California 2008: Day 8 - Further Confusion Day 5

Monday is officially the last day of the con, but to be honest, for most it's the day people leave. For this reason, I made sure I had something else to do other than sit around in the hotel watching people leave, getting upset. As such, after helping Arakin pack up and check out (after moving my stuff up to room 558), arakinuk, badgerguy, lycrawolf and I went off to California's "Great" Mall. I put the great in quote marks because it's called The Great Mall, but to be honest, I found it somewhat underwelming. Not as big as they'd like to make you think, nor are there really any decent shops that I wanted to visit. We did go to Hot Topic, a place I like to make sure I go to when in America to pick up funky t-shirts but even they didn't have anything on offer which inspired me so I left the mall somewhat disappointed I couldn't find anything to spend my money on other than Arby's... which was less than fantastic (the food court offerings were also a bit crappy). Ah well, maybe go to the other mall next year, if I go to FC that is.

After coming back from the mall, I hung out with avon_deer and alohawolf near the bar chatting, waiting for the Dead Dog Party to get going. Ended up having a meal in the hotel restaurant (not the posh one) and had a half pounder which I couldn't finish due to being so big and me having Arby's earlier. Then went to join the Dead Dog Part as it had finally gotten going. To start off with, I was feeling a bit weird having been shivering while still wearing my hoodie inside but then felt rather warm so wasn't so keen on fursuiting, however after Arakin had got dressed up and I saw all the suiters there, I thought I couldn't pass up the last oppertunity to suit up at the con and so dragged Arakin back to my room to help me suit up (after having much grief getting my contacts in). I'm very glad I did suit up as I had a lot of fun dancing about, met a lot of folks and just had a great time. Stayed until the dance wrapped up at 11pm.

Now the convention has officially wrapped, I can't help feeling I should have done more. I spent a lot of time, well too much time in the hotel room when I could have been down in the lobby meeting random people. Of course my time old problem is that I can't just talk random people, I have to be introduced as I can be a bit shy. I would have liked to suit up more but I think I'll need to get a new revision of my suit or a new suit altogether if I want to suit more. This is mostly due to the deign of the head. Externally, it looks great but interall, there's a big chunk of foam in the mouth and a bit of material over the lip which is loose which is very annoying when sweaty. I'd like the muzzle to be hollow to increase air fow, but that's the downside of the way my head was designed, based on a balaclava. Well we'll see, I've lots of debts to pay off before gettng another sut...

Anyway, I really enjoyed myself, met some great new people and am sad to be going. Next con will be EF. Still uncertain if I will be going to FC09, but I enjoyed it more than AC so it's a maybe at this point in time.

Today, I'll be getting picked up by Arakin and have a bit of a touristy day in San Jose before I have to get my flight back down to Bob Hope/Burbank at 6pm to meet up with Hunterkitty again. Was a real shame he couldn't make the con. Tomorrow, I need to figure out what I'm to do with my day if Hunter can't get the time off work, although I have made arrangements to meet up with Stego and Kat tomorrow evening. Nothing planned for the time on Thursday before my evening flight either so will need to work something out...

California 2008: Day 9 - San Jose & Return to Pasadena

Soo, I'm back in hunterkitty's place in Pasadena which is looking significantly more bare due to the fact he is in the process of moving out and has shifted some tables and things since I last visited. Anyway this morning, Avon went off early to grab breakfast so I did the LJ thing before showering and packing and hanging with some furs near the fire in the lobby before arakinuk arrived to collect me. Was sad to see the back of the Doubletree but not overwhelmingly so; I think Monday helped me see off any post con depression. perlandria and Arakin took me to Flames where they got the gigantic birthday cake previously. Had a Fajita omlette which was very tasty. Also had a side order of French Toast which I couldn't finish from being full to bursting point.

After food, we drove literally next door to the Winchester Mystery House, something which I didn't really know anything about before visiting. It's basically a tour of a rather large house built by the wife of the owner of the Winchester rifle company which was built rooms at a time, and with rather unusual architecture which makes little sense including stairs which lead nowhere, windows and doors into nothing and unfinished or earthquake damaged rooms. To be honest, it wasn't as interesting as I hoped, but it was a pleasant distraction.

After the long walking tours of the house, we went to BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse where we indulged in a ham and pineapple calzone and gallons of house brewed root beer (num!). Tried to eat dessert (something called a Pizookie but is just a fresh baked cookie with ice cream) but couldn't finish it on account of being stuffed. Perlandria wasn't feeling too well so she was taken home by her friend so Arakin could take me to San Jose Airport.

Again, it was a fairly pleasant journey back to Burbank with Southwest Airlines. There were only about 40 of us on the Boeing 737 flight so everyone pretty much got a row to themselves. The seats also gave plenty of legroom, much moreso than the transatlantic flights in economy/coach class with Virgin/AA. Arrived at Burbank and made my way to the baggage claim to shortly be greeted by Hunter and kaysho. However, the carousel never seemed to display my flight, so Hunter went and asked at the desk, only to find that my bags were waiting on a cart nearby rather than on the carousel. I can only assume I was one of the few passengers who even had checked luggage.

Anyway, we drove back to Hunter's after that and I've been chilling out here since. Regrettably, I've been unable to secure anything to do tomorrow during the day so far so it could be a relatively dull day until we meet up with stego_s_aurus and Kat for dinner at an Olive Garden. Hunter may be able to get some time off work so we can do the other Disney park our tickets our still valid for but he says it's unlikely *fingers crossed*.