Current mood:

calm

Be sure to wear a flower in your hair...
I got back from San Francisco this morning at about 7:40am. The only reason I am up currently is because I don't want to sleep the day away and be off sleep schedule wise tonight since I have a 13 hour shift tomorrow.

The trip was amazing. Be forwarned, this is really long.

My Uncle Bryan dropped my friend Jo and I off at the airport and, just as we were about to board the plane it got delayed for an hour. Expedia for whatever reason put us a row apart, but some nice people shifted around so we could sit together. We spent the entire 5 hour flight chatting and reading Calvin and Hobbs strips and then grabbed a taxi when we got in and took it to our hotel. After getting our rooms we realized that they had us on completely opposite sides of the building so we got them to change Jo's room so it would be right near mine. Unfortunitally the room they changed her to hadn't been cleaned and, since it was about midnight, there was no cleaning staff till morning, so they instead put her on the same floor but a walk away. Due to a water main breaking the next day which shut down 25 rooms (one of which being the one right across from mine) she ended up staying in the other room for the whole trip.

We got up early and grabbed breakfast and then headed out to GDC. We dressed nice and spent the first day wandering around the Career Conference part chatting with people, collecting buisness cards (which was actually a game where you could win stuff), and handing out resume's. Ran into a few of her friends there and also made a few more friends, one of whome was a cool guy named Wade that ended up hanging out with us for most of the rest of the trip. I also won a PSP (go me!). The awards ceremony was that evening so we all went to that (even though technically our passes didn't get us in, no one said anything to us when we walked through the door and we weren't abt to corrent them), and then a group of us went wandering to find a) ice cream, b) beer, and c) thai noodles . We ended up getting coldstone and heading to a hotel bar that was near there so those who wanted food and beer could get them and hung out there till late.

The next day we got dressed in normal clothes and hit up the Expo portion of GDC. This was more the E3-ish part of the show with playable games and technology and all everywhere and was fun to wander around for a while. Spent a number of hours there and then we wandered back over to the Career side of things so I could compete in a Wacom drawing competition (didn't win...didn't expect to though). Afterwards Jo, Wade, Chris (a friend of Jo's that was there) and myself all went down to Fisherman's Warf and wandered it from end to end, grabbed some In and Out Burger, walked to Geordelli Square to eat chocolate dipped strawberries, and took a cable car back to the area where the conference was. There was a suite crawl (basically everyone hangs out and there is an open bar) so we went to that and also, thanks to one of the head guys at Vivendi games (guy named Ed) that Jo and I had met earlier, we got into the Prototype part. That turned out to be pretty clostraphobic and lame unfortunitally. Ed was trying to procure us passes to get to the Microsoft sponsered party, but was only able to get one extra. Jo was reluctant to leave us, but we knew she wanted to go to try and make connections with people (it was a pretty exclusive party with prettymuch only higher ups in the various companies invited) so we told her to go and we'd wait for her. I'd call every now and again to make sure she was alright. Wade and I chatted and waited after the Prototype party ended for a few hours and at about 3am the microsoft party wound down and we went and picked Jo up. She got to meet a whole bunch of people (frag dolls, the guy that is in charge of the whole GDC, different CEO's and department heads and whatnot) but wasn't feeling good by the end of it due to dehydration. Me and her hung out for a while back at the hotel after we both got showers in and I gave her her Valentine's Day gift.

Due to Jo not feeling well I told her just to call me whenever it was she ended up waking up and getting ready which didn't end up happening till abt 1pm. I woke up at abt 8am every day so I read a whole bunch and drew while waiting. When she was ready we went back down to GDC and met up with our friend Wade again and then grabbed lunch at a diner and planned our day. We decided to go wandering down Hate St and had a blast at the shops there. Jo let Wade and I play dress up with her at a really cool alt girls clothing store so we got to put her in corsets, bikinis, nurse outfits, and whatever else seemed like it would be fun. She ended up getting a corset and a really cute short, plad, punk skirt before we left. We found another fun alt clothing store but with guys stuff and I got a Utila Kilt and we dressed Wade up all in gothy stuff (which was funny cause he's a kinda preppy 35 year old). When the store closed we caught a cab to China Town and ate at the Emperise of China. It was BEAUTIFUL. If you are ever in San Fran you have to eat there. Good food and some of the most amazing decora I have ever seen. We went to a few of the shops there before they closed and Wade bought some swords (Jo and I resisted despite horrible horrible urges to own more pointy death due to issues with getting them back home) and then we walked back to Wade's hotel where he gave us lessons in massage. Turns out one of the things Wade does is teaches massage so he gave us lessons. Basically he would work on one of us and explain what he was doing and how while the other watched; then me and Jo would switch and he would do the same. Afterwards Jo and I would take turns practicing on him. Obviously we're not awsome at it, but it was fun to learn. We got back to the hotel at abt 4am, said goodnight and went to sleep.

