The Most Magical

     The week of 10/28 - 11/4 has been the most eventful and incredible weeks of the year, if not my life, so far. Two Saturdays ago on 10/28 my boyfriend, Mark, visited me. He's a Canadian who lives in Winnipeg and this was his first time in the US. I met him twice before, each time visiting him in Canada. First during February last year, and again the following Christmas. Each of those visits were remarkable and beautiful on their own, but this most recent visit is the best of the three.

    After I picked Mark up from the airport, we went to my house. If you remember the previous longform post "Dangerously Wicked and Intriguing Times in Fornia" then you would know I moved out of the dorms. I spent the day before his visit quickly unpacking any remaining decorations and furniture. The house was staged completely by the time he arrived. The weather was gorgeous the entire time here. Temperate--not too hot, but not cold either, just warm enough. And the smile on his face when I gave him a bouquet of purple roses. We got a blanket out and laid in the grass in my backyard. Those quiet, intimate moments lying together. Lying with my love and looking into his eyes. I wish I could have those again forever.

    We visited the store a while later to get groceries and things to prepare for dinner, breakfast, lunch. Mark and I watched a whole bunch of different things. The Kirby anime (a great archive of it I had stumbled on from Reddit), Animal Yokocho, Great Teacher Onizuka, Bunny Maloney. That evening after dinner, we rode our bikes. Riding our bikes was one of the things we wanted to do the most. It looked so picturesque and beautiful and fantastic in my dreams, but it turned out a little more silly and janky than expected. My bike had a flat tube that I inflated and tried to ride out. (It was a success.) Mark had my other bike, the pink one I built, with the shitty wheel that tilts left and right because it isn't tight on its axle. Despite how crappy that was, we still rode, during the sunset. Such beautiful golden green light reflecting off the grass. Temperate air. And our favorite musician, June LaLonde, running on my bluetooth speaker. The dream, it finally came true. Cheesy, but so romantic. We rode to the elementary school nearby where we got off the bikes and walked around holding hands. Then we sat at a bench nearby and watched the sunset.

    Despite my boyfriend not even having been in California with me for 24 hours, it felt like he was here forever. I felt so much love in that moment just sitting quietly and watching the sunset and holding him close. I could have proposed there on the spot, I feel like. I felt a bit bad though, knowing that by him visiting, I would have to eventually say goodbye to him too.

    We returned to the house and watched some more shows, then went to bed. Sleeping with my boyfriend is such a heartwarming thing. To be close to the person you love most and feel their breath and the warmth of their body and to kiss them goodnight and not even having to say "I love you" to feel the love itself.

    Next day. We went to the gym together. The workout went quite well. I'd like to take him to the gym with me more often. And working out always feels better for me when I do it with him. Doing anything with him makes me feel better. After exercise, I cooked some pork fried rice. Came out a bit messy and poor, but decent for a first attempt. I enjoy cooking and want to do it more often. Cooking is a good skill to have, after all.

    More TV, some other things. The Narrow Head concert was a flop because neither of us bought tickets early, which were that day sold out and resold tickets cost $60 apiece. We settled for a different band, Choses Sauvages and Bright Light Social Hour at Harlow's in Sacramento. It was Mark's first concert. It went great, actually. He enjoyed it a lot. The lead singer of Choses Sauvages, Felix, had this great energy and stage presence. The band reminded me of Talking Heads. Bright Light was nice too.

    On Monday, we packed up and went to BLFC, the furry convention, in Reno. Scout around and get a feel for the con before unpacking into the hotel reservation we had on the 26th floor. We registered, went to the arcade and played some rhythm games, where Mark mopped the floor on some of the games. Played Smash Melee too. The arcade was quite nice--a whole room full of CRTs and retro game consoles. I do miss that feel. Afterwards we unpacked and just roamed around the convention before eating. That night there were a few panels. "Macro meet", "furry themed parody songs" (something something I wanna be inflated). "Getting your kink on". That panel was actually very informative and intriguing, talking specifics about the definition of a kink and its role in society and individuals. Way later that night were some other panels. Monsterfuckers. 18+ panel of slideshow of monsters and eldritch looking creatures with dicks and pussies and the crowd all cheering and doing a smash-or-pass vote.

    Tuesday was the magic day, the peak of the week. We went out, where I got a fast food breakfast and afterwards went to get groceries at Walmart. Went to the vendors that afternoon. Super busy. Saw a lot of nice stuff, stickers. Lots of stickers. Got a good amount of things here. Saw some vendor called F-Class, with this super cute mascot named Niko. I think we went to some panel after this, but I don't remember. In fact, I know I had my fursuit going to some panels, and got a couple compliments on my skirt. Another guy wanted to take a video of me then gave me his business card after. Was it after the inflation parody song? After the shopping, we went to the room again to take a break and eat and relax. We watched some of Felix the Cat. During the movie, the both of us ate the magic mushrooms I had brought. (See "Times in Fornia" for more.) 

