SASSALICIOUS

I've been fairly absent for awhile because life exploded in my face. Anway, I'm taking the MCAT exam tomorrow and pretty much having a total meltdown and the only thing keeping me from diving into the bottom of a bottle of tequila is the knowledge that I would have to take the stupid test with a hangover. So wish me luck (pretty please) because I think I'm only doing this once.

PHOENIXROSE

I tried to do these for every day. I didn't have the time, though, so this may well be the most detailed of the DragonCon blogs. I'll try to remember everything; I'd like to give those who couldn't make it a taste of how it was. I got to Atlanta Thursday and Jimi and Washie met me at the airport. They were, of course, awesome and sweet. Washie was dropped at the Mariott first and Jimi and I continued to the Hyatt. I was wondering at this point where Magda was, because I didn't think she'd be able to check in without me, since the room had been reserved under my name. I added her, but that came later. Anyway, Jimi had to go pick someone else up so I went in, didn't see Magda. Went to check in, saw the little check in computer machines, and was taking care of that and the most likely person to find me before anyone else came over to say hi. It was a Navy! I didn't recognize him right off; he had to tell me who he was before I glomped him. He wouldn't hug me back until I told him I wouldn't let go til he did. He's a really good hugger. I'm glad he found me rather than hiding from me the whole con, despite the affection-induced trauma I'm sure he'll (claim to) have. Anyway, he introduced his friend Michael (Seils is also a Michael, so the other Scottish Michael became our Auxiliary Backup Michael) and we wandered around aimlessly for a bit, just chatting. I understood a good half of what they said through the thick accents; I was proud. Although some of the credit should go to them, becuase they were really trying to be understood. When they talked to each other in 'Glasweigian' I could only understand the odd word, usually a profanity. So there was wandering and chatting and accents and I finally spotted Magda and Canter coming back into the lobby, squealed, and running glomped my jie jie! Oh, such fun! So we talked a great deal, Canter looked for her roomates, we talked more, mentioned food, talked more, continued the quest to get in touch with roomates, talked, finally got something to eat (the poor Scotsmen hadn't eaten all day) and we wandered back to our hotel (connected to the food court and mall by a bridge over the street) and Seils gave the funniest quote of the con (try to read in a Scottish accent): "I've seen more kilts in this lobby the past two hours than I've seen in Scotland the last two years!" I cracked up so hard at that. I told him it wasn't Americans in general but geeks who seemed drawn to the kilt. Priceless. So after that there was the endless line for Con badges (the Michaels had to go back to their hotel; not sure when they ended up getting checked in) where we spotted and talked to people in Jayne hats and our mei mei Engie found us through VeX and Canter standing on the sidelines. After that there's a blur of hugs, hugs, more hugs, trying to find someone to take us to the dinner Jimi had mentioned and getting walked there nearly two miles by Browncoat1 (also called Booth by the 76th) and his gorgeous wife, who were both delightful. Dinner was fantastic and there was amazing conversation with 'old' friends as well as people I'd never talked to before. I met Gibbs (who gave me Bawls mints, making him one of my favorite people ever. yes I'm that easy) and Zephyr, who started chatting to me about my pentacle without knowing who I was, but realized who I was at one point. He's good friends with Jimi. So I'm a topic of conversation! shiny. I met Aiken the Finder, ShinyHappyKlin, Babywiththepower, Benji, Sister... probably a couple I'm forgetting. I was surrounded by wonderful people, basically. Didn't get to talk to all of them very much; conversation kind of swirled. It was 1:15 when we finally made it back to the hotel, longer than that to part ways and get inside, and the place looked like it was afternoon. Just full of people! Not nearly as many as there would be, but a lot of people for 1:30 in the morning. I dn't think DragonCon ever really slept. So ends day 1. Will post day 2... when I can.

