How else would I spend it. (Project year timeline, 20, 19.)

Time is funny to think about.

We as humans live with the inevitable. We are given the gift of life and someday we will die, it's something we must accept and learn to live with in order to live a happy, progressive, fulfilled life. If we spend too much time worrying about what's going to come in the afterlife, we're wasting valuable time that we could spend LIVING.

As we grow older we change as people, we get a better idea of our identity and place in society, as well as reflect on how we've grown and changed. Time seems to go by slow, I felt as though I'd never get out of here but here it is.... August 27th, I've now got . . .

16 days! 

I hung out at Katelynn's last night. We're trying to spend as much time together as we can before I leave. I'm probably going to hang out with her again on Tuesday after I hang out with Samantha. Samantha doesn't know about this yet but we've sort of gotten into a routine about when we all hang out. How else would I spend my last two weeks here but hang out with my best friends.

You know what might be fun? (Well, for me) Instead of a typical countdown, I think for every blog entry that I write between now and when I leave I'm going to talk about that year and post a picture from that year (if I have one). I'm going to do this to reflect, and by the end of this I should have a whole timeline from year to year. 

I'm not going to start with "16", if I would have had this idea I would have started when I had 20 days left. I guess I'll just do a couple years today and do more of them as I countdown. I hope that in writing these I can someday print my blog and further preserve these vivid memories that swim in my mind. They might not be there forever, as one's mind has a way of forgetting "unnecessary" details in order to make room for whatever your current main focus is. 

Project Year Timeline

Age 20, Present

2011-2012

-Confident

-No longer depressed.

-Found my salvation in the guitar.

-Best shape from workout videos.. no longer sports, running, etc..

..I'm not going to bother talking about myself now because you guys know everything that's been happening in my life lately, this is almost irrelevant. 

I honestly find myself much more attractive than back in 2011 when I was trying to be something I wasn't. Well, with my fashion (or lack thereof, can't say trying to emulate what Magibon and Japanese girls wore was much of a style.)

______________________________________

photo taken July 2011

Age 19, 2010-2011

Year of Magibon, Cuteness, and all the Japanese I could swallow

My 19th year started at CBC, this was my first real year of full time college classes because the previous year I was still going to highschool. After not making any friends at CBC when I was in running start, I decided to get more involved and take a lot of Japanese. Because Japanese is a huge challenge and takes a ton of studying, I needed the inspiration to keep going with it. I started making Bento boxes, watched videos by Magibon, and hung out with other Japanophiles.

And I cosplayed! There's the video from Kuro Neko 2011. Though I look cute and might even appear to be having a good time, 2011 was not nearly as fun for me as 2010. Because I was working in the maid cafe I was literally volunteering for most of the con and didn't get to spend very much time with Shawn, Sam and Eddie. I really shouldn't have done it but I thought it would be an amazing time because what could be funner than working in a REAL Japanese emulated maid cafe, right?

Feels silly now that I look back on it. 

The truth is that back in 2011 I was still very insecure. My year started out bad when I met Michael K. from Indianapolis and scared my parents half to death that I actually might be with a person loud and obnoxious like that. 

Summer 2011. When I took Japanese and went to anime conventions, I tried to surround myself that I felt wouldn't judge me. A lot of people that go to anime conventions are artsy, open minded types-- and typically very friendly! Same with the people that took Japanese with me. Of course there's good and bad people in any situation... But I really can't think of any particularly *mean* people that I've ever met in the Japanese culture/anime loving fanbase. Granted I have met irritating as Hell people as well those that are very disconnected with reality... 

2011 was the meat and potatos of community college, I took a lot of my hardest classes and excelled in many. I never took any business classes and just had my mind set on getting my AA in hopes I'd find something I liked.

Overall:

Looks: Broke away from band shirts when I discovered Magibon, so more femininity which got me more attention from guys than I was getting before, including older men such as Tyson, 30-some year old stoner in my Technical Writing class. 

Work: No job, went to school full time and barely got by with what my parents gave me.

Friends: Hung out a lot with people in the Japanese club circle at school. Met Michael Z. and saw him around CBC a lot. I did meet people outside  the Japanese club circle but the friendships would fizzle off. 

Skills: I learned a lot of Japanese when I was 19. I thought that was something I wanted from my career, but really deep down (though I didn't know it yet) it was really just something I had to accomplish because CBC was probably my only chance in life to do it. Got sick of it by 2012 but continued to study it. 

Love: There really was none, I had some BAD experiences with the WRONG guys that were short lived. Guy S. was really the only guy I had extended interaction with, and he was a shady character that for my safety I probably shouldn't have been around. We did have some good times and he kept the beginning of that summer interesting. 

The only guy I really had strong feelings for was Josh F. He and I got along very well and had some hilarious times in Mr. Zhang's math class with the masturbation kid that sat in front of us that we'd try and avert our gazes from. It was so funny, Josh used to start gagged and cracking up at the same time and he'd have to leave lecture. 

I originally met Josh through Tyson. They'd smoke between classes. I felt really uncomfortable with this notion, but I'd sit with Tyson and talk about all sorts of weird theories in the A building before class with old Professor Commeree. Josh would talk to Tyson, and the next quarter we were in Math 96 together. 

