Independence Day Weekend - Seattle

So, as many (all five) of you know, I was in Seattle for the 4th of July last weekend. I had a blast. I arrived on Thursday July 2. After being picked up from the airport, myself, BigRed, Minja, Jaiden and Catboy went to lunch at Tubs where I ate a tasty sandwich. I spent the rest of the day getting settled until dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery that night. Dinner was for 18, and I don't have the entire list of who was there. We'll just say it was a big list. I had a tasty burger while talking nerd with people I usually only see during the hectic mess that is the Penny Arcade Expo. It's nice to get a chance to actually talk with people for once. Also, Robert Khoo showed up with a couple of the PA staff in tow. He hung out for a little while, but had to take off early. Understandably, since PAX is less than two months away, he's got quite a bit on his plate. Still, it was nice for him to come out.

On Friday, we hit Wing Dome for lunch. While there I had one of the 7-Alarm wings and six 6-Alarm extra wet (of which I ate 5). They were tasty, but did a serious number on my insides. Note to anybody attempting what I did, prepare yourselves for a stomach explosion. We also hit up Boom City for fireworks which took forever thanks to ridiculous traffic. That evening, Jaiden and I made our way down to Fremont to meet some people who were doing the zombie march. Unfortunately, we became impatient after waiting an hour for them to show up and hopped a bus to Gameworks instead. After some time there, ET and Astayonix snatched us up for surprise tasty dinner. Afterwards him and I headed back to Jaiden's place.

Back at Jaiden's, we all hung out, played some We Didn't Playtest This and a few video games while drinking a Warp Core Breach (aka, a lot of rum!). We eventually settled on old school NES Wheel of Fortune as our drinking game of choice and ended up nice and drunk for it. We retired somewhat early in order to get a decent start the next day, as we were expected to show up at the party location in Tacoma a little early to help set up. Apparently I was talking in my sleep that night, though I don't remember doing so (then again, who does).

Saturday was party day. We all gathered at Nomad's parents' house near Tacoma to party in their yard, drink and hang out. Rock Band and other games were available on two projectors and fireworks were all the rage until the neighbors freaked out over them. Never mind the specially cornered off fireworks area and 300 foot of hose. HotSake (pictured below) managed to show up, get really drunk on an empty stomach and pass out by 5pm, earning him the nickname "5 o'clock Sake." Way to go Sake, I hope the rest of your time in Seattle treats you better than Saturday did.

The party was big, but not too big, and the yard was big enough for people to split into smaller groups and actually talk and hang out. The fire was nice and hot, but not too big (to my eternal disappointment, as if it were up to me, I would have set a picnic table covered in shipping pallets on fire). Out of everybody who slept over there, myself and Twinkie were the only two who actually seemed to get what amounted to a full night of sleep. I guess many of the gaming crowd aren't overly suited to camping. At least I was able to prevent people from trying to start the fire with lighter fluid again this year. I don't know why people assume that fires must be started with large amounts of flammable liquids. Also, there was a cuddle pile, which I kept a safe distance from. I remember somebody commenting about shining a flashlight on them and "hands were everywhere." All in all a successful party with fun being had by all (except HotSake who puked in a planter).

Sunday morning was another matter entirely. In my haste to go pass out in my tent the previous night, I had forgotten to grab myself a bottle of water. The result was a fierce hangover. That's me attempting to claw my way out of my tent after drinking some water. I was good after a few hours and some food in my stomach, but those first few hours were pretty bad. My flight home was a redeye, so I spent most of Sunday just hanging around with BigRed and Scoots.

The flight back was wretched, I ended up shafted into a middle seat, which made it virtually impossible to sleep. The woman next to me had no concept of personal space either, nor did she turn of her cell phone on the plane. On the upside, the flight was 35 minutes early arriving back into Cleveland, getting me home at 5:40am EDT. I went home and passed out until I had to get up for work that afternoon.

So, that was my weekend in Seattle. I'm sure I'm missing some small details. Sorry if you didn't get mentioned, but there was so much going on. Thanks to everybody for being awesome, and special thanks to those who were extra-awesome (you know who you are). I'll see all of you again at PAX. And to those of you who didn't make it to the party, I'm shaking my old man fist at you.