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Dear Diary

A 3687-post collection

Welp. I'm buggering off...

Farewell US, farewell, Tucson. Farewell, all the amazing fun times I had here. I hope to return, but I know the realities of budgetary constraints and... I might not ever come back.

However, if Beloved wants to spend their frequent flier miles on another trip to see Steam Powered Giraffe... I will never never never say no. Best present ever. 100/10 would do again in a cold second.

And I have a bloody good cosplay to take with me if I ever do cons locally. Which might be a plan because I am going to use Bitzer to raise money for Leukemia.

But for now, I have four flights to catch, a story to write, and a family to hug when I finally get to Brisbane on Thursday.

Yup. Downside of international flight/time travel. I gained a day coming here and I lose a day coming back.

Check my Tumblr blog for a liveblogging of my flight experience. I can't post photos because Tumblr mobile is a pain in the butt... but I can probably wax lyrical about the accommodations.

But for now... story.

O the carnival is over...

It's the day after WWWC5 and my feet and legs are still letting me know they don't like all the walking around I did. I'm so stiff getting up and down it's almost hilarious.

I entered the costume contest and won Best Automaton which came with a HEAP of swag including a cool light-up deelio that means I have to go get a Aus-US power adapter :P but that thing is going on my writing desk. YEAH!

I have blisters on my

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Success of a sort

I did get to ask David Bennett about putting the robots into my novels, and the answer was a polite version of, "Thanks but no thanks, you can't do it because legal difficulties."

Which is a slight pain in my arse because I have to track down everywhere I mentioned them and finesse something else in to cover those words. I was very careful to make my beloved automatons' appearance not important in any way to the story in the first place.

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The day after the night before...

I had an excellent time, yesterday. I didn't get to stay in character for any length of time at all, because the ever-fabulous Isabella Bennett was hanging out at the SPG merch booth.

...which sadly did not contain any T-shirts or Kazookaphones or patches :( Boo. But did contain one of my personal heroes.

I was one of the very few fanbots there. I guess everyone else wised up because wearing makeup in the heat makes the heat even more punishing.

But I

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Fun times, fun times

Alongside suffering from massive sleep dep, the after-effects of which are still plaguing me to a minor degree... I am also plotting to be active for way longer than I'm used to.

I haven't pulled stuff like this since Uni. But it's the price I have to pay to not miss an instant of Steam Powered Giraffe.

Thanks to my new friends and Chauffers, I have cheap nibbles so I don't have to spend my reduced fortunes on the highly overpriced fare

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I am now in foreign climes

I've unpacked, organised, WASHED... that last one was super important. 13+ hours in flight, plus a minimum of four spent in hurry-up-and-wait... I was wringing with perspiration.

I feel much better for a wash and a change of clothing.

And air conditioning. Blessed, cool air conditioning.

Ah how I missed it.

Of course, from the morrow onwards, I will be waking up super-early to get my blog and story done so that the missing count isn't all that huge.

Stand by. Story

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EEEEEEEEE....

OK so just on the red line, a very nice Onigiro volunteered hir brother for carpooling. Some, if not all of my candy may already be spoken for.

And this dawn, Beloved volunteered to drive my humble self to the airport so we don't have to fret about parking fees. And I don't have to worry about my car getting stolen or "Borrowed" Ferris Beuller(?) style.

[Though what anyone would want with a joyride in my crappy little car... I have no

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Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...

Tomorrow morning is a busy morning.

Tomorrow morning, I get up,do my usual morning weigh-in [I'm in the 90K zone! Yay!] brush my teeth and take my meds... and then make sure both toothbrush and inhaler are in my carry-on.

Tomorrow, I take my refrigerated meds out of the fridge and pack them in my luggage. I make sure one baggie of supplements is in my carry-on and the other's contents go down my throat.

Tomorrow, I am sad to announce

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Almost there!

The dress arrived, yesterday! And it looks GORGEOUS!

If I ever order another one [my size has gone down since January, when I ordered this one] I will be sure to include my arm girth because these sleeves are more than a little snug when I bend my arms.

[Shown here: some blur of the dress just after it arrived]

You might not be able to see, but it has POCKETS! They're covered by the corset when I'm in costume, but who

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Preparations

I've got to finish stressing the "photo" today. It's the last day that I have another adult around.

I've already written down some thoughts in case one of the many planes I'm catching ends up on TV for all the wrong reasons. And I made myself cry. Yay.

I have all most of the stuff I need for the con in one place. I will start packing my backpack and organising my suitcase today.

The Dress of my Dreams is still in

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I'm going blue!

The Dress of my Dreams is currently relaxing in a warehouse for the weekend. Assuming it doesn't go to a warehouse closer to Burpengary over the interim, it should have a nice, relaxing weekend before meeting its doom owner.

This weekend, I'm getting my hair and nails done.

Plan C - if some incompetent specimen looses my luggage - I am still an off-duty Walter Worker with my blue hair and nerd shirt on. I've been unable to find blue lipstick in

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The best news EVAR!

I was all ready to go and collect the Plan B skirt from MeMum's, after I collected the kids. And just as the alert goes off for me to take off and fetch my little darlings... I get an email from Hello Cosplay that contained this beautiful information:

["We have sent out your cosplay via DHL Express"]

Of course, I still have to be prepared for it all getting lost in the mail. There is many a slip between Shanghai and Burpengary

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Ugh...

Last of the last of the running around, I hope and pray. I have eyedrops, sunscreen, and a tube of the pawpaw stuff. Just in case. I plan on carrying along my little tin can of band-aids and elastoplast. Also just in case.

I've emailed the people at WWWC about transport for foreigners, without much in the way of word in return.

I've emailed the people at Hello Cosplay about Overnighting my finished dress... without much in the way of word in

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PLNs and high finance

I got my travel insurance settled, yesterday. As well as all the mad dash to get a substitute skirt done with minutes to spare. So to speak.

The price for the finished emergency outfit is literally one tenth the price of the dream dress. Which, I might add, Hello Cosplay is now not sending out until... either today or tomorrow.

I've enquired about them sending it to me by overnight express [since regular post delivers inside 3 weeks] but I haven't heard

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Cue the Lone Ranger Theme Music

This is the email I got from Hello Cosplay. You can understand that this is nails-down-the-chalkboard stuff for me.

My corset is in transit because I now dwell in the 91Kilo zone. My dress is in limbo.

I had to rush arrangements for the kids because I will be in Boronia Heights, 80K away, getting a kludge skirt together out of whatever we can manage.

At least Spotlight takes Amex.

Alas, I shall also be rushing today's Instant because I only have

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