Vacation?

BPotW #181.5:

Otakon.

Wow. Hey. So BPotW #2, by my count. So much has happened since my last post. The one before that, number 179 is actually more indicative of the past week and a half's activity. The week leading up to the 28th was consumed by creating my second costume for the Rosalina character. Given that I'd spent Friday at my friend's birthday party made me kind of rush, and though the costume as a whole turned out well, there are still some things I would have liked to have done better. But overall I think they both turned out well and we had a great time.

Did you know that the energy to power a Gundam for 9.3 hours could power the United States for a whole year? (If you don't know what a Gundam is, look it up. No, they're not transformers; they're better than that.) Or that a teru teru bozu charm keeps rain away? Or that you can sculpt chibis using tin foil as a base for clay? These are just a couple of cool things we learned at Otakon this year. My sister Sara and I also snapped hundreds of pictures, which will follow on facebook soon (there's just so many!) We also, at Greg's insistence, did some gaming this year, unlike the past year, and it was great fun. We played a Taiko drum game much like rock band but entirely in japanese. We all played some Mario Kart, and even though it's not exactly my game of choice I won the first time and held a pretty steady second thereafter, which was quite pleasing. Sara and I didn't play last year partly because we thought it was only for those who had signed up for tournaments and partly because we thought anyone hardcore enough to play at a convention would easily destroy us. Happily, this was not entirely the case.

But then there's the not so great parts. Like how someone stole my badge right off my backpack lanyard as I stood admiring dealer's room wares and had to buy a replacement for $40. Or how Sara's car AC stop working on the drive home. And then started smoking. And then making a whirring sound. And then cutting out all together as we pulled into a rest stop and had to push it in neutral into a parking stop, have a mechanic look at it, then get it towed, find out it needed a new radiator, and then a new engine, and then finally decide leave it in Maryland, giving it to the junkyard for parts. So basically we were stuck in Aberdeen, Maryland for nearly 3 days.

But we still made the most of it by going swimming, mini-golfing, sightseeing at a Chesapeake Bay boardwalk, and sampling the local creameries and restaurants by the recommendations of our exceedingly friendly constant cabbie of Elk Cabs, and the folks at Thompson Towing.

After finally deciding to leave faithful Salazar the Saab with Thompson Towing, we then took a train home, since Aberdeen amazingly had an Amtrak station only minutes from the garage. And at last this brings us to:

BPoT #182:

Coming home.

After a very long and complicated weekend, it was wonderful to walk through my own front door again and be greeted by the delicious smells of a home cooked dinner just waiting for our arrival. Then I rolled into my own bed, where I can be sure there are no foreign bedbugs, curled up next to my puppy dog's warm little body and wrote this whole post. And the best part is, I don't have to check out by noon tomorrow.