~K-ayu

*sighs* I must wait another year for the next festival! Ahh, but how I love it so much! I suppose K is now an instructor also (although she watches the person in front of her), but whatever~...I was happy to see a bunch of relatives again since we only see each other about once a year or less. All of the kids have grown so much! J's newborn baby is a strange one. I can't say she's cute, but she tends to look at inanimate objects. I know she's a preemie and all, but I often wonder if something's wrong because a relative of theirs just had a baby 9 days before little C and he looks at everyone just fine! Huh...

Practicing these past 3 weeks or so has been lovely too! I'm so glad I was able to go back since I missed last year's! I am so inspired to keep dancing I was also happy that I could help Mrs. K with Mamurogawa. Haha, but that one turn is a killer if you're not too quick with your feet. She wasn't the only one who had some trouble with that one. I found out that she's one of my brother's acquaintance's grandmother. I knew she looked a bit familiar. Anyway, her two granddaughters were wonderful also. It's the first time that I've seen them before, but perhaps they came last year while I was away. Anyhoo, I appreciate their dedication to coming out twice a week for practice Tonight, the one in the blue introduced herself to me and pointed to her sister a few feet away in the pink and said that they were twins. I was a little baffled at this because I don't know anyone that would just flat out say that, haha. I wasn't sure if they were twins from the beginning since one is a bit taller than the other. However, they do look very similar and I just took it for granted that they were sisters. Aha! My hunch was right? She seemed friendly and I can't wait to see them again next year! There were also 3 sisters (but of different ages!) that came to practice often also. I'm sure they came last year, but I wouldn't know of course! >_< I made friends with all of them, but particularly the middle girl. She would chat with me during dances and so it was a challenge to dance like it was second-nature while listening to her speak, haha. Well, I suppose it is pretty much second-nature to me! One more year until next! However, I really hope my trip can work around this time...NY will be fun and all, but I can't miss this!!!

Voilà! A new FE release in Japan has recently been announced! It will be a remake of the original 1990 game Dark Dragon and the Sword of Light). It will be available on August 7th for 4,800 yen. New features will include online Wi-fi battles where you can make a party of 5 members and fight against others for a long-distance multi-player. The game hasn't changed much from its original release, but the artwork has been updated (like the Final Fantasy series ). No date for a U.S. release has been announced, but I am already excited and patiently await its arrival.

Ugh, I've felt all depressive today. I'm sure it's a combination of multiple things. For one, the sky is gray again and the air stings your eyes from the fires. It also makes your nose cringe with the scent of burning wood. Not a good day to go out.

*Note: the mood icon is messed up yet again and I am definitely not feeling pleased at the moment V__V

I had a vivid dream this morning. Actually, more like a nightmare. I'm not going to describe all of the craziness, but it had the elements of end of the world/life and death battles within it. The jist; the human race was nearly wiped out with the exception of a few stragglers including myself. I was in some sort of huge castle - the kind that have rotted away with time in sand, dust, and heat. It was boiling outside and the sun was red overhead melting everything. I looked through a window and saw the ruins of the city around me. Before I knew it, I could hear the sound of pounding steps, like an earthquake. Then from out of nowhere, an army of vulgar creatures swept the landscape devouring everything in their path. As they moved with great speed through the city ruins, a few of the demons had made their way to the top of the tower I resided in. Fending off a few with the nearest object - a sharpened pitchfork, I locked the shutter as quickly as I could. My heart was racing and my mind unsound. So this was what life was like after humans; it was the end of the world after the end. There were only two of my friends left waiting with me - perhaps, for our deaths. As the scratching outside the door grew harsher, I feared the worst and checked my pockets. I pulled out a small container and unflipped the lid; 3 red pills of Excedrin. I gave one to each of my companions and took one myself. Surprisingly, this was the first time that I wanted to (and tried) to commit suicide in a dream. Unfortunately, one pill is obviously not enough, but heck, I tried. A few minutes after consuming it, a secret door was opened and Y-sensei came out with a new flashlight and some batteries. Beckoning us to follow her, I grabbed the flashlight and yelled for my friends to bring the batteries as I jumped as high as I could to the ledge where the passage lie and squirmed like a rat trying to get in as fast as I could with the door a few feet away failing. I found myself falling face-first in to the tunnel of darkness and told myself that enough was enough - and I awoke from the dream.

I consulted my book about certain occurrences, and sure enough, I recognized those elements pertaining to real life. I know for sure that my state last night helped to prompt that dream. For some reason, I felt a wave of despair and sadness. Moods and hormones...wh00t. But I've been thinking all day and nothing has made me feel happiness except for this image in which I LMFAO:

[link]

"McSephiroth kicking some Kentucky Fried ass with his giant french fry"

This weather today truly reminds me of my dream and even a comment that my mother made today frightened me even more. She said, "Some day, the sky will look like this everyday" because of the decades/centuries of pollution and human waste and carelessness. I am afraid for the future and understand why Itoshiki-sensei from SZS feels the way he does when he gets dismayed by the slightest of misfortunes. Unfortunately, many things are irreversible and we can only try to help lessen the pain. I feel as if I've seen the future already and want to return to the past. But I can only escape in my dreams.