June 12, 2011. This was taken really shortly after I met Guy and I remember getting pissed off about the slutty looking girl. I of course at the time had NO idea what I was getting into and probably completely over my head to think I was going to get some sort of.... I don't know, did I want a relationship out of this person? I have no idea. 

In that same Math 96 class I met Cory B., who I went with to get lunch and met Guy when we went back to Cory's house. I remember seeing Guy  looking perfect with his bronze tan, beautiful smile and perfect white teeth and I was hooked. 

Confidence: Not very good because of all of the problems that had occured during the year from choosing the wrong men to be attracted too. I'd sometimes put my foot in my mouth during lectures at CBC before Christian S. told me that I straight needed to SHUT. UP. And. LISTEN. This was a huge step in the right direction for 2012. When this year ended I was happy to have a new start.

I'll do 2010 tomorrow. I now need to start exercising because I just drank a protein drink.

peace.

Cleaning out my closet (or my mom's computer), my Japanophile phase pictures.

I feel so flattered today!

I posted a picture that I took in my room this morning because I figured I needed a new default, something a little less black and white to lighten things up. I posted the picture and it has like 18 likes on it. I don't really know why someone "liking" something should mean anything, but it does make me very complimented. Speaking of changes, I think I might change the background on this blog. It's all very clique and I like to change it up every so often. Not like anyone reads this thing anyway. Don't blame them, this is super boring. To be honest I prefer it this way.

Onto today's topic!



"Beauty and the Beast seemed like it all was really brown. The whole thing was just so brown and orange and yellow, like Burger King or something. I don't think I would have liked Beauty and the Beast at any age."
-Mike Judge(an awesome quote I heard earlier, completely unrelated, but the picture is.)

I absolutely cannot stand anything bento or "kawaii" related anymore. Because Kawaii itself is a breed of animation and products that can't be matched by anything in the West yet, I've just reached an absolute burnout. Seeing this picture above of a bento box makes me laugh at how much time and effort I put into those stupid little things! They provided barely any food and sometimes I would put items in there just for show because they looked good and knew damn well that later it wouldn't be very tasty. Ugh, I tried. Deleted on my mom's computer, thought I'd further immortalize it online. I'm trying to clear out some of the seas of images I've stored on this poor device. I'll just upload the ones that stand out.

When I was shopping for a cosplay dress, I saved this because I thought it was cute. That ridiculous thing. What the Hell was I thinking?

Yeah, no. Good ridance to that, forever.

Never uploaded because I hate this picture of me.

This is actually me this summer. Uhm, yeah, I think I'm going to start wearing at least some tinting lotion good lord, it was NOT nessasary to strive to be that pale in freaking July.

A sort of cute picture of me that I never uploaded and now I don't see why, it's a lot better than the picture that I did choose because God forbid you should actually see a little of my top lip. That's another thing, the top lip thing that I do in pictures is something I copied from none other than....

Fucking magibon!!! See a resemblance?

www.youtube.com/mririan

Yeah, wasn't too real about my personality there for awhile. I wanted so badly to be like Magibon, or Margaret Adams. Cute, shy, almost nervous... emulating a Japanese "kawaii" persona in a Western world. It inspired me to the point that I actually decided to LEARN Japanese, and it pushed me up until this point.

This point that I started playing guitar (this started around Christmas. Solid hour a day, THAT was the rule) and realized that music interested me a lot more than Japanese things. I wanted to learn all about it and experience it, as I'd always been envious of people that could shred on guitar. I decided that what the Hell, i'm going to actually put in the practice time to do this. This was a very good decision because it has helped my confidence significantly to develop a skill that nobody can take away from me. That, and coming closer to graduation and facing the REAL world.

I'm like, humiliated posting these you guys I'm not going to lie.

I'm not going to say that Magibon didn't have a possitive influence. When I discovered her videos, I was in the stage where I was wearing.. well, GUYS shirts-- black band shirts that covered everything, it was basically like a niqab of my femininity. I felt like I had something to prove my Junior year or so, after going through the Hell of my sophomore year I just wanted people to know I didn't give a shit anymore about what they thought and I was done trying to do myself up for them.

So because of Magibon's influence, I started really getting into cutesy Japanese style, mannerisms, and developing a way to become a mystery to people. But that's not me. I'm not a mystery, I'm an open book. I love to talk, listen. Watch some of Magibon's videos, she doesn't do ANYTHING! She just sits there, stares at the camera, and says a few very basic things in Japanese. It's worked for her very well, she's become almost a figurehead in Japan, had her 15 minutes of fame I guess. But that's her. I'm me. Granted, there are some really cute Japanese clothes and such and I will continue to dress as I please, I do not intend on trying to be something I'm not. I'm happy with myself and feel I look the most beautiful in yoga pants or a black tank top and jeans.

Edit: August 25th. I am not an open book by any means any more, actually I am a mystery to most people I work with and go about day to day life with because I no longer share unnessasary information with people that really don't need to know. It took me awhile to learn how to control things that I said. Really only over the last year have I become less of a "negative nancy" or someone that just... says too much. I can't explain it. I'm happy Magibon helped me be quiet so I could step back and realize the way I was behaving. 

