Let me preface this with this fact: I am not as stupid as you're about to think I am.

First of all, Otakon was a blast.  3 days up in Baltimore, running around with 25,000 other anime lovers; Otaku Heaven.  I had hoped to spend less this time than I did at Anime USA, but due to cosplaying, gas, $20 parking garages (stupid Yankees vs. Orioles games!), toll booths in and out, and the expensive price of food, I ended up spending much more.  I only came home with three purchases.  The first is the boxed set of Last Exile, my second favorite anime series ever.  I've held off on buying it, but finally caved in and shelled out the big bucks.  The second item was this:

That's right; it's a manga of the sequel to the Labyrinth; first volume.  I went down to the dealer's room first thing Friday, saw the poster at the Tokyopop booth, and didn't even blink before grabbing one (and paying for it, of course).  I kid you not; 30 minutes later, all their copies were gone.  They also have a few pages of preview of the Dark Crystal manga, which will be a prequel, instead of a sequel.  I read it, I loved it, I usually hate manga, but this is different.  This is Labyrinth.  They get the tone down pat, and it reads front-to-back, left-to-right (I know, not true manga.  I also got a signed CD from the Red vs. Blue gang.

Okay, now for the title part.

I found the Last Exile boxed set the last day (Sunday) while in the Dealer's Room. I reached into my pocket to get my credit card, and couldn't find it.  While searching through my pockets, I also discovered something else.  I'd lost my car keys.  My first thought . . . "oh no."  My first action; give the guy a different credit card so I could get my dvds (what can I say, the priorities of an otaku).  I then had to turn and tell my four friends I'd come up with (2 cars between us driven up there) that I'd lost my keys.  In the niddle of a convention area where they could have fallen anywhere, and where a random 25,000 people could have nabbed them at the con, and another who-knows-how-many outside with baseball crowd and regular Baltimore footraffic.

Did I panic?  A little.  I went to the Dealer's Room staff table, and then up to the main convention Lost and Found; no one had turned them in.  I then went to every single booth we'd attended; no one had turned them in.  Halfway through this, I decided this was inefficient, and that if they'd fallen, someone was probably holding them or on their way to turning them in.  We decided to take our stuff back to our cars (well, my friend's car; we parked side-by-side).  We get there, and the first thing I notice is that my car isn't gone.  Good; no one picked my keys and stole my car.  The second thing I notice is that my car . . . is running.

The look on my face must have been priceless.

I slowly creep up to the door, praying it's unlocked.  It was.  I then proceeded to call myself every bad and stupid thing I could think of.  I get inside, and everyone's relieved and laughing.  The car had been running for about an hour and a half, with the AC blasting.  First thing was that it used less than a quarter tank of gas.  Second thing was that the engine didn't overheat and blow up my car.  As I got out, my iPod slipped from my belt clip.  I picked it up, and a foot away was my credit card.  I kid you not.

Kharma points.  It has to be.  There is no other logical explanation for what happened, and how well it turned out.