I should just turn this into a con blog... that really seems to be the only time I update this thing. And here I go again. On Monday I got back from my trip to Katsucon 10, and oh what a trip it was. ^_^ I wanted to go to this con especially this year because last year's Katsucon was the trip from hell. To start off I was out of work at the time, I got sick (I came down with strep the first morning of the con) and had to spend $300 on medication and doctors, I got stuck in the snow (and had to walk in it for hours just to get to a friends apartment to crash at), and on the way home I got in a horrific accident that totaled my car and cost lives. (none from my car, but a car that was behind us) So in a way I felt I had to come back to Katsucon to prove that my life had changed for the better. After all, I had a new, better job, a new better car, and I was coming back to the con with new, better stuff to sell. But first I had to get there. Sounds simple, turned out not to be. I first had to wait to buy my tickets till late because of Christmas, and bills and such... I had to wait a little longer then I wanted to because of a cash flow problem. The ways my bills were falling and my paychecks were falling in January all of my major bills (Rent, Car Payment, Studen Loan Payment, and Insurance) were all going to fall on one paycheck, yikes! Since I had very little cushion I couldn't risk buying my tickets and have one of those payments bounce by a few dollars. So I had to wait till practically last minute... or what I consider last minute, about 3 weeks away. At 2 weeks prices go up, so I knew I had to do it before then. Last time I'd checked the prices were about $200 for the tickets and time I wanted. But when I went back they were about $250, and out of my budget by a small percentage. I went through a whole bunch of rigamarole, but finally dug up the extra $50 (I was really determined to go!) and bought my tickets on priceline.com. or so I thought... after about a week passes I notice that my account had still not been charged for the price of the tickets. Worried I logged back onto priceline, and discovered no, they'd never booked my tickets. There was some security code they needed off the back of my card.. but my card was a debit card and doesn't *have* that security thingie... Anyway I find now less than 2 weeks to the con that I have no tickets. EEEK! Priceline sucks, they didn't even email me to let me know the transaction failed, all they gave me was a confirmation number and page that gave me my itenerary as if it had gone through. (And don't think that they didn't have my email address correct... they've managed to send me advertisements every week since I first tried to get the tickets.) So I discover that if I want to get into DC for the price I had before I have to leave a day earlier and fly into Baltimore instead of Ronald Regan and take a shuttle to a marc train to a metro to a transfer to another metro to get to my friend's apartment where I would be staying. But I got the time off, I ordered the tickets (from Orbitz.com this time, and it WORKED, boycott priceline, they suck), and got there ok... and wow that was a lot of drama and a lot of typing... I think I'm going to have to give the actual con news tomorrow. But this time I will! I promise!