So, it would seem I have a lot of go over and quite a few pictures to share and not quite enough brainpower to put it into writing. There might be paragraphs, there might be random words…hopefully all coherent.

So where do I beginnnnn???! Let’s try the month of July. It’s been busy. It’s been hectic and stressful. But full of fun! My cousin A & Grandpa arrived from California July 3rd. Immediately, we jumped into the partying. July 4th this year was held at my uncle’s close friend’s home, they live roughly minutes from each other. There was tons of people, tons of food, tons of up-close fireworks (not to mention almost dangerous backyard explosives), lots of laughs, volleyball, waterslide, moonbounce and etc. There were armies of kids at war with each other, the adults playing the neutral country and mediate/dictating the rules of combat. There was excessive amounts of eating and drinking and repeat. Overall, it was one of the best July 4th parties I have ever attended! *The purin (Royal Pudding) above was fresh milk pudding from Paris Baguette, a local Korean bakery. TOTALLY reminded us of [My Boss, My Hero]

I went up to トマト’s cousin’s wedding with his family the weekend before Otakon. Lovely wedding but it rained heavily unexpectedly. So what was supposed to be a fabulous outdoor wedding on the river, turned out just fine indoors. My cousin & Grandpa spent a week at my uncle’s house hanging out.

Here’re the photos of the stuff I got from Otakon. I actually forgot to include the リラックマ inkstamp set, BeKyoot apron & totebag. All three are at random locations in my room? LUFF my MuuMuu (Squishables Cow), he’s so SOFT and squishy… In the second photo: Black Hayate from Fullmetal Alchemist (which looks eerily like まゆ?!), my badge (featuring East of Eden? Eden of the East?), various リラックマ  fruit-themed ねつけ, a ton of flyers/postcards/business cards for artists and vendors, Black Hayate is sitting on this crazy tiny-print schedule sheet and there’s the logo on the bag everyone got when they registered/picked up badges It was FUN TIMES. We got a great deal on our room. Roomed with cool people, hung out with some friends & had to hunt down my other cousin.

The breakdown: Arrived Thursday, found room/parking, picked up badges, walked around a little bit & got ourselves settled in for the weekend. Friday: Went to random panels, saw the Yoshida Brothers concert/bought their CDs/got them signed/got photo of them, walked around lost, wandered around, stopped by the Dealer’s Room for a little bit, ate lunch/dinner somewhere in there, got in a little late and passed out. Saturday: Attended a Yoshida Brothers’ Q&A, Hetalia: Axis Powers US premier, went to the Hetalia: Axis Powers voice actor panel/Q&A, went to get their autographs, wandered around a bit aimlessly, hung out with friends, had some food??, spent way too much time and money in the Dealer’s Room, took プリクラ everyday (booth located in the Dealer’s Room), got some late night boba, perused the Artists’ Alley briefly, a bunch of stuff I am forgetting. Sunday: Not much, got our stuff packed up and loaded into the car, went back to the convention center and made our last rounds, stopped by the Dealer’s Room & Artist Alley (straying in the latter for quite a while) one last time(s). Bought stuff, had lunch and shipped out.

We got back to Philly, we unpacked and went out to have bulgogi (Korean BBQ) at SeoRaBul with Ceci, her BF, トマト and us. Lots of raunchy conversation about inappropriate topics and ate until we wanted to burst. It was fun :angry

My cousin & Grandpa actually had to leave August 4th so we didn’t really have time to do much between then and Otakon ending.

And thus August appeared. I’ve been trying to get back on my schedule and it’s there NOW. I’ve been trying to work on the shop but I get so easily distracted (at home or at the shop). Slowly but surely, it’s coming. Mid-August, we (トマト & I) went over to to central Pennsylvania to visit his mom and her family for his aunt’s birthday. It was a fun weekend full of food and chatter. We took まゆ with us so that was an interesting experience. She was good. Especially at licking the food off the floor

This post is so long already I’m going to have to do another for this past weekend (Labor Day holiday). Later later!