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Another year goes by and I tell everyone that I cant make it and by some miracle an opportunity comes up at the very last minute and im able to go again. This year was no different. For two weeks before the con I wasn’t able to get ahold of amber, but she called back 2 days before the con to let me know ITS ON, and when ITS ON, theres no going back. Ko posed another short dilemma…he was in japan. He would be arriving back around 9pm, but then he had to head north to home to unpack. We also needed a 4th person to help out and while we nearly came close to taking McVabBob alex, Nikki decided that she would go. However, hours before the convention Nikki and I both decided that hey you know I haven’t been to the beach in awhile, so Cocoa Beach was our entire reason for going to this. The con and my panel were just something extra. Cocoa Beach, baby! Fri The drive wasn’t too bad, as we all had our iPods. I really don’t think any of us got any REAL rem sleep though, especially Ko who was hitting jet lag for reals. Amber shifted driving positions right as we neared Orlando toll booths and this year we were way way prepared to pay them. The hotel we cherish and love, Masters Inn (which is only $46 a night!) was fully booked, as was the LaQuinta and Baymont, which they had said was available but wasn’t. it was humid and stuffy and we were getting delirious (Mandy thought I was on drugs). Keep note it was around 7am now. The place across the street, Microtel Inn & Suites was available, and the Russian-accent hotel manager guaranteed we’d be able to get a room right after housekeeping did its rounds at 11am, thank GOD. We headed to the nearby mcdonalds to find out it not only had TWO pump it up machines but a Taiwanese drum sim game "Percussion Freaks" and the F-Zero arcade. Ko totally rocked percussion, and when he played F-Zero we noticed there was no seatbelt! The game could have tosses him off and we’d sue and get to keep it, but yeah still way fun. Mc Griddles never tasted so good. Sat Panel over, and no familiar faces around, we decided to check into the room. Housekeeping had JUST left the room (No Habla Englais) and they were fixing the AC when we got it. For $79 we got a very nice two bed, window couch 1st floor room with gigantic mirrors on the walls. The only downside would be the lack of soap or shampoo in the bathroom and a weird showerhead but no tub or real "hold" to sit the showerhead. Amber and ko wanted to eat n sleep and nikki and I were ready for the beach (boiiiieeeee). We ate at some nearby Chinese buffet and we... were…silent. It was really only a matter of time until we all would just pass out but man I’ve never eaten such a quiet meal. We just ate and ate without saying a thing, since we had talked and joked all the way down, we were done, just done. I wasn’t even hungry, I really just wanted to hit the beach but I figure eat something before we go. Nikki and I went off while amber slept and ko walked around the con. Getting to the beach is no problem, and hour west, right? That is… if you don’t mind paying tolls. For some reason we wanted to avoid paying the $2.00 in toll money (there were at LEAST 3 tolls between us and cocoa) so we hit up the side roads. Huge mistake! The traffic was horrendous and one two-way street had us backed up so long I had nikki takeover because I almost fell asleep driving. Apparently a tree limb had fallen and there was around 4 trucks and construction workers moving traffic along slowly! We finally made it past all that, and could SEE the shoreline so we took the first available street, floored it, parked, and ran out. Once we hit the beach we chucked our stuff and just dove head first into the water. It was WARM, like not tourist warm, it was comfortable warm to the point where you don’t stop once you hit waist-deep, you keep on going. The water was way salty though to the point you had to squint to see sometimes, but all completely worth it. We sunbathed for awhile, but it was sweaty hot so we took a walk and then a run down the beach all the way to the pier. The place was nice enough to give us some ice cold water which was good since we hadn’t brought any of our own. We actually caught the rumored storm clouds way, way out in the ocean and it was both cool and eerie how they "followed" us from the pier back to our area on the beach, but there was NO rain. According to Ko, the convention actually got rain, enough that you couldn’t go from the con back to the hotel, which kept him stuck waiting for the Guitar Hero tournament. Getting back to the con was easier now with tolls to speed things up but oh man, tailgaters and rude tollbooth people are nuts in Florida! Chad and Ian visited us after we got back and took a nap. Pizza had just arrived and Chad was cool enough to bring over some beer. Amber left to talk on the phone and visit Ripleys. Ko was a hero. Guitar Hero. When he came in, Nikki tossed an inflatable pink guitar at me saying that was the prize he won, but he had actually dominated this tournament, TRIPLING the highest score, and all of this done on no sleep and jetlag. Ko downed about 3 sips of beer and passed the hell out. Back at the con, Nikki and I caught Kneedrawp, Tyger, and Phil. They had setup a loudspeaker behind one of the hotel’s lobby plants and were secretly yelling out stuff and asking people questions as if they were the plant. It was so funny! Like for a Naruto cosplayer they’d ask "Why do you have that Orange Sanitarium suit on?!" or some pale ghost cosplayer we said things like "Hey Ashy! Why don’t you put some lotion on that dry skin?!" We also quoted Chappelle Show and other things. Shin passed by briefly to show off the trophies he had won for the Fan Film contest and later on I talked with Locky and Lindsay. The "Rave" dance was underway now and seemed like everyone was going there. Nothing but overpriced glowsticks, glow arms, glow hairclips, glowsticks on strings, and people who couldn’t dance. I was able to get into the VIP roped off area with Gabby and talk to Peter for a little bit. The con treated everyone in VIP to a really really nice meal and great chocolate dessert. I gave Ko’s badge over to Ohmar and finally went to get a full night’s rest. Sun
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