Yeah I'm still alive, and yeah I'm about 10 days overdue on my scheduled writing check-in and maybe I'll have time to do that this weekend and maybe not. I've gotten really fucked over this year because normally final projects are due during finals week (ie. the week after the last week of class) but this year 2 out of my 3 classes decided to have final projects due DURING the last week of class (ie. next week). And I'm performing in One Night in Beijing (our Chinese cultural show) this weekend so the past week has consisted of a lot of extra rehearsals and things and I'm just generally really screwed. BUT. Anyway.

Two three things:

1) Does anyone happen to be looking for an apartment in New York, or know if anyone who is and is looking for roommates? I think I've mostly made up my mind that I'm going to NYU, but I need to get the housing situation figured out.

2) Is anyone from Houston/TX planning to go to A-kon? I haven't been since high school but since I'll be in Texas for most/all of the summer, I'll be able to go this year. I don't want to go all by myself though... Cons aren't much fun on your own.

3) Is anyone else thinking about doing hardmode? I'm pretty sure I want to do it but I'm having a hard time deciding what fandom to do. The one I'm leaning toward is really obscure and I'm worried I won't be able to find an artist. There's other fandoms I'd like to do but I'm having a hard time coming up with storyline ideas for those, so I need someone to flail at bounce ideas off of.

So today started off on a major bum note.

I'd been trying to get in touch with Sven for quite a while about his promise to hook me up with free badges and a free hotel room for A-kon. I finally got a response this morning. It was, in a nutshell:

"Badges? What badges? I don't work at A-kon."

.........................

So I will, in all likelihood, not be at Project: A-kon 17. I have enough money for a hotel room and a regular member badge, but mom won't let me go unless I'm going as part of a group. Doesn't matter that I have friends I'm meeting there; I can't travel alone and that's that. Anyway, Lara and Yvette can't possibly pay $55 each for badges, even if I pay for the hotel and the gas. So unless we, by some miracle, acquire some free badges for them, it's not happening.

The more I think about it, the more it depresses me. I started planning my outing to A-kon 17 the day I got back from A-kon 16. I was that stoked about it, and I wanted to make sure I could go with a group of friends this time. Well, turns out my friends are flakier and harder to motivate than most, but I still managed to mobilize Lara and Yvette.

True, maybe staying in town is the responsible thing to do, because in all likelihood, if I asked off work this weekend, Paul would definitely fire me. I am aware that I am not on his "good list" and have retained my job primarily due to his good graces and Bill's liking me. I know not to push the bounds too much, and asking off on Friday and Saturday would be like asking to be fired at this point.

But it got to the point when I realized that, yet didn't care. I want to go to A-kon so badly. I want to reunite with my little gophers from SKC so badly. I want to see KOTOKO so badly. And Hell, quite possibly more than anything else, I JUST WANT TO GET THE FUCKING HELL OUT OF HOUSTON. I have not gone further than Huntsville in the last 9 months, and it's gotten to the point where I'm ready to implode. I just hate this city SO MUCH.

I could almost cry.

---

The good news is, my friend Wynn (one of my SKC gophers) can't make it to A-kon either, so in order to share in each other's wallowing in self-pity about not getting to party it up, he's gonna' try to come down here from Austin and hang out with just me for two days. ^_______^ I seriously did not believe him at first; I thought he was joking or that it was one of those "things I'd do if it were possible but of course it's not" types of things, but then he was like, "How about next Tuesday?" ^o^; It's probably one of the nicest things anyone's done for me in ages.

I am looking forward to it.

I also need to find out if Yukihiro still plans to come from Cali and stay here awhile this summer. Because that would be superiorly kick-ass. D:

---

I finally got my Facebook. Damn... and I thought LJ was addictive. That Facebook thing is the shit. Somehow MySpace never did it for me, so Facebook is ideal. In 24 hours I somehow already amassed about 40 friends, and yeah. Been spending way too much time on there.

Yup, some things never change. I still procrastinate like it's nobody's business.

[cloned from Aeon Blue Apocalypse]

go·pher     (gfr)

n.

1. An employee whose duties include running errands.


2. A misnomer for scapegoat.

Yes, that about sums it up.

