Pneity

Well here I am on the other side. They raised $60,000 then they raised $100,000. I donated large sums twice and was involved at the core of a fundraiser where a bunch of us with JDM cars and itasha anime wrapped cars got together and had a charity car show. The car show earlier this month was cool. My newphew Sean was able to drive my Toyota Levin so I was free to drive the Acty. I expected a cloudy day but before we could even arrive to the lot in South Park, the sun came out and was there to stay.

I had planned all this around a huge family party. I would get home just in time to disregard the party and get a nap. I picked up an extra day of work that Saturday night in a deal to get a few weeks vacation time around Tekko itself. I missed meeting with lots of family I never get to see so I could log into work. I logged in and someone else was already logging in. I wasn't even needed. Called my boss, he told me I didn't have to work it. I would later bury into him and tell him how inappropriate it was I rearranged many plans for him. One of many reasons I won't feel bad to leave that job.

But hey, I got two weeks off for Tekko. The week before and the week after. I'm writing this from the back half of that vacation. Tekko has passed. Now, as part of the JDM/itasha Pittsburgh car group, I got to put the Acty in the dealer's hall as a show vehicle. I spent all three days standing around my van, watching people come up and ask questions and generally be curious about the van. They were never made for America. The only reason there is anything special about it is because nobody here has ever seen one like it.

I met lots of cool people. I don't feel like there will be any lasting connections. I also didn't get to meet with anyone I was hoping to meet. Old real life friends and new online friends who I knew were going, I didn't really see many folks. I had an image of what the weekend would look like. What I got was not that but it was still magical.

Driving out of the convention center's loading dock was one of the most bitter, painful moments of my life so far that didn't involve death. But in a way, I feel like it did involve death. Death of my ability to go to a convention that has always meant the world to me. Trust that there is a sweetness in there. Should my plans succeed, only distance and geography will stand in my way. I'll be in the place that all this leads to.

I've had several mini emotional breakdowns in the last few days because the lyrics to Gazelle City by The Pillows are hitting a little too close to home. I'm terrified of what it means to leave my family behind and possibly never see them again since they are getting old, just like me. I'm terrified of leaving my town.

It was a beautiful, guilty lazy day. I didn't clean the room and I didn't study language. I didn't study programming. I just wasted away watching Youtube and enjoying the last bits of this vacation. Heading into 11:30 PM or so, I was winding down and trying to get tired. The house phone rang which would usually mean my mom has something going on leaving work. I didn't think much of it but had heard my dad upstairs so I know he was gonna answer it. Ten minutes later, he explained she had been in a fender-bender, got a flat tire, and we needed to go pick her up.

She works at a hospital in a bigger town about a half hour's drive away. It's a winding but main traveled road all the way that passes through a few smaller towns. We arrived at the hospital, checked things out. Yeah, nothing we can do with the tire until morning. So the three of us all headed back home.

We were passing through a town I grew up in. The house where I gained my earliest memories and its neighbor, a long closed bank that someone had converted into a house. Some tents were set up outside this former bank. I was focused on driving and making sure there were no deer or drunks waiting to run into the road in the night. My dad told me that people were in that parking lot waving like crazy at us. My mom said she believed one of them was a family member she grew up with.

Now, I'm really used to people waiving at me while I drive. I drive a Japanese import van and I know it's the only one in the whole county. People who know me know the van. People who don't know me or the van are at least excited to see it because it's so out of place and cute.

So my dad convinces me to turn around and check to see who it was or at least show off the van. It's nearly 1 AM. I turn around a bit down the road and pull into this parking lot. I learned how to ride a bike in this parking lot. Well sure enough, not only was my mom right and her cousin was there. But who I assume to be another distant relative from mom's side of the family. With them was my cousin from my dad's side, Wade. Wade is someone I hang out with on Discord most nights. We were at Tekko together over the weekend. We hang out quite a lot considering I don't see anyone in person these days.

So here are these three hanging out in a parking lot in a small town at 1 AM. Wade knows my van well and immediately spotted me. He waved to get our attention which I guess worked! They had just finished setting up for a yard sale over the upcoming weekend. We stood around and talked for about 15 minutes. They checked out the van and I think friendly company was just what we needed to wind down after mom's rough day.

Now I'm gonna head to bed to be sure I'm good to wake up and help with the tire stuff in the morning. Then I clean.