Had a blast at Anime Los Angeles (in Long Beach) 19 for the last few days. First time going to a con since AX in 2014. My time was full of smiles, laughs, cries, ribbons, and somewhat overpriced figures. Attended multiple panels and meetups such as the 4kids Flashback and both the Adventure Time and Newgrounds meetups (I was a Simon Petrikov for the whole con, first time really cosplaying too :P) and for the Newgrounds meetup especially everyone was so cool and nice throughout the whole thing, we even went out to dinner together. Got to spend a good chunk of the con with my best friend and she even got me to try like 5 or 6 different kinds of alcohol when I've never really been much of a drinker, though I only really liked the wildberry seltzer.

I feel like going to a con really rejuvenated my soul in a way that I've been needing for a long long time. This zest for life and experiences, being able to commune face to face with so many people like me. For the first time in a while I'm truly happy to be alive. Closing thoughts are as follows:

• I should do cons more often (probably not AX though, too crowded.)
• If I haven't gotten COVID yet I'll probably come down with it soon. (UPDATE: I mean getting COVID from someone else, I've been vaxxed 3 times so technically I may have "gotten it" but not by standard transmission)
• Probably don't need to have a 4-day reservation for the hotel even if I'm going for all 4 days of the con.
• Next time I should reserve a hotel much sooner, the one I got that was available was like 3 miles away from the con and while functional and a pretty good hotel overall it was very inconvenient going from there to the convention center and back.
• Shout-outs to QueenBoo, Blakenator9872, and xeno-cowboy for being real ones.