Doodle & Sereyna's Trips

The whole orange belt thing was very weird. We were officially testing on Wednesday night, but I had told Sensei I wouldn’t be able to test until next month, since I had just started college classes this week, and I didn’t get out of my Wednesday classes until 7:30; didn’t think it was appropriate to skip the second class just to make a test this early in the semester. So after our regular karate session on Tuesday, he surprised me by asking, “Want to go ahead and test tonight?” Me being the crazy person that I am, I said, “Sure!” This is despite having just finished an hour of self-defense throws and maneuvers. So another hour later, of solo testing, and I’ve got my orange belt. I went into my bag yesterday to get my belt, and was momentarily confused when I saw an orange one instead of my old yellow, since I never had the “official” test session, and that causes me to forget that I earned the belt.

Unfortunately, due to the surprise nature of this test, neither Doodle nor I had brought a camera, so no pictures were taken. Doodle attempted to take a few videos using her cell phone, but I’m not certain if that worked, and I haven’t asked her about it yet.

The adventure started at 4:15AM on Wednesday morning, with Doodle and I being transported to the airport by Mumsy, who had so graciously offered to give up sleep in order to get us there on time. The drive itself was relatively uneventful, full of me peppering Doodle with questions on what remembered to pack; of course, the only thing forgotten was the last-minute addition of Doodle’s required reading for the upcoming school year. This, and my unheeded warnings to her of what not to wear for a flight would be a source of much distress for dear Doodle shortly.

As I was carrying the contraband, I went through Security ahead of Doodle, not wanting the forbidden 6oz. bottle of spray-on SPF 50 sunblock to reflect badly on her. Nary a brow was raised during the x-ray, and of course I know enough social engineering that I didn’t *act* like I had something illegal, so I made it through the metal detector easily. I turned to see how my companion was doing, only to hear said detector going off rabidly, Doodle standing perplexed in her carefully chosen, absolutely fasionable, completely wrong outfit.

Bandanas of multiple colors tied around wrists and throat, capable of concealment, check. Metal studded belt, check. Stylish blue jeans with brass rivets that apparently have the ability to set off metal detectors and wands, check. Irate older sister who has to resist the urge to scream “She’s a 13-YEAR-OLD!” at the TSA personelle who seem bound and determined to strip-search the poor dear, check. When they finally released her, Doodle shuffled over to my side, then looked up at me with big, sheepish eyes.

I didn’t have to say “I told you so,” but I did it anyway.

- Sereyna

Wednesday
Flew out of Columbia on American Airlines at 6:30AM. Had a layover in Dallas, then continued on to Las Vegas, landing at 10:30AM PST. Picked up the rental car, drove around town finding Wal*Marts, getting lost and getting supplies. Checked into the hotel, crashed for a bit, got in contact with Deviant. Eventually went out looking for Sushicon, got massively lost and wound up eating at The Buffet at Treasure Island. Not overly impressed with the food. Went back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Thursday
Got up at 6AM, thinking the meet in the lobby for the DefCon Shoot wasn’t until 8AM. Get a call from Deviant around 7AM wondering where we are. Race downstairs to join the caravan, then head out into the middle of Nevada’s wild in order to fire off some weapons. Shot a Rutger, then a Boy Scout rifle, then took part in the Marksmanship Contest, which I won. Headed back to the hotel, lost our caravan and stopped at a 7-11 to get Doodle her first every Slurpee. Get back to the hotel, pick up badges (out of electronic by then, had to get paper), crash before Titanium Chef’s meet, then are told there’s no other competitors yet, so our cooking will just be for the hell of it. Head out to get food supplies a little late, get lost getting to the right place in the park, finally show up to do our thing. Lack of grill-space makes it difficult, but eventually we get our food out to the masses: Potato packets, Texan chicken, stuffed poblanos, grilled bananas. Even had several drinks, both alcoholic and non, and get massive levels of kudos for our efforts. Still glowing over that. Eventually clean up and head back to the hotel, missed the Forum Meet and crash for the night.

Friday
Get up at 8AM to get ready for Coffee Wars. Down in the convention area by 9AM, line’s already horrendous for getting electronic badges, which won’t even be there until 10AM. Wander around and eventually turn in our coffee, getting the number 7 for our entry. Pick up several pieces of art from Eddie Mize, hang out at the EFF table. Head up to HHV and LPV, leave Doodle in HHV in order to run about and find folks. Come back, and she’s been given an electronic badge. Do the Village thing for a while, get food, then get ready for Karaoke and parties. Doodle gets a stomach ache at Karaoke, take her back to the room, and she insists I leave. Head out to the Skyboxes for parties, only to dash out every time Doodle calls, so that I can hear her. Eventually meet back up with Doodle at Karaoke, when she’s feeling better. Sing Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping a Capella, bring down the house. Head back to the room to crash for the night.

Saturday
Get up at 9AM, head to the con to catch Renderman and ThePrez98’s talk on survival, and the one right after. Doodle plays pinball during this. Catch up with Doodle, get some food, watch and run Gringo Warrior. Get some more food, go change for the pillowfight. Meet up with Deviant, leave Doodle with friends and head to the location of the pillowfight. Find out the pillowfight is not going to happen, head back to the hotel and wind up in one of the non-party Skyboxes, drinking water and chatting. Go back to the room and crash for the night.

Sunday
Get up at some point, have breakfast at the champagne buffet, kill time playing pinball until Mouse’s talk comes around. Go to Closing Ceremonies, then get ready to go to Top of the World at Stratosphere. Have wonderful dinner there, then come back to the hotel and crash for the night.

