The Goldfish's Logbook

I roomed with Stephanie, Cat, and Kevin. We all got there late Friday night and commenced to work on our cosplays till about 3 am. I had essentially finished Captain K'nuckles in Austin but I still needed to finish up Cat's mahou shoujo staff. I don't remember San Antonio being quite so humid, maybe it had something to do with the constant rain we'd been getting all week, but the whole weekend was hot and sticky. Even in the hotel room, the walls and floor and bedsheets (unfortunately) felt cold and damp. I wasn't too happy with the hotel. For as much as we were paying, I was expecting a little more in the way of amenities. No mini-fridge, and you had to pay $15/day for internet. Not cool. Sometime that night I lost my wallet. I'm still perplexed how/where it went, considering I only went out to my truck once that evening. For some reason I couldn't sleep at all Friday night; maybe it had something to do with the cold, clammy bedsheets.
I spent a good portion of Saturday morning turning the hotel room and my truck inside out, looking for my wallet. My empty stomach kept demanding breakfast but didn't seem to understand I needed money for that. I got pretty displeased about the situation. All I could think about was, how was I going to feed myself all weekend, or get back to Austin, or how was I going to get back to Canada in a few days with no picture ID or credit cards? I can't even cancel my cards because it's Saturday and my bank's closed. Losing my wallet was really going to screw things up for me, at the very least.
With all that stuff on my mind it didn't really seem like there was any way I'd be able to enjoy myself at the con. I was bummed out for about an hour before I ordered myself to get into costume (because that's what I came for) and go to the con and try to have some fun.
( K'nuckles rambling )
Saturday evening I spent running into random people I knew, but unfortunately I didn't get to spend as much time hanging out as I would've liked. No sleep from the night before, mild dehydration from the costume, and no food except candy all day, added up to one exhausted boy. My friends did come to my rescue and adopted this cosplayer for just 80 cents a day and fed me. I'm very thankful to them for all their charity. I don't know what's more difficult for me to do; ask for help, or thank people for helping me. Either way, I appreciate everyone's help, even if I didn't articulate it too well. I was really trying to keep up with everybody else, but walking the Riverwalk in search of late-night dinner was almost too much for tired, sore me. Around 1 am I had to throw in the towel and retire. I know, I know. I went to a con, but didn't drink a drop? It was a weird first for me too.
Not much to say about today. We got out of there and headed home. I don't know if I'll return to San Japan. There wasn't anything actually bad or wrong about it. I guess because it's a smaller con, I didn't see as much cosplay as I'd like, nor did that many friends of mine attend. It was an okay con, I just didn't enjoy it all that much (and I know my wallet-loss weighed heavily on that judgement, but still).
So now that I'm home I think I'll raid my piggy bank and go see Toy Story 3 this evening. FINALLY. Tomorrow I'll start the whole talking-to-my-bank/cancelling-my-card/getting-a-new-license business. Then I'll head up to Dallas for a day and a half of hanging out with my brother before once again boarding a jet to Canaadaontuoeaod. Boo.
Regardless of the difficulties of this weekend, it beat the hell out Canada and I was really glad to spend time with my friends, brief as some of it was. That's what I really need right now.

Since I probably won't find any San Japan pictures of him, here's the last progress photo I took of Captain K'nuckles. (He and I were wearing the same expression for most of the weekend.)

So my plans for San Japan have gelled, which is good. Since I hadn't originally planned on attending, I've just been haphazardly figuring out what I wanted to do, and how. For a little while there I was trawling the SJ forums looking for a room, something I haven't done in years. While it was fun to room with total strangers back then, this time around I found myself thinking, "I'm an adult. I have money. I can do better than this." So I just reserved a room, rather than go through the whole Russian roulette roommate dance. And almost as if by magic, friends appeared who needed a room. Cool. Now I don't even have to worry about filling it myself.
I'm glad to know that next weekend is all planned out. This weekend I'll just try to stay focused on work and ignore the AX newsfeeds and updates around the internet. I don't need reminders of the awesome-osity I'm missing out on right now. (It helps that I don't have internet in my new room.)
I'm looking forward to San Japan. From some perspective, it might appear like I'm just settling for it since I couldn't go to AX, which may be somewhat true. But SJ will be a lot easier and stress-free than AX would've been. My goals for it are simple: Drinks with friends on the Riverwalk. It'll be fun times.