AX is over and I've bought a ton of awesome stuff!! Okay, so there's much to cover, so I'll just take it step by step...but before continuing with the con report, I'm going to review the past 24 hours or so...

Got home last night a few minutes to midnight. Dude. Loooonnnnng trip home and was extremely tired. Woke up this morning feeling rushed and screwed. Had a bunch of homework to do for make-up since I missed Wednesday's class. Did 3 or so portraits. Ugh. And my eyes have been swollen all day. I have no idea why - perhaps from the draining sleep-wake 8 hour car ride? It feels great to be home. Only thing is, my back has been killing me for the past few days ever since I tried to spin the wheel on Alice in Wonderland's teacups...surprisingly, the roller coasters didn't do me in, the kiddie ride did O___O Dang. But overall, got most of my work done. Now I just have to do 2 more 3/4 face portrait shots and find some good tear sheets for background references for Wednesday. Anyhoo, let's go back in time to happier moments...

Wednesday: Arrival...

Got to LA in the afternoon and went to Little Tokyo to do some shopping. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed. San Francisco still remains the best when it comes to Nihonmachi (not to mention that it's closer too, thank goodness) At Kinokuniya, found so much stuff! All paper (haha, books) and surprisingly no CDs. This is the first trip where I've bought NO music whatsoever. This is a record! But anyway, found the artbooks I've been searching for for years and others. YAY!

Went to the convention center for Day 0 to pick up badges. Hmm, got there around 2:45 and they were supposed to open at 3. However, turns out that people already lined up at 6 in the morning, so the place just opened all day. Heh, figures. Anyway, got out of the place by 4:10...yes, all that was waiting in line...@__@ Thank goodness I put Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei on my iPod so I watched that and was pre-occupied Finished the series too. I can't remember what happened after all of that. Haha.

Thursday: Disneyland!

Yay, 1 year has gone by and I am back! My back was very cooperative and I was glad I saw that Alice in Wonderland dress that I originally found in Florida! Wanted it so badly, but wherever I went, the largest size was always sold out...never got it in the end, but that's alright. I got better stuff from this trip anyway

I literally made myself sick with anxiety awaiting M's call (yes, darling, I was SOOO worried!!) However, my nerves were cooled by the end of Friday. THANK YOU.

Friday: AX!

Awesome day. Although I met up with M a little later than I would've liked to, we made it. She changed in her car (haha) and we were twins for the day~! Got a traffic count of about 130. Not bad for one day. All I can recall having that day was a sip of water, a type of soft-serve ice cream green apple flavor, and...that's it...haha. Anorexic for a day; yup yup, that's how we do it at cons D:

Met up with A so that was lovely. I also saw L.N. whom I haven't seen in forever!! We always seem to see each other in the strangest places, haha. Oh well, hope she's doing well since I didn't get a chance to speak with her. I was taking photos and when I turned around, she was gone. At least she recognized me, haha...in the artist alley! *muwahahaha* I'll take pictures of my goodies/junk so I don't have to describe my ecstatic pleasure of purchase

Disappointingly, the Ouran panel was not at all what I thought it'd be. Hmm, the description made it sound like the classic host club, but in actuality, it was for the voice actors in the upcoming Funimation release. Regardless, it was cute and I enjoyed hearing the voices of the future! XD I think the seiyuu fit the parts great

Saturday and Sunday...

More Disneyland and traveling home. That's about it...I await next year~!

In other news, the mood button is working again

Ehh, I need a lot of practice on full-face profiles...my partner's eyes were sooo hard to do because it was such a light shade of brown; dark enough to shade it well, but at the same time, glassy and light so that you needed just the right value X_X Since I won't be at class Wednesday, I have even more homework. One male and one female full-face as well as an additional person with a hat. And then for Wednesday's homework, I need to do 3/4 faces. Definitely taking my sketchbook to LA. But when am I going to have time? I'm probably going to end up doing everything last minute Monday afternoon!! T^T

We had a representative from Prismacolor today who did a presentation and quick demo. AND, free stuff! Got the newly released ultra fine retractable Sharpie, 005 brown Prismacolor fine line marker, Prismacolor hard pigment ginger root pencil, and two Prismacolor watercolor pencils in dark umber and copenhagen which I've been wanting to try out! They're water soluble and I want to try to get that soft look with them

Eeks, stressing out about a few things here and there and it's driving me insane. Aaaaahhhh, I can already feel the polyps developing >__<