August 13, 2009 9:39 Indy time
FIRST DAY!
After being awakened at 6:00 AM Indy time (5:00 AM Chicago Time), I decided not to go back to sleep, but instead got my butt out of the very nice bed from under the very comfortable sheets and get ready. Most of the six other people in the room got on the way before Steve and I left, but, then again, they didn’t have a costume to get in to: Lei d’Cannith!
Not having to get up at dawn to get your badges is a good thing, too.
We actually made it to the hall nice and early and were camped right at the front of the crowd when they opened the doors. We made a bee-line for the Wizard’s of the Coast booth. Unfortunately, they were only doing demos for Magic and D&D 4.0 this year, and no real swag. Stupid economy. Steve and I scoped out some of the displays (new mini set and a series of Jones Soda with fantasy-themed pics and names) and then decided to check out Author’s Avenue and The Art Show.
Not finding Patrick Rothfuss, we started wandering the art booths where we saw some cute, some scary, and some both: My Little Demons instead of My Little Ponies. Steve left the Christmas shopping in my capable hands and headed off to one of his seminars. I grabbed WAY too much stuff, but it was all beautiful, and this is the one time of year I do kind of splurge, so feh!
I continued my one-woman quest to fix the economy by buying all three of The Lost Chronicles, the interim books for The Dragonlance Series. I then had them signed by Tracey Hickman and Margaret Weiss, who are, by the way, two of the coolest, nicest people in the gaming world, and the cover artist.
Now, by this point, a large bag was becoming necessary, so I had a weighed-down blast to the Fantasy Flight booth. Every year, FF gives out these huge bags that are perfect for carting stuff around; they enjoy having numerous walking adds around the convention hall. I ran into one of the employees that I met the years my Friend won one of the three advance copies of Marvel SuperHeroes, and he slipped me a bag without me having to buy anying, but since I have been wanting to see the movie version of their gaming system, Midnight, I grabbed to DVD.
FF also puts out the Battlestar Galactica Board Game, and they had an expansion this year called Pegasus, but the 100 or so copies they had at the booth were gone in the first two hours. They have 30 left that they are pulling out tomorrow first thing, so guess where I shall be at 10:02…
Further wandering led me to Timeless Threads, where I broke down and let one of the sales girls put me in an honest to gods corset. And it looked great. And it felt great. And they had one in green. And for the construction (all steel boning) and warranty (lifetime), it became too good an offer to pass up. Now, two hours later I needed to get it off me, but its also been about 10 years since I had to wear one with any regularity (Amadeus), so it should get better.
I also managed to get over to the Future of Eberron. I missed the first part about the upcoming novels (damn it!) but Keith and James always make for a fun time, so it was worth it. I will probably be tracking one or both of them down later anyway for various nefarious purposes…mwuhahahaha!
Hooked back up with Steve and bought James’s third Draconic Prophecies book and the 4.0 version of the Eberron Campaign setting. By then I was tired and needed to get out of the corset, so we went back to the room (HORRAY for being close to the Con Hall) where I changed into street clothes and took a nap while Steve went back to hook up with some friends. I called to be the good overly concerned mommy and found out that Willow was fine. Then it was dinner at Mikado, a sushi and steak house (wrap your head around that one). It was good, it a bit pricey.
We hit the Circle Mall so Steve could find a pair of swim trunks. We stopped into Pacific Sun, where (and this ONLY happens to Steve) the cashier was not only moving to Chicago, but was attending classes at an Art School right down the street from Steve’s work and whose “aunt” and “uncle” (i.e. close family friends) were the parents of Nick Brenner, an actor friend of Steve and mine who was in Twelfth Night when we met and died just a few years ago…FREAKY!!!
The pool here at the Omni was one of the first to be installed in a hotel in Indy and was lovely and warm and calm.
We are turning in early…well, early for GenCon…and await a TRUE day of shopping tomorrow as we walk the entire floor….my poor Credit Card…
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Gen Con T-Minus 1 Day
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:40 Chicago Time
So, here we are on the way to nerd fest, gaming mecca…GEN CON!
It has not started out well, as FedEx ground has lost my badge and then gave me the run around on what had happened to it. Hopefully, the nice lady at Gen Con Customer Service did not lie to me when she said they could pull up the tracking number and re-print the badge when it shows I have never received it.
Other than that, trip seems to be going OK. We got out of the city in good time and 65 seems to be behaving. On top of that, badge pick-up and customer service are now open later, so we are not in as much of a rush thais year as opposed to last year when we missed closing by two minutes.
In the car are Lowell, Abe, myself, and Steve. We are approaching the jump off onto 231 to bypass the horror that has been 65 recently.
