Okay. This time around, I decided, I‚m getting directions from map quest and from the holiday inn page...I AM NOT getting lost on a long car trip again. And I didn't. But it stormed a lot on the way there, and some wacko on the Dan Ryan (for those of you who don't know, the Dan Ryan Expressway is 16 lanes wide, with the elevated cta going down the center) without his headlights on...

Yes.

Any who, I got into the holiday inn seven or so hours after I left, and while I was in the process of checking in 'sensei walked up. I said hi to him, and had to tell him who I was again since I didn't have my glasses on or my hair spiked. He told me I could trick people into thinking I was another person that way. Pretty cool, I thought.

So after I dropped my stuff in my room, I went down into the hotel where a whole bunch of people were playing cards. DMTM and MTM were drafting with some people, lots of people playing and sorting and all sorts of stuff. I found pure and 'sensei again and sat with them. Pure was going through her deck, then moved on to mine ^_^‚. She loaned me some cards to help me out, and gave me one of the nifty larvitar promos. Ech called and we both talked to him for a minute, I couldn't hear very well so I was trying to assume what he was saying...something about his ear falling off...I don‚t know ;) But I liked talking to him again, anyway.

Saturday morning, I headed down to the convention room. There was a line, so I waited in it, but when I got to the door they told me 15+ had to wait...gah. After that I found PK (in the LINE) and yakked at him for a while, until he got past the doors I was forbidden to enter. Pure passed us and talked for a minute, before she had to go back behind the doors since she was staff.

Once I finally got in, I sat down with PK and this cool Vinny guy. Vinny and I played a game, which I did pretty well in, I thought, considering he was playing unlimited and I was playing modified. Trevor and SoSlowpoke showed up (I didn‚t realize when exactly they were behind us... I don't have eyes in the back of my head...yet) So we hung around with them. Pure got me this great Bulbasaur button from the Pokémon center. He's sleeping. I recommend it to all Bulbasaur fans.

So I played a couple side games (Trevor tried to use mints as damage counters!), bought some cards from the store, played in 1 1/2 drafts (we tried to pull off one during lunch with all the Zeo people and some other friends there, but it took too long and people have to get back to their matches) PK did really well is his games, ending up tied for 5th in the 11-14 tourney. I pulled a Shining Tyranitar out of my only booster that day :D. I also passed out Baracus (Pupitar) for pure while she played in the Rochester Draft..so slowpoke kept trying to trick me into giving him multiples--he's quicker than he lets on. We also discovered the sticker on the box was glow in the dark, we must have looked reeeaaally cool with our hands cupped around our eyes staring at a little brown box.

We got to go out for dinner that night, but by the time we did only Pure, Pk and myself were left. So the three of us and PKs mom (who is a very nice woman and should be getting a great birthday present this year) went out to Maria's Mexican Restaurant. I had some form of steak, pure has tamales, pk had cheese quesadias. It was cool. I received a phone call while we were waiting...never a moments peace I tell you! ;)

After that Pure and I walked back to the Holiday Inn (PK had to go) and we ran into MTM in the lobby. He invited us to come for dinner with him, so we ran to our rooms, got ready and came back down. We went to the restaurant in the Embassy two hotels down--Basils Garden or something like that. Ech called again, and I made some comments about road flares and the wind. I'm not a huge fan of wind[giggles] fan? Wind? Get it? Get it?!

The next morning me, pure and my mom went to this keen Japanese store we heard about called Mitsuwa. If anyone lives in the Chicago area, it's a great place to go to. Its at the corner of Arlington heights and Algonquin rd, right off the Arlington heights exit on 1-90. The street number is 100 Algonquin rd. Anyway, it's this really great supermarket (where I got some sour yogurt juice, orange Qoo, instant cupcake, UFO [it's a noodle dish of some form], some rice seasoning [it came with a little plastic oddish!] and some Godzilla stuff). They also had a mini store inside it selling some e cards, the e card reader. Godzilla models, robots and all sorts of fun glow in the dark key chains. There was also what appeared to be a bootleg movie store. Fun!

After that we had to rush back to the hotel and check out so we didn‚t get charged for another day. So we said our goodbyes (two or three times ;)) and I left back for boring old Ohio, and another fun trip down the Dan Ryan. Good times.

At least up until the Ohio part.