2023-03-26 - The Trip to Boston
Long time, no see. Sorry for the total lack of updates lately! I do kinda want to talk about the website first, since I feel like I have a few things relating to it that I want to talk about.
So, first off -- The website is currently undergoing some big update. I was going to have it be put on hiatus until then, but I'm a huge procrastinator, so I'm just kinda rolling out updates as I make them. This does mean that several pages are completely out of date, or they're a bit broken, or whatever else, but I'm hopeful that I can have everything updated in the near future. ^_^
Hmm... Other online ventures are basically regulated to just the Metal Gear Database, the independent Metal Gear wiki that I founded. An admin from the Independent Fallout Wiki has been such a huge help with this, and I owe her my life. Most recently, she forked the entire Metal Gear Fandom wiki over! This will definitely be very helpful to me, and I seriously can't wait to continue editing and revamp every single page. Sadly, I can't right now, because.... I'm on a trip!
As of typing this, I'm actually suffering in a five hour layover in New Jersey, but I went on a trip to Boston for PAX East 2023. My mom was the one who got the tickets and did some planning, though I'm totally going by myself next year. I do feel like I'm a bit behind when it comes to "adult stuff", and my inability to drive and my having very few independent experiences kinda solidify that. But I digress! Let's talk about the trip, shall we?
So... Thursday. My mom got tickets for Friday and Sunday (When I go next year, I totally want to go for all four days...!), so we were good to go on Thursday. Because my dad is going through chemotherapy, he couldn't really take us to the airport in the early morning. Fatigue is a total bitch. My mom scheduled a Lyft to take us there, and we were off at 5 am!
... Then, we were back once my mom realized that she lost her driver's license when we were already halfway to the airport. She apologized profusely to the driver, then spent about 45 minutes trying to find her license when we were home. All of that time lost meant that we made it to the airplane just by final boarding... >_>
... But enough of that. This is about my trip to PAX, not complaining about random events. I could talk about the admittedly very nice hotel, or other various experiences, but.... PAX............
Now, I had my Big Boss ita bag, which I put quite a bit of time into. I'm totally gonna post the pictures of both it and my Kirby ita bag (Which I also brought, of course!) as soon as I can! I really need to figure out a way to properly organize this journal page, and inserting images just causes more clutter for now. Suffice it to say that it looks damn good. I had on my beautiful beanie, which had various pins decorating it that made it look even cuter, I had my heart shaped glasses, which made everything look just a little bit pinker and made me adorable, and I had a lanyard with Metal Gear Solid 2 characters! Truly, I was ready to roll.
And roll I did. There's a sign when you walk in saying "Welcome home", and I have always felt that was apt, especially now that I know the Boston convention center rather well. It is a home to me. The people there share my interests, I can talk to them about whatever, it's a joy that I can't get anywhere else and I was ecstatic!
The convention itself... Holy shit. The cosplays were beautiful. The panels were fun. I was so unbelivably happy. I don't want to share the photos I took of the cosplayers, since I feel like that may be a minor breach of privacy, but I saw a Rose Quartz, Bowser, Big Boss (Who I paused right when he was about to go up the escalator -- He laughed in glee when he saw my ita bag, and did the "You're pretty good!" hand gesture when I took the picture!! ^_^), and a few lovely ladies in lolita dresses. One of them even had a Goro Majima ita bag! :O That was such a surprise to see!!
But, of course, conventions are more than just walking around and seeing cool cosplays. There are also the panels, and those were very exciting as always! The first panel I went to was about cosplaying when you're neurodivergent, especially ADHD. I've always been a bit nervous about cosplay for numerous reasons, and seeing people talk about it and how being neurodivergent has impacted their ability to cosplay, kind of madae me feel a bit more confident in it. I have both ADHD and OCD, and while I don't think those would impact my ability to cosplay too much, there are still nuances relating to both that I think that I should keep in mind if I ever want to get fully involved in the hobby.
