Saturday, July 10, 2010

Gencon and stuff - Originally posted 19 August 2008

Gencon has come and gone once more. What a blast this year, though! Well, last year wasn't bad, especially since being wheeled around was a whole lotta fun, but being able to do more physically was way cool.

Thursday, we walked around the exhibit hall and ended up doing only about half of it. We did get to talk to some very excited people who were enthusiastic about their products. That is handsdown my favorite part of Gencon: talking to people about their product... mostly little developers... much more fun. The gang spent a lot of time around the MMORPG area where I sat and started reading a book that we had purchased. I did go do some shopping that I knew only *I* would be interested in. Anyway, great day.

That night, I finished sewing my kitty/stripey/funky poofy pants. They are so amazingly cool!!!! I also watched the Olympics... again... that is a sleep stealer! :s Oh and Jeff was wrapping up cleaning the house for the arrival of our guests.

Friday, we continued our tour of the exhibit hall and got to do a Cthulhu Tech mini game. That was way fun! We (heart) Mike Vaillancourt. Great guy. Interestingly, we discovered how warped my brain can be because, when Mike described a gruesome scene, I had expected it to be even more gruesome... but, obviously, they had designed the game for the average gamer... whereas I have read quite a bit of Lovecraft and have played too much with Jeff. :p

Friday night, we went to Greek Islands. I was already tired and, when I woke up from a nap, I didn't feel like going anymore. But it was a great opportunity for me to practice stuff at the actual restaurant and get to see the back where I would get ready and stuff so I couldn't pass the opportunity up. I danced to Stray Cat Strut, of course, Poppa broke some plates, I had a blast, it was all good. Btw, Carenza and I may switch songs... she now wants Stray Cat Strut and wants me to take Sensitive. Since we're both tired of dancing the same piece over and over, it just may happen. I still very much love Stray Cat Strut but I feel like I'm ready for a change. lol We stayed up way too late... again...

Saturday, we got up WAY early because Jeff wanted a book that they only had 25 copies for sale each day so we needed to be at the booth earlyish. That was brutal. But, hey, Jeff got the book and we'll all be happy that he did. We sluggishly moved through the exhibit hall and saw the art show. We got to see some familiar faces... namely the guy who does the wonderful ceramics or raku skulls. We're really collecting his stuff. His stuff is really neat. Jen, Bill, and Mike saw a drawing that looked like me so Jen purchased a copy to give it to me. I shall call that drawing "Mini Me." It's really named "psychodollie" and, yeah, it kinda looks like me. lol Well, you get to decide... it's the pic for this blog. ;)

Saturday night was the White Wolf party. Again, after a nap, I didn't feel like going. I was soooo tired. But we went anyway. It was a great night! I danced and danced and danced. Funny thing was that I was really tired and my legs were sore from walking but, apparently, I have A LOT of energy for dancing because I danced for like 3.5 hours almost straight. We left the bar when it closed. I had to take a shower when I got home because I had sweated like a pig... and I was wearing a vinyl dress that was skintight so I ended up smelling like a used condom. Not pleasant at all. I had to scrub the smell off. :s

The next morning, we were very groggy but still went for a few hours to say a proper goodbye to Gencon. Farewell, 'til next year!

Okay, so the purchases this year:
- A RPG book called Unhallowed Metropolis, which is Cthulhu meets Steampunk... kinda... TOTALLY my style.
- I purchased a wrap skirt for belly dancing. It has like 3 colors on the skirt. It's hard to describe.
- A tricorn hat like Jack Sparrow. That will be perfect for the pirate party.
- I also purchased a cabaret bra in red. It's very cute. I will need to add padding 'cause I am not as well endowed as I used to and, for some reason, when I tried it on over my shirt, it worked but it didn't work without. Thankfully, it has the panels inside the cups so that I can add padding. :D
- Jeff got the Cthulhu Tech expansion book Vade Meccum. Interesting stuff.
- We got 2 cds by Midnight Syndicate. Very good dark ambiance music.
- We got one big skull from our skull guy as well as 2 shot glasses for the pirate party.
- I got some d10 dices for the Werewolf game.

As usual, I may have forgotten some items.

For the "and stuff" part... at the White Wolf party, I went wild a little and did lotsa stuff with banging my head... like headbanging... and/or zar... so, at one point, I felt my neck become stiff. I had to put some heat on it on Sunday but I stretched it a lot in my warm up last night and it felt already better. So it's just muscular soreness. I have to admit that that was my reason to wuss out of putting the sword on my head last night. Although I did put it on just before Stacy got there. I just couldn't do it for very long. I swear, I will conquer the sword just like I conquered the zills.

I was also a bit afraid that all this walking would do a number on my ankle. It did swell every day but not nearly as much as I had anticipated so it was a good sign. Yesterday evening, I put some ice on it and, this morning, when I woke up, I had the "yup, it's solid again" feeling and, sure enough, it wasn't swollen at all anymore and I don't expect that it will swell much in the next few days. It might on Saturday, though, since I'll be dancing at the market during the morning and at Greek Islands that night. I will most likely take ibuprofen, ice it, take a nap, etc., to ensure that it feels fine.

On the flip side, though, it seems that "just walking" was not enough. Well, that and eating at restaurants for 4 days. I gained a few pounds. Bummer. :( But, yeah, Jeff proposed the theory that the walking may not have been enough since I am more active than that normally... I typically do 3 hours of belly dancing on Mondays, 2 hours on Wednesdays, and at least 30 minutes on other days; I go to the gym 3 times a week; and do some yoga (not nearly as much as I should) at least once a week. So, last week, I did do the 3 hours of dancing on Monday, we skipped the gym on Tuesday so that I could sew and we could clean the house, I did do the 2 hours of dancing on Wednesday and then it was "just" walking for the rest of the weekend. Oh but I did dance for like 3 hours+ on Saturday... but it's not enough per my usual regimen. The very good news, though, was that I still had energy to dance last night. So I am recovering well from physical exertion. That is very good sign for the future dancing at Greek Islands as well as for the intensive in December.

Ooh, speaking about that, on Friday, as I was dancing, there were moves that I felt were much crisper now. That was a very cool feeling. And you could see when I was doing some shimmies and pushing them out sideways the two different motions: up and down being pushed sideways. My hard work is paying off! :D

I think that's it for now! ;)

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Comments I had received:
From Jon:
Angela was "complaining" about all the plates he broke--said "we just stocked back up!" lol! I'm trying to get Robert to bring back "Hot, Hot, Hot!" again (it's been a while since we've played that) and we completely forgot to play "Ex Lover's Lover" again...we actually made a list of songs we haven't done in forever and came up with a list of almost two hours of music--ugh! hahaha. Glad Gen Con went well--maybe some day we'll get to that. We need to write some Klingon Bellyrock music or something. :P

From Jon:
Oh, and I meant what I said last Friay--your dancing seems to have jumped up a notch--you're really dancing great!

From me:
hehehe. That's what happens when one practices more. :p Thanks for the compliment. As for Gencon, you guys should look into it... they have a number of "troubadours" so you guys could totally fit in. And most troubadours do regular RenFaire stuff... some go to the funkier side of things but not very many. ;)

From Ann S:
Glad you had a good time-- missed seeing you at the benefit hafla in Muncie. Did you go see Different Drummer's performance at GenCon?

From Jon:
Yup--practicing does help!! But since everyone's already doing the ren-faire stuff at Gen-Con, that's exactly why we shouldn't! I don't want us to be an "Ookla the Mok" type band either.

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