So wow, Yaoi-con was FUCKING AWESOME. I was little worried about fitting in but have no fear, I just dorked out like everyone else and it was AWESOME.
Do realize I'm a native Californian and if you don't like the word AWESOME, you will be sadly disappointed with this post.
Here's Milly and I waiting for our flight in the lounge by the Virgin America gate.
So on the flight out there, we tried to get an upgrade to First Class. Since the plane was bursting at the seams, this was not going to happen. But sitting in coach on Virgin America is like flying in First. It looks like we're in a bar too, not a plane!
We watched TV and my husband watched Cars 2. We had a blast and I'm now in love with this popcorn.
479 Popcorn FTW!
FINALLY! I'm home in California. Well, not really home but I'm in California. Florida is my home now, with cats. (They are now hiding under the bed, scared I'm taking them back to the kennel) And where is my first stop? Okay, yeah, the hotel, where they have the bed request wrong. So off to my fave burger place to eat while they fix that.
(If you've never had an In-And-Out burger, you're missing out.)
Back to fall into bed. The next day, we hit Japantown! I'm so excited and we walk down to the train. We pass In-And-Out *cries* and head into the city. Well once we were in the city, it's a huge hike from the train station near there to the actual location so we had to take the bus. And the people are exceptionally nice. I don't know if we had tourist written on our foreheads or what but people stopped us, knew we were lost and helped us go the right way. To all of these people, thank you!
ZOMG!!! We are in Japantown and it is TOTALLY AWESOME!
We shop in complete and total awe, barely able to speak. After hours are me squeeing and Hubby saying "Oh, that's quite nice" we sit down for a nommie lunch/dinner.
We take a taxi home because I can even wait for the bus and I am so exhausted, my legs are shaking. I fall into bed and sleep for a couple of hours and wake up fully refreshed. We head downstairs to see some of the Yaoi-con people have arrived and we watch them being geeks, while totally geeking out ourselves!
Hubby takes me to a lovely birthday dinner and I had filet with blue cheese (I'm not supposed to have blue cheese but oh well) and then we meandered a bit.
And we meet Morgan Hawke! :D Who is awesome! www.morganhawke.com
So bed for us, because Morgan has been up for 48 hours and I need my beauty rest. Next morning I wake up and head down to brekkie.
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday to me! (I'm excited, can you tell?)
Anyway, we go to Japantown to do a huge amount of birthday shopping and I splurged on my lil sis and luckily, no one called to sing happy birthday to me, just wish me happy birthday.
And of course I have my awesome birthday dessert! YUM.
Then I eat the strawberry and it had mold in it. I'm highly allergic to penicillin so I'm hoping I don't have an allergic reaction. I also realize I have a dairy intolerance and this was the worst idea so far of the trip. Whoops.
Anyway, we have to head back because I'm meeting with the other DSP authors. So we head back and I run around the room and get cleaned up and head down to the Monterey Room to say hi.
AND ZOMG... I meet Mary Calmes. I then proceed to dork out and act like an idiot and be totally stupid. Yeah. *hides* I also meet some of my other fave authors and I have a moment where I can't believe this is what I do. I'm an AUTHOR. Wow.
So I get my badge and sorta help set-up. (I carried a box) And then it's time for a bit of nom with hubby. We head to In-and-Out. And due to a shady cab driver, my husband is held hostage while I make change at the In-And-Out (Cab driver claimed he had change when we got in, but suddenly didn't when we got to our stop) but he was safe. Be careful out there guys, there are some really not nice people out there.
The next morning, I head downstairs for a lovely breakfast and then finally to man up the booth at Yaoi-con. I try really hard not to fangirl Mary but that proves to be too difficult a task. So I fangirl her badly. BADLY.
And Amy Lane gives me the most awesome hat!
I also hung out with EM Lynley, Andrew Grey and Clare London. And of course the always cool Ariel Tachna and Nikki Bennett. Julianne Bentley showed up at the end of our shift too.
