Commonwealth

       Jetlag hit me like a truck. And I am officially in the future. It's colder here, in the future. The especially nice thing is that I can finally sit and write without the guilt of putting off anything important. At least for a little while. SO LETS BEGIN

 

 Tis the season for rich, flavorful stove-top hot chocolate.

all hot chocolates are not created equal.

It's fine. I just wish it was still October. Like, I don't understand why November can't just be both, like officially. And how like, people just pick whatever days of the year to be X day out of their ass, why can't we just decide that November be unofficially dubbed Jackvember or something, where we celebrate both Halloween and the Christmas holiday like Jack did? Imagine if Homegoods hopped on that shit. Crazy. But whatever, I'll drink stove-top hot chocolate out of my Halloween mug, it's fine.
I type this out while I sip on chicha morada.

Can we talk about how I've never been to Vegas? As in that whole connotation that comes with that word on its own merit. "Been to Vegas." Yep.
I mean, I've been to Vegas once for a dumpy out-of-the way club night that an ex DJ'd at, but we got there late and the promoter booked us a shitty hole-in-the wall shady motel room. And we left at like 6am the next morning. So that was my first time in "Vegas."
Here's my second time:

Fortunately for me, Mr. Chicken is well versed in Vegas. He's a native Californian, after all. There was even fun talk of a previous work event that took place in Vegas a few years ago.

*ominous undertones implied by current events that otherwise would normally elicit comical foreshadowing!*

Believe that I blasted through all of my assignments and papers as fast as I could like 2 weeks ahead in order to go into this trip as obligation-free as possible. I welcomed this experience wholeheartedly and was determined to ensure its success. It was going to be the best week-ish ever.

 

 

Going into this completely blind, "it's apparently haunted" set me on auto-pilot to agree on anything to do with our lodgings. The pyramid one.

Mr. Chicken had actually wanted to stay at another hotel, but there was another reason we stayed at this one besides the tale of ghastly happenings.

Still. It looks cool. It's old. And stuff happened in it. No clue what I was about to step into, but I was ready.

The drive there wasn't bad at all. We pulled into the parking lot and made our way to the lobby.

AW SHEE MAYNE
WHADDUP YOOOOO

For me, this place was the coolest ever. I've not been to Vegas before like I said, so I was just like... waaaaao.

Everything looked so cool.

They talked about gamblos, and I had no clue what to expect. This is the thing I was most uncertain of because it's not a thing that ever appealed to me.
Everyone always says that loot boxes are gambling, but after my experience in Vegoose, I hard disagree. It's nothing like gamblob. At all.

The RNG element I think gets wildly distorted in context when people make that argument. It's no different than buying a blind box of those stupid little characters. In the end, you still get something, even if it's not what you wanted. But in Vegoose, the only thing you get is more drunk lolz

On our way to our room, our elevator stopped on the 4th floor. We were staying on the 2nd floor, and I'm blanking on why we tried to go up further, but it like, got stuck there. And earlier, we found out the guys were staying in room 4040 on the 4th floor. Unluckiest shit ever lmaoooo

4 is bad juju in some East Asian cultures. In Mandarin it kinda sounds like death, so in many places a 4th floor, or 4th number assignment to anything is just skipped altogether. From the 3rd floor you'll go to the 5th floor immediately.

LUCKY BROS

And here we were, our elevator stuck on the 4th floor. We kept pushing the buttons to try to move to another floor or open the elevator doors. Nothing. Eventually, after maybe 1 minute of stunted wtfs, the elevator resumed in operation as it was called to another floor, and we were saved! - Turns out, it locked because our room key didn't give us access to higher floors, but the excitement of being stuck on the 4th floor for some unknown reason is way more fun to recall.

Dinosaur, for science.

I was committed to getting the full Vegoose experience. That meant acquiring the T-Rex walk add-on. I've heard the legends of many a lady striding along the hotel lobbies and "the strip" very much with the same gait a tyrannosaurus-Rex would employ while pulling down their skirts as they ride up. That's amazing. Are they chasing prey? Who knows? But I wanted to be a t-rex. No skirt tho, my legs would blind everyone with the crazy blue LED veins against a ghastly white backlight of flesh.