We left for the Con Thursday afternoon. I picked up Sonny and then Lara, while Tiffany took Patty home and then picked up Imran along the way. My group had to stop at my work on the way, so I could talk to Paul about next week's schedule, and because of that we were a little late. But it was all good.

As soon as we got to the Con though, we were never really briefed about what was going on and what we could do to help. After a little trouble because the rooms weren't registered to my name, we checked in, put our stuff away, had a short gophers staff meeting, and headed to the Con-Ops booth to start setting up and whatnot. A Security guy called Lackey briefed us on the walkie-talkies, and then we basically sat down to wait for instructions from Jesse. Jesse never came, and meanwhile several of the first of our staff members showed up, so we ended up spending some time talking to them before heading down to the general staff meeting which had been scheduled for 9 PM but didn't start until almost 10:30. After that, we had another short gophers meeting with our volunteers, sent them on their way, and then headed off to the rooms ourselves, except for Lara, who was our "sleeper". We ordered pizza, which didn't arrive until almost 1 AM. Most of us fell asleep right after.

Friday morning, we got up bright & early to get stuff ready for what I expected would be a crazy morning. I figured if there was any time when we'd suddenly encounter a lot of problems, it would be during the first hours of the Con -- and we were already short-staffed to begin with (17 registered volunteers before the Con, of whom most couldn't work Friday morning, plus 5-6 no-shows), so that didn't help much. Thankfully, already, during those first hours, we received quite a bit of help from Justin ("Tiger") and Brett ("Pheo"), who, along with another guy called Adam, had been forced to room with Sonny and Imran that first night because we only had two rooms available that night for our entire staff. However, this turned out to be a really good thing, because the boys instantly bonded and became what we girls called a "posse"; if you saw one, you were likely to find at least one of the others. (This did not, however, prevent them from being squeamish about sharing the bed; the room had one king-size and one small roll-out bed, and apparently only one person slept in each bed, while two slept on the floor and Sonny apparently slept curled up in a chair. Boys are so funny.) It made me happy to see, and it definitely saved our butts that weekend, because Tiger and Pheo ended up working way over their required hours and basically saving the gopher staff.

The afternoon was fairly quiet. The Con's big problem was that it didn't have schedules ready, and we had to help out some by getting copies made and then mass-printing them back in the booth. We then spent quite a bit of time redoing the room assignments, because we finally got more rooms to accomodate our entire staff that required crash space. Tiffany, Patty, Lara and I ended up having to relocate to a double room. Most of our staff also ended up helping security do crowd control during the line-up for the concert. During the concert things were thankfully subdued enough that most of us ended up having a chance to go watch. Yes, that's right -- I personally witnessed High and Mighty Color's first U.S. performance. It was good stuff. The only bad part was that they forced everyone in chairs for the concert. Everyone ended up standing up anyway, but because we were forced to stay in place, it really lost the atmosphere of a rock concert, and was sadly subdued. I had fun, though. The performances were excellent, and hearing "Ichirin no Hana" live was just an all-around amazing experience. Rock on!

After the concert, we went back to the booth, but when things appeared to be staying calm, most of us officers ran up to the Con Suite to get food before it closed for the night. Turns out that while we were away, PJ, the staff head in charge of the Dealers, came up and bitched out Imran and the entire Gophers staff for not being there to help move chairs after the concert to prepare for the dance. This really pissed a bunch of us off because I had never been informed that the presence of the gophers was requested for this endeavor, and as such, I did not feel like PJ could hold it against me for not being there. This started a series of disagreements between PJ/the Dealers and us gophers that only worsened as the weekend progressed.

Some of the gophers ended up working Security that night, while most of the rest of us got to chill out. I went and danced at the rave with Tiffany and another volunteer (Robbie) for a while, but I was so worn out by that point that the loud music and flashing lights really weren't working for me. I handed off the responsibility for the night to Sonny and then headed back to the room to sleep.