So thank you Magibon for getting me back into looking feminine. In my first encounters with Jack, I was in the band shirt phase but then over time when I was with him I actually WANTED to look good. So she came along right at the correct time I suppose and long after me and Jack stopped hanging out I started dressing a lot cuter. Now I'm sort of in limbo. I don't wear band shirts very often, I have a couple and occasionally I'll wear my old ones to work out or go running. I'm not too preppy or accessorized either.





I often find misc pictures from cosplay conventions that I saved for some use. Deleting these...

It goes without saying that I no longer want to cosplay. I am going to continue to comment people's photos, though. The only possibility that I might cosplay once more is if I go to RadCon again, because you sort of have open territory to dress however you want. As for anime conventions specifically, I'm done cosplaying. To be honest I can't even remember the last time I watched an entire episode of anime, aside from Sailor Moon at the beginning of the year. I watched like 12 episodes of it and I was DONE. But do I enjoy hearing about it from my friend Samantha? Yeah, it's a neat story and it's actually cool to hear about and I love the animation. But I just don't have the time to sit down and watch that stuff. I'm so preoccupied with everything else and like it that way.

I guess the best way to describe how I live now could be related to Confucius, a Chinese philosipher that teaches for people to strive to be the absolute best they can be and live their lives to their fullest potential. This is often why Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Thai people work as hard as they do. Unlike mainstream Confucianism followers, however, I'm not Asian, and I don't have parents that could potentially disown me if I don't do perfectly. I just work extremely hard and obsess on perfection, but it doesn't mean I have an OCD. I'm happy I recently discovered what Confucianism is because it made me feel less abnormal. Like, I'm abnormally hard on myself and I thought it was an OCD.

2012 has been such a good year so far.

I talked to my mom today about getting ahold of Western about my rooming situation. She said that they APPROVED my housing!! WOO! So we are AHEAD of the game, and because I already submitted which building I wanted months ago, I'm now good to go.

I decided not to use the MyRoomate system online because I want to keep my roomates a mystery. I sort of want to get paired with random people so I can get the experience sans the predictability of MyRoomate. It's probably a good idea though so I don't get a Kelsey. Or worse. I could get some morman that gets pissed off about my pot smoking. Which reminds me, I have no idea how I'm going to smoke up there. This might be silly because it's such a liberal school. I don't know, i'm crossing my fingers that I get a room with a window of some sort.

I am not applying to be on a quiet floor because I can work around loud noises. I have in my own house before and at school, it shouldn't be a problem. I'd much rather have the freedom to come and go as I please than not, because I'm not a sneaky person you guys.. 

I won't say that I'm not still fascinated with the anime subculture.

And I have met some really awesome people!

But I just don't feel like I relate to this anymore.

Being a guest at one of these cons was one thing but actually volunteering was an entirely different story. I really did not have a good time this year, it was a ton of work at the maid cafe and after it was over I felt a little silly/embarrised about having walked around serving a bunch of guys in costumes and closet lolitaphiles for hours on end. And I'd driven to Spokane to do this! Very interesting experience. It cracks me up that Guy Stevens was trying to get ahold of me when I was posting these pictures that are considered completely wacky by mainstream society, but when I look back on it now he wasn't any big deal at all and don't know why I was so enamoured.

In all of this let me say that I do not discredit anyone who chooses to be into Kawaii things, anime, etc. I don't feel like I am better than anyone for no longer liking it because everyone has the right to do what they want to do and shouldn't be harrassed for it if it's not hurting anyone.

I just felt like sharing that, I guess. Waiting for Avis to get home. I've still gotta do my hour of "Freeplay" on the guitar but I'm done after that for the night because I already got post of my picking exercises done in the morning. I don't know if I'm getting better or not, I'd hope so. I hope I'm also practicing enough for what Jacob said we're going to start on this upcoming Wednesday. I never really know what's good enough.

Got a 92 on a Japanese test because of all my craptastic particle usage. Damn, it's like, I know the vocabulary and the grammar to the point that I can confidently put things together, but when it comes down to the minor details and kanjis... errg! I can read kanjis fine, but they have to be in some sort of context or I'm screwed. Furigana is always nice too.

Alrighty well gtg, sister is here with groceries.

peace







Impulse purchases are hard to shake at times.

Ahh, Friday night. My day off is coming to a close. It's 8:23 pm.
What's on the menu?

1. Load vape.

2. Exercise for 1 hour (8:45-9:45pm)

3. Guitar for 1 hour. (10 pm-11 pm)

4. Not do Visual basic homework.

Reason being, I'm waiting until Sunday. I feel like I've worked hard enough this week that I've earned a little bit of leeway this weekend. Soo I intend to study hard Sunday after work. Maybe I'll squeeze in an hour or two of programming between work tomorrow and Sam's party. Yeah, I've decided to go to the St. Patricks day party thing. I know it could potentially be really coupley and uncomfortable but *maybe* if I am subtle about it I could invite Connor to go. Like, as friends.

The reason why I just don't call Connor about it now is because he just got out of a relationship and I need to approach our friendship carefully to make it not seem like I'm trying to pursue a relationship of any kind with him. Because I'm not. I don't want a relationship, I'm moving in four months... however, spending time with him would be really entertaining and it'd be nice to have him to come along to Shawn's party thing. I don't think I'll invite him though because it could send the wrong message. I've gotta give it space, especially considering that we did date.

