So, I don't think I have con plague or anything, but I've been loosing my voice since Saturday night. I haven't been coughing or sneezing or feeling icky like you mostly do with con plague, I think had just talked too much over the weekend and my throat is a little sore. Except that my throat didn't hurt at all until today. So now I'm sucking on Halls and hoping that I'm not actually any sicker than just this.

Note to self: Must start bringing vitamins to cons to decrease chances of con-plague. I've never gotten sick at Otakon, but at Naka-kon and Anime St. Louis, I got sick (actually, I was sick prior to both of those cons seeing as how I was sick for two straight months with mini-relapses every couple of weeks). So I think it's that tight environment that breeds illness. Even though Otakon is thousands of more people, everything is so spread with really high ceilings and lots of AC pumping air. Plus the con is so lame that you end up not going to half of the things that would actually put you in close, constant proximity to other people (they cancel every panel and show you're interested in).

On the upside, I can use my sore throat as part of my reasons not to go to Cotter this weekend. Mom and Dad want to drag me down to Bumblefuck, Arkansas to visit some relatives and go antique shopping. I actually want to go because the leaves might be starting to change already, and it's really a beautiful town that I would love to take pictures of. But I have so much I should be doing that I don't want to go. Besides, with the 'rents away for the weekend, I'll have some quiet time in the house to put my audition together (assuming my voice comes back). Plus I'd really like to hang out with Natale this weekend, she's my only MO friend who doesn't result in drama, and I need breaks from con people in order not to go crazy.

The sad reality is that I don't have a whole lot of friends in MO. I mean, I know a lot of people who I'm friendly with, and I guess I would call them friends. But I don't have a lot of people that I'm close to like I did back in MD (miss j00 Rei!). And the people who I do know the best are all part of the convention, with is so full of stress and drama that it strains friendship sometimes. And the more stressful it becomes, the harder it becomes not to associate the con staff with stress and trouble. I want to spend time with my friends without being reminded of all the drama, but I'm such an over-thinker... It doesn't help that everytime we get together, con stuff always gets mentioned, and when it's not mentioned I'm thinking about it.

That's why seeing Natale every week or so is good for me. I can talk and joke with her without drama being the back of my mind. And for this reason, I miss Audry sooooo much. Audry is the one friend I've ever had who has never ever annoyed me. We agree on just about everything (except on Code Geass, she likes Lelouch, I think he's a douche). Plus Audry is so easy-going and uncaring of what other people think of her. It's so refreshing since lots of people I know trip over themselves when they get the least bit emotional or stressed (I'm like that too). With a lot of my friends it's: "Oh no, I made a mistake! I must apologize obsessively and feel guilty for the next week and let it ruin my day, thereby ruining the day of everyone around me!" With her it's like: "Whoops, my bad. Let me fix that." I love her laid back attitude, I wish I were anything like that >__< Plus Audry is one of those people who knows my tastes perfectly, like Bradwen. If either of those two recommend a show to me, it's guaranteed I'll like it (the one exception being Higurashi, which was not my cup of tea). Audry got me into Stargate and West Wing (which is now my favorite show ever), and I sucked her into Heroes and Lost.

So strangely enough, I get along better with Audry than I do my best friend. This is totally okay though, since Rei-chan and I wouldn't be BFFs were it not for our major personality differences and our ability to forgive and forget problems. She's the House to my Wilson (minus the part where she gets my girlfriend killed, resulting in me leaving the hospital and her hiring a PI to stalk me).

Um, so yeah, watching more Reborn. Finally got to the good stuff. I was actually pretty amazed at how much they left out before starting plot. Reborn is pretty uncommon in that a large part of it is episodic, with no real plot for many many chapters. It makes it feel like constant filler, which is really annoying for someone like me, who is plot-obsessed. So even though the chapters are laid out perfectly to be episodes, the anime still leaves stuff out for no reason I can fathom, which just makes their job harder since they have to fill in certain holes. Like, leaving out the sakura-viewing party where Hibari gets stung by Shamal's Trident Mosquito and develops the sakura disease thing makes it awfully hard to shove Shamal in at the last minute so Mukuro can still use sakura against him in their fight. Duuuuuumb! But yay, I'm happy to be watching the Kokuyo Arc, since Mukuro fighting is a little confusing in the manga.

I'm a little irked with the show though, since I don't really like a lot of the main voice actors. I heard some complaints before I started watching, and Reborn's voice is so very annoying that I have to mute him saying his own name during the eyecatches. Tsuna's voice had to grow on me. I love the way the voice actress says "Na!" in surprise, it's very funny. Out of the main cast, I actually think the best voice is Lambo's, which is funny, because Lambo is the most annoying character. Of course, it's helps that Lambo's voice actress is the *incredibly* talented Junko Takeuchi, who voices Naruto and Gon. It seems like most of the other seiyuu in the show are pretty okay, no one who makes me go "Holy crap, that's awesome!" except Takeuchi.