Saturday morning was mostly spent dispatching gophers on small errands, while the rest of us worked on printing out schedules and whatnot on the really annoying big printer that kept complaining about low toner and getting paper jams every few minutes. It wasn't too terribly exciting. Patty and I also roamed around awhile to look for the chaos cosplayer, so he and I could take a picture together, but we couldn't find him. ;~;

The problem was that around noon or 1 PM or so, while I was out of the room, PJ came back and asked to have gophers go out on a food run, and he said that we needed a driver to go. Tiffany had brought her car in order to be a back-up driver, but her parking wasn't paid for by the Con, and she didn't have in-and-out privileges, so I didn't want her using that car unless it was an emergency, because we'd have to pay $10 each time she took it out of the garage. We told PJ that and he got mad and told us to get in-and-out privileges somehow. I finally talked to Jesse about it and he agreed to reimburse whatever the costs would be for parking for getting food for the Dealers. So, I sent Tiffany to figure out the food situation with PJ, while the rest of us headed back up to the booth.

Turns out that the Dealers all just wanted to get food from McDonalds and Subway, so I told Tiffany to take a couple of our gophers and just go on foot, because they were less than two blocks away and therefore not worth the trouble of getting the car out and then having to find parking space closer to the two restaurants. So, they left. A little later, they called and requested many more gophers to help out. I ended up dispatching the entire crew that was on duty to go and help, save for Imran and myself, because I needed to watch the booth, and I needed someone on standby in case someone else needed a gopher. But everyone else went to go help out. Apparently McDonalds was already way behind on orders because so many of the Con-goers were eating there because the hotel food was so expensive, and then here came my gophers with 20~30-something orders. It took a long time, other people got pissy, gophers were getting stressed out, etc.

By the time they were done, it was well into Tiffany's break time, so Patty ended up being the one going down to the Dealer's Room and making sure everyone ended up with the right orders. I wasn't there, but I later found out that at one point, she was delivering an order when the Dealer (whether jokingly or angrily is debated) remarked, "Took you long enough." Patty by this time was apparently so stressed out that she slammed down his order and then walked away angrily. The Dealers (who are unfortunately aware of how important their financial contribution is to the ability to hold the Con, and therefore easily take a high-and-mighty air in regards to the con staff, especially us "lowly" gophers) were very offended, and the one whose order she had slammed down basically demanded her head on a platter. Patty came back to the Con-Ops booth, and while I was on lunch break, the Security guys came to take her to apologize to the Dealer. When she refused and basically ran away, the Dealer demanded that she be kicked off the staff and out of the con, and Security took her badge.

Well, that's basically the story as far as I heard it from the Security boys. Unfortunately, by the time I got down to the booth and they finished explaining everything to me, Patty had packed her bags, gotten into a taxi, and left for home.

I can't say I really blame Patty for her actions. I, too, was stressed out by PJ and the Dealers, and I didn't even have to confront them directly. As far as her performance as one of my gopher officer goes, the only thing I can say is that I warned her ahead of time that this would likely be a stressful job, and if she couldn't handle the pressure... well, that's that. Mainly, I was just upset that she just left without even talking to any of the rest of us first, but she said that she herself didn't want to stay at the hotel any longer. Anyway, she got home safely and whatnot, and the Security guys didn't end up holding a grudge (several of them who met Patty really liked her, but they're really at the mercy of the Dealers too, so there wasn't much they could do), although the Dealers were apparently upset for a while. Whatever. Overall, things turned out okay.

I seriously was in shock for a good hour, though. I just did not see that one coming at all. And it was just kind of this guilty/sad feeling that we came as a group of 6 but left as a group of 5.

Anyway, by the time that was all dealt with, the line-up for cosplay began, so the gophers ended up doing a bit of crowd control again. Jesse also came by to talk to me about the incident and about a lot of the conflicts. Basically, a lot of other staff members apparently were criticizing my gopher staff for various reasons, and I explained to Jesse that I had no problem dispatching people as necessary and basically helping out all over the place, but I could not be expected to read minds. I know one of the major criticisms was that the gophers weren't pro-active enough, but I cannot really solve problems if most of the other staff heads and Jesse aren't really communicating with me, and there had been precious little communication since we arrived on Thursday. I myself patrolled the Con a lot and asked the staff heads when I saw them if they needed help, but other than Abby in Registration and Jeff at Security Ops, I had no idea where to find the other staff heads, nor did I have contact info like cell phone numbers for most of them. I realized that I wasn't exactly always doing a great job, but in many cases it wasn't entirely my fault. Thankfully, Jesse was totally understanding and basically apologized to me for not planning things out more thoroughly and communicating with me more. There was little we could do about it then, but at least it was good to know that he wasn't really upset with me or anything. (I don't function well at all if I feel like people are disappointed in me.)

During the cosplay, things were quiet, so Lara, Jayvin, Wynn and I ended up checking out some of the panels. We wanted to do a Sushi 101 panel, but it was full, so we ended up going to an ADV Films Production panel, since we couldn't find the Martial Arts panel. The good thing about the ADV panel was that they gave out free DVDs to each person who asked a question. *win* I got DNAngel Vol. 5, which I'll probably try to sell on eBay.

After the cosplay ended, things were pretty chaotic for a while because a bunch of kids decided to start throwing stuff down the atrium. Security came and asked for help but there weren't many people I could dispatch because we had been asked to be on standby to help set up for the second dance. Once the dance started, Security ended up borrowing almost my entire staff (including my lieutenant and officers) to help with door duty and whatnot, because they were short on staffers. This meant that I ended up having to stay up to guard the booth until Sonny came back to relieve me. Around 3 AM, I went down to the dance and raved in my penguin PJs with a Sephiroth cosplayer with glowsticks. That was fun, and Ayres is a rocking DJ, although once again, after about 20 minutes, the lights and the noise were too much for me, and I quickly headed off to bed.

Sunday was probably the best day of all, despite the lack of sleep. Our duties were more straightforward and somewhat predictable, and so it was easier to coordinate a little more free time to roam for all of us. I spent quite a bit of time in the Dealers' Room taking advantage of deals and whatnot. The loot list consisted of:

• A Byakuya plushie


• An Aoshi pin


• A Sephiroth figure to go with the Vincent one I already have


• An FMA figurine for my sister


• A high-quality photo of me in my costume


• Ramune and candy

Nothing too impressive; the majority of my money actually wound up being spent on food and drinks. What I'd really wanted were the Suikoden figurines I'd seen at Oni-Con and had decided then not to buy, but no one at this Con had them. ;~;

The highlight of the day was probably going to the corset booth with Lara, Wynn, Tiffany, and Tiff's boyfriend Roy, with Wynn & Roy wearing Tiffany's stuffed bras, and us all trying on corsets. (I have pictures that I'll post on LJ later.) Wearing the corset was the most painful thing I have ever experienced (the guy tried to get me down to an 18" waist) but for the sake of the pictures and the laughs, it was worth it.

Other than that, most of us sat around a lot and chatted, and some of the others did homework. I did a lot of paperwork as I signed people out and handed back their deposits. We had a little bit of craziness in the morning because we had to get everyone checked out of the rooms by noon (we managed to do so at 11:50 AM; woot!), and PJ and the Dealers picked that wonderfully inopportune moment to ask for another food run. We ended up dispatching the entire crew to go to McDonalds and Subway again, but thankfully there wasn't too much trouble by then, as most of the Congoers were leaving and the restaurants were no longer so busy.

Around 2 PM, most of us decided to walk to McD and Subway ourselves for lunch. Technically, as a staff head, I wasn't really supposed to leave the hotel premises unless it was an emergency, but I hadn't breathed fresh air or been in direct sunlight since Thursday afternoon, so. I went. I felt much better because of it.

Around 3 PM, the entire staff went to help start breaking down the con in various places like the video rooms, the Dealers' Room, etc. I was literally the only person left in the booth for most of it. I did paperwork and such, and signed out more of the gophers. By 6 PM, most of them were gone, and my own officers were getting pretty eager to leave, too. Jesse had told me before that we could expect to be done by 10 PM, but by 6 PM the only thing really left to break down was the main programming room. Most of us basically crashed along with a lot of the Security folks, and waited to hear if we were doing anything in terms of a "dead dog" party.

I finally talked to Jeff (Security Manager), and after we took care of the walkie-talkies, he told us that we were essentially free to go, unless we chose to stay. I gave the others the option of leaving or staying to see if there's be a "dead dog" party. They all decided to leave. By 8 PM, they were out. I stayed behind to guard the few things left in the booth with a couple of Security people. By 9 PM, the decision had fallen that there was not going to be an official "dead dog" party. The other Security people in the booth with me decided to leave, thus taking the only remaining stuff with them, and I went downstairs to handle my last business with Jeff, since Jesse was still missing. I had some money to hand off, etc. Once that got taken care of, I got ready to leave. Since I didn't have the energy to help break down main programming, and there was nothing else left to do, there was no real point in my staying.

The problem, however, was parking. My car was supposed to have been paid for, but since they hadn't registered the rooms under the right name or marked me as a VIP, the valet guy got all fussy. It finally got taken care of when Sven (the 34-year-old Security Head who has been obsessed with me since that staff meeting two months ago) came down and explained that it just had to be charged to the master account. They just got my car when Sven was like, "I'm about to take some of my guys to IHOP to grab a bite to eat since I'm starving. Want to come?" I asked where the nearest IHOP was and it turned out he had no idea himself. So he suggested ordering take-out Chinese or pizza. Since I hadn't had dinner and was so hungry that I probably would've stopped on the way home to get some food myself, I simply decided to stay a little while longer, so at the very least I wouldn't have to eat alone.

They ended up deciding on pizza, and Sven sent me over to Jeff, who was supposed to decide what all to order while Sven took a head count of the staff remaining at the con. Jeff and the other guys took forever, so Sven got annoyed, pulled me aside again, and said that he and I and a few others would just come up with our own separate order. However, he couldn't decide either what all pizzas to get. By that time, Jeff and the others had started a list, so they pulled me aside while Sven floundered over the pizza. Still, the pizza thing ended up taking forever and finally Sven got so frustrated, he was like, "Fine, I'm going to the hotel restaurant." He took one of the guests, PJ and his fiancee, and a couple of Security people as well, and then pulled me aside and was like, "Come on, I'm buying you dinner."

Normally I hate taking advantage of people like that, but by that point, I, too, was so tired and hungry that I didn't argue. Anyway, the idea of a REAL MEAL really appealed to me. The Con Suite food had consisted almost exclusively of sandwiches, and I'd already had pizza and burgers several times. I wanted real food. I ended up getting chicken quesadillas, scrambled eggs, and sausages. (Yes, this was at like 11 PM.) It made me extremely happy. Best food I'd had in ages.

Sven ended up taking the opportunity to talk to me a lot and flirt and whatnot. In this case, it ended up being a good thing. At one point, he asked me what my plans were for future cons. I told him I definitely plan on going to A-kon at least for the concert, although I don't know how much time I'll spend there other than that. I also said I was thinking of signing up for their staff, because A-kon and the Adam's Mark are so expensive otherwise. He discouraged that idea, saying that the A-kon staff is rude, arrogant, and not worth the trouble. Besides, there's so much else to do at A-kon, other than work. He said that he knows a guy there who he's done some favors for and who is hooking him up with free badges and free hotel rooms. Sven himself only needs one room and a couple of badges for himself & his friends, so he offered to hook me up with the rest. We didn't discuss the details, but I am definitely excited.

I left dinner before the others finished because I had been told by my mom to be on the road by 11:15 PM on pain of death. So I said some quick goodbyes to everyone (drawing things out would've just made me cry uncontrollably, so I made it real quick) and then headed off to get my car. Not much else to say. Uneventful drive home. I managed to do it without crying. For whatever reason, that dinner at the end really helped.

I know I didn't talk too much about my gopher staff, but basically, most of the people I worked with this weekend were AMAZING. They were so wonderful, and I made many new friends. It's been only a day, and I already miss all of them so much. True, I don't think I could've dealt with it if the Con had been much longer, because of the stress and the fatigue, but I also still didn't want it to end. I get attached to people and places very quickly. I passed by the hotel on my way to the Tommy Tune Awards tonight, and it took nearly all my self-restraint not to just abandon my car and run to the hotel (skimpy dress and heels and all) to see if there was anybody from the Con left there and then to burst into tears.

If any of my wonderful gophers read this at some point, I love you all so much and thank you for all your help, especially since so many of you went way above and beyond, working more hours than you needed to and being on call all the time. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you! ♥ I hope to see you at A-kon, or possibly at Shiokazecon next year, because I can't bear the thought of never seeing you guys again.

...I better leave off here before I seriously do start crying. Anyway, it's 2 AM and I have an exam bright and early in the morning, so. Umm. Yeah. Damn.

