MN Meltdown
To get other news out of the way, I have been setting up my applications for grad school. woo. I also applied for a job at Andy's Market to work with Gusto and I may actually get it. Wouldn't that be cool?
THIS WEEKEND. TURBO MODE.
Friday went to dinner at Granite City with Dad, Bobak, Stefan, and Bobak's friend Shane that I met at his birthday party at Chino. After dinner we saw District 9 at the Mann in SLP, and it was awesome. In the last 15 minutes of the movie, my right glasses lens popped out; we were lucky enough to find the screw and go to target to get a repair kit before the younger boys went off to the Bulldog in uptown. Originally we were going to go because Delly was coming in town for the gathering, but he was saying that he wasn't 100% sure Bulldog was in his future. What. Ever. So we met up there with Mike MedicineHorse and eventually Alex and Kiel showed up too. I stalled so that Delly could get there, but he ended up not coming. It was still going to be a surprise for Kiel, so I couldn't ruin it.
Left around 11:30 to get to the Ramada, signed in, and got the room open for us. Eventually Stefan showed up and we began setting up our stuff and signing people in, drawing in about 50 people before 1:30, which surprised the both of us. We met Gene, the manager of Games 'n Go, who helped us get people in and filling out the paperwork. He was a really cool guy, and brought gift cards to give away. Poodude came in early, as did Alex. I participated in the BlazBlue tournament, taking 5th out of 16. Not that bad considering I've never really tried to win legit in a tournament.
Don't really know where the time went, because eventually it was about 4:30, and since I hadn't eaten, went with Alex, Pooman, and Greg to Wendy's right across the street. When we came back it was about time that Kiel showed up and had his mind blown that Delly showed up. I got in on some Typing of the Dead after Bilal and Jason totally screwed the pooch on it. Once it had become evening, and the wedding started across the hall, Bobak began the drinking. The wedding people were generally out of our hair for most of the night, but eventually were sort of a pain. A couple dudes drunk from their open bar would come in and not know what the hell was going on. All I could think was, "Dude, how would you feel if I walked into your wedding completely smashed?" Alex also heard one of the women outside saying something like, "Don't they have anything better to do than play video games all day?" Let me ask you, is there anything better? Whatever, it's our weekend, we can do what we want. A while later, he decided we needed more stuff:
Bobak: "Let's go! But I can't drive."
Me: "Alright, well I can drive you."
Bobak: "Awesome. Here are my keys. Let's go."
Me: "Dude, we can take my car. It's no problem."
Bobak: "No! I can't drive, so you have to drive my car."
So we went to the liquor store and to Holiday in his BMW Z4 to get chips and drinks, most of which was consumed by the Neo Geo crew which actually included Paul. If SRK (the other forum involved in planning) were a progressive metal band, we would be Andrew WK. I didn't really have much of anything because I was so busy running back and forth for a lot of time that I was taking cups of water or pepsi everywhere.
Street Fighter IV tournament was insane. 47 entrants. That meant that the first place winner walked away with $140. As more and more people were knocked out, the room really thinned out. From an estimated 80 people, we worked slowly down to about 40, and after the tournament was over, we got a group picture and continued playing casuals long into the night. I tried to 1cc Cho Aniki, but I got to the same spot in the boss's final form and died. It was sad. Around 2, Kiel left, so Paul and Bobak and I sat down to play through Pepsi Man. I think that game had the most yelling of the night, especially during that last level. When I finally finished the last stage (damn conveyor belts!!) there was much rejoicing and hugs all around. By that point it was almost 3, and the security guy, Gil, came in to check on us and to let us know that even he had a good time with us.
Since we were wrapping up, I helped Alex load his car, and drove out with him to his house to drop off his TV. Returning to the hotel, Stefan had cleaned up most of the stuff and we worked on splitting the money. We were pretty far in the black, if you didn't consider paying Tahir back for buying medals on his rogue operation without telling us. I went to the room, which was one of my contributions, I guess, to the event. We usually get a hospitality suite in addition to the game room, so the services woman we reserved the ballroom with offered to give me a normal room rate on a room nearby the Memphis room. Little did I know it was a $280 room hardly a walk from the game room. It was waaaaay cool, but smelled like Ketel One and Doritos when was about to sleep at 4:45am.
Woke up in what I thought was the middle of the night because the blinds were closed, and thought I'd never get back to sleep, when 2 minutes later, my alarm went off at 9:19. I definitely had an "are you serious..." moment before I got out of bed and began to get my stuff ready to go. Signed my invoice that was slipped under the door, and drove home in time for Friedman family brunch.