EMMARIGBY

Having fun putting together a package for Flyvote today! Just been trying to get a little creative but lacked the proper tools (i.e. a paintbrush!) to do a very good job! Ever tried to paint with a toothpick?! Anyway, since time is getting on and I'll miss the post if I don't go now I will print this off as my message to go with him. Hi Fly! Hope you like! Send us a mail to say whether my little touch of England arrived safely and sanitarily! If anyone else wants tojoin in the mystery packages scheme, I really enjoy giving and receiving them! EmmaRigby (a.k.a. Gillian Marshall)

COSMICFUGITIVE

.

REGINAROADIE

Hey All Havn't blogged in a while since there's been nothing really to write about, but last week, I finally did something pretty bad-ass to end the summer. So I finished Spanish 110, miraculously passed with a 54, so now I only have two classes, one in each semester before I graduate. Matt came back from Afghanistan (there was actually press for his arrival. We were on the front page alongside West Nile virus, the toy scare, the re-emergence of the KKK and Justin Timberlake, so obviously we were the best news of the day), I helped out with harvest, we went on our road trip to Edmonton where all we did was hang out at the mall and visit relatives, got back for my birthday, which aside from a little save at the very end was pretty much a bust. We got our home entertainment system all set up, except for the cable, which we still haven't figured out how to properly hook up. And my one day of class ended up lasting only a little over half an hour. And with harvest over, there wasn't much for me to do this week, and I'm sure next week won't be too big as well. I'm hoping I can hear back from this T.J. guy about a grip job that's for three days next week. But the big thing that I did do, aside from getting a Blu-Ray player and a few Blu-Ray discs (It sucks that 'Versal is HD-DVD only because there's so many 'Versal titles I want to get), was do the indoor bungee jump at the West Edmonton Mall water park on the 31st. I've wanted to do that ever since I was a kid. And since I've spent three of the last four months in classrooms learning about shit I could care less about, I decided that this time I'd do it and that it would be my one badass thing I'd do this summer. So I went straight up to the kiosk and signed up for 12:30. I got back there early and they took me to this private elevator and across this foyer to where you change and they fit you with the harness. I decided that I'd have a waist harness so that I could just tip over and fall like Peter Petrelli in HEROES, and not to go into the water. I have to admit, it was when I actually started going up the steps to the platform that I started to get nervous and sweat. Everything is all painted in white, but every inch of it is covered with messages written by people who have made the jump. And a lot of them are couples, I noticed. So I get up on the top and at this point my heart is racing and I'm really sweating now, but there's no going back. So the guys check everything and see that everything's tightened up properly. And they tell me to get to the edge. It's only at this point that I'm actually terrified. Like I can see the pool 100 ft below and realize that it's actually pretty shallow in comparison to the drop. And they tell you to put your toes over the edge. They even have two footprints painted on there for you to put your feet over. And as they're doing some last minute things, I'm just repeating to myself "No guts, no glory, no guts, no glory" over and over again. And then they do the countdown. They told me this beforehand and I just assumed it would be a slow countdown, like "5...4...3...2...1", but when they did it, it was just, "54321". And then I fell. Another thing they tell you before you jump is to do it on the first go. Because if you don't then it just gets harder and harder and you lose your nerve. Well, I did it on the first go. And even though I had written "Doin' it Petrelli style" on one of the posts, it was nothing like that. Everything didn't go slo-mo and I don't think I fell off gracefully. All I remember is two or three seconds of weighlessness, the pool rushing up towards me, and out of the corner of my eye the cable dropping. I can't remember if I fell of my own volition or if the guy pushed me. He told me he gave me a bit of a lean, but that I jumped on my own accord. And then all of a sudden I feel myself rocketing back up. My brother, who was watching, told me that I was like a good ten feet above the water before I bounced right back up. And I remember thinking "Yes, I'm alive and I'm

PHYRELIGHT

I'm doing something now that I have never done before in my 24 years of living: I'm exercising! So far, I've been extremely successful. I still have that pair of skinny jeans from when I was a chunky-but-not-obese teen. Today I put on those jeans and saw that they were a size too big! Haha! I'm still not down to my target size, but I'll get there eventually. For now, I'll do my little happy dance for my current success! :biggrin: