Sat, 4 Aug: Day 2 (or was that 3 or 7 or 14 or something?!?!)
Started the day off earlier than Friday, since Iriel and I had a breakfast meeting with some of the good folks from
TerraNova at IHOP (more yummy funnel cakes! Yes, I was spoiling myself.). Had a good time debating a lot of things concerning MMOs from an academic point of view, but of course we ended up being rather later getting to the convention itself than we had originally intended.
Once we arrived at the ‘con we managed to find Slouken and took him off for lunch, then took over a table in Hall B where we had members of the community coming and going off and on for the afternoon as folks just kind of fanned out going to the various panels, exhibits and line-ups as they felt like, then wandering back to see what everyone else was up to, etc. I know that I sat in on the WoW TCG panel and the Lore & Quests panel, but I really don’t remember what else I was at that day. Spent a good portion of the afternoon just coordinating people, getting our reservation for supper pushed back a bit and mostly just hanging out talking to everyone and enjoying their company. I was in my element completely. I so loved the chance to just get to spend time with everyone from the community that was there.
I ducked out of the Lore & Quests panel (as the last one of the day on Sat) once to finally go get souvenirs of my own to bring home (no line ups for the store was a nice thing
) and a bunch of times to answer my cell phone as everyone tried to get hooked back up for the concert.
We actually managed to all find each other in time to go into the concert as a group and secured a row and a half of seats together in the arena. The concert was, as you’ve all no doubt heard, absolutely wonderful! L70ETC were rocking the place hard and Jay Mohr had the audience in stitches laughing so hard. As for Video Games Live … If you EVER get the chance to go see VGL, do it. You won’t regret it. People say gamers have no class. You wouldn’t have known it from the 8k people screaming their heads off and applauding their hands raw for this full symphony orchestra and choir. It, both the concert itself and the audience’s response to it, simply blew me away. I really REALLY hope that Blizzard and VGL are going to release the taping of it they made, I will most definitely purchase it and I know I’m not the only one that will. Blizzard? VGL? You guys listening? We want copies of the concert!
The only “problem” with the concert, for us, was that it ran over time, as is frequently the case with things like this. In and of itself, that wouldn’t have been a problem, except that it was supposed to end by 9:30pm and we had reservations for dinner at 10:00. This led to the shout out I posted at the very beginning of this write up.
So, as previously mentioned, Cogwheel had very kindly gotten hold of the good folks at the House of Blues and secured reservations for our group of 22 or so people for Saturday night after the concert. However, he had originally booked us for 9:00 pm. After I got in town and met up with Cog on Thursday he told me of his success and the time planned. Discussing it with everyone and getting a look at the schedule, we realized that 9:00 just wasn’t going to work, since the concert was scheduled to go until 9:30. I got on the phone through to them and (after many tranfers of my call) got to speak to the manager of the restaurant and explained to him our problem, and asked if we could push our reservation back an hour, to 10:00 pm. He said that yes, they were willing to do that, however we needed to be aware that at 9:00 they went from a full restaurant menu to a reduced “bar” menu. We said that was fine, we just wanted to be able to get something to eat, as a group, since it was the last night together for the full group. So that’s all fine and dandy, we’re all set. Except, as just explained above, the concert went late. Very late. VGL didn’t take the stage until around 9 pm. So, we’re all sitting there going “Okay, what are we going to do? We have two choices – we can either miss the concert and keep our reservation, or we can stay for the concert and take our chances on them canceling our reservation.” The question went down the rows, so everyone would have a chance to have their say, and the answer came back up again, “We don’t really care where we eat, just so long as we can eat together, so let’s just stay, we don’t want to miss the concert, we’ll be able to come up with *somewhere* to eat if they cancel our reservation.” So, we stayed for the concert (for which I am grateful, I would really have been disappointed to miss it. But, I would have been more disappointed to spoil someone else’s evening, which is why I wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to have their say). Luckily for us, not everyone was at the concert. Cladhaire and Tom had had other plans that precluded their going to the concert, but they were planning on meeting us after for the dinner. Between being able to text them, and the fact that Cogwheel and his wife decided to skip the latter part of the concert and thus headed out to the restaurant themselves, we were able to get people in touch with the folks over at the House of Blues and tell them what was happening. Well, this is where it gets absolutely fantastic. Not only did the folks at House of Blues keep our reservation until we finally showed up at 11:00 pm, but they kept their kitchen open late for us. Normally their kitchen closes at 10 or 10:30, from what I understood talking with them. And, not only did they keep the kitchen open waiting for us, but they also gave us their full menu to choose from, not just their reduced bar menu! Talk about service! The food was excellent, the portions were a good size and the prices were definitely reasonable. It was actually one of the better meals I had during my entire trip, and I hadn’t been disappointed with any of the other ones. They didn’t make us feel rushed or like we’d put them out at all, they were friendly and cheerful, laughing and bantering with us. You can believe that I will most definitely be reserving with them again next time! So, again, to the wonderful staff at the House of Blues: Thank you. Your treatment of us was simply outstanding and you really helped top off a great weekend for us in fantastic style.
The “final” night concert and supper saw Iriel, Sargeras, Dan, Guillotine, Thunder-child, Taco-man (moderator on EQ2Interface), Mentalpower, Esamynn, Cladhaire, Tom, ForTheTribes, Anduinlothar, Beladona, Alex, Kaelten, Kristy, Cogwheel, Mikina, Kirkburn, Kaydeethree, MatthewS, Overmind and myself in attendance.
We remained at the restaurant for quite some time, since a lot of people had to head home on Sunday so no one wanted to say good bye. Unfortunately, the time came and we really needed to head out. A lot more hugs all around for me, then everyone starts heading off to their respective hotels.
Sun, 5 Aug: Disneyland!
Well, it was supposed to be a semi-large gathering, but one thing and another, the numbers got rather reduced. The morning started out with Esamynn, Mentalpower, Kaelten, Kristy and I heading off to Disneyland. Only went on a couple rides in the morning, we were all moving rather slowly at that point, just ambling along, relaxing after a crazy weekend.
At lunch time, we wandered out to Downtown Disney, met up with Kudane, Lance (a friend of Kudane and mine’s), Beladona and a friend of Kaelten & Kristy for lunch at the Rainforest Café. After lunch, Kaelten and Kristy and their friend had to go, and Kudane and Lance couldn’t stay either, but Bela joined Esamynn and Mentalpower and I for the afternoon.
Back into Disneyland and off for some more rollercoaster fun. Somewhere out there is a picture of me absolutely drenched after the guys made sure I was in the very front seat of the flume ride, big meanies that they are! Stuck around to see the end of the day show,
Fantasmic! and the fireworks, then wandered our way out of the park and up to a nearby Tony Roma’s for some truly delicious ribs for supper, then a final good bye and back to our hotels to get ready for our trips out on Monday.
Mon, 6 Aug – Fri, 10 Aug: Time to go
Slept in some on Monday (yay, sleep!) until it was time to check out of my hotel and get picked up by Slouken. Off for a quick lunch with him and Rislyn, then he dropped me off at the airport for my flight to NYC. Flew to NYC where I had a visit with friends until I flew home on Friday. Got a chance to meet Art3mis on Wednesday while I was in town and bring him some reminders of home, since he’s another Canadian stuck living in the US.
Flew home late Friday evening and spent the next 3 days trying to recover from the trip.
I had an absolutely wonderful time! It was so incredible getting to meet so many of you face to face for the first time, and I hope it won’t be the last time we all get together. Looking forward to the next one! Thank you all so very very much for getting me out there and giving me the opportunity to meet so many of you.