Twenty years of ACEN! Not all of them, of course--I didn't go from 2009-2011 because I was living in Japan, I didn't go in 2013 because I had a bit of a sour experience in 2012 and that was the point where ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schoolpsychnerd was deep in the throes of grad school and we had very little money, I didn't go in 2020-2021 because thanks to the Plague Years it didn't happen, and I didn't go in 2022-2023 because 2022 required full masks at all times (which I have no moral objection to, it just didn't sound very fun) and because ![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png){kind=icon}
sashagee was too sick to go and I didn't want to go by myself. But last year I went, and now here we are again.It's been a while since I stayed at a hotel other than the Hyatt. This year, however, my luck finally ran out--when the hotel lottery happened I failed to get a room at the Hyatt, and then I failed to get rooms at the other hotels I tried. Fortunately, Anime Chicago as a community prepares for this. Several people grabbed extra rooms in the knowledge that there would definitely be people who missed out, and I was able to get one at the Embassy Suites. I've never stayed here before--I've stayed at the Doubletree, and at the Hilton, but this was a first...and honestly I'd go back. The rooms are huge and, more importantly for a couple with a four-year-old, they're suites. There's a front room with a couch, an armchair, a table with more chairs, and a little bar area, then a door between the two connecting rooms, so we don't need to turn all the lights out and immediately go to bed when it's time for Laila to go to sleep. I would say "You can't buy that kind of peace for money" but we obviously did.
And now, the daily accounting.
( Thursday )
( Friday )
( Saturday )
( Sunday )
And now we're home. We're tired. We're sore.
sashagee took a five-hour nap just after lunch. But, she's already decided that Uzaki Hana is going to be the cosplay she sticks with--she's going to work on it a bit, get screen-accurate brown boots, get a tighter shirt (she has lost weight since I got the original for her), and maybe get a wig. She expected to wear it a bit and have some fun and was very surprised when multiple people came up to ask her for her picture.She did say she was a bit suspicious, though. Uzaki-chan is a romantic comedy, but the shirt specifically says "Super huge!" (sugoi dekai), so whenever someone asked for her picture she was like "Hmm..."
The only downside were all the things we couldn't get to. We didn't get to see the Conbini panel and couldn't get into the Oregon Trail panel. We didn't go to the dance on Friday, which it sounds like might have had more music to
sashagee's taste. We didn't get to go back to see ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
stephen_poon again. We didn't try any of the board games at all. We didn't get to see the AMV contest, which as I've repeatedly mentioned, used to be a central event that I always went to. There's always soon much to do and not enough time to do it. Laila is going to come back with infinite energy and run both of us over. But we had a lovely time with all our friends. Looking forward to ACEN next year!
She knows what she wants and what she wants is food.
, which we can put up in the kitchen area of our future home. And then we went out to eat at a local restaurant called Gadabout, which used to be a wine, cheese, and bakery specialty shop, and before that used to be an organic grocery store. I give them props for the server knowing exactly what was involved when she asked about dietary restrictions and I said I kept kosher--she told me up front they couldn't accommodate that but they'd keep the meat and milk separate--and anti-props for naming the shakshuka "baked eggs." But when it came all was forgiven: 
). They don't expect to live long enough to see Laila go to college, or if they have, they don't expect to have all their faculties. But they want to make sure that Laila can go anywhere she wants. As a high school student, my father got into Stanford but could not afford to go and so went to USCD. He's determined that no one in his family will have to make the same decision.
Last Saturday, online. As usually, ordered in my likelihood of watching more. Or at this point, I should say "perceived likelihood," because there are definitely some shows I rated as number one in previous samplers that I've never even touched. Anyway:
In any year but the Plague Year, I'd be waking up at ACEN right now. 
It's the first ACEN I've missed (so to speak) since 2013. The mixer that Anime Chicago usually would have held at Red Bar at the Hyatt Rosemont was instead held online, so I sat down at 7 p.m. tea in hand and chatted with people for a couple hours until I had to leave to go fiddle with my wifi again. 
The other good thing is that I did a ton of unpacking and now the entire area around my dining room table is clear. Now I just need to get a couple more bookcases so I can put up all the non-RPG books I have. The RPG books are already all on shelves in the office. I spent a couple hours doing that and finished up early--I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 5:30 feeling pretty rested. 
Well, chahan and yakisoba will go pretty far, if we can get the ingredients for them. 