Dressed up slightly the next day (me in utila kilt and armsocks, Jo in a Newburry Comics shirt, tall boots, the plad punk skirt, and a cat-ear hat), wandered to the Virgin Mega Store so Jo could buy a movie she wanted and so I could get a PSP game, and met up with Wade at Wondercon. The first thing we did is went to get seats in the room where David Mack was going to be presenting. It was so cool to go to that (he's my hero). He basically ran the whole thing like an informal question and answer time and then afterwards we actually took an elevater down to the food court with him. Wandered around the con for a bit after fooding and then went to David Mack's booth to get autographs and chat with him and his girlfriend for a while. Ended up getting another poster and Jo bought like 4 of them and we got to hold his girlfriend's Yoda backpack (which she bought at the show but we were sadly never able to find). Wandered around some more and met some of the Frag Girls that were there that Jo had met the other night at the party. That was cool, till one guy asked if he could get a photo of Jo bcs she looked like Go-Go from Kill Bill with her skirt. It went from one or two photos to becoming like a creepy photo shoot and one of the Frag Girls jumped in and shoo-ed the guy away (Wade and I felt bad abt not having distracted the guy first, but it turned to creepy so fast we were caught suprised). We played body guard the rest of the time though and if she aquesed to taking a picture with someone I made sure they knew that they were only going to be able to take one photo. Had Jo try on a renaissance style corset too at the Pendragon Designs booth which was ridiculously cool. There was a little group of 13 year old girls and one 13 year old boy that were just standing there open mouthed stairing at Jo as the lady was finishing lacing her into the xxs corset (apparently with those types of corsets you only go by rib and waste size, not bust at all); Wade I were laughing at them.

Wandered back to China Town bcs Jo was still deciding if there were some things there she wanted and then we walked Wade to the Bart station (ran into a belated Chinese New Year's parade on the way) so he could get to the airport and catch his flight. He was definitly a cool and fun guy to meet. Jo and I still needed to eat dinner, so we went to a restaurant called The Jazz Bistro. It was AWSOME. The band was phenominal (humorously Jo had seen them last year when she was in San Fran at a different Jazz bar) and Jo kept singing along (she got into Jazz when she was in UofM's music school for the first bit of college). The food was completely amazing too. My flank steaks were to die for and Jo's salmon is the first fish I have ever tasted (besides sushi) that I actually loved the taste. Spent a good hour and a half there and then we walked back to our hotel. We decided that we wanted to spend the last night just relaxing after the crazy few nights previous. Did the get showered and changed into PJ's and pack thing and then went down to Jo's room. We watched Ratatouille on her computer, which was great, and then just kinda hung out and chatted and all for the rest of the night. Got like an hour or two of sleep was all, but I'm ok with that.

In the morning finished packing and got checked out of the hotel and Jo and I walked back to Wondercon. Spent the day being geeky there, shopping, chatting with David Mack again, chatting with other people in the Artist's Ally, and wandering about having a nice time. We left and went to Nihonmachi (Japan Town) and wandered around a mall type thing there of Japanese stores, laughed at the names on the Heiti dvd's in one store, looked through a really moving photo book called Part Asian, 100% Hapa at the Japanese bookstore (you should check it out...it almost brought me to tears), and looked at things that made us go "cuuuute" a lot. We ended up eating at a convayer belt sushi restaurant that was amazing that Jo had seen last time she was in San Fran but hadn't gotten to eat at. Then we picked up our luggage and took the Bart to the airports. By that time Jo was feeling not good at all agian (the subway didn't help) unfortunitally. We talked while waiting to board for abt an hour and the, even though it was a red-eye, we talked almost the whole way home, though we both did fall asleep near the end. My Uncle Bryan picked us up from the airport at abt 5am this morning and we went back to his house to get our cars. We were going to origianlly stop for breakfast, but Jo was feeling really ill and wanted to just go home and try to sleep so I helped her pack her stuff into her car and she headed home. My uncle made me some eggs and an english muffin for food and then I headed home as well. When I got here I crashed until noon and then got up and started writing this.

Like I said, it was an amazing trip and the best time I have had in a very long time. I had a ton of fun experiences, met some really cool people, ate great food, smiled a lot, and got to spend a bunch of time with an incredibly beautiful and awsome girl. I wish that it didn't have to end and that we could still be there now. Unfortunitally, all escapes from reality do have to end. I needed the break from reality for a bit though. I needed to recharge. I needed to get away and be able to just enjoy life because I do get bogged down with things, with worry. Michigan's weather is so horrible that it doesn't help either and usually just adds to the depression. It was nice to go away from it all to a fun place and spend time with someone whom I care about and who makes me smile ridiculously often. I couldn't have asked for better company, and I couldn't have asked for a better potpurri of experiences.

That's all. :)