"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air..."

I had a great Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving. ^^

Thanksgiving was ordinary--we drove down to San Rafael (which is where my Dad's side of the family mostly lives), listened to Wolf's Rain OST 1, Maaya Sakamoto , and Inuyasha opening and ending themes on the way there, and then we arrived at my Grandma Doe's house. There, Ryan and I met some of Dad's cousins and said "Hi" to relatives and such, and then stalked around the house discussing anime with our fellow-otaku cousins Jordan and Chris.

Apparently, since I told Jordan about the subject matter of Gravitation, he's been trying to trick his friend into buying it, just to scare said friend. So far, no luck, though. XD Jordan was also talking about how he thought Hellsing was awesome, so I tried to sneak some AMVs into the DVD player in the living room to show him the Wizard of Oz Hellsing AMV. It didn't work, though-- there were kiddies about, and I don't think I *have* any AMVs that are appropriate for little kids.

Instead we went and hung around in the computer room, where my Aunt Nancy kept peeking in at us through the windows. She's funny and insane, but extremely girly. She asked me the question she always asks me, "Are there any cute boys I should know about?" Which is the most pointless question EVER to ask me. XD I was semi-tempted to mention Cody and how he's our cosplay slave/great friend, but I knew she would misinterpret and think I'm interested in him in a relationship sort of way (which Nicole and I aren't, obviously :P), so I refrained. Instead, I told her the truth. "A whole bunch of anime guys!"

"Oh, you mean guys who are interested in anime, too?"

"Nooo, *anime* guys. As in, guys that are in the anime I like. Y'know, the fictional animated characters." XD

*Long stare* "That's kind of scary."

"Yes, yes it is. It's not as abnormal as you'd think, though."

"I'm not going to ask."

"You're probably better off not asking."

And thus, the conversation met its timely end. She'll probably ask me the same thing when Christmas comes, though. *Rolls eyes* She'll get the same answer no matter how many times she asks.

Anyway, my Grandma got me this funny stuffed Marmot in a vest and a hat that sings and dances to "Yankee Doodle" when you press his paw. It's from Italy, although I fail to see what dressed-up marmots that sing Yankee Doodle have to do with Italy. XD XD XD I love him, though. He's brilliant.

I lit my placemat on fire during dinner (on purpose) and got weird stares from all my cousins. Then I created a shrine to my chocolate turkey and attempted to create a sculpture of Kenshin out of the mashed potatos. It didn't work. ._.;; Our cousins and Ryan and I have this in-joke about the rolls that we have every year--whoever has the one with the most burnt bottom wins. I won this year. The rolls have ceased to become rolls to us--they are merely referred to as "burntbottoms."

If all of this seems rude, consider the fact that the four of us have our own dinnber table in a different room from all the adults, so no one will ever know other than Chris, Jordan, Ryan, and I.

Anyway, the drive home was absolutely beautiful. I went all philosophical and stared out the window the whole time, just feeling content and thoughtful and "high on life." The moonlight was glinting off of everything, and all the scenery we passed (other than going through the cities) was washed in this delicate twilight blue. It was beautiful. I love it when I'm in those moods. We listened to Dad's CDs the whole way back, but that's just fine because he and I basically have the same music taste. He likes my music and I like his. The music was contributing to the overall mood of contentment and peace.

Anyway, we got back and went to sleep.

Friday was a lot of fun. Nicole and Cody came over and we did some drawings and watched...something. My Dad took Nicole, Cody, and I (all three of us clad in bunny ears for no reason) to BlockBuster because, for some reason or another, Nicole and I decided we need to actually see Neon Genesis Evangelion. We wanted to rent the whole series, but that was too expensive and they didn't have all of it. So we settled for just Vol. 1. Cody got a call from his Mom saying he should come home and eat dinner, so once we got back to my house, Cody had to leave. Nicole and I went with him, and ate dinner with Cody's mom and some of Cody's relatives.

Then...erm...wait, I'm forgetting what order everything happened in. Eh, it doesn't matter. I really can't remember, though. -_- In short, Makayla ended up coming over, so Nicole, Cody, Makayla, and I hung around in my room. We drew more (I taught Nicole to draw a wolf...kind of), watched the first episode of DN Angel, but then Cody had to leave.