But I brought heels just for this purpose. I was determined to get the whole experience, even the Vegas Girl Walk.

We walked around the (I forget the names already) haunted pyramid a while to explore. There was this cyoo bar that I was hoping was a restaurant fashioned as a speakeasy. Homdray said I'd like it because it's 1930s. I was like OOH. He beckoned. We were ready to eat. Alas, it was just a bar. We moved on.

Lesssgoooooo

DO NOT FAIL ME, HEELS.
I didn't dress for the heels, sadly. I wore my usual shit and threw these on last lol. Still counts!

I'll have you know, because we came in the middle of the week, I had new assignments and quizzes to finish through the school portal thing. And I totally did them, on my phone. Next to the gamblob machines. Passed the class with an A.

:3

There was this pretty fountain area that Mr. Chicken walked into.

He never knew what hit him

NYAH

MWAHAHAHA

There was a bratwurst place w beeru around there. It was just what we needed.

Awww yay.
It's taking all of me to not be petty right now, you have no idea.

BUT HERE I GO ANYWAY

CAN I JUST SAY:
A LOT of people would be playing a dumpster fire of a title right now if it weren't for the insane digging, research (of archives thought to be lost or deleted) and insistence by this individual, who argued, corrected and fought daily to not change a billion and one things because it otherwise wouldn't deliver faithfully.

And a completely different entity got all recognition and credit for it, after they were the ones who argued with him each time they broke shit to explore a different creative direction.

The extreme efforts and undeniable contributions made by this individual were misrepresented and still have gone unrecognized.

ANYWAY
:D

YAY BEER

Mango IPA nom nom nom

This was such a fantastic evening. We were all high on just... being there together.
Good vibes. Good company. Good livin.

CHEEKANG

Idk what hotel this waas. The fist night we got there, we walked the entirety of the strip. I didn't know what that meant, going in. But every hotel was like a different game level to get through.


I remember Excalibur because booze slushies and castle interior

Wonka wonka

Crazy. My brain was pretty overstimulated this whole night. There's so much to process. But the company was a good filter.

issa chiiiiii

The buildings tripped me out lol

And there was this like, water fountain show thing in front of some hotel.

Waaao so Rome.

Caesar's Palace

YAY

Liviiing. In a material world (maTERIAL-aH)

*whispers* I much prefer experiences and good food (not food experiences- those are overpriced and the servings are small), but stuff is cool too

And Lifa was like omg there's this cyoo cigar bar around here, and we were like YES LETS GO, FRIEND. WE SUPPORT YOU

Also, our hostess was so beautiful, I felt like a perv bc I couldn't stop quickly glancing at her everytime she walked by us. I was so happy for her, like. Yes. Be gorgeous and unstoppable. Get those tips. GOOD FOR YOU, YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL. She had black hair with straight cut bangs and a black outfit w/ cool eyeliner and everything contrasted really well and it just... Good for her. A REAL SIGHT FOR SORE EYES.

We didn't smoke anything. Homdray was enjoying the luxuries of his phone.

Yosh.

By the end of that evening, I was doing the dinosaur walk. I did it. I CAN CROSS THAT OFF MY BUCKET LIST if I had one. It was pretty uncomfortable, I gotta say. 3/10, would not walk the entire strip and back in heels again.

The strip is like about 5 miles long. Learned something new. BUT. There was absolutely no way in hell that a cab drive looked like a good option whatsoever that night. Noooo way. I rather dinosaur walk the strip than take a cab in Vegoose. And that's what I did lol.

We were a wreck that night. Not alcohol wrecked, just walking wrecked. Good day tho.


The next morning...

Had to get our breakfast beeru.
She likes her darks. Had me my baby cup of stout and my shepherd's pie. Mmmm mm!

