Normally, I get anxious before I travel. Doesn’t matter when or where.

Usually it’s right when I have to start packing. The questions begin to start in my head. Have I brought enough? Did I bring everything I would need? Then the procrastinating begins.  A search for some little thing I’m not even planning to bring on the trip, some web browsing, maybe some video games.

This time, none of that works.

This time it’s different.

I can’t stop the shaking and there’s an overwhelming feeling of being trapped.

And I don’t know why.

I have no idea where the hell I am.

I mean, I’m on the island of Manhattan, and I’m staring into what I think is New Jersey, but I think that’s the best I got. I know I’m within a six block radius of my hotel, but I can’t even find my main landmark, which is the open skyline above Ground Zero.

I’ve been walking for two hours. I started by walking up Broadway until I caught a light, then I crossed the street. Following the crowds first one way, then crossing to avoid them at the next intersection, I eventually made it into Chinatown, where I decided to head back downtown to finish off my constitutional.

It was then that my stomach gave me some grief, as it often does when I’m traveling. It was then that I found something familiar in the sea of city blocks that, at least for this week, I would call home.

I found a Whole Foods. Hidden, as it was, in the bottom of a building, underneath scaffolding that hid the actual entrance. Picking up some toiletries and a plate of sushi, I headed for the checkout, which utilized a bank of fifty cashiers and LCD screens that indicated which counter to go to. Even though it was crowded right after work, either there was no line, or they made damn sure that one never formed.

Leaving the Whole Foods I found myself with a plate of sushi and nowhere to eat it. So I utilized my previous method of walking around the city until a light changed. Eventually, I made it to a small park, where I sat down.

I know it’s a shame, finding myself in the middle of NYC and eating prepackaged grocery store sushi. Sitting there, in what I would find out later to be Rockefeller Park, with a satisfied stomach thinking about everything I saw in the city over the last two hours, I think I finally started to get New York.

Walk downtown on Church. Pass Ground Zero.

Join throng of people headed downtown.

Left at Pine.

Jaywalk, hang a right when I feel like it.

Avoid bike messenger going wrong way down one way street into oncoming traffic.

Cross with the light this time, making sure to avoid the hybrid taxi edging its way through the crosswalk, the same crosswalk filled with people.

Avoid line of people entering fifth starbucks in three blocks.

Pass The World of Golf.

Barrel through family of tourists that decided to make the stop right in the middle of the sidewalk during rush hour wearing those incredibly stupid looking statue of liberty foam headbands.

I hate those headbands.

Grab blueberry yogurt parfait at Pax Wholesome Foods.

Arrive at training center.

Bang.  Easy.

My brother had this to say about it:

You know, I’ve been to Communist China, and the South still scares me.

And I can understand his fear.  Still, that wasn’t my experience when I went to The South (Proper caps) exactly one year ago.

The South still has a public relations nightmare to clean up after that whole state’s rights issue that got blown way out of proportion. Then, as usual, the only people you see on the television are folks that appear to be straight out of Deliverance.

So they’re generalized, just like the Chinese are stereotyped, and Blacks are stereotyped, and Mexicans (as in people from Mexico) are stereotyped.

I went to the South and the worst thing that happened to me was that I got called, “a cracker.” Which was meant in jest regarding a grocery list and saltines and a carful of white boys and me.

And there was the tendency for waitstaff to make little assumptions.

“So table for three?”
“Four, actually.”
“Oh, you’re with them?”

I feel like I got a pretty good experience with the silent majority.

Folks, who are for the most part, just like you and me, but they just happen to be living south of the Mason Dixon line.

That’s right, humidity.

Coming back from Lynden and San Diego had me unprepared for the type of weather that welcomed me back to the DC area.  Today is another one of those days when I look at the weather report and start to wonder why I’m here.

Then I look around my office and go, “Oh.  Right.”

But it was worth it. Well, maybe not the con, but making new friends and renewing friendships with the ones you already have are worth the trip up. It’s times like these where I make the resolution to go up and visit people without the excuse of a con.

I do regret one thing, and that is the fact that I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked in New Jersey. That, and my lack of a decent Larva costume.

“mad props” to Carmel, Jackie, Adnan, and Tung for the “hookups” this weekend. You’ll see some of their handiwork in the pictures. Some interesting moments from the weekend include:

Hotohori and Chichiri’s cosplay kiss — Gun Buster drinking game — Bar B Q @ Carmel’s — New World Manga — Weak dealer room — One person asking for a picture — cosplayers — Jackie’s mom’s manicotti — Adnan’s scrambled eggs — Special, SPK and the GahtBustah! — Finding the rest of the Brawl cards –

Still haven’t seen the entire Final Fantasy movie, and I’m a bit bitter about that. Read a few reviews that trash the movie because it wasn’t convincing enough. I wasn’t expecting oscar material. It’s not oscar material. What it is, is a fun movie, something interesting to watch. It’s not a live-action film. It’s a film. Better than tomb raider. As good as say, Blade Runner. Man, I’m gonna catch hell for that one. I’ll write more about it later, definitely.

Oh, hey, and Mikey–I miss you too.