How long has it been? O_o I just got an email on my old account about Xanga missing me so...howdy, Xanga! *hug* XD I'm actually heading off to an anime convention in Orlando today so...there's some news. ^.^ I know what I can do, I can post my Christmas letter from this past Christmas to cover all the time I haven't talked on here, HAHA! I wonder if I can write that much or if I'll have to do it in bits. XD *goes to copy and paste* Here ya go, have fun!

Howdy! It’s Rachel Hajducko, also known as Shania Nowhere on the interwebs!

This is my Christmas letter of awesomeness, documenting my entire year for those of you who may have missed a few things here and there (or everything all together). It’s been a pretty long year and I can hardly believe it’s almost over, it’s been such a rush! Ups and downs and all around, I definitely won’t forget it! So, going by what I can remember, here’s my journey through 2007!!

Cons, late nights of Runescape, 4-H stuff, Farm Bureau yeehaw, Gaia obsession, church choir, blank spaces of dubious events…

Alright, so I have the memory of a goldfish. Thank God for Livejournal! Let’s see what I REALLY did, HAHA!

The beginning of my year was pretty uneventful overall, I started it out by getting a new pet! She’s a guinea pig and her name is V.V. (short for Victor Victoria, so named because I wasn’t sure if she was a boy or girl until later, haha). She’s a picky little thing, won’t touch fresh food at all, all she likes is hay and pellets. Snooty bugger. :-p She doesn’t like being handled either so she’s not much fun. But I still love her in all her drama queen ways, haha.

The following month started my adventures this year. For the first time I attended a live taping of "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson, it was amazingly hilarious! I didn’t get to meet him but it was still fun to watch him in person and hear all the stuff they cut out - yes, they do cut stuff out, you wouldn’t think so sometimes.

Later In February was the first con of the year, not to be the last in any case. I attended Megacon in Orlando, Florida; it was quite an experience! I think this was the first time I went to a Risembool Ranger dinner too, which was a load of fun to attend (and plan! I helped put it together!). For those who don’t know, the Risembool Rangers are the official fanclub of Vic Mignogna, a voice actor who was in attendance at the convention this year. We got fussed out a few times for being the rowdy, boisterous people we are, haha. I didn’t do much besides hang out with the Rangers at Megacon, my entire experience pretty much revolves around Vic-sensei’s table in the autograph area. ^_^



Next month I went with my mom to a foreign film festival and saw something called "Alatriste", the swashbuckling story of Captain Alatriste, a former soldier and mercenary who becomes a hero of Spain's 17th century Imperial wars. What was my reason for going, you might ask? To meet the film’s lead actor, of course! None other than Viggo Mortenson himself in all his fanboyish glory! I also got his autograph on my ticket stub just for memory’s sake and proof I actually got to meet him, however fleeting the moment was. *bounces around* He’s a really sweet guy, he stayed late to sign autographs and meet people, glad he did or I might never have gotten my way through the crowd in time! What a start to the month!

We had the annual Farm Bureau convention in Tallahassee in March as well, I went along to help set up the booth and represent 4-H (since none of our 4-Hers could go, same time as Executive Board). It wasn’t nearly as fun as years past because I didn’t really have an active role in the whole thing, the meetings with the representatives and senators and such were planned last minute and I wasn’t able to go. But I did take the time to meet up with a friend of mine who lives up in the area, which was fun! ^_^ Overall the few days I was up there were still full and busy, I was exhausted afterward.

Can’t forget Easter! For Easter we had some special guest singers come and sing at church, choir sang with them. They’re called "This Hope" and they’re mostly an a cappella group, they were AMAZING! Y’all have to hear them sometime if you can, they just renewed my love for barbershop singing. *grin* I also got to dress up and be formal and punkish at the same time, good times. We didn’t really do much celebration-wise, just came home and made a lavish dinner to stuff ourselves with, which we did sufficiently.

A little while later in April I was a judge at 4-H’s county events (speech contests). It’s so nice to see the youngins doing presentations and being all nervous about it, lots of little kiddies doing speeches! I was impressed by how well they did considering their ages.

