What a month. I've been meaning to jot some stuff down here so I don't forget, but my resolve to write in this more has gone to crap apparently.
About a month ago was the Austin Kotei, and it was good to see some folks I hadn't seen in awhile, as well as meet some new ones I had only vaguely bumped into now and again. Jim, Gio, and Reese and some other folks came out Friday night to the Highball to see Karaoke Apocalypse, but only the aforementioned three made it downtown with us to 6th street. Was a long night, and we shut it down at Maggie Mae's before heading back to our respective beds to wake up for the Kotei.
I realized, far too late, that I had forgotten the existence of an entire expansion in my rush to get a deck built for a game I hadn't played since GenCon. Bryan was good enough to lend me some Crane Control mess that he would later remark about, "If I had known that'd get played in a tournament, I'd have built it different." Went 2-5, which was pretty horrific. It was kind of neat to poke around virtually unknown to most folks, as I was used to heading to events like this as part of a huge entourage and having a sort of meta-event where we just talked to each other. Briscoe ended up winning, then much later crashing at my house at something like 1am.
I had left after the first seven rounds to go to the combined birthday of several folks (Kim, Justin, Abby). Things were weird a bit, as folks don't like to lose trivia games, and Jim/Gio showed up for a hot minute then booked because they knew no one and apparently Jim was out of "meet strangers and impress them with descriptions of my dick" energy.
The next weekend was a lull, sort've a break for a breath, because that weekend was rough, and then the two weeks after the break were gonna be rough. Alycia's wedding was up the next week, which meant a 11 hour drive to KC. In the cold - or rather, in the "cold", as Texas has trained my body to believe that 50 degree winds is cold now. The wedding was a good opportunity to drive around the city, see old friends I don't get to see enough of, and see what's changed in the city for the past five years. I got to get sick on Grinders food with Adam, visit Sheridan's and Blue Koi with Jake, Tyler, Rob, Z, Dennis, Jon, and Dan. It was like a highlight of "old times shit" right there.
I stayed with Matt, and apparently he nor Marlena were used to having houseguests. We (Kim, Nikki, and myself) tried to be good, but we are a loud, boisterous folk. Alycia was unnaturally calm for a bride, and even Ian managed not to do anything ridiculously stupid for the most part the whole time. I didn't get to see Daniel, but I did get to see Ian's new kid, which I think was perfectly awkward, so there's that. The drive back was no bueno, as it was pretty much raining hard until we got to about Dallas. But, Sunday night, we got in, dropped off Nikki, and zoomed home so I could unpack, do laundry... and fucking pack again for Florida.
Since we hired a new counselor in Florida, it was my duty to head down there for a week, help him acclimate, and see what he'd need to get things going. The week was sadly uneventful, since between handling Luis' induction into the company and my own work, I left the hotel room only to eat, workout, and a single hour long session of sitting out, reading, and enjoying the weather. I was told, repeatedly, since I was flying on the Monday and Friday after Bin Laden was killed that I was taking a huge risk. Right.
Anyway, Friday I got back, got home to find bugs had overrun the downstairs, the upstairs main pipe was clogged, and the house was in general disarray. Some sushi later, I managed some laundry and kitchen work before getting to bed for a few hours. Saturday morning, we headed out to Lake Pflugerville to hang out with Claire, Erin, and Stephen... and the Sun. The burning, burning Sun. I promise with deep conviction that we sprayed sunblock on multiple times, but everyone who went (and we were only out for two, maybe three hours) all have sunburns. My particular fate was the most damned, as I am still recovering (two days later) from a burn that makes me gasp in pain just to put my pants and shirt on. It's been difficult to sleep like this, since rolling over in bed or shifting (both of which I'm told I do a lot) causes me to wake up in pain. Fun, fun.
Sunday was the raid, but I'm not possessed of enough energy to go on about WoW right now. Not yet. Today I rolled in to work, took care of all the stuff that built up and I couldn't get to remotely, and now I'm going to leave a little damn early because ... of... I say so. yes, that.
