-Students are back to school tomorrow, so I've been preping all week and have been v. busy. Open House was Thursday and I got to meet pretty much all my new students and their families. They were all very nice and I'm now totally psyched about the new school year.

-Anime Festival Orlando was last weekend. I had a FANTASTIC time and let me tell you, I needed it so badly! Friday night was a talent competition called Orlandia's Got Talent and I actually won! It was such a rush and on top of that I got a cash award and a great photo book called Cosplay in America. Then, to continue the winning streak, I also won the door prize at a panel on learning Japanese. It was a book called Japanese the Manga Way, which I've had on my Amazon wishlist for ages--score!! Also, I helped out at two panels on Sunday--one was a parody of What Not to Wear that my friends and I put together, dressed as the Ouran High School Host Club and giving advice on cosplay. I dressed as Kyoya. The other was a Victorian/Steam Punk tea room that my friend heavenscribe put together and we helped her set up and entertain the guests a bit (most of us were still dressed as the Host Club.) Besides Kyoya, my other costumes were Hotaru from Gakuen Alice, and my still-incomplete Gina from Porco Rosso that I wore to the photo shoot in St. Augustine last month. Which I just realized I still haven't posted pics of here, although I've posted some on Facebook. I will try to post pics of both the photoshoot and the con, as well as video of the talent show some time soon.

-Preliminary tests show that dad's cancer does not seem to have spread. We are still waiting on an MRI to confirm that some "hot spots" on the bone scan are arthritis, but the doctor was almost certain they were. Now the main thing is dad has to decide what kind of treatment he's going to try.

-Tonight was my third attempt at making miso soup and this is the first time it actually tasted right, so I'm v. excited about that.

-I'm glad to be posting mostly good news today. I'm realizing more and more that nothing is certain in this life, so I'm trying to just take things one day at a time. "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself...".

'Kay. Going to go serve myself another helping of miso soup now...

<3
Joie