Impulse

what can i change, do differently, and what can i recognize in myself

 

HENLO. This may my last chill week before I projectile vomit my life and emotions into the semester. I'm preparing hard. Only 5 meltdowns allotted, but this time it's for the end goal. I've decided (with encouragement from a professor... and a fellow classmate, and my mother, and my husband, and sister in law) to go balls to the wall- take the additional capstone class and graduate early. Brain overload? Probably.

Lookit what Mr. Chicken got meeeee

So pretttyyyyy. Writing feels good. And now.. it's also looks cool while I do it. Esp in response to letters! I've not gotten used to the ink pen. Even still, it feels authentic to have ink all over my fingers as I write to someone. The only thing that was missing this time was a candle. I didn't think to light one as I wrote. NEXT ONE. AND I WANT A TYPEWRITER.

Last weekend was Anime Impulse.
And when your friend wants you to cosplay with him, it's hard to say no. :\

I busted out my old Burger King pokeball... no looking back. We had Lifa and Homdray come here and met up with our friends there.

What's a little rain? All weekend? :]

I think the cars were Mr. Chicken's favorite part.

Screaming.
^-^v

My cosplay was so low effort lol. Psyduck is low-effort, headache energy... and that's Mr. Chicken in a convention setting. So really, it worked out perfectly!

no words :D

Noir Spidey was nice to see! Anime Impulse is one of those cons that isn't stupid levels of insanity the way Anime Expo is. I like it a lot. It's also cool that multiple hangars are host to the different halls and events that take place throughout. It's like a mini town.

But a crowded mini town. The hangar hosting artist alley also had VAs and cosplayer booths set up at the back. That in itself is fine. The lines resulting from that however impeded traffic through artist alley. That'd be my only critique. I mean, artist alley is generally a crowded shit show anyway. In this instance, layout could've been reconsidered.

Behold.
The cursed durian plushie.
I just looked it up on amazon and it's less than $6 LOL.

It was a really fun day. Long, but fun. We kept getting stopped for pictures. I forgot what that was like. Jason couldn't go more than a few feet without being approached. Seeing peoples' smiles made me happy. There's something about complimenting someone's ideas and their reciprocity with a glowing smile. Wholesome. I need to be careful or I'll get back on my cosplay building again.
Also made some new pals- one of which I've seen through the years at other cons, just never spoke to. That tends to be a thing. To end the day, we had to make a decision.

Huehuehuehuehue

It was too easy. It just was. We ordered two galbi jjims for our table because yes. Fires on either side of me was cool, and those who hadn't been there before could enjoy the flashy pyrofunsies. I checked in with everyone that the food was yummy. Yummies confirmed. As to be expected. Was awesome. Ahh.

Were we all full? Yes. Room for dessert?
No, but we make it fit.

We weren't done. Everyone went their separate ways, while we went back to HQ where we did some whisky tasting. Sis in law brought back fancy award winning whiskys from Taiwan.

One of them I'm almost certain burned away both my sphincters on the way in and out. It smelled sweet and caramelly, and then you drink it and die a little. The others were doable. One was pleasant, for a whisky. And Homdray gave us late xmas presents :D

The gift he got me was one I actually already had! Mr. Chicken bought one for me, but now I've two that I can utilize throughout the house for menus! Coffin letter board menus can now be placed at both our alcohol bar and our espresso bar. Cute, right?!

The next day Jason and Christine picked me up. I wasn't sure I was gonna go to Impulse again, but they talked me into it. :3

Sigh, lol.

They went as Yor and Anya and looked adorable, haha.
I'm so excited for year of the rabbit. Lucky rabbit.

WHO ELSE IS A LUCKY RABBIT?

OSWALD.

SO WHAT'S GOOD DISNEY?

My bad. hehe.

Another cool thing about Anime Impulse is that it's more than just an anime convention; there's an Asian American Expo as well, in addition to some other themed thing but this year it was Sneaker Expo.

AAE was a labyrinth of artisan and company booths with tons of swag and samples to give out. Chris grabbed all of the bags ever. There were some cute ones lol.

There are performances from all sorts of world cultures. I was surprised but delighted to see a group dancing Festejo!! Afro-Peruvian music and dance. They played music I grew up with, I couldn't believe it. Super cool. I just put some on to write this hehe.

We spent a majority of the afternoon wandering AA Expo before heading back towards the weebs. Friendos had a booth so that become home base throughout the day. Haunted by giant, arm-tongued pengkachus.