There are, of course, concerns about leaving work for two days and then a weekend, but it has been dead recently, so hopefully there will be fewer fires to put out when I get back!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:30 Indy Time
There was a slight traffic snafu in Hebron on 231, but we found 431, and followed that all the way to 65. After a tense phone call from my mom (my grandma fell on her walk, but she seems to be OK), we landed in Indy and managed to somehow stumble onto our hotel. After getting checked in and checking out the intense swankiness of the hotel, Lowell, Abe, and I headed over to the Hall while Steve went off to find parking. I got into the line at Customer Service, which actually started moving not long after I got into the line, but after another guy had gotten impatient and left. My shirt (“Sex, Drugs, and Dungeons & Dragons”) got laughs and started conversations with other people in line. Gamers unite!
Steve found us, picked up his badge in a no-line Will call (jerk) and then was able to hand off the folder of papers I had left in the car, including the FedEx log showing they lost my badge. The guy helping me when I got to the head of the line was SO nice and very helpful and very quickly confirmed my badge had not been delivered and hand printed a new one for me. WOHO!
While I was getting helped, I looked over and saw Steve et al talking to someone who looked vaguely familiar, so I waved, and he looked at me strangely. Walking over after I had my badge, I saw the nametag: Mike Merles, Steve’s boss for his freelance work at Wizards. And I was waving at him like an idiot. GAHHH!
He and Steve were touching bases and made plans to get a drink. We then wandered off and I got swag bags (puny this year) and then PF Chang’s for dinner. We had a lovely waitress and a wonderful dinner, including an accidental order of crab wontons. Leaving the restaurant we heard someone say “And speaking of Steve Townshend…” and turned to see Steve Schubert, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt, otherwise known as the power and brains behind most of the stuff Wizard’s of the Coast puts out. James even hugged me (probably remembering me from previous years and the Keith Baker attempted vehicular homicide incident). I confessed I had not been able to get my hands on the third book in his trilogy on Eberon, but he said that was OK and it was most likely on sale at the Wizard’s booth. A quick talk and it was back to the hotel room where costumes were unpacked, settling in done, alarms set, and games are being played. I am missing my kitten, but tomorrow holds the opening of the best four days in gaming!
So, here we are on the way to nerd fest, gaming mecca…GEN CON!
It has not started out well, as FedEx ground has lost my badge and then gave me the run around on what had happened to it. Hopefully, the nice lady at Gen Con Customer Service did not lie to me when she said they could pull up the tracking number and re-print the badge when it shows I have never received it.
Other than that, trip seems to be going OK. We got out of the city in good time and 65 seems to be behaving. On top of that, badge pick-up and customer service are now open later, so we are not in as much of a rush thais year as opposed to last year when we missed closing by two minutes.
In the car are Lowell, Abe, myself, and Steve. We are approaching the jump off onto 231 to bypass the horror that has been 65 recently.
There are, of course, concerns about leaving work for two days and then a weekend, but it has been dead recently, so hopefully there will be fewer fires to put out when I get back!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 11:30 Indy Time
There was a slight traffic snafu in Hebron on 231, but we found 431, and followed that all the way to 65. After a tense phone call from my mom (my grandma fell on her walk, but she seems to be OK), we landed in Indy and managed to somehow stumble onto our hotel. After getting checked in and checking out the intense swankiness of the hotel, Lowell, Abe, and I headed over to the Hall while Steve went off to find parking. I got into the line at Customer Service, which actually started moving not long after I got into the line, but after another guy had gotten impatient and left. My shirt (“Sex, Drugs, and Dungeons & Dragons”) got laughs and started conversations with other people in line. Gamers unite!
Steve found us, picked up his badge in a no-line Will call (jerk) and then was able to hand off the folder of papers I had left in the car, including the FedEx log showing they lost my badge. The guy helping me when I got to the head of the line was SO nice and very helpful and very quickly confirmed my badge had not been delivered and hand printed a new one for me. WOHO!
While I was getting helped, I looked over and saw Steve et al talking to someone who looked vaguely familiar, so I waved, and he looked at me strangely. Walking over after I had my badge, I saw the nametag: Mike Merles, Steve’s boss for his freelance work at Wizards. And I was waving at him like an idiot. GAHHH!
He and Steve were touching bases and made plans to get a drink. We then wandered off and I got swag bags (puny this year) and then PF Chang’s for dinner. We had a lovely waitress and a wonderful dinner, including an accidental order of crab wontons. Leaving the restaurant we heard someone say “And speaking of Steve Townshend…” and turned to see Steve Schubert, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt, otherwise known as the power and brains behind most of the stuff Wizard’s of the Coast puts out. James even hugged me (probably remembering me from previous years and the Keith Baker attempted vehicular homicide incident). I confessed I had not been able to get my hands on the third book in his trilogy on Eberon, but he said that was OK and it was most likely on sale at the Wizard’s booth. A quick talk and it was back to the hotel room where costumes were unpacked, settling in done, alarms set, and games are being played. I am missing my kitten, but tomorrow holds the opening of the best four days in gaming!
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