So, Cody left, and Nicole, Makayla, and I watched some of Eva. At a certain point we got bored, so we went outside in the rain. The lighting was really awesome, so we grabbed Makayla's digital camera and went for a walk. At 9:30 at night, in the rain. We brought Makayla's beloved, huge umbrella with us, but we didn't ever use it. We ended up walking to Cody's house (we're obsessed XD), but he wasn't home. As we were leaving his house, however, he pulled up in his car (he had been at the street fair in Grass Valley) and walked with us back to my house.

There, we had the option of going inside, but it was so awesome out (and still raining) that we decided to stay outside under this one light and take pictures. Nicole and Makayla both had some cool Witch Hunter Robin-like clothes on, so we took turns taking dramatic, anime-like pictures of everyone. Everyone took turns posing with the umbrella and stuff, while we also took turns handing the camera around and being the "Director." Nicole and I kept trying to convince Cody to take his shirt off and stand in the rain for a picture (just because it would look cool and anime-like), but it was too cold out, so he was adverse to that idea. Hopefully Makayla will give me some of those pictures so I can post them here. They turned out cool, I'm sure.

Eventually, Cody had to leave again, and we all went inside and watched AMVs and more Eva. Nicole became completely obsessed with Shinji for some bizarre reason (we have always agreed that Shinji is wimpy and pathetic and annoying.) She claims he would make the perfect boyslave. Erm...right, Nicole. XD That's...interesting.

Then we fell asleep.

Let's just summarize the next day this way: Chaos.

Dad had to work, so Nicole, Makayla, and I were left home alone with Ryan, Dilan, and Jake. Those three are one scary combination. We spent the day running around, cleaning up after them, and yelling at them to stop doing this-or-that.

Dilan put the licorice in the microwave for so long it lit on fire and smoke was billowing everywhere.

Twice. >.<;; You'd think he'd get it after the first time, but no...

They were running around shooting the AirSoft BB gun in the house. They insisted on making EasyMac and eggrolls until the dishes wouldn't even fit in the sink. They created a fort in Ryan's room out of all the blankets in the house. There is a reason why I hide in my room every time Ryan's friends come over.

Eventually, after a lot of yelling, locking them outside, and calling Dad, they finally calmed down. Kind of. Enough that we could leave them for a little while to go get the stamps and paper for a favor we decided to do for Nicole's mom. On the way to Nicole's, we noted that Cody's car was at Nate's house, so on the way back from Nicole's, we dropped by to say hello to Cody. He couldn't come with us, though, because he promised he would meet his dad a little later.

So, we sat around the house coloring the stamps in with Prismacolor pencils and listened to the Hellsing OST 2. Nicole and Makayla agree that it's excellent. I couldn't get the Santa stamp to work for a long time, so Nicole finally inked it enough that it actually worked.

Then Dad came home. He wanted all the kids out of the house, so Nicole, Makayla, and both of Ryan's friends had to leave. He was pretty mad because the boys made such a mess. ._. He's okay now, though.

So, I went in my room and watched RahXephon Vol. 2 (which I just got in the mail the day before--yay!) and 3. I have one thing to say: WOW, is that series INCREDIBLE. I absolutely love it. It's so abstract and complex, but it's absolutely beautiful. *_* *_* *_* LOVE.

Cody called me in the middle of RahXephon (with good timing, too--it was when I stopped it to read all the liner notes) to tell me about his encounter with some wild turkeys. XP *Pat pat* Poor Cody-kun. The turkeys aren't going to hurt you...

I fell asleep after RahXephon, and now...well, here I am. Sitting around the house doing nothing. I have a bunch of CDs to burn, though, because Makayla let me borrow a lot of the CDs she burned off me when I still had my CDs. They're just temporary--until I get all the official releases of the CDs again, but it'll be nice to have some of my music to listen to again.

Gomen if there are any typos in here (I'm sure there are). I'll go through this and correct things later, but I'm too lazy to read through this whole post again.

Oh, and by the way--the subject line is one of the two repeated lines in the song from the lovely, funny AMV "A Total Waste of 6 Minutes and 35 Seconds."