I'm waiting for Katharine to get to my house currently. They're going to come pick up Katharine's flats that she left here. We hung out today, worked at the estate sale... It went pretty smoothly, and we made a decent amount of money. The entire situation is weird though, and the house is atrociously icky with really lame stuff. My parents don't think they're going to do this for another day. I feel bad that I promissed someone that we'd be openning up at 1', but if they still want that couch or whatever it was, they can talk to the bank about it... My parents have put WAY too much work into it.

Alright well I'm gonna start my little routine thing I guess. Well, this isn't a nightly routine but it's what I like to do lately. Things've gotten quite slow. I put $40 of the $60 that I earned from the estate sale back into the bank and I have a balance of $943 now. That's pretty good. Granted, I'll have to spend probably $30 in gasoline before my next paycheck.. But still, saving is going well for this week! I just need to try not to go crazy and buy stuff I don't need this week.

I did buy a nice pair of yoga capris today at value village. Me and Katharine went after we went out to sushi. We haven't seen eachother in quite awhile so it was nice to catch up for the afternoon. Katharine found some good yoga pants too that fit really well. She even admits though that the point of thrift store shopping has sort of depleated when everything is so expensive. Like, I found a used wig that I thought would be fun to cut and dye as a cosplay wig. This would be an easy purchase, except for the fact that it was $7. For some freaking used hair that's BROWN and the same length as mine. So I passed it up. I'll probably kick myself for this later when I'm trying to come up with a good cosplay. But you know, I'll cross that bridge when it comes. Kuro Neko is so close to when I'm moving out, it might not even be in the cards this year.

peace.

I remember some of the frustrations of last year's con that makes me wonder if I'd even want to go to one again. By that time who knows if Shawn will have a job. That and I'm sure Sam and him will just be moving in together and will be paying for all kinds of living expenses that weren't there this time last year. Yeah, best cross that bridge when it comes....

Kuro Neko Con 2011~ Day 3. More of a Halfday

Finally getting a chance to write about this. Unfortunately my memory of the event has faded slightly, but I'll do my best.

Kuro Neko Con Day 3~ Final Day

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good, having actually slept for the first time in the hotel on the floor. My alarm went off at 7 AM but I snoozed it a couple times because I figured I didn't have to run over to the maid cafe that morning to set up and also wasn't in any rush to bomb out of the hotel room. Metallica's "All Nightmare Long" alarm goes off AGAIN at about 8:20 AM. I was now getting hungry and a little crampt on the floor, so I got up and hopped in the shower.

When I got out, unlike the previous day when I brought my clothes into the bathroom with me, I'd realized I'd forgot. So I very, VERY sneakily tip toed through the room wearing my big towel and found some athletic clothes in my bag and tiptoed back. I got dressed and started brushing my hair out. Samantha got up, and asked me if breakfast was still downstairs. I said it was so we decided to go down there.

Breakfast was A MADHOUSE! Apparently middle class white American families get up at 8' AM, haha. Seriously, this hotel was all white people it seemed. When we went in the previous day it was all old people because it was super early. Why do elderly get up at the ass crack of dawn? We ended up sitting next to an older couple that looked pretty unamused by the amount of noise in the breakfast room.

When me and Samantha got back up to the room, everyone was still sleeping. I started doing my makeup and hair, and as I did so began getting packed up and organized. The previous night they were playing this crazy card game and in order to make room threw everyone's stuff up on Shawn and Samantha's bed. Therefore, everyone's stuff was everywhere. I remember every time I went around the room to go find something I would also look around to see if anything that was mine was laying on the floor. I'm happy I did, I didn't end up forgetting anything.

I started waking people up at 9:30 AM or so, knowing that the room was a disaster and everyone was going to take awhile to pack. A couple of the guys took a shower, so I ended up packing my shampoo and conditioner that I was sharing with everyone last. About half the bottle was gone at the end of the trip, which made me realize how much big families have to spend on things like that. Samantha didn't like my shampoo and conditioner because she said it made her hair greesy. I warned her that it was a professional product and that you can only use a tiny bit or it does that. It's a color protectant and doesn't really work for much else.

When people started packing I was practically done and so was Samantha, so she came with me to run a load of stuff down to my and Shawn's car. In the elevator, people were staring at us in full costume. A couple kids got really excited when they saw me and asked why I was dressed like that, and I told them I was going to an anime convention when the elevator door was closing. It was so cute, they were staring at me from the top window of the hotel. Then I noticed other kids were too.... I was dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland... well, a sexier version, haha, but they still liked it. It made me happy.

Before we left, we took this picture. We used the car as a tripod. I'm unsure where louie and Patrick were at this point. This was after we got all checked out in full costume. Rather embarrising, haha, but the chick at the front desk seemed rather entertained.



I drove to the con with Eddie on the second day, blasting Tech N9ne, which he seemed indifferent about. I just wanted to play fun music.. hadn't listened to much rock on the trip at all. He encouraged me to turn it down when giving directions but it wasn't even on that much louder than our voices. Like, all he'd have to do is speak up a little and I would turn it down to listen. I wasn't TOO excited for the actual con, so I wanted to get pumped up.

