I usually don't post journals, but I need to let some feelings out.

Lately, I've been feeling extremely tired/stressed due to the large amount of school work I receive daily and multiple projects that are all assigned to be done in the same week (especially AP Songfest). Sure, that's what usually stresses people out right? Well, on top of all that, my family is driving me nuts. First, my older brother can honestly for f*ck himself. His contemptuous behavior used to be easy to ignore, but when he starts showing it publicly, that's where the line is crossed. He blames me for everything that goes wrong and when I tell him the negative truth about him, even if it's meant to inform him, rather than to inform him, he attacks me for it. In fact, he attacks me for anything he can find to attack me about. My parents aren't any better. Because my brother always locks himself in his room and I'm always in the living room, they feel a need to decide that I'm the only one who deserves to be yelled at or blamed when chores aren't done or if something goes wrong, even if it's in no way related to me. In fact, just today, my mom told me that she wanted to go shopping and when I got all ready and waited for her, she got a call and told me, "Nevermind, I need to go somewhere. Wait for me and we'll go when I get back." Well, she came back at 7pm and told me, "Let's go!" I told her that it was too late and the store was probably already closed. She then told me to check online and I informed her that I had and they didn't show the store's business hours. That's when she told me to call them and I told her I didn't want to, mainly because I don't feel comfortable talking to strangers on the phone, which is a fact she very well knows. Because of this, she exploded and screamed that my behavior was not acceptable and started once again blaming me for crap I didn't even do. So, what's left to do?

Every summer, my aunt comes and visits us from Hong Kong our family goes on a trip with her. This year, the vacation destination was San Diego, California.

On Wednesday, we headed out for San Diego in a van that my mom had rented. The distance from my house to San Diego is about an 8 hour drive, so the ride there was not fun AT ALL. To make it worse, the van that we had rented would break your neck if you tried to fall asleep. Whoo hoo... And the drive requires you to go through the middle of nowhere, and it was HOT!

When we had arrived at the hotel, I was SO happy just to get out of the van. The hotel wasn't too bad either. We arrived around dinner time, so after dropping off our stuff in the rooms, we went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant in the hotel. The food was so good (I had chicken and steak fajitas).

After dinner, we headed back to our rooms to get some rest. I had to stay in a room with my mom, aunt, and grandma, so I wasn't too happy about that (my mom's not the most fun to sleep with). After taking a shower, I spent the rest of the night watching the Olympics on TV, but had to cut it short due to the fact that I was sharing a room with people who can't sleep with even a little light on (damn!).

The next morning when I went to the restroom, I saw a huge centipede looking bug thing with white feet that scared the life out of me. Luckily, my mom killed it before it got to the bedroom, but that made me paranoid for the rest of the time I was there. After getting ready, went to get breakfast at the waffle restaurant downstairs in the hotel lobby. I had a waffle with eggs benedict and country potatoes (since my mom insisted that we ordered eggs). It was pretty good, but after trying bites from my brother and aunt's furit topped waffles, I was regretting not ordering a fruit waffle. ;___;

For that day, we had planned to go to Sea World, and did. I'm more of a "rollercoaster" person, so Sea World wasn't my first choice since it's main focus is on the aquariums and shows. We saw shows that included killer whales, dolphins, sea otters, and acrobats. They were a bit entertaining, but the heat was unbearable. My favorite ride of the day was probably the Shipwreck Rapids, a ride where you sit in a raft down a river and get splashed. xD I sat in the seat that got the most splash, so I was completely soaked through. And I was wearking jeans too (which probably wasn't the smartest decision), so I was wet for a good amount of the time I was there. The ride I was looking forward to the most was the Journey to Atlantis, a half rollercoaster, half water log ride. But when we decided to go get in line, we found out that the ride had just broken down and they didn't know where it could be fixed. I was SOOOOOOOOO disappointed since it was the only thing I was looking forward to. And to make it worse, when we decided to head back to the hotel afterwards, we saw it running again, making the disappointment worse. My little brother was more disappointed than I was though, so we made sure to make him feel better by going swimming in the hotel pool.

When we were back at the hotel, we got in our swimming suits and got into the pool/jacuzzi, even though it was 9pm. The jacuzzi was so relaxing and the pool was fun, no matter how chlorinated or cold it was. I started going deeper and saw a dead fly and the bug that scared me that morning, so I jumped back into the jacuzzi. By the time we had gotten out, it was 10pm at night already, so we couldn't go to dinner. Instead, we ordered pizza/pasta and had it delivered to our room. It was very good, even though it was pretty much fast food.

The next day, we had Legoland in our plans, so we drove there early, hoping to avoid traffic. Legoland was probably the park I was looking forward to the most since I had childhood memories there and I knew there were rollercoasters. However, they had also opened a Sea Life aquarium that we were going to go to afterwards, so we kind of rushed through everything. The downside to the park was the lines. Every line was at least a 45 minute wait, so you could say we spent half our time there in line. But we were having so much fun that we decided to just spend our whole day there and go to the Sea Life aquarium the day after. Like I had expected, I had the most fun there with all the rides and cute Lego statues. Unfortunately, the park closed at 8pm, so we couldn't finish everything we had planned to. The last thing we did there was go to the gift shop during the closing time where everyone was doing some last minute shopping. I laughed so hard as I got pushed around through the crowds.

When we left the park, we went to a boardwalk and had tacos and burritos at a taco shop. Then we went on a walk down the boardwalk/beach to soak in the scenery. Our feets were killing us by the time we got back to the hotel, so I didn't even bother trying to stay up late.