But it's lunch time and I'm off! :D I go to In-and-Out for some one-on-one time with a burger. It was lovely :D
When I get back to the hotel, hubby is downstairs and I head back to fangirl Mary but I spread the love! :) I met Shira Anthony and I was her first autograph (the first of many I'm sure) and I did some shopping.
But when I reach our room, my ickle Milly doll is gone. For those of you who don't know, my hubby gave me a little stuffed cat for our first Christmas together. She has traveled everywhere with me, including when my husband and I were separated for nine months waiting for his visa. She's kinda ratty but I love her! She was found though. She had an ickle adventure! She said I was like Little Orphan Annie and I escaped in the laundry.
She's okay now though!
But that night, I passed out. I gave up fighting to stay awake and fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up and Hubby's lip is somehow cut open and swollen. I head to Walgreens and buy some ointment but holy hell, it's far away!
I get back and give hubby his medicated lip ointment. By now, I'm sporting a bitching slipper tan line. Check it out:
But I missed Amy Lane :( (See you next year!) but I did meet Isabelle Rowan. I help pack up (not really that much help) the DSP Booth and the cases get checked at the bellhop and I'm suddenly sad because it's all over. And tomorrow I'm leaving on a jet plane. :( So I hug and kiss everyone good-bye and go upstairs to pack.
One last trip to In-And-Out (by now, I'm sick of it) and packing is my friend. If you don't know me, I'm a scary talented packer. We bought a lot of stuff and without an extra suitcase, it's going to be a tight fit. So I take a shower and when my hubby comes back, every last thing has it's place, including his Spice and Wolf body pillow.
I held my breath until the next morning, because I was sure that my suitcase was going to be over 50 lbs but no joke, it's at 49. :O while dancing to the groovy music at the Virgin America check-in counter, we managed to get an upgrade to first class and then we are all set to go through security.
Now, take note TSA. You should all model yourselves after the SFO airport security. Everything is orderly. There are mailers available if you get to security and realize you left your gardening clippers in your hand bag. Oh, did you forget a quart clear bag for your liquids? That's okay. You can have one that says SFO on it, FOR FREE. Do you have a bottle of water? It's okay, don't hurt yourself drinking it before security so you'll wet your pants in line. Just dump it out and refill your bottle once you're past security with our filtered water. Don't forget to recycle your bottle when you're done! :D *groovy*
Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention YOU HAVE A FUCKING PINKBERRY past security?!?! My breakfast was a Pinkberry. My trip is now complete.
But it's time to leave. And I already hate I have to leave the state I was born in and 35 years ago, I was barely a few days old. I'll always be a California girl.
But I'm glad we got the upgrade because holy shit, these seats are nice. I acted stupid and flailed in my seat like a dork. Hubby could actually stretch his legs all the way out and not hit the seat in front of him.
But then we have to watch a safety video. And it's worth it to watch for the LULZ!!! :D
I watched Bad Teacher (ehh) and Source Code (WOW! Highly recced) but then we're back home and it's time to pick up the kids! I walk into the cattery and I speak and the babies wake up and start meowing for me. And I start to cry because I missed them so much.
Only one more load of laundry to go and I'm done.
This week was amazing. I was worried because while I'm very much a go-getter, I tend to be very shy about my writing. I have a hard time accepting compliments about it. Now as a CEO, I get compliments all the time about our products, our marketing strategy and our contractors and employees and I take those well.
I'm proud of both areas but the writing, I'm very on display here. I never feel like I'm in control when writing and that's hard to accept. I also hate to say this, but there are some mean people in this industry who are just looking to hurt writers. I haven't made sense of it and I don't think I ever will but having thicker skin may be for the best.
But this weekend, there were a few kind people, who treated me with the utmost respect. To those people, you have my greatest thanks from the bottom of my heart. To be next to you, as a fellow writer, just blows my mind.
So I'm signing off to get ready for my book tour. Soul Seduction's cover is on its way!