The wandering began

They were all so versed in everything and where to go. I was down to go wherever.

Moar drinks.
I had water lol
The hostess here was kinda rude. She ignored me entirely haha

Mr. Chicken looks like he's about to nod at someone who got escorted over to him and owes him money uwu

LOOKIT THESE GENTLMEN

And Homdray saying how in a parallel universe, he wouldn't have subjected himself to 75 hours of Keanu Reeves

Frankly, I don't recall every place we stopped at. There was just so much I was taking in for the first time. BUT.

We did impulse attend Tournament of Kings

I've been to Medieval Times plenty, and yeah, I know. But we were there, and there was food and entertainment. So fuck it.

It's literally the exact same thing as Medieval Times.

I suppose it's for folks who don't make it out to California and wanna do that. We were just ... idk lol. Whatever lol it was fun

Later that evening, we were gonna wind down at the lucky room. No dinosaur walking on day 2 for me tho. Nope, nope.

Brought my regular boring shoes for the rest of the trip. The dinosaur heels were for science.

Ah, yes. This room. Woooooo

We played Mario Party (i forget which one)

I won. And then I wanted boozy taco bell slushies. So we walked all the way to the middle of the strip for taco bell.
On the way there, we went through some hotel that had a whole bunch of those high-end luxury stores in it. Just one after the other. And

Yeah. Indifferent.
Mr. Chicken wears a Dior cologne I introdued him to when we first started hanging out, but only because it smells really good. Found out later he has some Korean lotion thing that smells identical. Win.
High five to people who need that stuff tho. You do you, buddy.

Taco Bell at 2am with booze slushies though... that, I DID need.

However. Our outing there could've been a lot nicer. When we got there, the loft right above the registers was full of people in a dance club setting, and there was loud party music playing w/ a DJ or MC talking and stuff, all open and everything. It was loud, rowdy and way too much to be around.

It looked like a company party because some of the people there were in suits wearing lanyards. HO BOY. Anyway, we went outside to finish our food.

Boozy slushie was a 4/10. Didn't taste great. Pretty bummed. They didn't even fill up my cup. Which I think was like a 14 oz cup, which is less than a medium size at Starbucks. Idk. Not a great experience, but an experience nonetheless.

We were done after that.

Check out my sick breakout game. It's so bad lol. It's localized and flares up out of nowhere, but I think it's mostly due to the mask. And I think it's rosacea? Idk lol. It's cool though. Pimples are neat! White blood cells and such doing their thing. I dig it.
I don't even wear foundation anymore lol. The breakouts are fascinating! Like, I'll stare at the flares in the mirror and like, wonder what's going on in there. I wanna go in there and like, say hi to everyone. Bring donuts. Maybe thank my lymphatic system and white blood cells for working so hard. Like, thanks little buddies. I appreciate you. Keep doing you.

The next day...

Guns.

We got a free ride to this whole.... big shooty place w/ tanks.

The ride was cool. Never sat so exposed to the elements whilst commuting.

I love this mug! Super cyoo.

And some of my favorite YT videos are ones of home intruders failing utterly. I would want a gun for home protection, but feel I'm insufficiently prepared to handle a gun. Soooo, it wouldn't feel right owning one just yet. One day! I hope to never have to use it, but porcupines hurt their predators and the world keeps spinning ^_^

Regretting not picking up one of these. There were so many different flavors of hot sauce. Buhhh

So, they all shot guns, except for me. Smur stayed back at the hotel for gamblos. While I have shot a gun at a range before, my relationship with guns is personal and complicated, so I just watched. When I hold one, I think of stuff I'm not proud of, and until that feeling dissipates... it's not a feeling I wanna feed into. I'm trynna flow neutral and respect the weapon I hold for its capabilities, and not for what I grudgingly fantasize with it.


yknow??

I liked our dude. He was funny.

I forget what package Homdray got- it was something like the anti-terrorism something package, where he got 4 different guns to shoot. Was pretty cool. Only ever fucked w/ AK-47s in Counter Strike. Seeing it in person was like ... idk. Neato lol

Lifa got a boomstick.