When we got there, I parked and we walked up to the school. I was talking to him about debating going to the cafe, texting Tyler and Dave, and wondering how today was going to play out with all of the math homework stress. When we got into the building, I was looking at the pamphlet at what was going on (or my little paper note with times on them) and decided that it'd be fun to go to improv. I look up, Eddie was gone.

Yes, this picture is effing horrible, which is why I didn't upload it. It was kind of a joke. But all day my hair was misbehaving. Probably fried from chlorine.

I met this kid who had a box on his head, and we went into the improv room. We watched these skits that made absolutely no sense at all, and I got sort of bored but didn't know where else to go. I couldn't go to the maid cafe because I was super late and didn't want to piss people off. I decided this was a good place to wait for Shawn and Samantha though.

Meanwhile, I was texting Dave who wanted me to go to some other panel, but then ended up meeting me there.

We sat in here for like an hour and a half. Look how sweaty and tired I look, haha. This is probably my best sex hair picture of the con. And, just to clarify, no I wasn't actually doing that. Just in case this is too convincing.

Dave did a really good job doing improv himself, though a lot of people in the room couldn't do it at all. Dave was trying to convince me to try it myself, but I was like NOOOO way, I suck at that, plus I curse too much and didn't want to unintentionally say shit and get in trouble. We left, and Dave tried to drag me to do flippin kareoke to the damn pokemon theme song. I was like NONONONONO. But then I thought to myself, do I really give a rats ass what any of these people think? Seriously.



So here I am, singing the pokemon theme song. The most embarrising thing I've done in a long time. It was pretty hilarious though and I kept on cracking up throughout the whole thing. I can't believe Dave manipulated me to do that. Damn him.

Dave ended up meeting up with his girlfriend and I got a text from Patrick and Louie saying they were heading home. This reminded me that I needed to leave soon, too. It was about 12' PM. I texted Dave to say thank you for completely humiliating me and to enjoy the rest of the con (in a friend sense of course because I didn't care that it was humiliating haha). I ended up finding Samantha, Shawn and Eddie and we walked around the vendor hall for awhile. Samantha was getting some custom art done, and I was standing there talking to the three Asian guys and this one guy that was dressed as.... as....

Idk he's the one on the right in the blue bathing suit. He actually seemed pretty normal, regardless of the unbelievably creeptastic costume.

He asked me if I was dressed up as Alice, and I had to ask Samantha what the name of the character I was again. Apparently, I look like someone from "American McGee's Alice," and Samantha seemed pretty annoyed that I asked her. I probably did look like a noob but I didn't care that much. I honestly told the guy it wasn't a cosplay at all and that I just got it at a sex shop. He was like, "OH, that's a leg avenue costume! Those are hot!!" And then they took pictures of me. I was rather satisfied that I managed to get away with not actually having a legit cosplay and people still taking pictures of me.

Me and Sam in the vendor hall.

The last thing I did at the con was go to this How to Draw Manga class, and realized that I really had no interest in drawing anime at all anymore. I sat there and drew a realistic face on the piece of paper they provided instead. Samantha didn't seem particularily interested either and drew a picture of mini moon for me on a tiny slip of paper, and I looked around and MOST of the people in the class were doing the same thing! Drawing on there own!

I think the reason being was that practically EVERYONE in the class had probably drawn anime extensively before, so they were in there to get advanced tips from a professional. Nope, it was only the basics, and that woman that was teaching it did a terrible drawing on  the board as a representation of how you are supposed to draw it and talked to us like she was a Kindergarden teacher. Eddie drew a skeletan.

I ended up leaving the con after the class, bidding farewell to some friends from last year.

We spent a lot of time with these guys last year, but me and Samantha don't talk to them as much as Nicole does. So more than likely we would of spent more time with them (and Patrick) if Nicole was with us. They're from over by Couer D'Alene.

I went out of to my car, changed clothes, and headed out all by my lonesome. Felt good though, felt good to be done with the trip. I was anime'd out. Suddenly in writing this blog entry I feel extremely nauseous from taking a prenatal pill on an empty stomach. I'm trying to eat an apple so it stops.

I was hungry and needed a coffee, badly.. But I wanted to get out of Spokane first. I took the Seattle exit home and made it until about Cheney before I wanted something to eat. Right outside of Cheney there is a town called Sprague, where on the highway sign is a restaurant called "The Viking." Shit, good enough for me. I got off the Sprague exit and went to this little tiny diner right off the highway.

Inside there were a couple tables with elderly people, one of which being all women eating hamburgers and french fries. There was also a Dad and his kids, and a biker sitting at a table drinking a cup of coffee. They all gave me sort of funny looks, even if I wasn't in costume it's almost like they could recognize that I wasn't from around there.

There was only ONE lady working, doing both the cooking and the serving. She asked if I wanted for here or to go, and I said for here because I was in no rush really. I sat down and realized that she was trying to crank out milkshakes, which meant it was going to take awhile for my food to get done. I didn't get my menu for about ten minutes, which was surprisingly extensive for the size of the place. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and fries to go, as well as a nice big cup of coffee. She said she had just brewed up a fresh pot. Yay! Trying coffee at different places is a highlight of almost all of my trips.

I went into the bathroom while she was making it, and I noticed that the walls were COVERED in people's names from the past 20 years. Like it would say someone's initials carved in the wall, then a number. Most common was from like 82'-96'. Felt like a piece of history in there. I wanted to carve my initials in too, but I didn't have a pocket knife. I like how one said "YOU ALL SUCK" with up and down arrows around it.

