After having written a summary of how my [trip to *PAX East 2014*] was, I really wanted to share the best moments of my trip with you as well.
This little blurb will contain anything I deemed memorable and made my stay “magic”. Some stuff may be overly simple and / or silly, but it still ended up meaning the world to me. I hope you enjoy. 
# Thursday, April 10th 2014 – The Flight To Boston #
1) “Oh look! Isn’t that…?”
This was a really funny coincidence, since *Natalie* (aka “Madame Toadstool”) ended up sitting in the same row as we did on the plane.
It was the first time of me meeting her and she was super nice, so I already started my flight in a very good mood, despite me being a pretty uneasy flyer (Curse that nausea!) #victory#
2) “Let’s go find Tommy and then immediately go back to our hotel, so we can drop our bags and relax a bit, before we pick up Nims…”
Shortly after we landed and found *Tommy*, we also coincidentally ended up seeing the people from *Natalie*’s group; namely *Eric*, *Alicia*, *Allison* and *Thomal*, which I have partially known from a lot of online interaction (the guys, basically), so actually meeting them in person (as well as hugging!) was very thrilling for me.
They were very warm and also charismatic, so talking to them was a real delight, despite the fact that I didn’t even know anything at all about two of them. It was pretty magic and us leaving to our hotel did definitely leave me with a bit of a sadness, because I had taken a liking to them all in that short time.
3) “What a fine ‘Walking Animation’ you have!”
This quickly became an insider amongst us and it’s absolutely silly, but that’s why I loved it so much. 
Since we were a group of 4, we obviously couldn’t just walk right next to each other all the time (especially on pedestrian walkways), so we had to walk behind each other. That’s when I brought up the joke of the “Walking Animation” the first time.
It was basically about how the individuals of our clique were walking AND also entailed the “niceness of our posteriors”. We surely did enjoy that insider joke a lot. 
4) “Sir, there is a problem with your room…”
First thing after arriving, you get to hear that they don’t have our room ready. I didn’t panic or anything (Hey, I tend to NOT jump the gun! ) and instead went to look at whatever it is they gave us the keys for. When I entered, I felt like I got hit by a wooden board: An incredibly detailed, high-class, expensive room. Turns out that they messed up a request we had, so to make up for it they let us stay in a “Junior Executive Suite”. FINE BY ME! 
5) “I don’t know if that will fill me up…”
We were kind of late the first day and so we unfortunately couldn’t make it to where we wanted to when we had dinner. So instead we went to ask the staff downstairs for a good place to dine. They suggested a few places, but we ended up going with this “Umbria” thing.
It was basically an Italian restaurant with quite the expensive items, since they pretty much made everything from scratch and also offered a lot of different oysters etc.
Some people weren’t sure if the portion size was going to work out, since it looked “small”, but I just let them go with it. I definitely know Italian food and I had a really good feeling about this place. This is why it was exciting to see that everybody utterly enjoyed what they had ordered, got full and was happy to spend the – roughly – $40 per person (which included GOOD water, bread, main course and dessert, as well as the tips).
I also loved that – of course outside everyone being happy – we pretty much all tried all of the other’s food prior to “digging in”. It makes it feel very family-like and I just liked how much of an open mind everybody had. It was a perfect first dinner for a great trip, not to mention that I was – once again – proud of my Italian heritage. 
6) “Good night, kitteh…”
I’m a very cuddly person and I like being close to my friends, so I absolutely loved the way we slept.
There was one (big) bed that we all used. I ended up being sandwiched in the middle between *Slim* and *Nima*, which meant double-affection for me! On one side I could cuddle *Nims*’ arm and on the other I had *Slim* petting me. What a great way to fall asleep for a kitteh such as myself. #10h#
# Friday, April 11th 2014 – 1st Con Day #
1) “HE is the girl of the group”
I know he’ll probably strangle me for this (xD), just because of how much we used this joke, but it turned out that *Nims* was the “girl of the group”, because he always took about half an hour to get ready in the morning.
We had made a plan for the bathroom prior to our trip, where everybody was supposed to have 15mins to shower and do whatever else, before getting dressed, grabbing breakfast and then getting ready for the con, but *Nimer* always took double the time of everybody else. Then again, to BE fair, there was this huge mirror on the back of the door…
Hey, the teasing we did was very mutual though. Everybody was the “ass” at some point and that’s exactly what I loved about it. Just how close and buddy-like we all were to each other. #10h#
2) “Taking time to stop and smell the roses…”
At one point during the convention, *Slim* and I just sat down on the “Sky Bridge” and looked down at the going-ons; observing people passing by; looking at all the flashing lights coming from the booths…we just sat there, looked and talked about god and the world. I am not sure exactly HOW much time passed, but it must have been at least half an hour. I really enjoyed to exist outside of time and space, even if just for a bit.
3) “Brandy Pete’s is one Hell of a place!”
This dinner actually had TWO memorable happenings!
For one, we had this waitress called “Taylor” and both *Nima* AND *Tommy* thought she was cute, so I obviously had to play “wingman” and kept asking them if I should get her number for them (I am such a good bro! *lol*). We also kept making the joke days after that meal and in fact still mention it and tease each other.
The other thing that happened was so freakin’ random, but made me laugh so hard, I felt like I was going to throw up.
Somewhen during our supper, *Nims* bent down and wiped his mouth on the napkin that was laying on the table, barely lifting it. Unfortunately for him, *Slim* and I watched him during that whole time and then made a reoccurring joke out of it, doing the same motion he did (basically wiping our mouths on stuff laying on a flat surface).
Sometimes *Slim* is a dick and does the motion out of nowhere, making my stomach hurt from laughing. Goddamned, guys!
4) “God, are you there?”