The next morning we went back to Legoland. This time, we went to the Sea Life aquarium first, just to get that out of the way. It was pretty short, having only spending 45-60 minutes to finish the whole exibit, so we went back to Legoland to finish going on rides we hadn't gone on the day before. We visited Miniland USA, which was a section of the park that displayed Lego models of famous cities in the USA such as San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, Las Vegas, and some others.
While my aunt from Hong Kong, mom, and grandma took the boat cruise through Miniland USA, my brother, aunt, her boyfriend, and I went to a room where they let you program Lego robots. I completely failed at that. XDDDD

When we left the park for good, we still had half a day left, so we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. It was even hotter there that it was at Sea World or Legoland. @___@ We saw so many animals, but my favorites were the pandas and hippos (just because they started pooping when we saw them XD). But, the park was huge and involved a lot of walking, so my grandma was exhausted and had to force my aunt from Hong Kong to take her back to the entrance, thus ending my aunt's experience at the zoo only after an hour. I felt so sorry for her. After seeing (and smelling) as many animals as we could, we decided to have dinner and head back to the hotel.

On our final day in San Diego, we packed our things, loaded the van, checked out of the hotel and got breakfast. Afterwards we headed back home in an 8 and a half hour drive. I was so relieved when I got home because it was a long ride. As soon as I got home, I checked my e-mail and started stressing out about homework. xD Now I here and am glad to be back~

Food I ate:

Wednesday:

Breakfast: French Toast (at home)
Lunch: Hamburger and Fries (at In-N-Out)
Dinner: Chicken and Steak Fajitas (at The Amigo Spot at the hotel) Wednesday:

Thursday:

Breakfast: Waffle with Eggs Benedict and Country Potatoes (at The Waffle Spot at the hotel)
Lunch: Carved Beef Sandwich (at The Shipwreck Reef Cafe at Sea World)
Dinner: Spaghetti with Meatballs and Buffalo Wings with Ranch Dressing (at the hotel delivered from a restaurant I don't remember the name of)

Friday:

Breakfast: Cup Noodles (at the hotel)
Lunch: Spicy Shrimp Linguini (at Fun Town Market at Legoland)
Dinner: California Burrito and a piece of Shrimp Quesadilla (at Roberto's Tacos)

Saturday:

Breakfast: Yogurt Smoothie (in the van)
Lunch: Clam Chowder (more like Bacon Chowder) and Caesar Salad (at the Flamingo Cafe at the San Diego Zoo)
Dinner: Steamed Crab legs, Crab Cake, and some Shrimp (at Joe's Crab Shack)

Sunday:

Breakfast: A Bagel with Cream Cheese (at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf)
Lunch: Hambuger and Fries (at Wendy's)
Dinner: Dumplins (at home)

*Sorry if you read this entry and was bored to death XD*

Okay, here's what happened during my weekend at FanimeCon (well, anything An Cafe related).

On Friday/Saturday, my friend and I pulled an all-nighter and stayed in front of the ticket booth all night to get tickets, and it was a success! Not only did we get concert tickets, but we got tickets to their autograph session too! I was soooo happy!

The concert was scheduled on Sunday, so on Sunday at around 5, my friend and I got in line for the concert. The doors were to open at 7pm and the concert was supposed to start at 8pm, but the line had already gone around the block. O_O The concert was AWESOME. They were sooo hot and Miku let his hair down. Yuuki acted so silly too! I was surprised how well they did live. I even called my friend during the concert to let her hear! It sucked that the concert was short though (about an hour to an hour and a half).

On Monday (today), it was the AUTOGRAPH SESSION! I bought they're brand new CD and decided to let that be my signed item (since every page had a member of the band). It took me a while to choose though since I had a bag full of An Cafe stuff. We were allowed to shake the hands of every member too! When I got to the signing table, Teruki was first. He was so nice and he always has a smile on his face. The grip on his handshake was really strong too! Then it was Yuuki. I wanted to see him without his wig. He's really hot without it. XD Thennnn, it was MIKUUU!!! I was sooo nervous at that point since he's my favorite. He shouted "Nyappy!" at me and I just froze since I was so nervous. It was so embarrassed! T____T Then, here's where it got REALLY bad! After Miku, it was Takuya. He's really really really hot up close, but his handshake wasn't really a handshake. He just let his hand out without grabbing my hand. His hands are really girly/soft. Kinda surprising for a guitarist. O___O But anyways, this is what happened. The CD booklet didn't have them in the order they were sitting in, and when I gave the booklet to Takuya, I couldn't find his pic!!!!!! I kept flipping through it and I couldn't find it, so HE had to take the booklet from me and find the pic himself. I was soooo embarrassed at that point. But next was Kanon. He's actually really shy. He didn't talk, he just signed. His handshake was a bit weak too.

Sooo, a couple hours after the autograph signing was the Q & A, and...THEY LET US TAKE PICS!!!! I was so happy to have brought my camera since there were no pics allowed at the concert and autographing. I was in the back, so it was hard to get pics, but I got a good video of their comments to the fans (though, videos weren't allowed, shhhh!). Kanon's first words were (in English), "I like sleep," and we all freaked out. XD They are all so silly, especially Miku and Yuuki. There were questions like, "What's your favorite anime", and "Who would you cosplay as?" Yuuki said Sailor Moon at first and the rest of the members were like "Ehh?! Nooo! Ugly!!!!" So he changed it to Doraemon. XD Teruki wanted to be Sailor Jupiter though. Then someone asked, "What do you like about American fans?" And Miku answered, "Bodies." But it was kind of sad at the same time because Kanon and Takuya looks so bored! Kanon was literally picking at his nails and Takuya was practically falling asleep on his water bottle. The event was pretty short....

BUT, later in the day, they were auctioning off a Wii that was autographed by An Cafe AND they made Miis in them already. I wanted it, but I knew I had no chance. Plus, I needed to go home, so I never found out how much it was sold for.

So that's basically how it all went. It was really fun and I feel so special to have been there to witness everything!