The sandwich and fries was good, I ate it on my way home and then when I got sick of it double knotted the con bag around it because I didn't want to smell the greese. Ugh, still feeling nauseous, damn it!

I made it home safe, the house was a complete disaster, and I was happy to be home.

yours,

Emily

Kuro Neko Con 2011~ Day 2. Maid cafe, running on an hour of sleep...

Kuro Neko Con Trip, Day 2

I woke up very, very early, running on very little sleep at about 5:30 AM. I went in the bathroom, got undressed, and tried to turn on the shower. Pulled the shower thing forward, turned it, lifted that little nob thing.... nothing was turning on! I was annoyed. This shower was like a puzzle. After about five minutes of trying, I yelled out to Samantha, who was still sleeping... "Samantha how in the Hell do you turn this shower on?" I was sort of laughing at myself. She was sleeping pretty hard, so Shawn yelled back "Pull the nob!" I go back to the shower handle, and yank it. Nope.

At this point, I had a towel wrapped around me. Eddie straight busts in! No knock, no nothing, to turn the shower on. I was like... uhh, wow. o_o He messed with it for about a minute, still couldn't get it going, and Patrick came in. I was like, "Uhh, hi everyone." Eddie got the shower to turn on, then they left. Interesting and awkward way to start the morning. I got into the shower, got clean and got out. I had brought in my PJs so I had something to wear while I was doing my hair and makeup without having to wear my somewhat tight and itchy costume all morning.

Me and Samantha were the first ones to get ready. Notice the cat shirt, lol.

Samantha was the next one to wake up, and we went down to breakfast together. There was a pretty good selection down there. Note: I was NOT in my maid costume at this point, but in my PJs, just saying. It was about 6:30 AM. I got myself half a bagel, a piece of wheat toast, yogurt and a glass of orange juice. There was a tempting waffle machine but with my blood sugar I would just be hungry again in an hour. Had to at least try and go whole grain.

We went back up to the room where everyone was still sleeping, including Patrick and Louie on the floor. Shawn was sort of getting up. I finished up my makeup, including those awful fake eyelashes, and put my costume on. Samantha helped me lace it up, and I was concerned about bending over and people seeing my underwear and felt very uncomfortable. Patrick and Louie got ready really quickly, and were done about the same time that I was. We all decided we would drive up together, though I warned them that the con didn't open until 11 and they might be stuck waiting around. Luckily, they had a little tilapia that morning so were pretty laid back about everything.

We stopped at a Walgreens and Louie did me an awesome favor by going into the store and buying me a Tide to go stick just in case I spilt coffee all over myself. I didn't end up needing it, but it was very helpful of him regardless just to know that I had it just in case. I'm pretty sure if I didn't have it I would of spilt at some point, that's just how these things go. Here's me and Patrick sitting in the car.

We got to the con at about 8:45 AM, and I went to the back cafe area to meet up with Cara and Miyuki, aka Maid Sama. They were basically the bosses of the establishment for the two days because they had done it the previous years.

Here's a picture of me, Kellsey, and Jess (or Lavariel) the morning when we were setting things up.

Getting the maid cafe set up was a LOT of work!

It would of been a lot easier, too, if I was in my normal work outfit of athletic shorts and a t-shirt. We were wrapping up flowers, putting labels on treats, figuring out how to make everything on our menu (mainly drinks), putting drinks in ice, learning the ropes of HOW we execute doing a maid cafe, etc.... There wasn't really anything out of the ordinary about our serving. We were just pretty much told to be like waitresses. I was expecting us to be more forward and touchy like in a real maid cafe but I was happy that we didn't have too. There's only one man right now that can get close too, but other than that I don't like touching anyone. Not even putting my hand on someone's shoulder or anything. I'm not really a touchy person.

We put up a lot of decorations. Mainly streamers and such. Me and Andrea did a really good job at wrapping up some poles with pink and white streamers, and there were little butterfly stickers put up. Most of the stuff was pretty gaudy, but it was meant to be that way.

Me writing up the menu "Specials", which were basically homemade goodies....

The cafe openned after openning ceremonies, and I was assigned to be one of the waitresses. Me and a couple other girls, like Sakura (her real name is Sam), Kellsey, and Autumn were all asked to help and serve people food. It was a tough job. After about an hour I was kind of wishing I would of been a hostess. I liked the attention though, it was fun. I got tipped a few times too. There was one table that Sam gave the menus too (and flirted with) that I gave drinks too and smiled at a lot. They ended up tipping us $20! Cha-ching! This wasn't much though because at the end of the day they were going to divide up the tips between all of us. If it hadn't of been this way I would of made $15, but I can see why it was that way. How were the hostesses supposed to get tipped? Or the girl that had the hard job of clearing tables and helping with drinks? It was very fair how it all came together.

I didn't actually end up getting any tip money because as soon as it was over at 3' before the Ouran Host Club came in I flat bailed. I was like, wow, I've been in here since 8 am without break and haven't been able to see the con at all. So yeah... wasn't really planning on coming back the next day when I had to leave early anyway. So I let them divide out the tips amongst themselves and cut me out. I figured that it'd only be like $3 or $4 anyway and I really wanted to find my group.

