aka, I went home for the holiday and, since Liz had just gotten me Madara and Kohaku nuis, I decided to bring the boys along! It was quite the trip because we were also traveling with two of our cats, soooo why not document the highlights?

Part of the trip - besides visiting my family for Thanksgiving + my mom's 70th birthday - was to bring Genevieve to Josh and Emmy. We tried really hard with her, especially since she's so sweet, but she does not get along with other cats. The shelter we got her from lied/misrepresented her, I guess????? But she wasn't jiving with our household, no matter how much we tried. And now that Josh and Emmy have their own house and can have pets, they offered to take her in. So!!! She had to travel with us, and I didn't want to leave Lumos behind...so she came too XD


locked and loaded in the car, right before getting on the road!!!
Anyway!!! This is about to be a bit of a long post: I originally made it on tumblr and it was very image heavy, and this is....even more so, because I found more pictures from the trip XD I HAD A LOT OF FUN AND TOOK MANY PICTURES AND NOT A LOT OF TIME ONLINE BECAUSE TIME WITH FRIENDS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!! ♥

which is to say, I'm putting the rest of this entry behind a cut so I don't just destroy everyone's reading pages~

( come join me on a maaaaagical adventure!!! )

And that's my whole trip!!!!!!!!!!! Kudos to anyone who goes through the whole thing~ I had a lot of fun taking pics along the way, despite the fact that I've done this road trip so many times...so I guess nuis are the way to succeed? ;D

Soooooooooo, first off, we didn't end up going to Chicago, due to inclement weather and an utter lack of cicadas emerging yet :T But that's okay: Liz & I ended up going somewhere else instead!!!! We packed up the car and set out on Friday afternoon, headed towards...

MYSTERY~~~~~~~~~~~~

j/k j/k but actually only so much of a joke XD We did leave without an exact destination in mind, just a vague direction. We'd floated quite a few ideas around, but nothing felt quite right + it was supposed to rain basically fucking everywhere. Outer Banks? Salem? FUCK YOU, IT'S GONNA THUNDERSTORM.

In the end, I came up with our destination: Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH. It's a small tourist town right on Lake Erie that my family went to sometimes when I was growing up + it's relatively close to the Medieval Faire that Pat & I worked at as teens, so the cast party was always there. It's the exact kind of kitschy Americana that Liz & I love to find during trips, and I've been wanting to take Liz for years. It was also supposed to rain there, but whatever!!!! WE HAD OUR EXACT HEADING!!!!!!

Hey, did you know that Northern Ohio is over six fucking hours from Baltimore? XD

Anyway! We had a very lovely lunch in Frederick at a local restaurant, as opposed to our usual Sheetz run that we do there...mostly because it was actually day time instead of the middle of the night (aka our usual travel time), and then powered onwards!!!!! I had every intention of reading Obbligato to Liz while they were driving, but uhhh sometimes you're casually rping and then suddenly it's been nearly four hours, because time isn't real. I at least paid enough attention to realize we should eat dinner and that we'd be passing by Pittsburgh area right around when we'd be hungry, so we pulled off there. I also realized we'd forgotten to pack lube...which worked out fine, because we got to stop into the Adult Mart I used to work at & chat with the current employees.

Continuing on, we got to experience the utter flatness of Ohio: something familiar to me and quite new for Liz, since they'd only been to Ohio once, and that was when we went to Colossalcon together in 2014. Clearly, I had to fix this~~

As we got closer to the area, I got absolutely smacked in the face with nostalgia...even though I hadn't been up this way in nearly 15 years.


Starting with this exit sign!! Pat and I always thought it sounded like an excessively British road (and I knew I could send him this pic & it would tell him exactly where we were, and I was right)
We also pulled off at a rest stop so we could try to plan out where we'd be sleeping, and as soon as we got out of the car, I was like “WAIT I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE!!!!”

I then tried to pull up old faire pictures from Facebook, but was thwarted by the absolutely shit phone service in the middle of nowhere Ohio XD I found pics later, though! And I was right again!!!!!!

