Oh my god. I have been gone, it feels, for such a very long time. For the last few weeks I have been balls-to-the-wall busy, going on adventures, trying new foods, road-tripping, having amazing experiences, and collecting memories.

This post is going to be EXTREMELY long, I'll be honest. Skip over it, honestly, unless you have a ton of free time to read my tales and are interested in the awesome stuff That Person and I got up to. Completely under a cut, and by the day.

Just for fun, I'm going to see how long it takes me to type up. At the moment, it is 7:30pm.



Monday, July 15th

Blair arrives. I worked a shift beforehand and it lasted an eternity. We ended up getting home very late because her flight was slightly late coming in and there was an issue with baggage, but having her with me finally felt like a homecoming.

Tuesday, July 16th

Ended up being longer and busier than originally intended. We went for breakfast (early lunch) at this small hole in the wall place near my house called the Cowboy Surfer Grill, which is exactly what it sounds like. From there we hit up Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart, Michael's, and Petco. Armed, finally, with all the things we would need for our cosplay work and our upcoming trip, we finally got a late start in the late afternoon.

It was so relaxing and wonderful. We laid out newspaper in the backyard so we could sand and paint things. While we worked, Blair used a comically small grill to grill us some brats, and for dinner we had brats, potato salad and watermelon. It felt good having hands on our cosplay, glueing things together, painting on details, and building an actual droid. That night, she dyed and cut my hair for me.

Wednesday, July 17th

I had to work, but when I got home, Blair had pork tacos, beans and rice waiting for me. We had a lovely dinner, packed overnight bags, and headed out on a late-night drive toward the coast to find our first of several hotels: this one was just a little motel we chose near Disneyland so that we could get an early start without having to get up extra early to battle weekday work traffic.

It was a weird room. The fridge and microwave were in the bathroom. The lamp was sat on a table. The tv would not turn off, so we had to unplug it. We opened a door we thought was a closet, and it turned out to be a whole other room??? Like a small cramped space with a bed crammed into it. It was so weird.

Thursday, July 18th

Disneyland! We got there bright and early so that we could get breakfast chimichangas and some monte cristo waffles, which are only served in the morning. It was, otherwise, a pretty great day at Disneyland.

It was very hot and very crowded, particularly for a Thursday, but we managed to get on pretty much everything we wanted to get on. We went hard with the food: churros, pretzels, food from Docking Bay 7 in Galaxy's Edge, cold brews, ice cream, dole whip. There is a new fireworks show that you can watch from Galaxy's Edge, and it's set to various pieces of music from Star Wars, and it was so beautiful and cool. It actually made the both of us shed a single manly tear, and we got to have one of those sweet cliche hand-holding moments.

We managed to get into Oga's Cantina! Lucky. Dancing, drinks, a good time. We stayed until the park closed, and made the slog all the way back home, because I had to work again the next day.

Friday, July 19th

I had to work, and when I got home, there was another meal waiting for me. Blair joked that she loved being a little housewife for me. After we ate, we joined our friends for DnD, which was interesting and fun to play side by side instead of over discord, as we usually do.

Saturday, July 20th

We got up early, because Blair wanted to go to a local farmer's market. We had lunch there, picked up some fresh fruit, some bread, some local honey. After dumping it at home we headed out toward Palm Springs, where there is a mountain lift that takes you on this wild little trip up the side of a mountain. It's really scary if you're afraid of heights (like me) but also an amazing view.

Once we got to the top, we went hiking around a little bit, taking a bunch of nature photos and interacting with little critters. The hike back up to the visitor's center was so brutal and steep it damn near killed me. The trip back down was a relief; it was 109 degrees in Palm Springs that day.

On the way home, I took her to a place called Smoke & Fire for a comfort food dinner. On this day, there were also a couple of fires that started in the area, which was admittedly a little scary. One of the neighborhoods not too far from mine ended up getting evacuated. The fires went on for a couple of days, but it was safe where I live.

Sunday, July 21st

We took a long drive up to the high desert, about two hours away, to a place called Wolf Mountain Sanctuary.