All of the maids. (I'll write a little about my experience with each.. Starting from the left)

• Kara. She was our boss, and set everything up. She was very kind to me when I talked to her on the phone about maid orientation and I appreciated her overall patience with me. She was very organized and pretty nice to all of us during the con, and appreciated the work I put in on the first day.
• Andrea. This is Dave's girlfriend and I spent a lot of time sitting and talking with her when the cafe got slow around 1 PM. We both got pretty bored at the same time.
• (in back) Gina. She is SUPER gorgeous. I'm pretty sure she's Italian or Spanish or something. She was really friendly with me and laid back but helped me a lot with making drinks. She came in sort of late and she didn't talk to Kara before the con, but because she was dressed up and worked last year Kara was fine with it. I'm happy she did work with us.
• Miyuki. I'm unsure what her real name is but apparently her nickname is "Maid Sama." She did a LOT of the decorating and made the table settings look really nice. She kept really busy, even in our down time, so I didn't talk to her very much.
• Sam, or Sakura. She was one of the first people I talked to when she showed up, and she reminded me a LOT of Carmin Vaughn for some reason. We talked quite a bit too, and I really like her. She said we should meet up for Sakura Con. : ) It'd be cool to get a big group together next year. She seemed to have prior waitress experience.
• Kellsey. She was sort of the cutesy one of all of us. She made her WHOLE costume herself, which was really cool in my opinion-- even the pleats. I sort of guessed she might be LDS because her dress had that reserved cut with the small shoulder covering sleeves, but turns out my judgement was wrong. She was super nice and I liked her too. In fact, I liked everyone that I got a chance to talk too in the cafe for the most part.
• Jess, or Lavariel. She got on my case about people not being served, even if I had been running around like a maniac trying to get everyone covered. She said that "people were complaining." This was right at the beginning when everyone was flooding in, and it made me a little on eggshells and had to step up my game. This was really the only contact I had with her, she seemed cool though. She dated Brooke Combs for awhile.

After I left the maid cafe I called Samantha and Shawn, but Shawn didn't pick up. I then called Eddie and he said they had left to get something to eat. It was about 3' and I was sort of sad that they left without trying to get ahold of me at all. I figured they just thought I was still working, so I called up Patrick and he said he and Louie would come get me.

I ended up walking around the vendor hall a bit, and try to take in what people had been doing all day. It was a lot like last year, lots of nick-nacks for sale, LOTS AND LOTS of art vendors. Probably more art vendors this year than last year. Shawn noticed a significant difference but I didn't really get a chance to look that much. I had found Sarah from my Japanese class and we walked together for a bit.

These guys were in the vendor hall and they wanted a picture of me so I took one of them, too. The one on the left was really hot, admittedly. I'm sure a LOT of girls at the con thought so too because it seems like anime fanatic girls are mad about Asian guys. They were selling mousepads with boobs on them.

Patrick and Louie came to pick me up pretty fast and we went back to the hotel room where I ate some ramen, popcorn, a rice crispy treat.. whatever I could get my hands on. I was STARVING! I hadn't eaten since 6 AM and it was about 4 PM when we got back to the hotel room. When Shawn, Eddie and Samantha got back Eddie noticed the wrappers and I just laughed at how much I had ate. I thought the food was for everyone, and I thought he'd be happy someone had eaten at least some of it.

We then started getting ready for the rave. I pretty much just touched up my makeup-- for *some* reason I had been breaking out sort of badly, and put my hair up into a ponytail. I wore the typical black tank top and shorts, like I always wear to raves. Next time around I'm gonna bring my rainbow socks and some bright makeup or something, but this year I spaced it. I didn't even think I would be going to the rave but because they had a DJ this time around I was stoked.

I went with Patrick and Louie to the rave, but we took a-- errr, side trip. We drove around the city and enjoyed some Tilapia, just to relax. They didn't plan on going to the rave but wanted to swim at the hotel. They dropped me at the school, after being a little lost and paranoid, and I said my goodbyes and thank yous and met up with Samantha, Shawn and Eddie. Eddie and Shawn were playing Magic the Gathering and I could hear music coming from inside. I was pretty excited, it was about 6 PM.

The Rave

I was pretty stoned and exausted in this picture, to be honest with you. I was wearing Louie's nametag that says "Big Brave" because I didn't end up getting one after being a volunteer. I got my volunteer name tag on the second day, but nobody seemed to notice that my nickname on my tag made no sense what so ever. It was between "Big Brave" and "Poopsicles" or whatever Patrick choose as his nickname on his tag. I thought Big Brave was a little more believable, even if i'm not the large Mexican man that picked it. If anyone asked I'd just say it was a soccer nickname or something.

Samantha said that this time spent outside with her boyfriend and Eddie playing magic was the best because it was so peaceful and nice out. The same thing could of been said for me, I had just had my best time of the trip too. I was pretty ready to go dance though, regardless if it wasn't really a RAVE-rave (the kind where people are on Ecstacy and dancing until 2 am... I mean this one started at 6 and was supposed to end at 11'... hmm...). Me and Samantha went in first, and met up with Sarah Welker and her group. They were playing hardcore music, and I was having a blast dancing too it even if I usually hate dancing. I've found that dancing to hardcore music is pretty fun though because there's really no right or wrong way to do it like in hip hop. Lots of crazy nerds jumping and running around, it started out pretty good.