"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air..."

I had a great Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving. ^^

Thanksgiving was ordinary--we drove down to San Rafael (which is where my Dad's side of the family mostly lives), listened to Wolf's Rain OST 1, Maaya Sakamoto , and Inuyasha opening and ending themes on the way there, and then we arrived at my Grandma Doe's house. There, Ryan and I met some of Dad's cousins and said "Hi" to relatives and such, and then stalked around the house discussing anime with our fellow-otaku cousins Jordan and Chris.

Apparently, since I told Jordan about the subject matter of Gravitation, he's been trying to trick his friend into buying it, just to scare said friend. So far, no luck, though. XD Jordan was also talking about how he thought Hellsing was awesome, so I tried to sneak some AMVs into the DVD player in the living room to show him the Wizard of Oz Hellsing AMV. It didn't work, though-- there were kiddies about, and I don't think I *have* any AMVs that are appropriate for little kids.

Instead we went and hung around in the computer room, where my Aunt Nancy kept peeking in at us through the windows. She's funny and insane, but extremely girly. She asked me the question she always asks me, "Are there any cute boys I should know about?" Which is the most pointless question EVER to ask me. XD I was semi-tempted to mention Cody and how he's our cosplay slave/great friend, but I knew she would misinterpret and think I'm interested in him in a relationship sort of way (which Nicole and I aren't, obviously :P), so I refrained. Instead, I told her the truth. "A whole bunch of anime guys!"

"Oh, you mean guys who are interested in anime, too?"

"Nooo, *anime* guys. As in, guys that are in the anime I like. Y'know, the fictional animated characters." XD

*Long stare* "That's kind of scary."

"Yes, yes it is. It's not as abnormal as you'd think, though."

"I'm not going to ask."

"You're probably better off not asking."

And thus, the conversation met its timely end. She'll probably ask me the same thing when Christmas comes, though. *Rolls eyes* She'll get the same answer no matter how many times she asks.

Anyway, my Grandma got me this funny stuffed Marmot in a vest and a hat that sings and dances to "Yankee Doodle" when you press his paw. It's from Italy, although I fail to see what dressed-up marmots that sing Yankee Doodle have to do with Italy. XD XD XD I love him, though. He's brilliant.

I lit my placemat on fire during dinner (on purpose) and got weird stares from all my cousins. Then I created a shrine to my chocolate turkey and attempted to create a sculpture of Kenshin out of the mashed potatos. It didn't work. ._.;; Our cousins and Ryan and I have this in-joke about the rolls that we have every year--whoever has the one with the most burnt bottom wins. I won this year. The rolls have ceased to become rolls to us--they are merely referred to as "burntbottoms."

If all of this seems rude, consider the fact that the four of us have our own dinnber table in a different room from all the adults, so no one will ever know other than Chris, Jordan, Ryan, and I.

Anyway, the drive home was absolutely beautiful. I went all philosophical and stared out the window the whole time, just feeling content and thoughtful and "high on life." The moonlight was glinting off of everything, and all the scenery we passed (other than going through the cities) was washed in this delicate twilight blue. It was beautiful. I love it when I'm in those moods. We listened to Dad's CDs the whole way back, but that's just fine because he and I basically have the same music taste. He likes my music and I like his. The music was contributing to the overall mood of contentment and peace.

Anyway, we got back and went to sleep.

Friday was a lot of fun. Nicole and Cody came over and we did some drawings and watched...something. My Dad took Nicole, Cody, and I (all three of us clad in bunny ears for no reason) to BlockBuster because, for some reason or another, Nicole and I decided we need to actually see Neon Genesis Evangelion. We wanted to rent the whole series, but that was too expensive and they didn't have all of it. So we settled for just Vol. 1. Cody got a call from his Mom saying he should come home and eat dinner, so once we got back to my house, Cody had to leave. Nicole and I went with him, and ate dinner with Cody's mom and some of Cody's relatives.

Then...erm...wait, I'm forgetting what order everything happened in. Eh, it doesn't matter. I really can't remember, though. -_- In short, Makayla ended up coming over, so Nicole, Cody, Makayla, and I hung around in my room. We drew more (I taught Nicole to draw a wolf...kind of), watched the first episode of DN Angel, but then Cody had to leave.