But first we had to check into our motel, a Red Roof Inn with both the most comfortable bed I've slept on in years and a large fish tank in the front lobby that was completely devoid of any life...but the filter was still running. Okay, sure! We ended up passing out pretty quickly, thanks to all day driving and excitement for the next day. It was still predicted to thunderstorm on and off all day Saturday, but I was hopeful that we could still have fun.

Spoilers: it rained some in the morning, but by around 1pm it had completely cleared up and it ended up being absolutely beautiful, perfect weather the rest of the weekend :D My luck is fantastic~

So!!! We spent the day in Geneva-on-the-Lake, during all the important touristy things:

• playing DDR on an actually arcade machine for the first time in years, in one of the many arcades I used to frequent
• eating at Eddies, the walk up restaurant that serves all the classics (aka burgers & fries)
• realizing that it's a small kitschy town in the midwest, so of course everywhere only takes cash even though it's 2024
• having coffee at the most hipster/gentrified looking place there (that was also the most expensive place we went) BUT the coffee was damn good and we wanted somewhere to sit for a bit because...
• sitting in a coffee shop for an hour playing enstars merge mansions featuring my bestie HiMERU, because it's so damn fun (and also we weren't emotionally ready to start reading Obbligato yet tbh)
• mini golf at the oldest continuously operating miniature golf course in the country
• winning at mini golf against my wife but losing BADLY compared to the actual par XD
• cooling off with really good soft serve ice cream (because ice cream is just better in Ohio, okay, I don't make the rules but it's true)
• walking through a scenic area to experience the beauty of nature, aka me talking about Lake Erie to my lovely wife who grew up by the ocean
• regretting our choice to not bring our swimsuits from the motel, because we really thought it was gonna rain all day
• seeing some glorious bootleg pokemon plushies in one of the gift shops (I should have bought one of them, but uhhhh money is hard)

ANYWAY. We ended up heading back to the motel eventually, because we'd walked around a lot and wanted to chill...and maybe get our swimsuits. Apparently we were tired than we thought, because we just sorta flopped around the motel room for awhile, playing the enstars event and relaxing. Eventually, I decided I wanted to at least see the beach properly, and it'd been a very long time since I'd seen sunset over the water.


AND I'M GLAD WE DID!!!!!! I GOT SOME GORGEOUS PICTURES :D
Also, I preemptively had us wear swimsuits, even though it was evening and we were just going so we could see the sunset...and I was right, again, because we ended up having a wonderful time swimming. It was kinda chilly at first, but easy enough to adjust to~ Liz had many experiences of "why is this so different???" from being used to salt water (most of which boiled down to them being surprised by the lack of crabs) and I just love being in the water. Just...it was nice!!! Relaxing!! A lovely evening!!!!

And then our dinner plans were the Waffle House across the street from our motel, which I had been looking forward to since we got to town. Look, I remember it from staying in a different hotel back in high school, so it was exciting!

...and then it was fucking closed for the next few days for no discernible reason??????? The parking lot was blocked, so Liz got out of the car to check, and it was just like "we're closed until Tuesday" with no explanation. But it was already late enough that most places were closed already, because fuck you, and we were both pretty distraught over it (mostly me though, because I'm dramatic- especially about Waffle House).

HOWEVER WE WERE SAVED BY A TRUE HERO: STEAK 'N SHAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The single location in the Baltimore area closed a couple years back and all of the locations in Pittsburgh closed, so Ohio was pretty much the closest location...but I can't drive 6+ hours every time I want a Frisco Melt, unfortunately. BUT WE FOUND A LOCATION NEARBY AND WENT AND IT WAS JUST AS GOOD AS MY MEMORIES AND I FEEL REVITALIZED!!!!!!!!!! We also picked up a few more bottles of their seasoning salt, since we were starting to run low.