Samantha was annoyed as hell that Shawn wasn't in the room, and we went back outside after two songs to go get them. Shawn sort of bitched that they would be in in just a second and that we should of just waited. I didn't really care either way but I knew that it meant a lot to Samantha to have a good time so I came with her. Once Shawn was in, Samantha started having a way better time too and we all danced for about a half an hour before I met Naomi.

Naomi is this really pretty girl from Priest Lake that wanted to dance the whole time like I did, so we danced together for like two hours. We got pretty pissed off by the fact that a lot of the people in there were just standing around instead of dancing... You have to have almost EVERYONE dancing for it to be a good time. I just think people got insecure, and we just tried to make the most of it. At some points, it was just me, Naomi and this girl dressed as a Panda. Really fun. : )

I danced off and on with Samantha, Shawn and Eddie and realized that they had left the room at about 8:30. I went out and asked what was up and they said that they were ready to head back. I was starting to get annoyed with how many people weren't dancing too, so I decided I was fine with leaving. I said my goodbyes, and we got in the car.



On our way back, I asked about what everyone did that day because I didn't get a chance to see them much. I was also talking about how much fun the rave was until it got lame and how much fun Naomi was. Samantha told me that she thought Naomi's outfit was sort of gross because she was wearing a really high cut shirt that says "Trash" with her bra sticking out the bottom. Eddie and Shawn agreed, and I did understand where they were coming from. But, I had to defend her case on the fact that because it WAS a rave, she was probably expecting it to be like 102+ degrees in there and so she dressed really skimpily so she wouldn't get too hot. I saw girls in there with there shirts completely OFF, even if it was only 100 or so degrees. Samantha and me got in a bit of an arguement in the car about this for like 10 minutes or so but it passed. I think she thought I called her immature, which then I had to defend that I didn't call her that... It was pretty stupid. I understood where Samantha was coming from, but at the same time I felt that because it was a rave you can't really judge how someone is dressed.

After the rave me, Shawn, Eddie and Samantha ended up going to a sushi restaurant after stopping back at the hotel to get ready first and decide if we wanted to go out to dinner or not. This place was really nice, and there were little plates of sushi going around on a conveir belt. We ended up getting a big bento plate for about $12 and it was super delicious! I immediately knew what I wanted-- the sushi bento, which had 4 pieces of cali roll, shrimp tempura, some random weird seafood tempura thing, and three pieces of sashimi. Great deal for $13.50. Eddie couldn't decide what he wanted, so I recommended the katsu. We all ended up getting the bento deal except for Shawn who got beef teriyaki with vegetables and rice. He ended up pretty much picking out the beef. I think his dish was only like $8 and it was HUGE! This was a great place to eat.

I was already done with my meal for quite some time when they got done with there's. For some reason I seem to eat way faster than most people. Shawn and Eddie fighting over a piece of chicken or something, haha. I ended up getting sesame balls from the convier belt that were filled with anko paste, and had everyone try them. Everyone actually liked them, I was surprised!

Pool War

When we got back to the hotel, I went down the the pool to go sit in the hot tub for awhile. Again, it was busy as hell. I got into the pool, not really caring about my hair as much, and there were about 10 little boys swimming around and splashing eachother, along with me, Eddie, Patrick and Louie. Patrick began a game of tag, and wanted me to play,  but I didn't want too. So I told one of the kids that looked about 9 or so that my group said they could beat them in a game of tag (hahahaha). Immediately, they started a game. Three 9 year old boys against Eddie, Patrick and Louie. I got into the game too for awhile, and we all played for about a half an hour. It was fun because we were getting killed, these kids could swim super fast. About 40 minutes later, I was pooped out and called an end to the game.

I went back up to the room, hoping to get some sleep. I was pretty beat to shit. Everyone was on the floor playing a game that Louie brought that is like this crazy war game that takes forever. I was on the floor uploading pictures and working on the math homework. Samantha lended me her computer because it had a card reader on it. So I was sort of excluding myself from the game, but they didn't seem to mind much. Afterward, I got up on the bed and started playing my DS. When everyone started settling in, someone said SOMETHING that made us all start to laugh our asses off, I had no clue what. We laughed and made a TON of noise until like 1:30 am and I'm like "Guys I really don't want to get in trouble. shhhhh" But at the same time I was laughing my ass off too.

I decided I was going to sleep on the floor, and Patrick jumped up on the bed so he would have a place to sleep. Eddie didn't seem pleased by this, and he was like "Emily get back on the bed right now!" I just laughed and let Patrick sleep up there. Patrick is totally straight, and even if he was gay I doubt he would actually try anything. Yes, Patrick and Louie joke around about gay stuff a lot but they're not actually that way and Eddie should just calm down, haha. I was about to go to sleep on the floor when Tyler Davenport messaged me because he was freaked out by some movie and we ended up talking on the phone about it in the bathroom. Pretty interesting night.

Wow, three hours to write this. I better get going. I'll write about day 3 later. Should be a lot quicker than this. Sorry this entry was so long, I just really want to be able to remember everything before I forget.

yours,

Emily