Monday
Get up at 9AM and pack up. Meet Deviant for breakfast, then meander around the hotel until it’s time to check out. Put bags in the car, then meander more around the hotel, hang out a bit by the pool. Eventually leave and go to Planet Hollywood, in order to wander the Miracle Mile Shops until Todai, the sushi buffet from Sushicon, opened at 5:30PM. Wander, go eat until we hurt, then wander some more. Head to the airport, depart Las Vegas at 11:30PM.

Tuesday
Layover in Atlanta at 6:30AM, attempt to get food at the Burger King stand, only to find out that despite having all of their menus lit, and no notice of this fact anywhere, they only offer the breakfast menu at this time. No double cheeseburgers for Doodle! Skip food and get on the plane, land in Columbia at 8:30AM and get picked up by Mumsy. Home! Bed! Pass out!

- Sereyna

Back at the end of January, I finally got my act together and enrolled in a karate class, despite the fact that I was both working and going to college full-time, which only left me Saturdays on which to take said class. I had been meaning to start karate for years now, and like I had done when I finally went back to school, I just did it, not letting myself make any excuses. For the next four months, I went once a week, and somehow still managed to advance from a lowly white belt to yellow, keeping pace with others in my class who had started around the same time.

In June, Doodle started taking classes with me. She was now 13, which was the minimum age for the adult class, and the special fee for summer just happened to match her unused hockey gear allowance from the year before. In the time between then and now, she got her white belt, followed by her yellow stripe. If she keeps going at this rate, she’ll either catch up to or pass me completely.

So what does all this have to do with DoSeTrips? Karate is a journey in of itself, through mental, physical, and emotional self discipline. Now, Doodle and I are taking this journey together, supporting each other as we come to each milestone along the way. Therefore, we’ll be posting every so often when one of us reaches one of these milestones, including videos and pictures of the occasion.

No worries about this turning into a karate blog, though. I’ll make sure we keep it to just the milestones!

- Sereyna

OK so for those of you who don’t know me I’m Doodle one of the dosetrips sisters. We have been to Vegas recently and the sight alone was amazing! We were in one of the sky box hallways and my sister (Sereyna) stopped to text someone. So what did I do I went around the corner and when she was going to come down the hallway I was going to jump out at her. I heard footsteps so I jumped out at whoever walked by. Turns out it was three random guys just passing by. After that my sister was laughing so hard and I felt so stupid. On the other hand it was a HILARIOUS sight to see. This was Friday morning July 31, 2009 before Coffee Wars. After that we walked around then went down to Coffee Wars to turn in our coffee and got to taste a few more batches of coffee others brought in. Personally I don’t care for plain coffee but however my sister thought it was alright (she’s not a big coffee drinker either). While waiting to find out the winner of Coffee Wars we walked about the room looking at the different tables that were open. We came across someone very interesting. An artist named Eddie Mize who makes original creations out of sometimes soy sauce, mustard, and ink. I bought one painting called Battling the Blackness, my sister bought me this one cello painting. I donated $10 to EFF and he drew on my badge. Then I donated $5 to the actual EFF table and got some stickers.

~Doodle~

Less than a week since DefCon wrapped up, and I’m still recovering from the jetlag and other assorted fatigue causing factors. While this site has been tossed about as an idea between Doodle and I for a few months now, I decided to get my ass in gear and actually get it up and running. There was a tiny bit of extra cash left over from my mad eBay sales right before DefCon, just enough to pick up a couple of domains from GoDaddy.com, as well as the WordPress webspace to put our pages in. Going to dosetrips.info will just bring you back around to dosetrips.net, but as the .info domain was only $0.89 for the year, it made sense to me. Eventually, when I get a home server up and running, I’ll move the hosting over onto it.

So far, Doodle and I have only been off to Las Vegas for DefCon together, but there are other trips in their planning stages. First, we had so much fun at DefCon that we’re going to make it a regular thing. Second, as an incentive to buckle down and focus on her schooling, I’ve told Doodle that I’ll take her backpacking through Europe for two months when she graduates high school in 2014, before she heads off to college. For the DefCon trips, she’s expected to chip in $100 each for her food expenses, and provide all her own spending money; while this might not seem like much, keep in mind that right now she’s only getting $20 a month as allowance from our parents, yet still saved up $350 for this past trip. For Europe, it’s a total of $1000 between now and then, plus maintaining good grades throughout her remaining primary education.

Between all that, I’ve already promised her that I’d pay for her passport as soon as she hits that sweet age of 16 in 2012, so at some point after that we’ll head to Canada to catch some hockey. This will also ensure that I don’t have to worry about working in time to get her down to get it while she’s trying to study for finals, or whatever it is that seniors do in high school these days.

So, as you can see, we’ve got a lot planned for the upcoming years. Occasionally I might mention solo trips I take, and she might mention the same for herself, but mostly we’ll be talking about our adventures together. Feel free to join us for the ride!

- Sereyna

PS – I’ve tried this on my own, on completely free blogging sites, but with the incentive of providing a good example for Doodle *and* getting my money worth, I think this one will actually work out.

Welcome to the travel blog of Doodle and Sereyna, a pair of sisters who plan and take trips to various locations together.  Right now they’re more in the planning stages than taking, but as the years pass, we’ll see more and more of their adventures together.

Each post will be followed by the name of which sister wrote it, though for the most part it should be blatantly obvious.

- Sereyna