Pretty shortly after that was another panel in the same room about the Nintendo Gamecube. Appropriately enough, it was called something like The Nintendo GameCube Was the Greatest Console Ever Made. There was no arguing over why it was the greatest console, it was simply an accepted fact that it was. The first thirty minutes were dedicated to talking about the GameCube, the panelists' memories of the GameCube, their favorite games, etc. etc. The last thirty minutes were spent building the perfect collection of GameCube games, with the limit being fifteen. There were ten games to start out with, and audience members had to convince three out of five panelists to add a game of their choosing. If there were already fifteen games, the audience member also had to argue for removing a game from the lineup! I remember that someone went up and shook the hand of someone who argued for the removal of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. XD
I did go to one other panel at the end of the con, though I sadly didn't see it to its completion. While it was about speedrunning, a very interesting topic to me, I just... I had been there since 9:00 AM. I have pretty severe anxiety, and while Zoloft is a godsend for that, I just... Couldn't keep being around people. I could feel the signs of an oncoming panic attack, and had to exit the panel thirty minutes early.
That was... Honestly the only negative about the convention. I didn't even talk about the expo hall yet! I withdrew sixty bucks, anticipating a lot of money spending, but for a while, nothing really caught my eye. Until, of course, I stumbled across a booth selling some tech stuff. Controllers were the main draw, but those keyboards... They were beautiful... I got a full sized keyboard for $30, and it's pink, and it's fantastic to type on, and I love it so much, and I'm absolutely stoked about it! I also got an Ace Attorney desk mat and Metal Gear Solid 2 pin from Fangamer, and that was really about it in terms of expo hall purchases. I did find myself in possession of a cute Kirby sticker and a Pokémon card, though. I saw someone with an adorable Kirby ita bag, and I had to stop her and tell her how cute it was! I showed her mine, and she said that it was adorable, then she asked if I wanted a Pokémon card and Kirby sticker, and of course I said yes!! Her bag also had a Vineshroom pin, and we talked about Vinny for a bit, which was a joy.
... On the topic of Vinny...
Vinesauce has been... One of the most influential things that I have ever watched. I've been watching Vinny especially since middle school, and I'm in college now. That should tell you how important he is to me. He's seriously been an absolute lifesaver in so many ways, and when I heard that he was doing signings and photo ops, I was just... I wish I could say that I was overwhelmed with joy, but I was mostly just incredibly anxious. I made my way to the booth where he was doing the signings, I waited in line for like an hour, the moment finally came and I got a Red Vox flexi disc of their newest album, I was hyperventilating and told Vinny that I had serious anxiety, and he said "It's okay, it's me. Hello, nice to meet you."
My eyes were stinging, I was so happy about this. They were giving out free stress balls shaped like brains (They said "Brainyot" on them, which is always appreciated. XD), and I was given one, and I got to talk about Red Vox with him, and we talked about music and his music for a while and that was amazing, and I got to shake his hand because I asked and I told him that I owed him my life and all he said was "No, you don't," and I said that I really did and he turned to me and said "You know what I say? If it weren't for me, you would have found somebody else. But thank you, and I'm glad you're still here."
I honestly don't really remember much of what happened after that moment, it was all kind of a breeze. I'm just so happy that Vinny is as kind as I thought he would be. Like, right after I told him about how anxious I was, he said that he was pretty anxious as well, but that it got easier as you got older. That shit seriously means a lot to me. I know that it's probably a bit silly, and I'm definitely trying to move away from parasocial relationships with Twitch streamers, but that moment was one that I will never forget.
(By the way, he signed my iPod.)
Honestly, the rest of the convention was mostly just sitting around, maybe going to the AFK room (A quiet room with coloring books where you aren't allowed to speak; very useful if you just want quiet.), and generally existing. It was still just... Such a great time.
The next day was not. My mom rented a car, we drove to Rhode Island to that we could say we've been to Rhode Island, we drove to Connecticut, my mom hung out with her coworker friend, I was on my period and overemotional and started crying numerous times... It was seriously a mess. The fact that my mom messed up with scheduling flights and the Sunday flight would leave at 12:00 PM instead of basically any later time just rubbed salt in the wound.
I didn't even go to the convention today. Friday had overwhelmed me with sound, the panels I was interested in started in the afternoon, I didn't feel comfortable going to the very interesting looking event where you learned how to play Dungeons and Dragons if I was just going to leave early, and... I just wanted to get out of there.
One flight later, and... Here we are. In the Newark airport, waiting for a flight that leaves at 7:55. I can't wait to go home, but honestly? Even if the weekend wasn't the best, Friday more than made up for it. This was a really fun trip, and I for one cannot wait for next year.