So, Cody left, and Nicole, Makayla, and I watched some of Eva. At a certain point we got bored, so we went outside in the rain. The lighting was really awesome, so we grabbed Makayla's digital camera and went for a walk. At 9:30 at night, in the rain. We brought Makayla's beloved, huge umbrella with us, but we didn't ever use it. We ended up walking to Cody's house (we're obsessed XD), but he wasn't home. As we were leaving his house, however, he pulled up in his car (he had been at the street fair in Grass Valley) and walked with us back to my house.

There, we had the option of going inside, but it was so awesome out (and still raining) that we decided to stay outside under this one light and take pictures. Nicole and Makayla both had some cool Witch Hunter Robin-like clothes on, so we took turns taking dramatic, anime-like pictures of everyone. Everyone took turns posing with the umbrella and stuff, while we also took turns handing the camera around and being the "Director." Nicole and I kept trying to convince Cody to take his shirt off and stand in the rain for a picture (just because it would look cool and anime-like), but it was too cold out, so he was adverse to that idea. Hopefully Makayla will give me some of those pictures so I can post them here. They turned out cool, I'm sure.

Eventually, Cody had to leave again, and we all went inside and watched AMVs and more Eva. Nicole became completely obsessed with Shinji for some bizarre reason (we have always agreed that Shinji is wimpy and pathetic and annoying.) She claims he would make the perfect boyslave. Erm...right, Nicole. XD That's...interesting.

Then we fell asleep.

Let's just summarize the next day this way: Chaos.

Dad had to work, so Nicole, Makayla, and I were left home alone with Ryan, Dilan, and Jake. Those three are one scary combination. We spent the day running around, cleaning up after them, and yelling at them to stop doing this-or-that.

Dilan put the licorice in the microwave for so long it lit on fire and smoke was billowing everywhere.

Twice. >.<;; You'd think he'd get it after the first time, but no...

They were running around shooting the AirSoft BB gun in the house. They insisted on making EasyMac and eggrolls until the dishes wouldn't even fit in the sink. They created a fort in Ryan's room out of all the blankets in the house. There is a reason why I hide in my room every time Ryan's friends come over.

Eventually, after a lot of yelling, locking them outside, and calling Dad, they finally calmed down. Kind of. Enough that we could leave them for a little while to go get the stamps and paper for a favor we decided to do for Nicole's mom. On the way to Nicole's, we noted that Cody's car was at Nate's house, so on the way back from Nicole's, we dropped by to say hello to Cody. He couldn't come with us, though, because he promised he would meet his dad a little later.

So, we sat around the house coloring the stamps in with Prismacolor pencils and listened to the Hellsing OST 2. Nicole and Makayla agree that it's excellent. I couldn't get the Santa stamp to work for a long time, so Nicole finally inked it enough that it actually worked.

Then Dad came home. He wanted all the kids out of the house, so Nicole, Makayla, and both of Ryan's friends had to leave. He was pretty mad because the boys made such a mess. ._. He's okay now, though.

So, I went in my room and watched RahXephon Vol. 2 (which I just got in the mail the day before--yay!) and 3. I have one thing to say: WOW, is that series INCREDIBLE. I absolutely love it. It's so abstract and complex, but it's absolutely beautiful. *_* *_* *_* LOVE.

Cody called me in the middle of RahXephon (with good timing, too--it was when I stopped it to read all the liner notes) to tell me about his encounter with some wild turkeys. XP *Pat pat* Poor Cody-kun. The turkeys aren't going to hurt you...

I fell asleep after RahXephon, and now...well, here I am. Sitting around the house doing nothing. I have a bunch of CDs to burn, though, because Makayla let me borrow a lot of the CDs she burned off me when I still had my CDs. They're just temporary--until I get all the official releases of the CDs again, but it'll be nice to have some of my music to listen to again.

Gomen if there are any typos in here (I'm sure there are). I'll go through this and correct things later, but I'm too lazy to read through this whole post again.

Oh, and by the way--the subject line is one of the two repeated lines in the song from the lovely, funny AMV "A Total Waste of 6 Minutes and 35 Seconds."