And like 2 or 3 other ones, I can't remember what. But hoo doggy.

And then Mr. Chicken's gun package thing was nothing short of a lot.
In addition to the others, he also got the loudest sniper rifle they had; an M107A1.

Such rifle. So boom.

For the sniper, he got 5 rounds. They were massive.

Our dude guy gave him a detailed run down of the impact and whatnots.

We had no clue. So clueless were we, that it was a genuine "oh shit" moment when our dude guy shouted a warning to his colleagues over the gunfire in the other stalls- for the type of rifle that was about to go off. We were like, oh shit. For real?

One shot.
Bruh.

I backed up.

The amount of force??? That came from this thing produced a sonic boom that all of us felt go through our chests. This thing's bullet breaks the sound barrier HARD. It was the most intense shit to be around. I can't even describe what it felt like. And we were maybe like 15 feet behind him. You could feel the shock waves push into you, like, hard. Incredible.

Probably nothing in an outside shooting range. But since we were inside, the intensity felt magnified.

The dude guy gave another warning. We were in awe, our sternums still seemingly vibrating.

That thing is about as tall as me lolol. Really cool experience though. Maybe next time, I'll give it shot. Who knows. Our dude guy let Mr. Chicken go home with 2 casings. God it's unreal how big they are.

Following that, we wandered outside in the museum.

This was like a giant playground for them

Rescue mission commenced

HE DON'T WANT NO TROUBLE

Set sound effects to PEWOOOSH 

VRRRFFFFSSSHHHH

ERNNT

ZZRRTPSssshhhhhh

Homdray got shot by the enemy, Lifa had to fly us back to safety with a damaged vessel

HE'S ALIVE. GOOD. ONLY HE KNOWS THE COORDINATES TO A SECRET SPOT TO LAND IN CUZ THE RADIOS ARE DEAD

So many amazing vehicles.

Dissociating from their purpose, the ingenuity is pretty remarkable. I'm impressed at our capabilities.

They are both terrible and great. But nothing short of awesome.

Wee!

The silhouettes were so pretty in the sunset.

What a fun experience ^_^

We had the option of getting a ride back to our Haunted Pyramid at the other side of the strip, but instead took the opportunity to explore the other stuff that was around. There was a circus hotel across the street w/ like, an indoor amusement park or something. Was meh. We left and started our 5 mile trek back.

This is the hotel Mr. Chicken wanted to stay at initially. I suggested rooming in the same hotel would make the trip less of a hassle. But for next time.

This is the Rome-y one. The palazzo. I'm going to assume that means palace, because in spanish, palace is palacio. They sound very similar. Anyway. Yeah. It was really pretty inside.

There was a whole ass water situation in there, that went outside.

And like a whole cafeteria area that mimics nighttime, but outside. Really cyoo.

These hotels are crazy.
I'm just happy to get free wifi and good local food places.
Could say that it's because I didn't know better but.. even after all of this, I still appreciate cozy little hotel rooms lol.

BACK TO FOOD.

We went back to the Irish pub we ate at the first day we got there, and enjoyed delicious yums. I had the irish coffee thing, idk wtf was in it besides coffee but it was incredible.

And I remember this night particularly because the table next to us had a rowdy group of men, right. And one woman. And they were all drinking.

Oh yeah. Just wait.

So, they're all shouting over each other, when I hear the woman say how big her 15 year old daughters tits are. Then proceeds to find a photo of her on her phone, and waves it in front of them to look. She just wouldn't stop talking about her daughters breasts, calling them monsterous tits, to these drunk middle aged men sitting around her. This woman was lookin like she was in her 40s. As were the men around her.

I tried to enjoy my delicious bread pudding without my frustration ruining this for us, but we all heard her, and it was so awkward. She kept stressing that she was just 15. And I wanted to punch her in the throat.