[cloned from Aeon Blue Apocalypse]

MEMEPIMP.

No class today, hurrah. I do, in fact, only have to attend class three days this week, seeing as how I'm skipping all day Friday for Shiokazecon. We're leaving right after everyone gets out on Thursday. Everyone's going home to grab their stuff, take a quick shower and grab a bite to eat. Then I'm picking up Sonny and Lara, while Tiff's taking Patty with her and picking up Imran along the way. Shall be fun.

My volunteer schedules are FINALLY done, with all the whiny kids getting their hours fixed and everything. I feel like I ought to be doing more to prepare for the Con, but as far as my job goes, there really isn't that much that I can do ahead of time. I still need to fix a few things on my Shion costume. I don't know how much I'll have time for, since I still have to work tonight through Wednesday night to make up for the fact that I can't work for five nights in a row after that. (Paul took on another new hostess last night. Apparently he's *really* freaking out about not having me here over the weekend.) I get home from class around 2:45 PM every day, and I have to be at work at 4, which means leaving here between 3:45 and 4 PM. So that only ever gives me an hour of free time, because as the head hostess, I'm usually always the closer, meaning I don't get off work until around 10:30 PM (or midnight Friday & Saturday ~_~), and when I finally do get home I'm too tired to do anything productive.

So anyway, like I said, I don't know how much I'll get to fix. Probably just cut off the pants' legs at the right lengths to make them more like capris, and then figure out how to fix my hair to make it look a little more like Shion's. (Technically it's too long right now, but I'm not gonna cut my hair just for cosplay.) Maybe I'll have a chance to stop at Kohl's or somesuch place not too far away one of these days before or after work to see if I can find a necklace like Shion's, because it's just not her without it. But that'll take a lot of searching and quite a bit of luck. (The annoying part is that I used to have one JUST like it, but I have no idea what happened to it.) I was hoping to also fix the shoes, but I just can't afford to take that time right now. Part of me feels kind of annoyed at cosplaying in a costume that isn't entirely complete, but I can't really help it right now. I suppose that's what A-kon is for.

Which, for the longest time, I was thinking about not going to A-kon this year. I know that when I got back last year, I was totally stoked, and already began planning things for this year's outing, but now that I'm working a Con, I felt like maybe that's enough for a while. But then I found out KOTOKO is scheduled to perform. o_o Other than Ayu, who was my first and still remains my biggest Jpop love, KOTOKO is probably my current favorite Japanese artist, so. I can't miss it now. I know it's kind of late to be looking into hotels and such, with only about a month and a half until the Con, but ehh. Better late than ever. And hopefully I'll get to see shoujo22 there! (black_rose, I'm assuming you're going?)

Anyway, well, back to Shion cosplay. I also need to find a chance to replay at least a little bit of the game -- enough to come up with a couple of very "Shion" poses, just in case people want to take pictures of me. After all, I don't just want to be standing there smiling stupidly.

Speaking of pictures, I need to find a chance to stop by dad's house and see if I can borrow one of his cameras. And I need to get caught up on Bleach, so Sven doesn't make fun of me come Thursday. asdhk;ldsa so much to dooo, NEVER any time. >_>

I'm still determined to spend quite a bit of money at the Con, though hopefully not outrageously much. I did a bit of bargain hunting today and ordered Vol. 4-9 (6 volumes in all) of the Suiko3 manga for about $40. Yes, all for the pretty pictures of Albert. Mom's going to have a heart attack because I'm supposed to be saving all the money I'm earning for college, but whatever. I'm not going to Prom anymore, so I suppose I could always argue that I'm using that money instead of my paychecks. It's all in the same checking account, anyway.

Anyway, soyes. $40 on Suiko3 mangas. I actually thought about getting a paid account instead, but. Decided not to. I don't have an overwhelming desire for one, and the way I see it, it defeats half the purpose if it's not a gift from someone else. No, that isn't a shameless request for someone to buy me one, I'm just saying. It's just not really that much fun or that useful if it's not a gift.