After the event, I hurried off to Palm Beach for Supercon! Or…should I say "Poopercon", it wasn’t that great, haha. I suppose if you were just going to buy stuff it had a fair range of items for sale but other than that, it was pretty dull. I ended up spending most if not all of my time in the autograph area helping guests manage their money and entertaining others with my mere presence. You don’t know torture until you’ve spent 6 hours sitting next to George Lowe, the voice of "Space Ghost"…talk about a joker, oye.

Roughly 2 weeks later was district events in 4-H, follow up of county events but including the winners from Share-the-Fun. I think I was a room monitor for this one instead of a judge, I don’t like being security cause I’m not really good at it. >_> I don’t have that level of authority needed for such a position…that and I’m too nice, HAHA! I forget if I did anything for the talent portion or not, I might have been one of the judges, not sure…I didn’t write it down. *facepalm*



On the topic of 4-H, the next month turned into "Save 4-H from the County Commissioners" month. For those who live in Florida, you may have noticed this year one of the hot topics on everyone’s minds: budget cuts. Florida was cutting back on its expenses, well mostly cutting programs that the community needed but not wavering at the thought of throwing a couple million dollars at a golf course for the sake of "upholding social images". But we won’t get into how messed up the government is, we’re all quite aware of that. In an attempt to make up for all the money they wasted lately, they were cutting programs and other such public expenses which included all the federal funding for 4-H in my county. Needless to say I wasn’t going to sit idly by and let them so I took a stand and gathered all the forces I could to go to the commissioner meeting and speak up against their budget cut proposal. To our great delight for the most part, they only cut out a portion of the funding that mostly went to pay for the positions of the people who worked at the 4-H office, now we only have 2 or 3 paid employees but still alive! *cheers* Goes to show you what you can accomplish when you don’t let the government push you around, haha.



Of course as many of you know, June was my birthday month. It wasn’t really a birthday to remember as most of it was spent curled up in a ball in my bedroom after a terrible time at a volunteer event. I don’t wish to delve into it further as this is a cheerful letter of awesomeness and not a will of sorrow. >_> So I turned 20 and that’s about all I’ll say about it, haha. ON WE GO!

At the end of the month I chaperoned for 4-H Legislature, which for those of you who don’t know it is a week long event in the state capitol. The young folk get to pretend they’re the government and hold sessions to discuss/pass/veto bills and just have a ball pretending to be professional government people. I was there to watch over one of the committee meetings and make sure the kids found where they were suppose to be without interfering. Gotta let them have their fun! I did sort of get to participate later on by being a page while the other pages were off exploring the capitol, it was amusing reading all the notes being passed around and getting my lazy self some exercise with all the walking between the Senate and House chambers.

Other than doing Leg-related stuff, I got to go out for a night with the same friend I did last time I was up in the area, it was nice to get away from the youth for a little while, haha. I’m getting to be quite the old fart, aren’t I? HAHA! But the week could not end without tragedy. I woke up the last day with a terrible fever that could have landed me in the hospital had I not sought help with my packing, seeing as I could barely move my body let alone my belongings. I did make it home in one piece, slept for most of it cause of the flu I had.

Speaking of said flu, it made life interesting seeing as I had a convention the following weekend: Metrocon!! It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the fact I had so much going on and I needed to be on my toes the whole time. Between volunteering at the con, helping guests find people and places, organizing and executing Ranger events, doing panels, hanging out with various people, and trying not to die; it was a full weekend I won’t soon forget. I lost my voice on the second day of the con so that was fun, I think the fog machines at the dance the first night is what really did me in. Turns out flu + fog machines = asthmatic reaction. I was gasping for air the first night and come the next day, my voice slowly disappeared to nothing, it’s a lot of fun trying to get stuff organized with miming routines, HAHA!

I had 3 Ranger dinner gatherings planned out for every day and they were all quite enjoyable, even if some were a little off schedule and/or not heavily attended. The Ranger panel was also quite a success, we had a lot of people attend and it went over well, we’re already planning another better one for next year!. Aside from the Ranger activities, I did my very first panel ever! It was called "Meeting Vas 101" and it was basically a class on how to meet guests at conventions and what behavior is appropriate (and what isn’t). I didn’t have much of an attendance but I think that was mostly due to a misunderstanding of what exactly it was and it wasn’t at times where many people were at the con. But I was pleased with the fact that those who attended actually took what I said to heart and used their newfound knowledge during the con. ^_^ Yay!



