After finally getting home yesterday, a local on the #megatokyo channel told me to look out the window at the snow that had just started to fall. After driving 15 hrs in treaturous snowy conditions, i have to say that this was one of those few times where the sight of snow drifting past my window really didn't excite me very much ^^;;

One of the problems with going to anime cons is that they have a tendency to turn my world upside down for several days before, during and after the convention. Katsucon this past weekend was no exception. In fact, for various reasons, it shook things up a lot more than my usual travels.

First there is my perpetual problem with being behind schedule on... well... everything. Some of it has to do with taking on a little too much for January and February (which, by pushing into February crowds out what i SHOULD be working on this month). The irony of overloading yourself is that the pressure of having too much to do actually makes it *harder* to work efficiently. Go figure. Cons are a nice break from the grind, but they also require being ahead by at least 2 comics. As you can see, this did not happen before I left.

Next, we were late getting to the con. Sarah and i decided to drive to Virginia rather than fly because, well, we like road trips. 8 hrs isn't a long drive for me (i can sit at a table for 8 hrs, i can drive for 8 hrs). Our original plan was to leave thursday afternoon and get there friday around noon. Unfortunately, Sarah had to see a professor friday morning, which meant that we didn't leave till ten-ish friday morning. This put us into the DC area just in time for rush hour. Yay, fun. Great time to get lost on the roads circling the Pentagon.

Then there was that pleasant little snow storm that blew in Saturday night. Gee, what wonderful timing. On Sunday we faced the daunting question as to if we should leave DC and try to drive out of the storm, or face getting stuck for days in the additional feet of snow arriving later that night. As fun as it would be to hang out another day with everyone at the con, we had cats that were all alone in the apartment, sarah had work and class, and I needed to get home so I could get back to work on all this stuff i had to do. We figured that we would drive out of the snow somewhere around mid Pennsylvania. Hah. We never did drive out of the snow. It took us five hours to get out of Maryland. Five hours to get out of Pennsylvania. after 11 and a half hours of driving in snowy conditions we decided it was time to stop. The next day, we faced even more snow. I think the snow finally stopped about 30 minutes from home. I was forgetting what pavement looked like.

The final problem with cons, especially cons that involve stressful travel conditions (happens to me often for some reason) is that it takes a day or so to wind down after getting home. My original plan was to get home sunday night and spend monday winding down and taking it slow, then punching out a comic on tuesday. Fffft. After getting home around 3pm on monday, i was pretty much useless. Yesterday i stared a blank piece of paper and a blank script and couldn't even remember what Megatokyo was about. Creativity isn't a faucet that you can turn on and off, it's more like a horrid old lawnmower that you have to coax and yank into shape, coupled with prayers and a little 10W40 spritzed into the joints. After struggling all day, things managed to turn over and i remembered that somewhere down there I actually do know how to draw. ^^;; Drawing the actual 'Sad Girl in Snow' picture that has been hinted at for all this time was, well, kinda daunting. Nothing I could actually draw could meet the expectations for it, so i hope this stand in will do for now.

Even with all of that, Sarah and I had a great time at Katsucon. I would like to thank not only the Katsucon staff, most of whom i didn't even have time to meet, but to my friends and all the fans who helped make Sarah feel welcome at her first real anime con. Oh, and Pocky, I hope you get your voice back. ^_^ Sarah and I would both like to thank you for inviting us. Most of all I'm glad that everyone seems to have made it hope safe and sound, and that most of you aren't idiots like Sarah and i are when it comes to traveling where angels fear to drive. :P

One other thing that happened at the con was really my doing. Do you have any idea how hard it is to run a panel, run around and take questions because Dom isn't there, and then at the end of it prepare to ask your girlfriend to marry you? Somehow, i managed it, and amazingly, Sarah said yes.

Sarah and I have been together for a long time, and we've been thru a lot together. Never once has she failed to support me, in fact without her i would never have had the courage or the self confidence to do what i'm doing now. I like to think that I've been there for her whenever she has needed me, and I know that I always try to be. I guess you could say i really am her #1 fan, and i always will be.

maybe that's why i've been so nice to Piro lately. He's been getting way too many breaks. I need to do something about that....