Queer as Folk, Malice Mizer and Malaysian food.

Friday was an interesting day.

Opened up at the store… it was very quiet that morning… not a lot of business; not much to keep me busy. I hardly even remember what I did. I suppose Fay and Yvette must have come in around 12? I'm really guessing now 'cause I can't seem to remember. In any case, we'd been talking (or they'd been talking, anyway) about getting a sale sign for the window. So, as soon as they had the address of a sign shop in the area, Yvette and I took a 10-minute walk over to the place and ordered a sign. "SALE up to 50% off! Selected merchandise only." Original? No. But it does the job. In any case, we ordered the sign and came back to the store. I think we got back around 1:30. So I decided to take my lunch at 2, but I ended up getting distracted and not noticing the time until 2:30. So I went to lunch… finished at 3, which is when my sister showed up 'cause we were hanging out later with Angelica (but I'll get to that in a sec).

So, came back to the store at 3. Then went out to the bathroom. Came back 3:10 or so. >_< Told my sister that Angelica and Louie were meeting at 4 at the big clock, so she should meet them there. Around 4, Louie & her friend, Maryann, drop by - I finally got to see the T-shirt I gave Louie for her birthday! It's a really kirei pic of Gackt in his feathered wings from Le Ciel. It's so kirei… and I don't even like Gackt that much.

But anyway, Angelica was late, and Louie and Elizabeth kept missing each other, but they finally met up. Louie had bought a Malice Mizer photo book and a Gackt photo book from Asahiya that afternoon, so I had flipped through the MM book. I believe it was from Voyage sans Retour, or at least it had the photo from the VsR CD on the cover. So when Angelica, Louie and Elizabeth finally got together, they were standing in the middle of the hallway looking at the photobooks (with Angelica's back turned toward me) when I tackled her! Yeah!

So I wasted a little more time there before returning to the store. Then, Yvette asked me to go pick up the sign, so I did. Anything to get out of the store for a few minutes. On my way out, Yvette teased me about not stopping at any Japanese bookstores on the way back. Hey, is it my fault that Asahiya is on the way to the sign place? Anyway, I hadn't planned on stopping… until she mentioned it. Then I thought, oh yeah… why not? It's only an extra five minutes… it's not like they'll ever know. So on the way back from picking up the sign I stopped into Asahiya and was planning just to look and see if there were any new manga out, like Akuma na Eros 4, or Alice 19th 2, or something like that… but I did go and check on the J-rock magazine section, as I ususally do. And boy, am I glad I did! And I'll be forever grateful to Yvette for teasing me about it 'cause otherwise I'd never have seen the Malice Mizer magazine that was there! It's a UV, but instead of being a regular issue with MM on the cover, it's actually a compilation of all of MM's old & new magazine articles/photos/layouts that have been in UV for the past I'm-not-sure-how-many-years.

All the old magazine issues that we've been dying to get… all right there in ONE $28.00 issue!

It's the stuff that dreams are made of. For MM fangirls, anyway. I swear, I was high on the triumph of that purchase for hours.

But that's not even the best part of the night.

On Thursday morning, I came into work with an overnight bag of stuff 'cause I would be staying over Angelica's house that night. That afternoon I felt like doing a search for something online, but I couldn't decide what. So I opened the Yahoo! Search engine page and remembered, Oh yeah! I wanted to search for the name to the song that was playing during the ending credits of the first episode of the second season of Queer as Folk (Sunday nights at 10 ET, Tuesday nights at 11 ET). So I stumbled across their offical website when I did the search - I didn't even know they had an official website. But anyway, I was looking around on the website and I clicked on something about Cast signings or something. And guess what? Apparently there were 4 locations were select cast members would be doing signings - of course, this coincided with the DVD box set release, no da - there were 2 locations in Illinois, one in California, and one in NYC.

If I was a neko, my ears would've perked up, as it was, it was pretty close. I live in NYC! I looked at the date, and to my immense surprise, I hadn't missed it! With my luck, it would've been the week before or something. But it was actually the next night! Can you believe the luck? Not to even mention the insane coincidence and the lower than slime possibility of this actually happening? Finding out the day before the signing?!

But it did. Kakkoii, na?

So Angelica, Liz and I went to it Friday night. It was at the Tower Records at Lincoln Center, from 7 to 10pm. I usually work until 7:30, but I left at 6 that night. We got there around 6:25. I'd say that it almost wasn't worth the four-and-a-half-hour wait, but it was! The three main cast members were at this particular signing (of course, it IS New York City). Brian (Gale Harold), Justin (Randy Harrison), and Michael (Hal Sparks) were there. If you think Brian is sexy on TV (which I did, but not to die over)… well he's even BETTER in person. He has an amazingly sexy 5 o'clock shadow - even though it was 10:45 by that time - and he did this smirky-smile that made me stutter mentally. It was so kirei. Bastards. They're all bastards.

