Sydney and I are trying to see Madama Butterfly next January, so I'm pretty stoked.  It was just going to be me, her, and my mom, but now my dad says he wants to go...and he's making it difficult, because we all want to go on a weekend, but he wants to go on a weekday.  Fuck.  There's no fun in dressing up for the opera if it's going to be in midday.  There's no point to wearing a ballgown and all that awesome stuff.  D:  Come onnnn....

Plus he's being a jerk about the prices.  It's the opera.  It's not going to be cheap.  I'm looking at Upper balcony seats, which are the cheapest in the house, and he's asking if there are any cheaper.  NO, THERE AREN'T.  I love my dad, but what was supposed to be a fun girls' night out is now a hassle.  :\  I wish mom hadn't asked him to come, he didn't even remember until she made me remind him.  Even after reminding him, he didn't really remember.

But enough bitching.  Nothing else is really going on.  I went to Cedar Point with Sydney and Ben last Thursday, and that was a ton of fun, except that I got really sunburned, and was EXHAUSTED the next day.  It didn't help that I (temporarily) lost my mom's credit card, and then got lost on the way back home.  Plus I was late to work, from looking for my mom's card.

Saturday, was supposed to go to Josh's house for a party, but apparently everyone EXCEPT JOE cancelled.  What.  I ended up calling up Hope and asking her to go with me, but when she finally met up with me, it was a bit too late to go over there, and I wasn't so sure it was a good idea in the first place anyway, since I'm still nowhere near getting over that whole mess.  So we ended up watching Old School, and then she was nice enough to listen to me drone on for about an hour about how life sucks or some shit, I don't really remember.  By that time I was just tired as hell and kept rambling on, haha.  Poor girl puts up with so much.

Hope's going to try and go to Thailand again next summer to visit her friends, but doesn't want to go alone....so she invited me!  FUCK YES.  Granted, this will probably take a huge chunk out of any spending money I might have, especially for conventions, so I'm going to have to be extremely frugal, but I'm so freaking excited.  Granted, it's not set in stone, but I don't have to worry about a passport, don't have to worry about hotels, and I'll be traveling with someone that is fluent in Thai and spent a year in the country, so I won't have to wander around lost in Bangkok.

It would be the first time I left the country (other than Canada, though that hardly counts, especially considering that you didn't NEED a passport to get into Canada when I went), and I'd get to spend time in one of the few Asian countries that hasn't lost it's traditional culture to modern culture.  Plus, apparently it's 35 baht to 1 American dollar at the moment, so if the exchange rate doesn't change too drastically, I should be able to get some awesome souvenirs for very little.  PLUS, they've got a lot of Japanese and anime merchandise, although I'm sure a lot of it (read: all of it) will be in Thai...but perhaps some posters or figurines or something?  Hmm.  I'd really like to get some really cool authentic Thai stuff, though; I really like how intricate their art and designs are. 

Okay, I'm getting too excited when I'm not sure if I'm even going or not.  But, I'm at least going to start saving up right away....after paying my dad the $400 I owe him for car repairs.  Ugh.

But let's see.  Assuming I make $300 every two weeks (usually more, but I'm playing it safe), I take out $100 for my bills (assuming I don't add more on), $100 into savings for my hopeful trip, and get $100 left over, either into more savings for convention/cosplay stuff, or straight spending cash, or Christmas fund.  (probably should start on my Christmas fund early this year...)  So if that's $200 a month, I should have $1600 in...8 months?  That should be enough.  Sweet. 



Hmmm...other stuff...started working out again.  I'm going to start a cosplay of Queen Elfaria from Odin Sphere, and hopefully I'll be in good enough shape to be able to wear it at Ohayocon.  If I work hard enough, I should be, though.  I just have to stay focused.  Once that one's finished, I can start concentrating on my Yoko costume for next year's Acen, once again provided that I get my ass in good shape.  But yeah, Elfaria should be fun.  I've seen numerous Odin Sphere cosplays done already of the main characters, but haven't seen one of her yet, and the wings would be a real challenge.  I'm thinking of stretching Habotai silk over the frame, and then hand painting the design for the wings, though those wings are freaking HUGE.  I'm going to have to be creative as far as figuring out how to skillfully attach those to my costume.  Hopefully I'll do a good job...I'm determined to do it justice.

Not too much else is going on...school's starting up again soon, and it looks like I may be picking up even more hours from work, so that will be a plus.  More money is always good.  Uhhhh.....yeah.

Oh wow. That was fun. But thank fucking GOD I had my badge mailed to me, or I possibly would have been stuck in line for 10 hours, hahaha.

Okay, it's not so funny to those who were in line for that long. I'm sorry for everyone that was stuck without a badge on Friday, thanks to the lovely reg line.

It's pretty late, and I'm EXHAUSTED, thanks to a very bad night's sleep, due to a certain person's snoring, and a certain other two people pinning me with their asses, haha. It's all good, though. I had a BLAST this weekend, thanks to my awesome friends, and I'm just glad that my cosplay didn't end up in an epic failure. NEITHER costume I made, apparently. So that's good, considering how hastily made both of them were, and the fact that I haven't sewn a garment in years, AND the fact that for both, I drew up my own patterns on a whim. So while they may not have been fucking amazing (though J was ecstatic about his Rossiu and wouldn't stop hugging me) or anything, I feel pretty damn accomplished and happy with myself. So that's good, after how stressed I was last week.
There wasn't a TON of TTGL cosplay, but that's all right...there will be more in the future. And hopefully, once I FINALLY get my ass in gear and shape up, I'll be able to do more of Yoko's outfits. I don't know if I'll ever properly do her pre-time skip outfit, though. It's pretty overdone, and I'd feel like I'm beating a dead horse. But I really want to do Yomako-sensei, startits, and time-jump Yoko.