I had a bit of a hard time the first night, so we all sat together and had a talk about it.
I felt honestly pretty weird, because I don’t usually like to show my vulnerable side so much, because I am so used to being the “big brother” and helping others or taking care of them as opposed to RECEIVING help myself, that it just kinda got that way (I am working on it though). But it happened and I really appreciated it.
I always get this weird feeling on the inside during such moments. It feels like fuzziness, but it’s also very warm and good. I am not sure what exactly the emotion is called, but it’s definitely always great to see how much your friends care about you.
At the end *Tommy* said a prayer with us all, while we held each other. I love praying with him. It’s always an absolutely magical moment. =)
# Saturday, April 12th 2014 – 2nd Con Day #
1) “I’m the Doctor!”
My cosplay of the day was that of “Ten” (as I call him) from “Doctor Who”. I honestly didn’t expect a lot of people to recognize me, since the show is not very known in the US, until we went down the stairs to the expo hall and this guy passed me, yelling (it was loud down there) “Excellent Tenth Doctor Cosplay”. That was awesome. 
2) “Divine!”
This was probably one of my most favorite things during the convention itself: *Tommy* cosplaying as “Apollo” and seeing the environment react to it.
Everybody was so happy; a lot of people recognized him and at that one point it took him more thanhalf a freakin’ hour to get his lunch, just because everybody stopped him for pics all the time.
The part I liked most is how he was so friendly to all the people; made their days; posed for photos and was just an incredibly inspirational, sweet, down-to-earth person.
It’s no secret that *Tommy* is definitely one of my biggest inspirations and I really look up to him. #10h#
3) “Assassin’s Creed”
While we were waiting around for *Tommy* to get through the Cosplay Contest, we met *Eric* again, who had a pretty badass “Ezio” hood (with the blades!). Besides me liking the game series (and thus his get-up) a lot and enjoying all the joking around, I was also extremely thrilled about him mentioning the possibility of us all playing some games together sometime. I am SO in on that! 
4) “Walking Under The Moon”
That evening we walked to “Quincy Market”. The weather was absolutely warm that night and the (full) moon shined bright, already making me somewhat sappy in my heart.
As we kept going towards the venue, there was a carousel and combined with all the people in the streets, as well as all the lights, restaurants with the fine dining guests…it just really made me feel like back in Italy. It was simply stunning and beautiful and I honestly got quite a bit of a crush on Boston that moment. #10h#
# Sunday, April 13th 2014 – The Day Off #
1) “Pika-Pi!”
I’m not gonna lie. I was pretty cuddly that day and constantly nuzzling up my Pikachu plushie that I had bought the day prior (For only $15! It was a steal, since it is an original TOMY!), but at some point I just felt like being more affectionate towards my friends.
I sat down on the floor and hugged *Nims*’ legs, who was sitting on a chair at that point, while giving him the cutest “Pika?” I could get out. I was even happier when he (paraphrased) said “Gaaah…isn’t she the most damn adorable thing when she does her ‘Pika’ thing?” to the guys, to which they all agreed. D’Aww.
2) “Gimme Five!”
We played “Mario Party” and recorded some stuff. Since *Slim* is definitely the best player of us due to all the practice he got from his channel, it was often pretty hard to beat him on the minigames.
However, there was this one time when we did and so I started a round of high-fives with the guys, which I just absolutely loved! I love the prospect of doing things with my closest friends as a team; working towards a common goal; achieving it and then getting some sort of recognition going. High-Fives are some of the best things you can do with your friends. #10h#
3) “Table Manners pay off”
It was the last dinner we had together and we went to this place called “Trade”.
They had a lot of good stuff and so I ended up ordering a really tasty flat bread with broccoli, olives, garlic and cheese, for which they brought me a fork and knife. Quickly considering whether to eat it with my fingers like pizza, I decided against it and used my cutlery just like I always do.
I ate somewhat slower than the others, also thanks to the fact that I had a bit of conversation over the table, so *Tommy* and *Nima* ended up watching me eat the last few bites of my meal, until *Tommy* suddenly said “I really like the way you eat”.
I blushed slightly, stopped, looked at him and inquired about it. He explained that he just really liked how much control I have over the tools and how “fine” (basically) my way of eating was. Apparently him and *Nims* were so impressed, that they wanted to hear the story behind my excellent table manners, even though I had to somewhat disappoint them, because there isn’t much of a story to tell.
To make it short, my dad had always trained us to be extremely refined, to the point of where we weren’t even allowed to make any noise at all when we drank something; so pretty strict (and somewhat over the top) and specific. Furthermore I also personally took a lot of interest in – what we call – “Knigge” and studied some literature about it and how to behave during social gatherings or alike, when it comes to being correct.
I have to admit though, that I definitely need a bit more practice for some of the traditions, since I really haven’t used them a lot during the years.
These were pretty much the most memorable and – to me – very sacred moments of the trip.
As a last thing, I would like to share what I said to my friend *Yoshi*, when I described Boston to him (I’m a fan, definitely).
Thank you for reading and I hope you got a little bit of a smile out of some things or learned a fun fact or two. =)
“It [Boston] had some sky-scraper buildings. Not extremely many, but a few and thus the city-view was really nice, especially from the hotel we were staying at.
The weather was really nice, because it was warm, but without there being direct sunlight out and so whenever we’d go to our dinners in the evening, the walks were absolutely enjoyable and beautiful.
I also really liked this place called ‘Quincy Market’, because they had a carousel next to it, with much pretty lights in the evening and the food there was just extremely great, due to how much selection it offers.
It all felt just overall ‘romantic’ and ‘nostalgic’ somehow. I was charmed and enchanted.”
Special thanks to our “Dork Squad”. I love you guys. Thanks for existing and being my family. #10h#