Now I'm utterly exhausted and feel chest-beatingly proud that all of the stuff worked out so well and so many people came and had assloads of fun.
THIS WEEKEND. TURBO MODE.
Friday went to dinner at Granite City with Dad, Bobak, Stefan, and Bobak's friend Shane that I met at his birthday party at Chino. After dinner we saw District 9 at the Mann in SLP, and it was awesome. In the last 15 minutes of the movie, my right glasses lens popped out; we were lucky enough to find the screw and go to target to get a repair kit before the younger boys went off to the Bulldog in uptown. Originally we were going to go because Delly was coming in town for the gathering, but he was saying that he wasn't 100% sure Bulldog was in his future. What. Ever. So we met up there with Mike MedicineHorse and eventually Alex and Kiel showed up too. I stalled so that Delly could get there, but he ended up not coming. It was still going to be a surprise for Kiel, so I couldn't ruin it.
Left around 11:30 to get to the Ramada, signed in, and got the room open for us. Eventually Stefan showed up and we began setting up our stuff and signing people in, drawing in about 50 people before 1:30, which surprised the both of us. We met Gene, the manager of Games 'n Go, who helped us get people in and filling out the paperwork. He was a really cool guy, and brought gift cards to give away. Poodude came in early, as did Alex. I participated in the BlazBlue tournament, taking 5th out of 16. Not that bad considering I've never really tried to win legit in a tournament.
Don't really know where the time went, because eventually it was about 4:30, and since I hadn't eaten, went with Alex, Pooman, and Greg to Wendy's right across the street. When we came back it was about time that Kiel showed up and had his mind blown that Delly showed up. I got in on some Typing of the Dead after Bilal and Jason totally screwed the pooch on it. Once it had become evening, and the wedding started across the hall, Bobak began the drinking. The wedding people were generally out of our hair for most of the night, but eventually were sort of a pain. A couple dudes drunk from their open bar would come in and not know what the hell was going on. All I could think was, "Dude, how would you feel if I walked into your wedding completely smashed?" Alex also heard one of the women outside saying something like, "Don't they have anything better to do than play video games all day?" Let me ask you, is there anything better? Whatever, it's our weekend, we can do what we want. A while later, he decided we needed more stuff:
Bobak: "Let's go! But I can't drive."
Me: "Alright, well I can drive you."
Bobak: "Awesome. Here are my keys. Let's go."
Me: "Dude, we can take my car. It's no problem."
Bobak: "No! I can't drive, so you have to drive my car."
So we went to the liquor store and to Holiday in his BMW Z4 to get chips and drinks, most of which was consumed by the Neo Geo crew which actually included Paul. If SRK (the other forum involved in planning) were a progressive metal band, we would be Andrew WK. I didn't really have much of anything because I was so busy running back and forth for a lot of time that I was taking cups of water or pepsi everywhere.
Street Fighter IV tournament was insane. 47 entrants. That meant that the first place winner walked away with $140. As more and more people were knocked out, the room really thinned out. From an estimated 80 people, we worked slowly down to about 40, and after the tournament was over, we got a group picture and continued playing casuals long into the night. I tried to 1cc Cho Aniki, but I got to the same spot in the boss's final form and died. It was sad. Around 2, Kiel left, so Paul and Bobak and I sat down to play through Pepsi Man. I think that game had the most yelling of the night, especially during that last level. When I finally finished the last stage (damn conveyor belts!!) there was much rejoicing and hugs all around. By that point it was almost 3, and the security guy, Gil, came in to check on us and to let us know that even he had a good time with us.
Since we were wrapping up, I helped Alex load his car, and drove out with him to his house to drop off his TV. Returning to the hotel, Stefan had cleaned up most of the stuff and we worked on splitting the money. We were pretty far in the black, if you didn't consider paying Tahir back for buying medals on his rogue operation without telling us. I went to the room, which was one of my contributions, I guess, to the event. We usually get a hospitality suite in addition to the game room, so the services woman we reserved the ballroom with offered to give me a normal room rate on a room nearby the Memphis room. Little did I know it was a $280 room hardly a walk from the game room. It was waaaaay cool, but smelled like Ketel One and Doritos when was about to sleep at 4:45am.
Woke up in what I thought was the middle of the night because the blinds were closed, and thought I'd never get back to sleep, when 2 minutes later, my alarm went off at 9:19. I definitely had an "are you serious..." moment before I got out of bed and began to get my stuff ready to go. Signed my invoice that was slipped under the door, and drove home in time for Friedman family brunch.
Now I'm utterly exhausted and feel chest-beatingly proud that all of the stuff worked out so well and so many people came and had assloads of fun.