Ohhhh, my goodness. The first thing we experienced here: "Go on in, I've just let the pups out."

Wolf puppies. Running around, playing, tugging on our clothes and shoes and bags, jumping around in their water trough. They were SO. CUTE. We got to play with them - honest to god wolf puppies - and take pictures with them and pet and hold them. One of them flopped into Blair's lap. There were about six other wolves there too, full grown ones, two of which we were also allowed to meet, pet, get pictures with and even feed. We learned a lot about wolves, about conservation, and also heard the story of each wolf and how they came to be at the sanctuary. It was such a cool, once in a lifetime experience, for sure.

The trip home was long, mostly because we took the scenic route through the mountain and dipped onto Route 66. When we got back into my home area, we decided to have a little racy fun and go shopping in a couple of adult stores. After that, we came home to freshen up (wolf fur clinging to our clothes, and sweaty, so so sweaty) and then headed out to a late movie. We saw Longlegs.

Monday, July 22nd

This day was meant to just be a travel day, but unfortunately before we left we figured out that the washing machine was broken. My roommate/landlord was out of town all weekend and I was anxious about his washing machine being broken, so I took it upon myself to hire a repair man to come fix it. We had to wait for him all day, but once it was fixed, we were finally able to pack up an entire car-full of stuff and hit the road.

We headed north, up to Central California, to our Air BnB located just some 25 minutes from Sequoia National Park. It was a long, four and a half hour trip, and we had gotten such a late start. We had to stop for something to eat, too, and there's always something fun about popping into a roadside Denny's on a long trip. Late night pancakes packed away, we pushed on and finally reached our lodgings by just a little past midnight.

What a place! It was secluded and difficult to find, nestled in the hills. We had a cozy room with a big bed in a secluded building away from the main house, with its own bathroom. Oppressively hot, despite the cooling unit the owner had in there, which was a little uncomfortable. But the shower was huge (which we took advantage of, giggity) and the actual property the place was on was so cool? The owner had his own farming business, with his own orange grove, and part of the land was converted into an event space for parties and such. We didn't see much of it that night of course, but it was gorgeous. Also, at night, there were little frogs hopping around.

Tuesday, July 23rd

We headed up to Sequoia National Park. Mountain driving is fun and beautiful, yet a little stressful, requiring a lot of patience, control, and concentration. Up, up up. We hit the visitor's center with a field museum, had a quick lunch there, then headed on to the trails. The usual. Hiking, a visit with General Sherman, the largest tree in the world (do I really have that right?) and general puttering around nature. It was absolutely beautiful. Took lots of photos, saw lots of critters, found a waterfall, and almost died trying to hike a very steep trail (that we eventually had to turn around and come back down). It surprised us by thundering almost the whole time, which was very cool and exciting but slightly eerie, the sound rumbling through the forest.

At this time I was starting to get pretty sick. I thought it was allergies from the smoke produced by the fires back home, but it was not going away with allergy meds. By the time we made it back to the car I was seriously lagging, having a hard time breathing, and just generally having a really rough go of it. We located a gas station convenience store to buy overpriced Dayquil from and a little cafe to have dinner at. There wasn't much out there in that secluded land.

When we got back to our Air BnB, the host told us we were welcome to use the pool, so that's exactly what we did. It was so fun. We played around a lot, made up silly games, roughhoused. Drank a bottle of wine Blair had purchased earlier. We stayed in the pool for hours, until it got dark. The host came out and turned on some fairy lights the event space was decorated with, and some colorful pool lights. Out there, there's nothing. It was a pool that was surrounded by open land, which was a little surreal and creepy at night, but very cool. We saw an owl fly over head, we saw bats swooping down toward the surface of the pool to snag bugs, and we heard a whole pack of coyotes howling and yipping just a short distance away at the edge of the property.

Downright magical, if you ask me.

Wednesday, July 24th

This day was a looooong road trip, from Sequoia National Park all the way down to San Diego. It ended up being a grand total of six and a half hours, which was really rough, but we made sure to make plenty of stops. We had IHOP for breakfast, plus Starbucks, but Krispe Kreme for the road. Once we got about halfway we pulled off the freeway to gas up, use the bathroom, and get some boba. On the edge of San Diego we found a rest stop for another break, and a chance to watch the sunset. The area was full of squirrels, like, dozens of them, all skittering around, and of course I couldn't resist taking a bunch of pictures and video of the little guys creeping up to me looking for handouts.

We finally got to our next hotel, unpacked the car (four trips with two people, we had a TON of shit), got comfortable, and then kept right on. We snagged some Chipotle and then ate it in a local laundromat while our clothes cycled, then came back to our hotel and did a trial run of our cosplay to make sure we'd ironed out all the kinks.

Thursday, July 25th

San Diego Comic Con, Day 1!

Introduced Blair to my friends, James and Tina, and got our badges from them. Then we hit the con floor. We had decided not to cosplay for the first day, so we could just focus on getting all the way through the giant exhibit hall and artist alley, which we did. It was our shopping and photography day. I spontaneously ran into Doug Jones just walking around, and said hello to him.

We had Cheesecake Factory for dinner, after a long, tiring day geeking out, and then met up with James in The Top of the Hyatt bar for a couple of drinks. Atomic Cocktails, for a Fallout promotion. All over the con, many restaurants were given vault designations (which makes sense if you know Fallout) and offered different special event food or drinks.

Friday, July 26th

San Diego Comic Con, Day 2! And the official debut of our cosplays.

It took three hours to get dressed, because of tons of layers and accessories, full face makeup, a fake beard, tattoos, ect. But. But!

Oh man, it was so great. We got so much attention I hardly knew what to do about it. We were getting stopped by people right and left, had compliments and praise showered unto us, and ended up in I don't know how many photos and videos. At one point, someone who actually worked on the Jedi Survivor game (the game our characters are from) ran into us and praised us and took some pictures, which was really cool.

I got to meet Naomi Novik! I am her fan mostly from her amazing book series, Temeraire, as well as her fairytale inspired novels Spinning Silver and Uprooted, but most of you probably know her as the founder of AO3! That was very exciting for me. I got her to sign my well-loved copy of the first Temeraire book, circa 2006.

Honestly all we did that day, other than the autograph session, was roam around, taking pictures of other cosplayers and letting people take pictures of us. We did a couple of small shoots, met a lot of nice people, and at the end of the long day went back to the hotel to get out of our costumes and then go get some sushi.

Saturday, July 27th

Comic Con, Day 3!

Back at it again. Another three hours getting into cosplay, and we ended up showing up to the convention center sort of late, given the uh, late night we'd had the evening before.

More attention! More photo shoots! Met up briefly with James and Tina in the exhibit hall, but otherwise did much more of what we'd done the following day. We went back into Artist Alley to do a second sweep and ended up with a few more purchases, because of course.

Once we'd finished for the day, we headed out across to the Gaslamp Quarter, where the Comic Con crowd spills over into once the con is finished for the day. It's a huge party. The streets are blocked off and there's just chaos everywhere; dancing, sword fighting, photo shoots, enormous displays, even street magic. We had dinner at a nice little cantina, with seats on the patio so we could watch con-goers reveling in the streets; a ton of them spotted us and called out to us, a few even coming up to our table asking for photos.

After, we found some random street karaoke and hung out there for a bit, singing along and just vibing. It was quite late by the time we actually returned to the hotel, but once there, we had another cosplay photo shoot of the spicier variety. Not to be too personal or gross, but when you cosplay a favorite pairing with a partner, man, it hits.

Sunday, July 28th

Would-be Comic Con Day 4, except we had to check out of our hotel at 11, and we had a new hotel to go check into around 4. So we packed it all in, said goodbye, and headed to Old Town where we explored the mission, old cemetery, the Whaley House (heard of it? haunted place fans sound off) and the marketplace full of knick knacks, a leather shop, and a little place full of rocks, crystals, fossils and gems. We got pickle lemonade from an old-timey little soda shop, met a donkey, and had lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant.

When it was finally time to check into our new lodgings, oh, what a treat. We had very specifically chosen the day after the convention to book ourselves a room in a resort hotel, to relax, unwind, and treat ourselves. This was without a doubt the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in. Huge, beautiful, giant two-room bathroom, kitchen. A balcony, with sliding wooden doors that opened up right there on the beach. Absolutely gorgeous.

We dropped our things, changed, and went right down to the beach to play in the waves for several hours until we wore ourselves out. We watched the sunset from the deck, then went and used the hot tub next to the pool, which we had all to ourselves, and we got to canoodle a little while someone delivered drinks to us right there in the jacuzzi. We ordered room service; far too much food, and an immaculate chocolate caramel tart for dessert.

We proceeded to make excellent use of our decadent room, with the sliding doors to let the sound and smell of the ocean in, and fell asleep listening to crashing waves all night.

Monday, July 29th

It was hard saying goodbye to the resort after so short a time, but it was time to move on. We made our way back up the coast, had lunch at a wonderful Japanese restaurant, and got boba afterward. We checked into our final hotel of the trip, spent several hours in the pool, and then headed to get some dinner at a place called Oggi's. We chose this hotel because, although it's not much more than a 2-star, some of the rooms have huge hot tubs in them. Our hot tub didn't actually work - as in, the jets wouldn't turn on - but it was still relaxing and really fun sharing a soak with Blair in that huge bath.

Tuesday, July 30th

Spent a little time walking around the Newport Bay Conservancy, looking at the water, plantlife, and whatever animals could be gleaned. Unfortunately, despite a wide array of local fauna in the area, we only saw a hawk, a squirrel, and a few ducks. It was still lovely out there, and the weather was beautiful.

We had an amazing lunch at a great Thai spot, complete with Thai tea creme brulee, which I did not know was a thing, but oh. Would drive all the way out there again to have it a second time.

We hit Newport Beach after that for some more wave splashing, and only left once we were too worn out to continue (and our parking time ran out). Hotel stop for cleaning up and showering, then off to dinner at a little hole in the wall Shawarma place near our hotel.

We skipped over to Oggi's again after that to get a good-looking dessert we were too full to order the previous night, and boy was it worth the return trip. Giant salted caramel cookie served warm out of the oven, with pretzel pieces and toffee, and a scoop of ice cream and caramel drizzle. They even had a cocktail called a Butterfinger, which was, yeah, meant to taste like the candy, so we each got one of those. Went amazing with the cookie.

Wednesday, July 31st

I had to work, so we drove all the way from Orange County out here to where I live, just so I could work my shift. I actually booked Blair an appointment in my last slot, so I was able to give her a proper massage in a proper massage setting, and that was really nice. I also got to show her off a little bit, show her around where I work, and let my co-workers meet her.

On the way back, we grabbed some boba and had dinner at a random Indian restaurant we picked off of Google maps. Good! Tons of leftovers.

Took a final spin in the hot tub.

Thursday, August 1st

Sad day.

Getting up was hard. Packing the car was harder. We had a lot of time to kill, so we made sure to have lunch at the Greek restaurant she fell in love with the last time she was here. After that, we drove around aimlessly just to enjoy one anothers' company for a little longer, got boba again because I got her absolutely hooked on a local chain, and then finally I had to take her to the airport.

Lots of tears, of course. I missed her immediately once she was gone. Having her by my side constantly for over two weeks meant her absence was felt all the more. Luckily, we already have plans for her to return in the first week of October for Los Angeles Comic Con, so having that to look forward to will lighten our hearts some.



I'm home and settled and as I finish writing this up, it's 9:43pm, yikes haha.

I have a lot a lot a lot of catching up to do. Since I'm so sick, I'll be taking tomorrow off of work and giving myself a long three-day weekend to rest, and try to weave myself back into things.

Hope you're all doing great!