Sunday was just as warm but windier, so going to the beach in the morning was actually a bit colder...also because the water hadn't been baking under the sun all day. But it was still nice!!! We spent a few hours flopping around the water before heading back into town for lunch + purchasing Pat's least favorite souvenir: another fucking mug. I was very picky about finding the perfect one, so this actually took awhile XD

Anyway! Since it was gonna be a 6+ hour drive home, we decided to stop in Pittsburgh for a day and drive the rest of the way back on Monday. The tl;dr for that is that I'm glad I saw my dad, we had a nice time seeing Josh & Emmy, and I swear my mom learns to be more passive aggressive with every passing year. Overall a nice time, but jeezus. There was a lot I don't have the energy to unpack right now :T

We left later than we meant to on Monday, because I was busy telling Carson about enstars and then having autism to autism communication about the Japanese phone games he's currently playing XD I knew he'd understand my plight!!

The drive home wasn't too bad, partially because we finally started reading Obbligato. Liz read it to me while I drove, which meant I did more driving than I usually do on our trips because I didn't want to have to take over doing all the voices for everyone...Liz just does a better job. I'm gonna have to make another entry if I wanna get into Obbligato thoughts, though, because this one is already super long and I still have pictures to share.

( that's right!! you didn't think I forgot to be a dork, right???? )

I was up until 5 in the fucking morning grinding out the last of the jp enstars event....and then woke up at, uh, 8:45 am. So. I'm sleep deprived but jazzed about idol boys? Which is, I think, my natural state these days XD

(Liz is working from home and I'm sitting across from them and I get to see them being so cute in their meeting it's precious)

ANYWAY. Let's do this in some sort of order...

I didn't end up going super hard in Puffy☆Bunny, probably due to me blowing all my fucking dia on Kohaku (worth it!!!!!), but I did get at least one copy of everyone. So now they can all be Easter-themed jackasses XD However, since I wasn't constantly grinding, I decided to reread the first ever enstars story I read: Black Snow (because I started playing in the middle of La Mort, and I'm still sad I didn't manage to get Ritsu).

Because it was the first thing going on when I started, I developed a fondness for basically everyone in La Mort...despite knowing next to nothing of what was going on. Now that it's been a few months and I've read...a lot.......I wanted to see if my first impressions were accurate~



KOHAKU IS A GOOD BOY WHO CARES ABOUT ALL UNITS HE'S IN, EVEN TEMPORARY

( not me screencapping a chunk of this story just to point at and say 'lookit them they're great' )

Okay, so now that all that's out of my system, I am also VERY EXCITED for Obbligato to start in engstars this weekend!!!!!!!!! It's starting in the middle of our road trip to Chicago, so I'm planning on reading it to the whole car- because everyone wants to hear an angsty anime audiobook, right? XD Liz does better character voices than me, but they also do most of the driving usually, sooooooo I'll have to do my best to capture everyone's tragic backstories OwO

I also redid my office in jp

There's still more I wanna get for it, but a lot of it is in the daily rotation category, so I have to wait :T I'm also sorely tempted to spend some of my precious memorial coins on the office outfits from fleeting spring night...
uhhhhhhhhh there was more but I've now rambled so much that I can't remember all of it :T

I am done with everything for school!!!!!! All that's left is to wait for grades and hope I somehow didn't fuck it up & fail at the end.....and graduation itself, I suppose XD WHATEVER. I do feel significantly less stressed now that it's over~~~

Anyway, I did some stuff this past week, but the most important thing came from Pat browsing Craigslist free stuff: A PACHINKO MACHINE


We had to drive down to DC for it but it was so worth it!!!
uhhhh literally everything else has left my mind because of how fun and exciting this is :D We're probably gonna have to get more of the pachinko balls for it, cuz the guy giving it away only had so many left, but!!!!! It's awesome!!!!!

Pat called it "I can't believe we're getting an actual working pachinko machine because blorbo gave you good luck" and he's not really wrong, especially since it was the day after Rinne's birthday. He's always talking about going to pachinko parlors, and now we can play in our own home :D Very kind of him to share his birthday luck~

OH RIGHT YES I FORGOT THE OTHER BIG THING: We're going to Chicago this coming weekend!!!!! It's a sorta impromptu trip to celebrate my graduation, and we picked Chicago because 1) Liz & I have never been and 2) dual cicada emergence :D It was so cool to see brood X a few years back, but this is gonna be even moooooore.

We're heading out on Friday afternoon and stopping about halfway at whatever cheap motel we can find (probably in the middle of Ohio somewhere), because it's a 10+ hour drive :T I'm excited though!! I haven't been that far into the midwest since, uh, 2011???? The infamous Youmacon trip to Detroit~ We might take a detour up to Detroit on the way there or back, depending on how much time we have.

AHHHHH I JUST LOVE ROAD TRIPS!!!!

.........I don't know what it says about my life that this is the first time I've used "vacation" as a tag :T I don't think all the tags imported correctly from GJ...I think............

aka, I made this as a post on tumblr but now I'm gonna make it into a post here...no promises that I improve it or anything because it was a rambling list on tumblr and I'm not sure I'm smart enough to do anything else with it.

So here it is: the highlights of our stupidity~~~

• telling our waitress at Waffle House about Trigun because I brought a volume of the manga into the restaurant and she was like oh, I usually just watch anime but is that manga any good?
• why the fuck are half the rest stops on the NJ turnpike closed right now????
• going to Brooklyn for the Uhaul and forgetting to play Brooklyn Rage despite discussing it multiple times over the past week
• trying to find parking in Hell's Kitchen for said Uhaul
• giving up and just illegally parking it because fuck it, we aren’t going to be leaving it unattended anyway
• sorta planning to caravan because Liz + Pat were in the Uhaul and I was in my car with Chi + her dog, but those plans pretty much immediately fell apart
• me bemoaning not having time to go to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, aka the worst, most pretentious sbux I’ve ever been to, because my keychain from it broke. not five minutes later we drove past it by accident BUT THERE WAS NOWHERE TO PULL OVER and Chi was like “lol oh well” at my suffering.
• part two of sbux: a truck pulled out, leaving the perfect space for me to park in and run inside for a new, terrible keychain.
• part three of sbux: THEY DON’T SELL FUCKING KEYCHAINS ANYMORE MY LIFE IS A MOCKERY
• getting a huge pizza + garlic knots before leaving NYC because 1) IT’S NYC and 2) there’s no good pizza in Baltimore I gotta take what I can get
• meeting up at the Alexander Hamilton rest stop - cue Liz singing from Hamilton - to eat said pizza in the parking lot, because it was impossible to find anywhere to park and chill in NYC

-me and Liz being cringe, much to everyone else’s dismay

• seriously tho why the fuck are half the NJ turnpike rest stops closed right now
• Chi’s dog experiencing grass for the first time (at a NJ turnpike rest stop) and liking it
• Chi’s dog experiencing being in a car for the first time and NOT liking it
• Liz being apparently too damn efficient at driving and somehow overtaking me despite being in a Uhaul
• subjecting Chi to many of my Trigun opinions because she was stuck in a car with me for four hours and I have can’t shut the fuck up disease

-Chi @ me, tho I can’t even remember why now XD

• calling each other’s vehicles multiple times throughout the trip to yell about passing each other on the road and/or whatever other dumb thoughts we all had that couldn’t be contained to just one car
• SIX FUCKING DOLLARS for vending machine offbrand dippin dots
• Chi’s dog experiencing yards for the first time and not wanting to leave the yard to go inside our house
• Ethyl being the peace bringer and somehow calming down Chi’s dog and Lumos and helping them meet

And now I have to figure out how I want to format that quotes but I'm also tired of looking at this entry XD I have a bunch of pictures to share once I go through them, too. I brought my fancy camera and only had so much time to use it, but ohhhh well. I'm still sleepy, okay, it was a long day.