Michael looked much better in person, too. Not more sexy 'cause I just don't think he's sexy, but his three small silver hoops in his left ear looked great. Too bad Michael can't wear them on the show, I'd have a little more respect for him if he did… maybe.

Justin looked older. (I hear he's really 25?) He was wearing glasses, so that helped. And he has a really sweet smile; he was thanking everyone for waiting so long outsideinthefreezingcold. (I'm not bitter about that, really.) It's just that Justin's not my type - he's too blonde. I'm not big on blondes. I really like long, dark hair. And then, if not long, at least dark.

So when we were done it was 11. You'd think after 4.5 hours on line outsideinthefreezingcold I'd be ready to go home and hit the hay, right? Nope. I was starving. I'd gotten to that point where you've stopped feeling hungry because you're so hungry. I hadn't eaten since 2:30 remember? Almost 9 hours. I suppose we could've stopped at an all-night diner or something, but what I really wanted was Malaysian food, specifically my usual: Hainan chicken on rice, and some beef Satay. So we went to Chinatown. We made it there about 11:45, with 15 minutes left before closing. Whew. I would've been really disappointed if we'd missed it.

So I got to have my Hainan chicken and beef Satay. It was gooooooooood. I was happy.

It took us, uh, a long time to get back to Queens, but it's okay 'cause I slept the whole way on the train. We got to Continental around 1, I think. Angelica took a cabbie home (I assume, 'cause I don't think she wanted to wait for the bus, although she could have, if she wanted to.) Liz & I could've waited half an hour for the bus, and then walked home, but it was easier to take a cab. We got home around 1:20 am.

Not bad for a Friday night out on the town?

>_

A desk, a desk!

The next day we woke up around 11:30, I think.

My parents wanted to go to Levitz to get a computer desk and a small couch/love-seat type thing for the computer room 'cause we've just been improvising for the last few months since we moved in. So we had a big fight/discussion first. (In my family, we can't talk without yelling, interrupting, petty sniping, etc.) Then we left about 2 hours later. We went to Levitz but didn't see anything good.

We went to Ikea and found a REALLY nice Computer desk, almost the exact measurements that we had estimated would be perfect for the room and our comfort. You can adjust the height of the desk (it was on display as a sort of sketch desk with a stool, like an architect would use, if you can picture it), and it comes with a shelf that you can put either above or below the desk, also adjustable. You can also buy - for an additional $10 -- a swivel shelf that attaches to the legs, as in, to put your printer, or whatever. We bought 2 of those. All for $150. A very good buy.

I'd also been wanting to get a desk for my room, which we ended up getting also. It's made by the same company as the computer desk. It's a table- no drawers underneath. Just what I wanted. It's quite long and about 2 and a half feet deep, so there's a lot of surface area. I also got the optional swivel shelf for the computer that'll be going in my room. =D Hopefully I'll start writing again with the computer there. I find it difficult to write anywhere but my bedroom, and on anything but a computer or laptop.

The hardest part was trying to decide between the birch wood desk top or the white lacquer top. My sister said birch. My mom said birch. My father said birch. I called Angelica at her grandmother's house; she said birch. I was thinking maybe the white. See, I hate wood. I really don't like it that much. After a while, I don't even see it anymore, so I can ignore it, but I really don't like wood. It's all warm and homey. Sooooo not me. But my hand-me-down bed is unfinished oak, and I have 2 bookcases on either side of my room that are a dark brown wood (dunno what it's called). Then there's a bookcase in the middle that used to be dark brown - prolly the same color - but we'd painted it black to match the stuff in our apartment. Now that we've moved it would've matched if it were still brown. Go figure. But anyway, I have wood paneling on the walls, but they're painted white. You see my dilemma? Get the birch wood and take a chance on it not matching the unfinished oak of my bed and ending up with too many colors for the room? (Oh, the carpet is this neutral-orangy color.) Or go with the white to blend into the walls and possibly look too cheap? I ended up getting the birch. Why? Well, it's a stupid reason, but I know myself well enough that it's completely true. If I got the white and I didn't like it, then I'd have only myself to blame and I'd feel worse than if I got the birch and didn't like it, but could blame it on everyone else. =D Besides, after a while, I just don't notice how it looks anymore, anyway. (But don't worry - the birch actually looks okay. Even if it doesn't exactly match the unfinished oak, and I think there are way too many colors in my room.) I also have black sheets, and grey sheets, a tan blanket (which kind of matches the carpet) and a black comforter reversible to oatmeal.

