As you might have read from the title, I'm in New York! I'm here on vacation for a few days with my family, visiting relatives and seeing the city.

The last time I was in this area was for my pseudo-commencement last year, two years after I actually graduated. It was a very difficult time then, as I'd been going through something that was neither something I'd totally recovered from yet nor something I could tell my college friends about during such a happy time. I thought I did a mild-to-okay job keeping up appearances, but later when I eventually confided in one of my housemates from college via Discord, she said she'd noticed how spacey and distant I was that weekend.

Luckily, I'm doing much better now, and I'm much happier being here this time around. I've made plans to see some friends in the city, and my brother, sister-in-law, and I are going to our first ever anime convention towards the end of our trip. I'm quite excited about that last bit – I made and handcut some stickers to give away to people I meet at the con, and I brought some stuff for a voice actor I like to sign. The tickets to attend were expensive, but how often am I here, anyway?

I'm a little nervous about meeting friends. I have four hangs lined up – one with an old housemate I haven't had a proper conversation with since, two with people I've never hung out with in person in a 1:1 capacity, and one with an online friend I've never had a synchronous conversation with. I've ordered them in this list from least to most nerve-wracking. Thankfully I've booked most of them for lunches or coffees – things I feel are easier than a dinner to escape from quickly, but are easily extendable if I find myself enjoying my time. We'll see!

My teacher prep program is still happening, of course, which means I'm stuck doing coursework when I'm not out and about. In recent weeks, the workload has gotten heftier, but I'm allowed to have five late assignments at a time, so you better believe I'm going to do just enough work to go under the limit until I get back home.

Also, I got some stuff shipped to my relatives' place in advance, and was happy to see them when I got here. The Mutant Mayhem art book was really lovely – I thought the movie was so visually well done, and it was nice to see some of the conceptualizing that went into making it what it was. I love art made by people, thought up by people...!