MY TRIP TO MASSACHUSETTS BY JOHNNYCANUCK AGED 29
This is a post that should have happened in February. I type slowly.
That Friday night I flew down to Hartford, CT, leaving the car behind with my folks so that mia madre could actually go places (side note: My mom's got a terrible case of sciatica, and they can't really get around well in their van). US Airways lost my luggage once more, but that was okay, because my lady love (wyrmofbooks / Bookwyrm) was there to pick me up. :) As it was past midnight on our arrival in Holyoke, Mass., we zonked out there, and left the visiting for the morrow.
Saturday morn saw us wake up, catch up, cuddle a bit, and head out to a great little diner for breakfast. We then hit up the grocery and the liquor store for The Gathering what would happen later that night. After Securing these packages back home, Wyrm took me on a driving tour of the area, which is absolutely gorgeous. (Not half as gorgeous as she is, but what can be, dear readers? What can be?) We stopped for lunch at a fun little Asian Fusion restaurant beside the Northampton Art Gallery, showing a collection of naked photographs by Leonard Nimoy. Fortunately, they were not naked photographs OF Leonard Nimoy.
*shudder*
We drove back through the mountains, seeing a Silent-Hill-esque abandoned factory by the side of the road that I'd hate to come across at night. Pure creep, my friends. We arrived back home to do a final bit of cleanery when our first guests showed. It was Brunchmeet time! (I'll use Board names here because I'm not sure everybody has an LJ.) First to arrive were luckimunki / Firelily and DvoraSara who was my NewBruncher for this day. We had fun playing Munchkin until I_Like_Cheese showed up, whereupon we had EVEN MORE FUN playing Munchkin. Just as I was ready to come from behind and snatch victory out from under the feet of, well, everybody else (They all had 9 points, and I only had 5, but the tide was TURNING, DAMMIT!) nofunliz / Indi and icantdrv55 / Icantdrive65 arrived! They had brought much fun beer... and limoncello.
I'll get to the limoncello.
We noticed that there was little space remaining in Wyrm's fridge, but that was okay, because Indi and ICD had brought a cooler. Problem: no ice. Thus, we men went to be manly providers of stuff and left the ladies to bond while we hit up the supermarket for ice.ICD also wnt looking for a hairbrush for Indi, which I would have happily paid for myself until I found out that it cost like $10. Canadian. That's, what? $358.04 US right now? Cheese, being Cheese, bought out the store's entire stock of Hostess Fruit Pies so that we could spend the rest of the evening fighting crime (textually NSFW).
We got back and started the party, whereupon fanghopper / Fanghopper arrived. Coincidence? I think not. Last to arrive, though assuredly not least, was bunnysmg / Bennyboy. There was drinking and Wii and way too much Chinese food ordered and drunk dialling and dunkIRCing and serious political discussions and us oldies told the young'uns in the room that they never had it so good and in our day, we had to walk uphill both ways up the internet at 1400 baud. There may never be a consensus on who should play the voice of KITT in the upcoming Knight Rider Relaunch series. Limoncello can separate items into their component atoms. Rice is really good for when you're hungry and you want two thousand of something*. I have far too many versions of the Dr. Who theme song on my hard drive, and a terribly eclectic music collection. It's fun to get together with friends and just hang out.
Grief titlage happened.
After midnight, things started winding down, and most of everybody went off to ILC's house for bed, as there was more room for sleepy drunk people there. Fang stayed with Wyrm and I (not like that, pervs!), and sleep happened.
Sunday morning, after an unfortunate incident with a frozen Diet Coke, Fang was on her way, and Wyrm and I scrambled for our trip to Boston. Well, Wyrm scrambled. I'm afraid I merely sauntered, and made us late. Still, we arrived in Boston, found free (!) parking just across the street from our destination, and went in to... BOSKONE 45! We caught the tail end of the Lady Mondegreen concert, whereupon I certainly had to go and collect an autograph from the wonderfully talented batyatoon!!! (I am an EVIL MEANYPANTS for pretending to be a random person, but we all like evil meanypantses.) Also present was the always-awesome genarti! This is the first time I'd ever met the two of them in person, and it only took, what, seven or eight years? Also soon arriving was my eternal (or at least for a year-and-a-half) nemesis sandrylene, and we planned evil plans at each other. The many of us wandered about the con, cleaning and witting and filking and generally having a fun and awesome time. Sadly, after much fun (and possibly a bookful of snipe), it was time for New Yorkers to go back New-Yorkwards, and we had our own version of Many Partings. Also it started to rain because, hey, dramatically appropriate. After making several million promises (and oh boy will they be kept) that we really shouldn't wait another eight years before getting together again, we split up, gang, to go look for new mysteries.
Wyrm, Gen, Sandry and I then went to get awesome Thai food, did a bit of grocery shopping, and discovered distressingly furry chocolate boxen. We took a trip out to their apartment afterwards whereupon the terrible profession of craberdashery was unleashed upon Ye Worlde, and more punnage and laughter (usually not at the puns, what with them being the LOWEST FORM OF COMEDY I MEAN SERIOUSLY) happened. Suddenly, without warning, it became Very Late, and the prospect of a 2-hour drive back to Western Mass revealed itself to us. After a stop at Dunkin' Donuts (Tim's, you have nothing to worry about), I navigated us expertly back to Wyrm's place, where we fell into mystical and enchanted slumber, no matter how much Sugar And Calorie Free Jolt Soda I had while on the way back.
Monday and Tuesday were also fun, but nobody wants to hear about that, except for me to let you know that the entire fifth floor at Wyrm's place of work has DISAPPEARED! Weird! Eerie! *theremin music*
And then I came home.
*Yes, stolen from Mitch Hedburg. Why? 'Cause it's funny. Also, I'm not originally sure why I typed it back in February, but I'm sure it meant something back then. Curse these slow fingers!