What about the men, you ask? How did they behave? Frankly, from my observation it seemed like they were letting her air herself out. Like a squeaking, deflating balloon making the most annoying sounds known to man that you just had to look at and wait on. They would guffaw and nod at her, but after she wouldn't stfu, I kept my gaze on their table and they became more and more fixated on either their phones or trying to change the subject. She was so loud about her daughter's breasts, that I was embarassed for the guys at that table. Like, she was not quiet. The fuck kind of mother is that.

In a world where women are the ones most often subjected to this kind of shit by men, it was both REFRESHING but also INFURIATING that this behavior was coming from a mother.

Mr. Chicken tried to calm me down, basically saying booze makes people lose self-restraint, and while yes, he is correct at a physiological and emotional level, I still wanted to throat punch her. I don't care for violence. It's tacky and caveman behavior. She, however, deserved the most primal reprimand a fist could deliver. To the throat.

Not to mention, and this is just beside the stuff she was saying, she was loud and obnoxious.
Anyway, after that, we returned to the 4040 room on the 4th floor for more Mario Party

And Jacuzzi!

No one planned for this lol. So we all just rolled up our pants or put on shorts and made leg soup.

Smur felt it was a good idea to add scortching hot water to our already extremely hot leg broth.
Result, red legs and pain. Homdray ran off for more gamblos that night, and eventually, we returned to our dwellings


Vegoose was a lot of fun. That was our last night there.
Going in the middle of the week was pleasant. It wasn't super packed. We arrived on a Sunday evening, and left Thursday. Def the way to go, I think.

I did try gambloos. They said I needed to find my machine. The machine that spoke to me. It took a little bit, but eventually I did. It was this cyoo Jackolantern machine, that I got lucky on a few times. But dumbo me didn't know when to stop and lost my winnings. That's cool tho. I know what to expect and how to like, go into that next time. I don't think I'll bother with gambloos much next time I go.
Mostly wanted to go for the buffets, but because it was the middle of the week, a lot of them weren't open to their full on... buffet.. potential? I guess? I don't know. We did't really check out too many foodie places either. Just explored and walked a lot. Next time tho. I wanna eat really well.



My mom sends me packages of condiments and food. She's so amazing and cyoo.

Ophelia

Mr. Chicken outside changing out my dead car battery texts me: I'm out here talking to a cat

Naturally, I haul ass outside. There she is, running around our front yard. I scream inside and squat, mewing at her, trying to beckon her with playful fingertips anda  wiggly hand squirming in the grass.

She approaches. Closer and closer.
Until she's close enough to pet. I let her sniff my hand, and she does the thing where she rubs her cheek into my fingers, and my heart melts.

Long story short, I fell in love, and she made her way into the garage after Mr. Chicken went back into the house.

She was so fascinated with all of the things in there. I picked her up and she hissed and screamed at me. Until I carried her over to the feather duster. And all of the wonderful potential kitty toys in the garage. We were getting along.

At which point, I called Mr. Chicken, asking him what the chances of us taking her in were.

Ultimately, not good. A lot of factors. I tried to rationalize. He so wanted to give me this, but it was complicated.
All I needed was for him to give me an absolute No. He wouldn't, for a while. He'd say maybe, if this happened, or eventually, if this happened. Or someday, or give it time. I hate those answers- grey areas. They're non-answer answers, and he was giving them to me because he didn't wanna tell me no.

After more deliberation, I got what I needed from him- the absolute No. This allowed me to disassociate. I let her go back into the night and went inside. I can move on and get over it like she never existed.

After I went back inside, he tried to console me. I told him there was no need. He tried to do the non-answer grey areas again as a way of reassuring that he also wanted a cat, but it felt more annoying than anything. I didn't see a point to discussing it.

POSITIVE FEEDBACK IS USELESS TO ME
As Homdray would say. And he's right. Reassurance is ultimately useless. To me. Input a neutral Affirmative or Negative, then move forward with that data. That's how ISTJ do.