And yeah, I obviously have been spending my free morning so far not being all too productive. Especially considering I have a boatload of CalcII stuffs, and History, and the second installment of teh scrapbook of DOOM is technically also due tomorrow. But, whatever. If the teachers in question won't accept the fact that I had to work 40 hours last week as a valid excuse, forget it. There's only so much of me to go around, I'm not going to spend any extra effort if they're not willing to be a little sympathetic.

Been doing a few little fansketchy things in my rare spare moments, including one Albert!Pie x Jacques!Muffin that I really enjoyed. Shall try to scan them in when I get a chance, which probably won't be until after the Con.

Which, you can probably consider me as being on a brief hiatus for a week, until I get back from SKC. Too much to do between now & then, I really can't afford having LJ as a distraction. After the Con, I still have two weeks of Hell exams, and probably a lot of hours spent at work again, so we'll just have to see. But as for this coming week, at the very least, I'll truly be gone.

susako, I'll take care of the bleach_exchange back-ups stuff before I leave. michrure, let's try and finish our MSA!Albie/Jacq log tonight (or soon), so I can post it before I head off and Shini doesn't kick me out for inactivity. (I really can't help it right now~! *spazzflails*) I also really, really need to do something about palegatecity before it dies, but we'll see what I have time for. tsurugi, I'm giving up on shinougakuin, since you have Reijyutsu on your mind, and there's just not enough interest.

T-minus 74 hours until we leave for SKC. ...I better get cracking.

I'm tired and frustrated. It's been a long week so far -- and it's only Tuesday. -_-

And it was supposed to be such a good week! Yesterday, I had the day off work, and now we have state testing Tuesday through Friday, which means half-days for Seniors, who don't have to test anymore. *win* We only have two classes each day, so Friday I'm just skipping entirely, because I don't have a 1st Period, and I'm not coming to school just for an hour of my VarTech class.

However, so far, I haven't been able to enjoy it much. I spent my entire day off yesterday doing schedules for my ShiokazeCon volunteers. I finally finished them and sent out the e-mails before work this afternoon, and now a bunch of bitchy whiny kids are e-mailing back saying that they're not okay with the shift(s) I have assigned them after all. I am sorely tempted to go, "SHUT UP AND DEAL WITH IT! THIS IS A DICTATORSHIP, NOT A DEMOCRACY!"

At work today, I was training Christina, a new hostess who Paul hired only last week and who has had no real training yet. So anyway, I was teaching her to do to-go's today. She took care of three orders, and all of them she made mistakes, but she got ridiculously good tips on each of them, including one $10 on a $66 order. I took care of five orders PERFECTLY, and I got $1, $2, 20 cents, no tip, and no tip. What the ef. The worst part was that one of no-tips was from my REALLY HOT NEIGHBOR BOY's girlfriend, who was hanging all over him all gross-like the entire time she was ordering. :<

I only got through it by reminding myself that karma says that if I continue to do a good job and being friendly despite people's shittiness, I should randomly get a $1000 tip someday.

I did have a little time to play Suikoden Tactics before class this morning. I'm still determined to finish it before I get too far into SuikoV, but ugh, Rhapsodia is so damn time-consuming. ~_~ Addictive, but time-consuming. At this point in my life, I don't exactly have time to spend an average of 30 minutes on a battle, plus sometimes sitting through 10-minute cutscenes. WOE.

I just want school to be over so I can just alternate between work and fun stuff. This combination of work and school just isn't working out for me.

Tomorrow should be good because we're going to IHOP before class, which I've been looking forward to. On the bad side, I don't have a day off work again until Sunday. Sigh.

And then I have major exams starting two weeks from today. UGHHHHH.

And all the while, I really just want to drown myself in fandom and RP and fun fangirly things, but I HAVE NO TIME, EVER. -____-

Now that I've gotten paid, I want to spend money on fun happy things for myself, but I don't know exactly what. I need to resist the urge and start saving, though. Sigh.

I did finish SHiB the other day, and, umm, damn. That really was pretty much the shittiest ending ever. It seriously almost ruined the entire show for me. I was depressed about it for a whole day, and I only got over it by pretending that ending basically never happened. It was terrible. </3

In fact, just thinking about it is starting to depress me again. ;_;

Someone link me to some good fanfiction? I need some cute happy fluffy stuff in my life.

[cloned from Aeon Blue Apocalypse]