So that about sums up my experience at Metro without taking up a million pages babbling about it, haha. At the end of the month I was honored with the position of website mistress for the Risembool Rangers! Whoo! It’s quite a challenge but I’ve been doing the best I can to fill in the shoes of my predecessor, it hasn’t been easy! But nothing is too much for my darling Rangers, RED DAWN! I’m also a mod of sorts for different parts of the forum and also heading up the dinner planning committee for the group, helping fellow Rangers around the world organize and carry out their plans for dinners at conventions everywhere. ^_^ It’s been fun so far, I love helping out! I guess it’s the 4-Her in me, "Making the best better", hehe.

August held a lot of fun and excitement, go go Power Rangers! Yet another convention and surely not the last one of the year, AFO! Yes, it was something else, and I had a ball as usual. Why my sudden geeky reference to the Power Rangers, you ask? Because of the totally fantastic appearance of none other than Jason David Frank at the con! WOOHOO!! My childhood dreams come true, I got to meet the Green Ranger and he signed my plushie. Don’t shun me cause I’m a dork who still has Power Ranger toys in her room…>_>

Speaking of Rangers, we had a fairly nice showing of Risembool Ranger pride at the con, despite the lack of our leader. We had fun teasing our rivals the Miniskirt Army, led by their leader Travis Willingham, who other than having such a HORRIBLE bunch of fans (haha, I kid) and being such an egomaniac (maybe I’m not kidding this time), is a pretty cool guy. I saw a lot of old friends, got a chance to hang out more than usual with my buddies, and also met some cool new people along the way.

One of the most awesome things I’ve see at a con was the cosplay sockhop! Can you believe it? All 50’s music for about an hour or so, I was swing dancing all over the place with my friends! They also served ice cream floats, I thought that was pretty awesome and yummy.

After the con finished, I went out with a bunch of my friends to Wonder Works and played laser tag, that was cool. We ganged up on the adult in our group, Mr. D, haha he didn’t stand a chance. XD But that laser tag room was evil, it had little computer operated defense systems that if you triggered their sensors, it would shoot you. Evil, I say!! Overall it was an excellent weekend and I had a great time. ^_^

A week later was yet another con that was a bit closer than the usual central Florida cons I attend, it was Yasumicon. Being a free convention, obviously it was pretty packed out. I did have some fun and also volunteered a bit. I was a judge in the "Who’s Line is it Anime?" contest and got to score all the acts and give out prizes. Also for the first time since 4-H, I entered in the costume contest! I didn’t win but it was fun seeing what all went on for one and getting to parade onto the stage. ^_^



To finish out the month, I traveled to my first out of state convention in the heart of Atlanta, Georgia: Dragon*con! Now that was a full weekend, let me tell you…first of all, driving up there for nearly most of a day was exhausting, wandering around the con was a killer too. Dragon*con is one of the biggest conventions in America, spanning 3 large hotels with anything and everything to do and see. I spent most all of my time there with my best friend Jackie and only parted with her when I left for the evenings to stay with my relatives. I haven’t seen them in about 2 years, it was nice visiting again and having fun with the family. ^_^ And stalking certain people at Wal-Mart, hahaha. XD

The con was looooong and tiring, considering all the walking I had to do going from one hotel to the other. Between seeing panels, stalking guests in the autograph area, and briefly browsing the dealer’s room, I was pooped. Since Vic-sensei was there, I did a lot of Ranger-related things and attended most of his panels. We had a dinner Saturday night which almost didn’t happen but we pulled it off anyway, we were going to celebrate Vic-sensei’s birthday one way or the other! So that was fun (save for Vic slinging cheese in my face, ew). Sunday they had this cool con church service that I attended with him, Jackie, her sister, and my mom. I really liked it, got to sing a bit and then we had the Phantom of the Opera give a sermon, HAHA! Only at cons…

One of the highlights of my con experience was seeing the Phelps twins in person. Those of you who don’t know, they played the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter movies, I would have liked to actually meet them but didn’t want to stand in the 3 or 4 hour wait line that was backed up out of the room and halfway through the lobby. O_o I love them…but not that much, so I just snuck a couple pictures before being chased off by security, muwahaha. There were a lot of famous people there that I ninja’d photos of for a friend, mostly Star Trek and Star Gate. Some of them I wasn’t sure about cause I’m used to seeing them in costumes and makeup, haha.