The next day at work, I asked him if he could bring me lunch, since it was gonna be a long day. He was my hero, and at some point throughout the day, he sent me a photo of a bunch of pet stuff he impulse bought at Pet Smart. It was so out of left field, but it sparked an annoying glimmer of hope in an otherwise preference of nothingness.

After my long day at work, I pull up to my driveway and open my door to step outside, when I hear a small meow from across the street.
I glance back and see the same little cat who came to play with me yesterday, rushing towards me as if to say BITCH, YOU LOCKED ME OUT LAST NIGHT AND I MADE SURE YOUR WHOLE HOUSE HEARD HOW SAD I WAS
I welcomed her with open arms, point of tears, held her, and let her into my car.
I called Mr. Chicken.

We deliberated more. I was positive she was never coming back. Turns out, she's pretty local, and his sister had seen her walking around the neighborhood just a few days before. This was the first I've seen her - news to me.

We made a deal.

I would wash her, and we could keep her inside overnight. The next morning, I would take her to the vet to get medication and checked for disease, parasites, whatever. After much discussion, and the luck of having all of the things Mr. Chicken had gone out and bought earlier in the day, she stepped through one of our back doors into our home for the first time.

She did not like the bath, or me giving her the bath. But we set everything out for her to make her feel comfortable and safe.

Mr. Chicken was not anti-cat. However, he's only had experience with dogs, so the idea of a cat coming in was somewhat confounding to him. The stereotypes aren't friendly, and he had nothing to go off of besides negative things he'd been told of.

But as the days went by following her picture perfect check-ups, they grew closer.

She was nameless for the first week or so. We had to wait 10 days before we could legally consider her ours or register her. So the name had to wait.

We'd observe her behavior and speculate on where she came from.

She was playful and trusting, but did not like to be handled.

She only comes on to the bed to play, or when we're not paying attention. Otherwise, she lounges elsewhere.

But she was in a whole new playground, exploring every nook and cranny she could get into.

Mr. Chicken has been the most fantastic cat dad. He stepped up instantly and made sure the little one was never without.

And she was always near him, observing him.

He loves spoiling her.

Seeing them together like this has been like a massive content patch to this thing that is my life. The cat alone was great. But if his heart wasn't in it, what's the point?

She'll sometimes come over to my desk for nuzzles. But she loves being around Mr. Chicken most. And while that kinda sucks lol, it's still so wonderful.

This was the last time she slept at my desk lol. She much prefers his.

Ah yes, climbing all of the monitors :)

And that's how we came to welcome little Ophelia into our home.

Everyone says she has a cute name. GOOD.
In a parallel universe, she still has a cute name.
Mr. Chicken's mom calls her Xiao Maomi. His dad says Obfi. Ofelia is easy to say in Spanish lol :3

Thanksgiving was chill. Eldest Chicken brought the dinner her company provided

Her dude came over and we played a nasty game of Bostonopoly. I'm not even competetive, but this game brought out a monster in me.

I had owned the chonkiest properties. Everyone else had the rest. But I slowly took em out, one by one.
Until they gave their properties to Mr. Chicken, and he slowly built them up.

I got rekt.
It's cool. He avenged them lol.
GOOD TIMES!

ATTENTION ME

WANT PLAYING

This is gaming now.
It's fine.

I tried to decorate for the holidays. But my heart is still in October.

Ophelia's favorite play activity is to propel herself past the dangling feather toy and into orbit from our bed.

And box.

Oh, I cut Mr. Chicken's hair a few weeks back. It was the first legit haircut I've done since beauty school lmao. I warned him it may come out awful, he still had faith in me. I can't get married to a scrub w/ bad hair so I had pressure to give him a nice cut LOL. He styles it. Came out beyond anything I was aware I could do.

I was trying to take photos of my manga that came in. Ophe said no

Cool series tho. "The Embalmer."
Yeah, yeah I knowwwww I know.
But it's tasteful. I like it a lot. Mostly because the protagonist is so relatable in his disposition and how he navigates life. I feel understood lol. Only downside is the last 3 volumes I don't think were ever translated to english. Or if they were, they weren't printed. ONE DAY.