^_^

I'm a neurotic prude. For snaccies, Jason got us some like, J-shaped honeycomb cereal filled with honey ice cream. It looked so phallic, esp when the ice cream was melting. The hyper-aware idiot that I am felt anxious eating it, so Jason took some fans and covered me while I started scarfing the shit down because it was melting everywhere. Ironically, the comedic shrewdness of it drew more attention and I couldn't help laugh at myself and the ridiculousness of it all. Chris felt similarly but my distraction benefited her for a lewd but stealth eating, lol.

It rained, but nothing like the previous day.

For dinner, we decided on something more simple.

Was a really nice weekend. I loved being at a con again and dressing up. And then just kicking it the next day. What made it especially enjoyable was our friends. We're so grateful for them.

Man, Lifa got a figure from the red waifu food truck lol. I really gotta give em another chance. See, they were in the area a while back, so I decided to get dinner from em, but a lot of stuff got bonked in the order. I had to return to the truck twice to get stuff fixed. Left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, food trucks... you're paying out your ass for convenience but like, when people go out of their way to choose a food truck over like, anything else... fat prices for messed up products? Whack. Y'know? W/e. I'll try em out again at the next con.

Loots of love from friends and Mr. Chicken!

Hot sauces? Yes yes yes yes yes.

The baby bottles Chris and I saw and couldn't not get them. They're brilliant. It's yogurt drinks but I think the vendor added the nipples on them lol. Or maybe not, Idk but we had to get them. Because. ^-^v.

Ahhhhhhhh LOOKIT

My little cheese gremlin. She's so cute omfg. It's not often that I come across Charlotte anything besides fan art prints. I have a ton of those but no figures. And there she was. All cute and velvety. Fastest cop ever. I made a half-assed cosplay of her worm for Anime LA one year. Didn't behead anyone though!

Can't see it but am wearing the Kyubey backpack that Lauren got me ^-^

A few days later, I was scheduled to take The Exam. The one, yanno. That one. Along with my colleague who is also a classmate! We met up on campus and studied for a few hours. Our stomachs in knots and brains clenched.


And we both passed.

The relief of that was monumental. I was trembling when I first picked up the pencil to even write my name down. But we came through.

We ruminated what our victory allowed us over ramen. This meant that instead of taking more classes, we can focus on less and take it easy. Except our professor encouraged us to push through capstone- as that would secure our early graduation (assuming we pass everything). The idea of less work this semester was so nice. But... graduating early and being done with everything was also tempting. In the end, we decided that we're just gonna bite the bullet and aim for early graduation. And it starts next week.

My sis and father in law took me to see a nearby temple before it exploded with people during CNY.



Chris and Jason mentioned going but I wasn't sure of our fam's plans to visit. And I guess an appointment is needed? This was my first time at this one. There are several around here. The only other one I've been to is on property that I have close access to.

Piggies.
Pls bring me fortune so I can treat more family and friends to yummy din din!

Ahhh all the statuuuesss

There were so many, I couldn't possibly get all of them.

There isn't any religion that I particularly subscribe to. But I like that Buddhism, correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't seemingly recognize sacrilege the way other religions do. There doesn't seem to be punishment. Just the encouragement of constantly learning from ourselves.

We gain forward momentum from looking inward. Wanton emotions that perpetuate a state of toxic aoe damage must be dissected at the self. Things like jealousy, blame, spite, hostility, antagonism, just about anything poisonous is... fleeting and a moment of learning, nothing more. I think this aligns most with my own perception.
This little laughing Buddha statue's description resonated. He's a chill little dude. I'm not at the point of being able to forgive as much as I want to, but I've not given up on that.
I also appreciate the principal that suffering is inevitable. And so, the blue sky is a gift. The food before us is a gift. The good people we choose are gifts. Gifts From: our experience of being alive, To: ourselves. Suffering will come again and again, and then we'll triumph again and again. In my last post, I kinda was referring to this as "balance." 

I guess the point of this is... I'm not religious, but I resonate with many Buddhist values.

Enough about religion!

Lunar New Year starts tomorrow. Word on the street is that DISNEY IS BRINGING OSWALD AND ORTENSIA TO THE DISNEY PARKS.

I could write many paragraphs about this, but I'll spare you dear reader. But by all means insinuate. Because you're probably right.

This was Ophelia last night waiting for me to come to bed. I love this little one so so much. She used to be vehemently against being handled or touched. Now, she's become so affectionate and wants to always be around us. A triumph, to be sure.

I love wearing a mattress to work, it's so warm...

Tonight is gonna be really fun. A first visit for me!

Reader, I hope this Lunar New Year brings you strength, fortitude, and opens doors for new opportunities in all of your pursuits.


IT'S YEAR OF THE RABBIT WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO