The night prior to leaving to the airport, I had to construct a box so I could bring a sleeping bag and my props. It took a while (and quite a bit of duct tape) but I managed to create a box which would safely secure my props and met within the guidelines of checked baggage. As with other flights prior to this one, I did not get any sleep. I honestly don’t have too much of an issue with little sleep. Personally, I think it’s just more fun to wait with anticipation. I don’t think I’d be able to get proper sleep because of said anticipation anyway.
Upon arriving at the airport, I got myself something small to eat and I went to go sit in the terminal where my plane would arrive. When I got to there, I noticed there was a girl with an Iwatobi jacket (from the anime Free!) with a bunch of anime decorations on her bag. It didn’t take long for me to realize that she too was going to A-Kon. I usually don’t like to mingle with other anime fans outside of where I would be more comfortable doing so (ie, online, in conventions, other appropriate areas, etc) and went to go to a different corner where I’d be at a distance away from her.
After I had finished eating my breakfast (just a bagel with sausage and eggs), I brought out Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden that my friend had purchased for my birthday. I was reading a few pages until I noticed an elderly woman to my left was about ready to read her book too. Out of curiosity, I spoke to her asking what she was reading and what it was about. As she was explaining it to me, someone whom I believe to have been related to her in some way began to talk too. It was kind of clear from the way he spoke that he wasn’t exactly bright. He began to talk about Madeline and I was really confused as to why he even brought it up. It was later when he was getting closer to wrapping it up that I realized he brought up Madeline since our conversation of books triggered his memory of the book within Madeline. He also began to talk to me about other things by asking me where I was born (which ended up being the usual “I was born at a hospital here in WA but I’m Korean”) and started off talking about how people like me are called foreigners and whatnot. It was more funny than anything so I wasn’t offended. It was clear that he had no ill intention so I just laughed a lot of what he was saying off.
Remember that girl I mentioned earlier? Well when the guy had stopped talking, he and the elderly woman (with another guy I can only assume was her husband) walked off. Shortly after they had gone, she had sat two seats to my left. I started to kind of shuffle as I realized that I had my bag out (it was the anime one I had purchased from the last time I was at A-Kon). I was unfortunately too late. It wasn’t too painful at least. She asked if I was also going to attend A-Kon. After I had told her I would, we only had small talk before we went back to our own spaces. I was fairly determined to read the rest of the book.
When boarding finally started, I was relieved that I would finally get away from those two (especially the “Foreigner” guy). I had the window seat as usual and was just waiting for the flight to take off. It didn’t take long for me to realize Foreigner Guy sat in the same exact aisle to my right. Free! girl was also close to where I sat. Luckily I was two aisles down and to the left of her. Other than that, I actually had a nice flight. Each aisle had six seats (so obviously three seats per side) and for a while, there was no one sitting in the middle seat of where I sat. One kid sat down in the middle between this man and I thinking that was his assigned seat. When he told me what his seat was and how he was annoyed that someone else was sitting there (hilariously enough, it was Foreigner guy), I began to think that he had mistaken his seat for the gate where the plane would be. After he double checked his boarding pass, he had realized that he had made a mistake and confirmed what I had originally thought.
The flight to Texas was pretty nice and everything went well. I wanted to try to sleep through the plane ride but of course I was unable to. They’re simply just not all that comfortable.
When I had landed, it took a short while before Nightmaren finally came to pick me up. I had forgotten how terrible the traffic is in the passenger pick up area in the DFW airport. To make it worse, you have to pay two dollars just to get out too. It was then that I realized why Praxling didn’t seem too thrilled about picking me up at the aiport. I’m just happy that Nightmaren was able to do it.
So naturally the first place Nightmaren and I went was to a mall that had FasTaco in their food court. What better way to start a new adventure than to go extra FAS?! Due to where we had parked, we had to go through a Sears store which was very… empty. Granted, it was during a weekday but it just felt so weird. I almost whispered because it sounded so dead and the entire place felt like a throwback to the 90s. After we exited the store, we were getting close to a Dallas Cowboys store. Of course I was being dumb and saying how I should go in there and ask for SEAHAWKS stuff. But then Nightmaren warned me of something very important:
“Be careful cow. We do have conceal carry.”
I immediately retracted the idea and proceeded to head straight to FasTaco.
I was pleasantly surprised with how good the food was. It also helps that there was a helping of guacamole in the meal I had chosen. The only thing that really peeved me a bit was just how much ice this person added into my sweet tea drink. Didn’t just put a lot of ice in the cup but practically filled it all the way to the top with ice. I may as well just have paid for water at this point. At the very least, this helped dilute the sweet tea a lot (which was obnoxiously sweet).
Since Nightmaren had just finished working, we decided to crash (not into slumber yet) in the apartment. We spent a bit of time just talking as we usually do. It felt a bit surreal considering this was only our second time meeting in person. I suppose after all those hours of Skyping with each other, seeing each other in person felt almost the same as any other day. Nevertheless, it was an exciting experience in its own way. We decided to kill time before we head back out due to the insane heat outside. I used a little bit of that time to get settled a bit (though not too much as we would later head to Praxling’s apartment to stay during A-Kon) and just play a bit of Animal Crossing with Nightmaren. Since I had not slept much that day, I decided to take a 15 minute nap. Despite how short the nap was, I was mildly confused as to where I was when I woke up. Amazing what 15 minutes of sleep can do to you.
When we felt enough time had passed, we went out to go to a small shopping center that was perfect for hanging out. On the way there though, we had to cross a lot of really queer roads. There were some roads that made no sense, some with bricks instead of smooth pavement, and some intersections had five signal lights. What the hell?
As we were entering the parking garage specifically built for the mini shopping area, Nightmaren was telling me how it had a system designed to ensure that those who parked in this garage would be for those roaming around the shopping area. Like most garages, you’ll get a ticket upon entering. It’s important, however, that you take the ticket with you. The ticket functions as a pass of sorts to verify that you did in fact go to one of the shops in the area. Each store is equipped with a machine to scan the ticket. Upon each scan, it resets its timer to a certain time frame. If you return to your car and exit within that time frame, you do not have to pay for parking. I was very impressed with its system. As Nightmaren explained to me, Fort Worth is an interesting city in the sense that it’s almost designed for people to mingle around. If I remember correctly, Fort Worth is practically in the cultural district. Thus naturally a lot of the area has places such as the one we went to which can be pretty nice to just hang out at. Of course, if the temperature was a little cooler, it would be perfect.
On our way back home, we stopped by the Target that was near where Nightmaren lived to get a few things (such as batteries for my speedlite, soap, shampoo, etc). I was startled by the size of the Target store though. In fact, it was my first time seeing a Super Target. I’ve seen a Super Walmart but never a Target. Most of the Target stores I’ve seen have always been accompanied by a mall of some sort. To see a Target store by itself was already weird. Since it was kind of late at night, there were not as many people as there normally would be. However due to its massive size, the store appeared to be completely dead… until we approached the checkout area. There was a single massive line for some reason and everyone was kind of groaning. I was surprised at how quickly the staff had responded to this situation as one of the checkers asked for backup and they came quickly. I didn’t expect them to jog their way to the checkout to get us all cleared out.
After a good shower upon arriving back at the apartment, we talked, played some Animal Crossing, made a comment on how Nightmaren’s medicine ball looked like a BBALL and how Nightmaren clearly goes out with da homeboys and play some hoops and slam jamming the entire court all day every night, and just whatever (autistic thing) you would imagine the two of us doing. Since Nightmaren had work early in the morning, we made sure to head to sleep early.
Ha, yeah right.
Although we were aware, we couldn’t help but just talk. We eventually did realize that we needed to sleep and decided it would be a good time to do so. Of course, I was in a different area when we went to sleep but it wasn’t bad. The apartment was pretty empty so it wasn’t difficult to find a space to sleep at. The only problem was that as I laid my head down onto the sleeping bag, one thought went through my head.
“Ugh, god damn it dogs.”