    The mushrooms had hit me I think an hour later while I was in the shower. There's some video I recorded of my trip. There didn't feel to be a lot of visuals, I think. The grid pattern on the curtain was moving. But otherwise, it was extremely reminiscent of my LSD trip last year. The swollen heart and emotions, the derpy mood, the playful and energetic stuff. We played Kirby. The jokes and laughter destroyed our lungs. So many memes we quoted in the video. The mushrooms affected Mark much later than me. I peaked at 7 or so, but for Mark, this happened much later at 9. This was only after we tried to go out to eat. It was comedically difficult to leave the room. We tried so many times but we, high as hell, were sure the room was locking us in.

    Johnny Rocket's was a fail. Too busy. Mark looked very uncomfortable and was having a bad trip but I felt sober enough to bail us out. That's when we met Raoul Duke on the way back to the room. Yeah, a guy who was dressed as the character from Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. He played the role extremely well. He was smoking a blunt too. Very personable, talkative, magnetic. He kept Mark and I very engaged in conversation with many well-thought questions. It was the most interesting thing to happen that time out of the room.

    But we returned to the room having not eaten, only to just deal with eating the sandwiches we could make. Not the most appetizing, but it is our only good option. Then Mark peaked on the mushrooms. Turned into a kid. Random, energetic, bouncy. He looked like a living cartoon. The rest of this time was fuzzy. We watched a lot of trippy things in our trippy videos playlist on Youtube. Little else I remember.

    I had some incredibly deep moment on the shrooms. Talking about life, breath, love. I don't even remember specifically what I said, but it felt to me the most important thing ever. I do remember saying I felt connected to the entire earth and its great unified consciousness. I thought I forgot the watch I was going to propose to Mark with. He was expecting a ring, but I told him I didn't get him one. But it was so moving that he told me was already going to say yes whether there was one or not. About half an hour later I recalled that I did in fact have the watch packed in my bag. I stopped Mark and proposed then and there in the hotel room. I asked the magic question and he said yes. Hugs. Looking at the watch. An endearing embrace... and then much later that night as the come down came to us, we left to the only panel we saw that night at midnight: Pokemonfuckers. Same deal as last night but instead of monsters, pokemon. Smash-or-pass on the hot and lewd pokemon.

    Wednesday... we ate breakfast, packed up, checked out, left stuff in the car to continue roaming the con. Went back to the vendors when it was less crowded. Got some new stuff. The black market was 18+ vendors. Saw some very nice things. Very tempted to get some stuff from there but I chose against it. I did get a book called Spacebun though, some adult graphic novel about some astronaut bunnies fucking each other. I did get some other things too but they don't come to mind. Mark and I went to the sticker swap before we left. God, there were so many stickers. I loved it. So many collectibles, NSFW and SFW! I wish I could have gone back there later to get even more, but time cut us short. We had to go to the airbnb.

    The airbnb is a cabin in the boonies of Grass Valley, CA. We could have taken a rough road for a few miles down one way, something that my sedan surely couldn't handle. Alternative: cut through the quarry. That sucked. My car got stuck in gravel but we got there okay. Quaint, peaceful, secluded. The rest of the week we were there, we took it easy. Watched Emesis Blue. Played a lot of Kirby, including Star Allies which I bought on a whim when I went to Target for groceries. Earlier that day (Thursday) we went hiking at my favorite spot, Black Swan Preserve. Showed Mark the cave, the lake, the ravine, the cliff. He enjoyed it a ton. We ate some subs by the ravine. It was so lovely. I'd love to take Mark on a hike again. Friday was a quiet day too, with a lot of gaming. And feeling a bit sad because that was the last day.

    Saturday, I dropped Mark off at the airport. Tried not to cry when I did drop him off. The rest of that day I was really sad. Cried several times. I felt like a piece of me was missing. But then that would mean he's carrying that piece of me, and so he would never be alone. But everyone supported our engagement so much. Everyone was happy for us. This time was truly unforgettable. I distinctly remember when before I proposed to Mark, I told him that that day was the best day of my life, or it was understatement, because every day I am with him is the best day of my life. I know that will be coming to me soon. Next year, absolutely. I'd like to marry him next year. Everything is going to change forever, I said to him during our whole trip. And I certainly can't wait.