Aaaannnnd Los Angles Comic Con, once known as Comikaze when it was actually good, was going on and while I'm not crazy about bigger cons anymore, I knew that Ms. B (my coworker) would like it. So we went.

God, I'm so over this lol.

I mean, I like the cosplayers. The sirenhead thing that blew up online had a fan in cosplay this year.

I was in cosplay for like 3 hours and retired it lol. This is a display piece now. I'm done w/ this cosplay.

I forgot how hard it is to see out of the helmet. Looks cool, bad interior design. Scarf also makes it hard to manage breathing. Not much ventilation. Woof. Good run tho.

Tempting, but didn't bite.
Can just go to frank & son's, but still very tempting.

A Virgo and a Capricon walk into a con
And they take everything literally. The end.

We got there wanting to get to the food trucks first thing. I looked in all of the usual places- nothing. Not a single damn truck to be seen anywhere. We asked multiple people. One security dude in south hall lobby said it was way in the back of the main con floor. We walked there. Nothing. tf was he talking about. Asked someone else. Oh, it's outside behind the main hall to the side. Go down the long hallway and outside, he said. So we did. Nothing. Asked another dude. "Oh it's that way *pointing towards south hall after we just walked from there* in the back." Bruh.
We walked outside where some booths were, in that middle outside bridge area- empty. Asked the ticket booth there, "Ohhhh yeah. It's behind the main stage"

WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN. NO IT'S NOT. THERE'S NOTHING BEHIND THE MAIN STAGE EXCEPT FOR A WALL AND BATHROOMS.

We left, asked another security dude guarding the doors. "It's in the main convention area outside in the back"

Fuck you guys.

We decided to walk around the outside of the convention center in search of food trucks behind the south hall. We were walking forever. I spotted an attendee who looks like he probably appreciates food trucks as much as I do. And I was right.

"Oh yeah, it's somewhere different this year. I found it by mistake. There's an entrance leading outside at the back of artist alley. They're all out there."


We thanked him. Mostly for his capacity to communicate efficiently. With his direction, we walked our asses all the way back to the front of the south hall and went back in, through the lobby, up those stupid ass stairs, through the exhibit hall towards artist alley, to the back end, and there it was.

How the fuck could everyone else not.... "It'S bEhInD tHe MaIn StAgE"
"IT'S OUTSIDE IN THE BACK"

The fuck is wrong with people!?!? Bruh, English is my second language... all it took... even if they didn't know what artist alley was called...

"The far back left corner inside the exhibit hall has an exit to a lot with food trucks in it." That's it.

I'm so glad Ms. B was there to appreciate how irritating it was to be subjected to all of that. She was amazed just as I. Holy shit.

Anyway, I didn't buy anything. I was so.... lol. Ugh.

Except for this little handerchief from artist alley.

I felt bad that Ms. B had to deal w/ that. It was her first con experience, and I'm thinking perhaps it wasn't the best one to take her to. So I'm aiming for Anime Impulse. AI is fun.

Day of finals was chill, albeit stressful. Me and 2 others decided to take it easy before going in. Turns out, we're all partnered with Tauruses.

One is married to a Taurus. The other is dating a Taurus. I'm engaged to one. And the married one is a Capricorn. Those Cappies come to me like moths to a flame. They're dope. I'll take it. We had a lot of funny commentary. One giant consensus tho was that our dudes were grounded, slow to anger, patient, and instinctively warm providers. Love to see it ^_^

I got Ophe a bed for my desk area. She wouldn't use it.

I couldn't figure out why. So Mr. Chicken switched it out for the bed at his desk, and she started using it LOL. Ce la vie.

But he switched it back out with the other bed cuz it matches his stuff more. My much-cuter bed is now... somewhere. Neglected lol. She uses it sometimes- that's good enough haha

I get told all the time that I write like Disney.

Good.

