff on the floor during a massive conga line but, fortunately, retrieving it all to stuff into Josh’s pants
– Dancing past Abby and Britt’s departure; getting into the music and feeling the vibrations; stealing Dota into our brains…
– Leaving the rave into the cold and the hotel; trekking up to the 25th floor and meeting the model-makers as we all hung out; taking a late night shower Andi’s picky way of sleeping getting on everyone’s nerves; curling up in a cocoon on the floor and breaking both Anthony and Kita’s first time being in a hotel; packing up all my stuff to an orderly line
– It was a great day…
Sunday 12:
– The rest day. Waking up to a lack of Andi and Gina as they searched for breakfast; hanging with the guys in an attempt to forage for food; eating 5 granola bars because the bunnies had been demolished; getting another everything bagel and a cookie and milk; wheeling around the dealers room in much more empty halls (still painful that I could not buy the Super Paper Mario handbag… gah!); getting all our stuff ready to check out
– The mass exodus of anime nerds; full elevators and the comedic attempts of trying to get down from the 25th floor; Gina, Taggzan and Andi parting first, then Kita and Anthony, then Josh and I; we dropped him off at Interlake and then I went home, dropping from the sky like a fallen angel
– Grabbed my bio packet with a sigh and headed out to avoid the internet and finish that thing (which did happen! yay)
Miscellaneous:
– Falling in love with Asher Roth – I Love College, KidCudi – Day n’ Night, Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow, (again with) Pitbull – Toma, Far – Ride My Pony, (in concert) Hangry Angry
– Seeing people at Con but not really hanging out with them; examples include: Colin, Jessica, Ciera, Nicky, Cindy, Tiffany, Kana, the Sabels, Megan and her friends, Parks…
– I ate terribly this entire week and yet, when I was at the doctors, it said I was at 131.2. What? Really? And then I checked this scale and it says I’m still at that weight even now. Huh!?!
– I talked to Heathy somewhere on one of those nights and we mused about our lives in these respective cities. I think we’re going through the same sort of feeling – our friends are not really our friends, they’re just people who we hang around with. It’s strange, but true. Emotional wreckage comes from left and right with a lot of these people and we’re trying to put up with it, but I believe that we might just need to get away. Both of us. Have our own lives for once.
– I hadn’t realized how much I missed my old friends until this week. Ka-chan, Molly, people that I haven’t seen… they are really who I love and am compatible with and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
– Marco Polo has become a staple of Con [fish out of water! shouts the staff man]. So have conga lines. And, if it wasn’t fun already, it’s become even better with 19000+ people around. Hahaha… craziness.
– I will have to come back to Con next year – even if the weekend doesn’t coincide with spring break or something stupid like that, I can’t miss out on the peoples and the fun and the rave and the freedom! It’s just too awesome to give up.
So, in conclusion, this turned out to be a really long post even without making it in paragraph form! For the next few posts, everything will be in pictures. Guaranteed. Yet, these are the meaningful moments of my week. I don’t know exactly why I’m blocking out Tuesday, but I remember very very little about it. I think I went to Southcenter. Hmm… Other than that, I have been extremely happy just to do nothing and be ok with it. I rarely am able to do that with impunity. Now it is back to the grind and I will have to make up for my choices – but for now, I don’t care!
Check out the smattering of SakuraCon photographs that I took on site.
You can also view some more posts featuring my photography.