That Friday night I flew down to Hartford, CT, leaving the car behind with my folks so that mia madre could actually go places (side note: My mom's got a terrible case of sciatica, and they can't really get around well in their van). US Airways lost my luggage once more, but that was okay, because my lady love (wyrmofbooks / Bookwyrm) was there to pick me up. :) As it was past midnight on our arrival in Holyoke, Mass., we zonked out there, and left the visiting for the morrow.
Saturday morn saw us wake up, catch up, cuddle a bit, and head out to a great little diner for breakfast. We then hit up the grocery and the liquor store for The Gathering what would happen later that night. After Securing these packages back home, Wyrm took me on a driving tour of the area, which is absolutely gorgeous. (Not half as gorgeous as she is, but what can be, dear readers? What can be?) We stopped for lunch at a fun little Asian Fusion restaurant beside the Northampton Art Gallery, showing a collection of naked photographs by Leonard Nimoy. Fortunately, they were not naked photographs OF Leonard Nimoy.
*shudder*
We drove back through the mountains, seeing a Silent-Hill-esque abandoned factory by the side of the road that I'd hate to come across at night. Pure creep, my friends. We arrived back home to do a final bit of cleanery when our first guests showed. It was Brunchmeet time! (I'll use Board names here because I'm not sure everybody has an LJ.) First to arrive were luckimunki / Firelily and DvoraSara who was my NewBruncher for this day. We had fun playing Munchkin until I_Like_Cheese showed up, whereupon we had EVEN MORE FUN playing Munchkin. Just as I was ready to come from behind and snatch victory out from under the feet of, well, everybody else (They all had 9 points, and I only had 5, but the tide was TURNING, DAMMIT!) nofunliz / Indi and icantdrv55 / Icantdrive65 arrived! They had brought much fun beer... and limoncello.
I'll get to the limoncello.
We noticed that there was little space remaining in Wyrm's fridge, but that was okay, because Indi and ICD had brought a cooler. Problem: no ice. Thus, we men went to be manly providers of stuff and left the ladies to bond while we hit up the supermarket for ice.ICD also wnt looking for a hairbrush for Indi, which I would have happily paid for myself until I found out that it cost like $10. Canadian. That's, what? $358.04 US right now? Cheese, being Cheese, bought out the store's entire stock of Hostess Fruit Pies so that we could spend the rest of the evening fighting crime (textually NSFW).
We got back and started the party, whereupon fanghopper / Fanghopper arrived. Coincidence? I think not. Last to arrive, though assuredly not least, was bunnysmg / Bennyboy. There was drinking and Wii and way too much Chinese food ordered and drunk dialling and dunkIRCing and serious political discussions and us oldies told the young'uns in the room that they never had it so good and in our day, we had to walk uphill both ways up the internet at 1400 baud. There may never be a consensus on who should play the voice of KITT in the upcoming Knight Rider Relaunch series. Limoncello can separate items into their component atoms. Rice is really good for when you're hungry and you want two thousand of something*. I have far too many versions of the Dr. Who theme song on my hard drive, and a terribly eclectic music collection. It's fun to get together with friends and just hang out.
Grief titlage happened.
After midnight, things started winding down, and most of everybody went off to ILC's house for bed, as there was more room for sleepy drunk people there. Fang stayed with Wyrm and I (not like that, pervs!), and sleep happened.
Sunday morning, after an unfortunate incident with a frozen Diet Coke, Fang was on her way, and Wyrm and I scrambled for our trip to Boston. Well, Wyrm scrambled. I'm afraid I merely sauntered, and made us late. Still, we arrived in Boston, found free (!) parking just across the street from our destination, and went in to... BOSKONE 45! We caught the tail end of the Lady Mondegreen concert, whereupon I certainly had to go and collect an autograph from the wonderfully talented batyatoon!!! (I am an EVIL MEANYPANTS for pretending to be a random person, but we all like evil meanypantses.) Also present was the always-awesome genarti! This is the first time I'd ever met the two of them in person, and it only took, what, seven or eight years? Also soon arriving was my eternal (or at least for a year-and-a-half) nemesis sandrylene, and we planned evil plans at each other. The many of us wandered about the con, cleaning and witting and filking and generally having a fun and awesome time. Sadly, after much fun (and possibly a bookful of snipe), it was time for New Yorkers to go back New-Yorkwards, and we had our own version of Many Partings. Also it started to rain because, hey, dramatically appropriate. After making several million promises (and oh boy will they be kept) that we really shouldn't wait another eight years before getting together again, we split up, gang, to go look for new mysteries.
Wyrm, Gen, Sandry and I then went to get awesome Thai food, did a bit of grocery shopping, and discovered distressingly furry chocolate boxen. We took a trip out to their apartment afterwards whereupon the terrible profession of craberdashery was unleashed upon Ye Worlde, and more punnage and laughter (usually not at the puns, what with them being the LOWEST FORM OF COMEDY I MEAN SERIOUSLY) happened. Suddenly, without warning, it became Very Late, and the prospect of a 2-hour drive back to Western Mass revealed itself to us. After a stop at Dunkin' Donuts (Tim's, you have nothing to worry about), I navigated us expertly back to Wyrm's place, where we fell into mystical and enchanted slumber, no matter how much Sugar And Calorie Free Jolt Soda I had while on the way back.
Monday and Tuesday were also fun, but nobody wants to hear about that, except for me to let you know that the entire fifth floor at Wyrm's place of work has DISAPPEARED! Weird! Eerie! *theremin music*
And then I came home.
*Yes, stolen from Mitch Hedburg. Why? 'Cause it's funny. Also, I'm not originally sure why I typed it back in February, but I'm sure it meant something back then. Curse these slow fingers!