My room is horribly uncoordinated. And yet, I'm really good with colors. It's too bad I don't have enough money to just get what I want no matter what the cost. Then it'd be really nice. My dream room: black and silver/grey with accents of red or blue. I'm pretty much a dark/primary color person… no pastels, please. =D

OMG, have I mentioned my pink bathroom? It's hideous. It was like that when we moved in, but it's all tile so I can't paint it over. Otherwise, I was thinking of a nice teal color. Well, it's not really hideous, I mean, it's okay, but…. It's pink. Yuck.

We also got some nice throw pillows for only $5 each. Three navy blue and three light blue for the living room, and 2 lime green for my sister's bedroom to match her one lime green wall (the other walls are white). It's cool. Nice match. They didn't have any black, otherwise I'd have gotten a few for myself.

Malice Mizer cosplay!

We got the cosplay costumes (Kozi, Mana & Klaha in their Shiroi hada ni kuruu ai to kanashimi no rondo outfits; pic: Kozi's & Mana's outfits) on Thursday night, I think, but hadn't had a chance to try them on until Sunday night. They're really cool, except that the arms on all three constumes don't fit. So I have to email Dawn (the woman who made the costumes for us) to let her know, and send the costumes back. They look so awesome though! It's really exciting to think that we'll be wearing them for Otakon this year! I'll definitely have to post some pics here when we finally get them right and we've taken photos of us three.

And we've already started planning for Otakon 2002. They've just recently made a deal for con rates with the Days Inn there, which is where we stayed last year. They have pretty good prices, and they're just across the street and down the block, so… they're pretty much the best choice for us. Anyway, this year the rate has gone up by about $10, but that's not enough to get huffy about. (Even if we did get huffy, no one would care anyway.) So with tax, the room per night comes out to $135. If Louie doesn't go, it's $135 per person (me, Liz & Angelica). If Louie goes, it's $101 per person.

There's also the transportation factor. Last year, my parents drove us, but this year it's pretty much out 'cause out minivan is pretty much dying. My father doesn't want to take it anywhere far away just in case. So Maryland is out of the question. If we get a new car, we'll prolly get a sedan, so it wouldn't seat 6 people, plus luggage! Joe (Angelica's step-father) offered to drive two of us, if my parents can take the other two, but I don't think it's going to work out anyway, so I'm not counting on it. In which case, round trip train fare is $76 per person. So far, we're up to $177 for 4 people or $211 for 3.

Then there's the Otakon 3-day registration fee. $35 each if I send in the money before January 26th. Which, of course, I will. Louie said she's giving me the money sometime soon. She said her parents "didn't say no." I hope she can come. I wonder if Otakon gives refunds? Well, we'll see what happens. Now it's $212 for 4 or $246 for 3.

Then there's food. I'd estimate $20 per day, per person. I don't remember how accurate that estimate is 'cause I hardly remember eating during Otakon, but I'm pretty sure that'd cover it, anyway. Which is $60 per person, which is $272 for 4 people or $306 for 3.

That's not too bad, actually.

Then, of course, if you add the $161 for my costume, $161 for Angelica's costume, or the $236 for Liz's costume…. Well, then. That's an average of $186… or $458 if Louie goes, $492 if she doesn't.

ITAI.

And I haven't even started on spending money! I think last year I spent about $150. Uh… I know the actual amount I spent is somewhere in the archives here…. ::goes to check:: …cheesy elevator music plays… ::comes back:: Ah yes, here it is: entry 08.21.01. It was actually $140. So that comes to about $600 with Louie, $634 without.

Sheesh. How'd I end up spending so much anyway? Most of the time it seems like I'm down to my last $20.

O_O

My Inner Mana's a MAN!

I took a Mana quiz… apparently, my Inner Mana "wears pants."
My 2nd Inner Mana is a "real lady."

god, you're so manly. take the quiz here.

Poor James!

He was standing in front of the kitchen, leaning on one of the filing cabinets there, holding a slide projector in his hands. And when he tried to put it down the big cork board that's there, leaning against the wall, fell on his head! ::snicker::

I asked if he was okay, and he said "Did you see that?!"

LOL. Then he tried to stand it back up and it fell on his head again.

Oh, and did I mention that there's a potted fake plant in front of the cork board, so that fell over too?

::giggle::

I got up to help, but he finally got everything and said, "No, I got it."

Well, if there had ever been a chance for me (not that there ever was because he's at least 10 years older than me and prolly has a girlfriend, if not a wife) then there it went, right out the window 'cause you know how guys get embarassed... LOL.

I shouldn't have laughed, but it was only a small one anyway. And he was just so cute. Caught like a little boy doing something he shouldn't have and getting hurt.

Kawaii!