Dragon*con was definitely the place for strange and out of this world costumes, and there was no limit to the insanity at this place. Anything from Stormtrooper Elvis to gangs of Harry Potter characters of all sorts, to scantily clad woman (and even men *shudder*). One thing’s for sure, they definitely went all out. I’ll have to come up with a cool costume to wear there next year besides my usual sets. ^_^

Stepping away from the month of cons, we ease into the next month for a little downtime. I had nothing of importance happen until the end of the month when I flew back to Atlanta for my cousin’s wedding. It was lovely and I’m so happy for him, and yay for spending more quality time with my cousins! ^_^ I also renewed my loathing for airports, haha, stealing my 0.2 oz of toothpaste just cause it’s in a container that’s labeled 4 oz. Logic, people…logic. :-p

Later on in September, as per tradition, I held a BBQ demonstration for all the 4-Hers that wanted to learn how it was done. Which sadly was only 2 kids but hey, it’s something. The chicken came out really good too and they seemed to find it somewhat interesting, we’ll see how many turn out for the contest! ^_^ I missed BBQing, I haven’t in a while, good thing I remembered how to do it, haha.



My final con of the year, I attended Chibi-Pa in Palm Beach. If it weren’t for the fact that I sold my art for the first time there, I wouldn’t have gone. It was a learning experience, at the least. I only sold prints of my work and bookmarks, which I included in this letter so you have a pretty thing to do something with, haha. I hope to sell stuff in the future but next time I’ll have more to sell!!

Now for the month of spooky goodness, October! Yet another uneventful month save for the day of the year all costumers wait for with baited breath: Roundup! Wait, what? Oh right, that’s just my church, haha. Every year we have an event called Roundup that is a safe substitute for trick-or-treating for the kids as well as entertainment for the adults. I dressed up as a Con-goer with all my convention badges and the usual bizarreness that is me. I got pulled over to the games area to volunteer, scary. :-p Kids there don’t listen to a darn thing you say, haha. I did free myself of them and go volunteer at the choir baked goods booth, I baked up a ton of cookies and yummy things to sell. ^_^ That was fun and I got to bond with some of the ladies in the choir, yay!

A tradition at Roundup is the jail that Pastor Bob runs, you get to lock people up for a quarter and laugh at them through the bars…and then run for your life before they can get out and lock you up. I was being sneaky and sending "Sheriff Bob" out to round people up instead of bringing them and risking getting stuffed in there with all the crazy kids hanging off the bars. It was like a monkey exhibit or something. O_o I didn’t lock up many people cause I needed SOME money to eat but I did get my mom, Pastor Jim, and a friend from choir. ^_^ I love Roundup, hehe.

So that brings me up to now! I’m writing this in November so I haven’t finished the year QUITE yet, I have 4-H fair judging the first weekend of this month and then BBQ contest judging 2 weeks later, no more cons for me this year! Those are the only things I have planned for the rest of this month, I’ll probably be at some Christmas party in December, most likely for choir but I can’t say for anything else. I hope y’all have some awesome plans!

For future plans, as in NEXT YEAR, I plan to attend many more conventions. As of right now, I’m aiming for Megacon, Acen, Metrocon, AFO, Dragon*con, and Yasumicon. I might not attend some depending on money but that’s what I’m hoping for, as for other events I want to chaperone more 4-H events if possible. So that’s just a rundown of my future plans, I’d love to hear back from anyone who wants to about your year. Don’t be shy! Get back at me for writing such a long letter, HAHA! XD Thanks for hanging in there and reading all the way through my letter!

Much love and hugs,

Rachel Hajducko (Shania Nowhere)