Eldest Chicken surprised me one day with shoes. She said they used to be Second Chicken's shoes, but she no longer uses them, and thought I'd get more use from them at work or something. It was funny because strikingly similar to Hu Tao's shoes, except without the gold detail. Had myself a dumb chuckle over that. I'm an idiot.

This is her face after spilling my water onto my keyboard in the middle of a Hades boss fight :)

And this is what I walk into every day after coming home

Can't complain.

And this is her trying to get into my stuff while I'm trying to read :)

No reading allowed.
So I started up Animal Crossing.

She said not that either.

But when it's Mr. Chicken's turn to play games..

IT'S FINE :)

Everything came along as we were preparing for our trip to visit with my parents for the holidays. We didn't know what we were gonna do with Ophe. We had options, but they weren't optimal. Thankfully, Eldest Chicken has a friend who wants to get a cat, and she was excited to kitty-sit while we were away. It worked out perfectly.

Before we left, Mr. Chicken made sure I would come home to see my gift ready for ripping open lol. There was no way this would stay hidden long enough.

It was massive. I knew what it was immediately and was so ready to eat it lol

It was sooooo ... just. A lot. Sideshow always delivers. He's gorgeous. He's set up, but am waiting for stuff to be able to put him somewhere that will do him justice. Such an awesome figure.

THANK YOU CHEEKA :*

Was out thrifting for a coat and saw this at Goodwill

I've seen Blizzcon staff shirts too. Though, Goodwill is a better route to go down than to end up as a painting shirt LMAO

Before I left, I dropped off gifts for my coworkers. Little thingies I thought they might enjoy.
Ms. B gave me her gift that day. She's so cyoo

Thank you Ms. B ^_^

I got her into Genshin and she gets it, now. And it just... it's so good lol. She recently started her embalming apprentiship and I wanted to mark the occasion! So for a celebratory embalmy thing + Christmas thing, I bugged her into downloading Steam and gifted her Hades.
She'd seen fan art of it and was curious.
And what better way to introduce anyone to anything than to just shove it into their lives without context? She's gonna love it. I can't wait to gush to her about everything.

I went to orientation the day before our flight. The director of the program picked me to question before anyone else. I had to turn on the charisma switch- exhausting. But look. You don't undersand, and I can't talk about it. But he's a silver fox and girls are hot for him and he knows it.
And when he adressed me, he was trying to be witty and dry and funny, and the girls were giggling like crazy and eating it up. I can appreciate that. But where's the subtley, yknow? So I didn't react and we went back and forth as if to out-dry humor the other.
His whole swagger is admirble. I respect that. But I can do it better.

The next day, we were on our way to the airport around 4:30AM. Our flights were fine.

Can you believe I've never finished Neuromancer? I've known about this book since elementary school, ever since i watched that Ghost Writer episode about Max Mouse, and been wanting to read it. But, idk, I don't lol. Too many games to play.

I'm such a dumbass lol.

The flight was nice. Being up in the sky is crazy. Reminder.... we're bipeds. We have no business, by design, to be anywhere up there. BY DESIGN. Look at evolution. There were REPTILES who EVOLVED into WINGED PREDATORS... and we're still clunky bipeds. What does that tell you?
So... looking out the dumb airplane window was sobering. Everything we've achieved as humans, and also how beautiful things are before humans impose themselves.

NERD.

And now, we find ourselves back in the Commonwealth, surrounded by my family, the quiet, and mom's incredible food. I like it here. I don't give it enough credit, but I can see myself living here again. SoCal's food is great but the whole... schtick...this primal, benign exchange of comunication between our species as a business transaction.... yeugh... And SoCal is saturated with it.

Idk if we'll ever move out here or if we'll stay in SoCal. If we do move out here, I can say we live in the Commonwealth and that's like, so cool lol.

I'm grateful for the like-minded wholesome peeps I've met, my friends and my work tho. Everything else is like... it feels.... kinda like a sunset.

Thanks for the photo, you're done ok bye.