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I woke up nice and early today to go to Otakon with Diana. I did a test drive to Baltimore this past Monday with my mum to make sure I wouldn't die driving there today and guess what: I'm alive! Miracles of miracles. We left at about 6:30 this morning and got to Baltimore at around 10 AM, which is perfect timing. I didn't pass any exploding cars and I wasn't close to dying at any point! I did drive pretty fast some times, but so was everyone else...I don't feel that comfortable driving at 70-80mph around so many other cars though. While I was driving I was thinking, "What if that car in front of me dies and then stops and then I smash into it and then I KILL US BOTH OH GOD!"

Er, I don't really like driving. But I thought it was time for me to drive somewhere long distance by myself..."by myself" being the main thing. Actually, it wasn't really by myself cos I was with Diana but it was in the absense of my mother, which is the main thing. Right. I think she was surprised that I managed to not kill anything but also happy that I was safe. I'm nervous about the ride home though.

So...Otakon. Anime convention. Loooots of people in costumes. When I walked in to get my badge I felt like I was surrounded by the NSO (non-human student organization) x 1000. The costumes kinda freaked me out but then it must be fun to get to wear a costume. Some of them were really good too. I can't imagine having to make my own costume. I'd dress up as something really easy, like Kiki in Kiki's Delivery Service. A black dress and a broom...all done!

I didn't get to go to any of the activities, but then I wouldn't be that interested in them. I'm not really an anime fan...my love of anime encompasses Sailor Moon and anything by Studio Ghibli. The only mangas I've read are Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind and Parasyte. I'd rather not become an otaku...seems too time and money consuming. I shared a table with Diana in the Artists Alley to peddle my Poofy wares and I did pretty well. I would have liked to do better but I may have sold to 30-40 different people. A lot of those sales consisted of my $1 coloring book + 2 stickers deal, but I sold 8 books (thank god, cos I ordered 150 of them), some poofies, 5 shirts, a bunch of button sets, blah blah blah...I may have sold $200 of stuff, but I'm not sure. Between $150 and $200, at least. I should add up my stuff.

I walked around a little bit to take a break and went to the game room and the dealers room. The game room was a little scary...okay, a lot of this convention scares me. Anyhoo! The game room was absolutely huge, with rows of TVs and REALLY huge screens on the wall with video projected onto them. The dealers room was also mega-huge with buttloads of books and dvds. And cute Japanese stuff, of course. I bought two shirts made by j-list.com; a domokun face shirt and a beer/tobacco japanese warning shirt. Silly and not necessary, considering I have way too many t-shirts, but there wasn't anything else that I wanted and I wanted some kind of souvenir. There were "anime grab bags" sold by some vendors but I didn't want complete random crap.

I actually met a girl who has read my comic! I was surprised, of course. She was very nice and said she liked the "I have nubs for arms!" drawing. Another girl bought some buttons from me and she later came back with all the buttons on her bag. Another dude bought a shirt from me and later came back wearing the shirt...people can't wait to use their stuff, haha. And a lot of people picked up my book, although I only sold 8...and four of them were sold nearly all at the same time. It must be the mob mentality, or something. Anyway, it was fun cos I got to write different stuff on every book. I wrote "I LOVE [person's name]" for some of them and some random stuff I thought up was "I EAT SNAILS!" and "I EAT GREASE!" One girl asked me to write "I LOVE PANCAKES AND HENTAI!" and a guy asked me to write "HAPPY MENOPAUSE STEF!" for a friend's birthday gift. Aw. ;D

I'm verrry tired since I've been up since 6 AM. I didn't eat any food today...I managed to do a 24+ hour fast! And it's for the best because my health has been really bad. Yeah, I ate cooked food. I didn't want to be really strict with Diana around, although now that i'm not eating anything, I guess that's even worse. I figure the money I save on food can go towards the ethernet access I'm using in the hotel now ($10 for 24hrs). I found that the more I eat, the hungrier I get (unless it's a ridiculous amount of food) and now that I haven't eaten, I actually feel un-hungry. But the idea of eating food looks very good...grr.