However, in the meantime, I was thinking of cosplaying Asahina from RahXephon for Ikasucon. It would be pretty easy: White sweatshirt, miniskirt, and lots and LOTS of fake blood - blue blood. I though it would be fun to do a BAWWWW inducing cosplay from episode 19, as I cried like a sissy girl when she died. Gah, just thinking about it makes me tear up. Hopefully I'll have lost some weight by then, but it shouldn't be a difficult costume to do at all.

Anyway, I need sleeeeeep.

Oh man....work was grueling today.

Well, okay, it wasn't really all that bad.  But it seemed to go on forever, even though I did get out early.  So once again, I have been slaving over costumes.

AND OMG.  Only 3 days left before we leave for Acen.  Holy crap...hahaha, and I'm still working on J's costume.  I'm almost done with Rossiu....just have to put on the arms, add the shoulder details and the stars, and fix up the zippers, and it will be FINISHED.  Wait...boot covers.  DAMN BOOT COVERS!  AAAAUUUUUGH! 

Well, maybe Zrana will help me out a bit, if I ask nicely.  Damn, I forgot to ask her for wig help too.  Haaa....maybe she'll help me with that too?  I should call and ask.  But I'm so excited.  I thought the costume would fail, since I made up my own pattern, but it seems to be turning out quite nicely.

THE BAD THING:  I have not started on my own costume!  I figured that, since J gave me money and stuff for fabric and supplies so he could have a costume for THIS convention, his takes priority over mine.  And I mean, I could always just dress up like a geisha again...even though my badge says Yoko.  Nah, I don't want to do that.  It'll be rainy at the con, and chances are I will be sweating hot. 

But hopefully, my costume won't take long to assemble.  I mean, it's really just a tunic/cape thing, which is just two semicircular pieces of fabric sewn together, with square sleeves and a hood.  Other than the hood, I can't imagine it being particularly hard, as it's nothing but simple shapes.  The boots are coming along nicely, too...just have to touch up the flames and seal the paint.  However, I have not started on Yoko's scarf, or her gloves, and I really need to work on the wig.  The gloves I'm worrying about...I was going to simply buy long black gloves, but I don't want to pay $20 for something I'm going to butcher.  I don't see something like that being TOO particularly difficult, but I'm keeping my mouth shut until I actually do it.  It may actually suck quite a bit.  The scarf too...I've seen SO many badly done scarves for Yoko, even though it seems so simple.  Perhaps I should get some interfacing or something to back up the fleece.

But other than that, I'm set.  I got the stockings and her hairpin.  I've been waiting for my hairsticks for quite a while...I have no idea why they haven't arrived yet, and I hope to GOD they arrive by Wednesday.  If not, then I'll just be stuck painting some chopsticks yellow.  *sigh*  I really don't want to do that, but I may have no choice if worse comes to worse. 

I think I can do it, though.  I mean, I've got the rest of the week off, so I can just spend all day, every day sewing.  And I get paid tomorrow, so I can finally get the rest of my materials.  And I'll be going to my bf's on Wednesday and spending the night before we leave for the con, so if I must, I will continue slaving over costumes over there, haha. 

This is exciting, though.  For once, I'm actually making my costume instead of just buying a bunch of shit, so even if the costumes aren't wonderful or amazing, at LEAST I can feel accomplished that they aren't completely horrible.  Which they're not; I've definitely seen worse.

Worked some more on the Rossiu costume today...had to buy some more craft foam, fabric, and paint.  I got my paycheck on Monday and I'm almost completely broke already.  ಠ_ಠ

God, I really hope my throat clears up by the time Acen comes around.  I've been sick for over two weeks now, and it just looks like it's getting worse and worse.  I really, really wish I could go to the doctor, but without health insurance, I'm pretty much fucked.  It really only hurts when I forget to take my ibuprofen, or talk too much, but I've also still got a tiny bit of a cough left, and it's driving me crazy. 

All right, I got paid today, and dropped a bit of money off at JoAnn's again to get the rest of the materials for Jeremy's Rossiu costume, and some stuff for my Yoko.  I just need to get gloves and boots, and I should be covered....

But anyway.  I've got less than three weeks to get this stuff done, so I'm panicking, hahaha.  At least Joe's Kamina wig is looking pretty good.  Or at least somewhat win.  We're going to dye it a little bit of a darker blue, and then I'm going to cut more shape into it.  I'm mostly done cutting, but we need to get the hair just right.  I'm so happy that I didn't ruin it though, hahaha. 

My Yoko wig is still quite tangly, though.  I need to get the tangles out before I do the oil treatment on it, but the tangles...just...won't...go...away!  I'll probably have to trim the wig just a bit, hopefully that will help with some of it.  I may need someone to wear it for me so I can style it, though.  Joe definitely won't, as it makes him feel effeminate, lol.  Poor boy.

But yeah, I'm really excited to finally get started on this stuff.  I mean, I should have earlier, but at least now I have the materials.  I just hope I don't fail miserably, heh.  Well, I suppose I should get started.  I can cut now, go to work, and then start sewing later.





...Damn.  I really need to learn CSS and make a different profile.

So I caved and got myself a new LJ.  The old one...I haven't posted in over 5 years. 

Well, nobody will be reading this anyway, or at least not right now, so I suppose there really isn't any point in writing a long, drawn out entry about stuff.  But if you know me, HEY WHAT'S UP.

Oh, as for the name...DesertLily, my usual ID for internet crap, was taken (as it often is), so I went with StarTitsYoko as it's a costume so incredibly garish, inappropriate, and ridiculous, that I absolutely must cosplay it one day.  Uh, one day after I get in much better shape, of course.