Wow, what a con it was. I went into this knowing it was going to be at least a good time, and that it was. I thought last year was a fantastic social experience, but this year beat that by a lot.
Day 0, Wednesday:
I showed up fairly late on Wednesday, at around 7:30pm. Initially I wasn't going to go down until Thursday, but a certain blue cat convinced me that I should (mostly because he insisted upon being met at the airport by someone). Given that, I didn't necessarily get up to a lot, but I did already start running into people I knew. RF has become big enough that Wednesday and Monday have a significant number of people there, the former in particular. I registered, saving a lot of time on Thursday. Watched Tugs' blanket fort being constructed, which is quite the engineering feat in itself.
Day 1, Thursday:
A good chunk of this day would end up consumed by putting wrong directions into Google maps in the process of going to pick up Ixyao. Eventually we made it back to the con, having also stopped for food and a trip to Target to acquire swim trunks. Considering I was driving for a good portion of that day, it's understandable that I only made four tweets. There was some playtime after all this, and I think later in the evening I met up with Raevis and Flu.
Day 2, Friday:
Now the con's getting busy; lots of people are showing up and parties would start happening. Went out to IHOP with Tugs and Padder and Scritch and Morris. Later, headed up to the dealers' den to pick up my shirt, and later than that, acquired my badge from LilChu. There was some time out in the pool that evening. Of course, just as I'm getting dried off to go elsewhere, Zarek comes by and tries to coerce me back in, but I had food to eat and naughties to make happen.
Day 3, Saturday:
A great day, started with some playtime. Game room was a feature, played some cool stuff in there. Dinner at Mongolian was a success, though parking afterward was not; had to get a $9 pass for the night to use the overflow lot. Went for the pool again afterward; I really reminded myself of how I like swimming at this con, despite not being good at it. Tried to convince a few others to join me, but nobody showed. Ended up being out there for a good two and a half hours, largely in part to Trapa and others showing up to the hot tub, with whom I enjoyed chatting for a good while. Ended up at Tugs' party, a repeat feature, but the best night was yet to come.
Day 4, Sunday:
More naughties this day, to round out the total to five for the con. Pretty well done, considering I've had previous years cap at 0. More stuff in the game room, including actually winning a round of Race for the Galaxy, and almost beating Flu at Dixit. Tugs' party was the real highlight, and a great way to round out the weekend. His Mickey Mouse voice is creepily perfect, and turns out Padder does a spot on Hank Hill. Me, I worked on my Toad voice, aiming to be as annoying as possible, and I believe I succeeded. I got druuuuuuunk, enough so that I actually woke up with a hangover next morning, despite chugging water before bed.
Day 5, Monday:
Hating Mondays is entirely justified, especially when it means the end of RF. There's not a lot to say about it. Got up, showered, packed up, and after a final sweep of the room, we were out. Took my stuff out to my car and then stuck around in the lobby for a while. Initially I planned on staying there until about 2pm, but by about 12:30 it became clear that I'd already seen everyone I hoped to send off, so I called it a con and left. The earlier departure did make sure that I had no traffic to fight through, though, so no complaints there.
So yes, six days of great fun were had. I met several people I'd hoped to meet, knowing them only from Twitter/IRC/Skype/etc. previously. As this con gets bigger, and I make more friends, it gets tougher and tougher to feel like I'm managing my time well. I don't necessarily regret any of the decisions I did make, but I do wish I could rewind to Wednesday and take another run at it, making different decisions along the way, to get a different set of experiences. It's literally impossible by now to not be missing out on something. There were some people I didn't get to see at all, and if anything, that's my only regret. A couple of them are local, though (one of which I keep having to be reminded of that fact), so it's not like I can't make up for it later on.
Undoubtedly there's stuff I'm forgetting in this whole recap; I assisted myself as best I could with my Twitter history, but it's not gonna be perfect. Overall, I'm glad I didn't staff this year, but it did still feel weird, not being involved. Next year I'll get back into that swing, but this year, I needed the least amount of stress possible, and I believe I accomplished that well.
