Spent the morning Doing Stuff (petrol, bank, three jalepeno plants to my mother, Sushi to the vet for booster shots, Advantage'ing the cats, dishes, lunch).

Then I went to AX. Managed to find covered parking for only $5 about a mile away. Picked up badge and registration packet... which didn't include anything like a map or program because they'd apparently run out. But the signage on the way to the Dealer's Hall assured me that I could get it all if I wanted to buy the iPhone app for the con for only $1.99.

Um, so they want me to buy the program and map for the con? Nevermind the fact that I don't even HAVE an iPhone, you'd think those kind of things would be complementary.

Trawled the entire Dealer's Hall, buying a Totoro for Wonderful Husband (who was at home doing all the responsible stuff today, like laundry and cleaning areas of the house that desperately need it) and two art prints for myself from Artist's Alley. Met up and hung out with Annu from my writing class and her sister and friends. Found a large standee of the program down in the lobby and discovered that there was nothing on the programming I wanted to attend for the rest of the day. Came home.

Am coveting three very old and very expensive books from Dealer's Hall. Must look to see how much they would cost elsewhere and decide tonight....

The amusing: Wonderful Husband realizing this morning that I get up an hour and a half (more like an hour, actually) before he does. Um... yes? I've been doing so for months. Several months. ^^;; I will grant him that he's not a morning person and that's likely why this has not been previously noticed....

The apathetic: AX is this weekend, and though I have a staff badge for judging the Masquerade Ball... I don't feel like attending that much of the con. I'm missing half of it anyway due to being at work today and Monday, haven't any new costumes to show off, and... frankly, I'm just not that excited by it. It's luckily hitting the tail end of my depression patch, but I'm really finding it hard to care. Maybe part of it is that there haven't been any brilliant new anime this year that I'm excited about?

The infuriating: two contracts being sent back from the central office at my workplace for us (read: ME) to redo and send out to be resigned because they contain typographical errors. Mind you, I'm the one in charge of all contracts, and I didn't type up these two to begin with. One isn't done in bold, and the other isn't aligned the way I align mine. So I'm having to do extra work and apologize to our clients to make up for my coworkers' screwups/incompetencies.

Hmm. And something that should probably go under "good": Vanilla Coke seems to be back! YAY! Too bad I don't drink soda often enough to, say, actually go and buy a case....

AX, Day Three--it being Monday, I worked. And it was busy all day. I stopped filing an hour before the office closed to paint my nails purple for the Masquerade. None of the rest of the office got to go home early, but the manager (as usual) went home at 2pm. *rolls eyes* Zoomed home, gathered together cosplay stuffs, went up to AX. Rushed upstairs with Wonderful Husband to the green room, kissed him goodbye, got changed, started make-up application. Yumiko, a very nice Trinity Blood cosplayer from Japan (it was her first AX) helped me get my wig on my head (for those who don't know, my head is actually slightly larger than most people's and. hoshikage, who was costume wrangling for another friend of hers, helped put it together after it was on, jamming the support wires into the styrofoam ball on the top of my head. The Masquerade not only started on time, it actually started eight minutes early. And it was very strange backstage because I didn't know anyone except hoshikage, who wasn't even competing. Ususally I know at least half a dozen people! But everything turned out okay, a lot of awards were given out (Best of Show went to an awesome Clow Cards group who very definitely remembered our Clow Cards group from AXNY.) I didn't win anything, but then I wasn't expecting to. I did get a lot of compliments on my wig work, though. Reference picture is here at the very bottom.

AX, Day Four--a last run through the Dealer's Room, snagging four artbooks, picking up the cross-stitch Totoro piece I'd won in the Art Show, and resisting temptation yet again at Nene Thomas' booth. Looking at the online store prices, though, I should've given in to temptation. Alas, hindsight is ever 50/50. Drove velvetpaws to the airport and came back for the charity auction. It was kind of a light year... CLAMP only donated four signed posters (which ranged from $475-$800 each) and the highest item, a Getbackers sketch, only went for ~$4300. The most fun items were the half-dozen AX water bottles signed by almost all of the GoHs, which inspired people to bid on the water bottle (Crystal Geyser; not AX water) the auctioneer was drinking from. He even signed it and it went for $20! ^_^ Moments like those are why I attend the art auction. Then Wonderful Husband and I left, running through the Costa Mesa Book Off and Kinokuniya with iaurcalien before heading home.

Today, I went into work and finished the filing and am now caught up again.

Wore Goddess verion of Fuu. Waited in line. Wished I'd brought hand-sewing. Waited in line more. And waited in line. Confirmed CLAMP exist, though I still have no idea if they have personalities. Met up with people. Saw AMVs.