The New Year
I brought in the New Year a way that I was not really familiar with this year- bringing it in with friends.
My friendship with Bekah has been growing quickly, and it's come to where we all hang out pretty often now. She invited us to her house where her family, Amanda, and Kailyn (who only has a week left before she returns to school), and Amanda's boyfriend Corey were all congregating. Joe made Coconut Macaroons which proved to be very popular, while I had perfected my Nicoroni and Cheese recipe which everyone seemed to enjoy. There was a lot of snack food (I had never heard of a "Sausage Ball" before, but Bekah's mom makes a very delicious dish!), and a lot of booze. The booze was mostly consumed by Bekah's father, Joe, and Amanada, while Corey stuck to basic beer.
Corey, who Bekah has informed us numerous times that she absolutely can't stand him, made a good enough impression. While he is a little "country", if you will, he is kinda cute, and a pretty big nerd. He's a big anime fan, and has played a number of games that I have which surprised me, as it's pretty hard to find anyone else who has played all the other Resident Evil games. We chatted for awhile, and it's probably because he was a little buzzed, but he was very cordial and even began seeking me out for conversation.
We played some games, including "Who Am I?" where everyone has a couple index cards and writes down a character or person that we assume a good majority of the group would know and then we shuffle the cards and deal them out. We then put them on our heads and play a round of twenty questions to see if we can figure out who we were.
There were a lot of comic characters.
The game generally went with Kailyn using comic characters, myself using some comic characters, and Corey using musicians no one had ever heard of. Darcy, one of Bekah's dogs, was used three times by Amanda, Bekah and myself. I put Bekah's name on one of the cards, which she of course ended up with. I had wrote a couple of popular cards, actually, including "A Zombie" and "The Goddamn Batman". (Bekah really loved that one.)
Also, I enjoyed this exchange:
Kailyn: *card says 'Jill Valentine'*...okay, so I'm a woman, in an adventure/horror game...didn't originate on the Nintendo...is it Resident Evil?
All: Yes!
Kailyn: Oh, okay. Um...do I have a brother?
Nico: Nope!
Kailyn: Oh...okay! Do I have a red dress?
Nico: No, you are not a bitch in a red dress.
Cue Kailyn lol'ing
Afterward we played the Cthulu dice game. It was kinda cute. Every player is a cultist for Cthulu and starts with three marbles. After rolling a die it's decided if you lose a marble to another cultist, lose a marble to Cthulu, or gain a marble from another cultist. The object of the game is to either make everyone lose their marbles or for one person to remain with some marbles. The marbles are symbolic of sanity, so no marbles = no sanity (You're literally "losing your marbles".) Bekah had gotten the game for her dad for solstice, but it was an funny, quick, play.
After that we played Zombie Flux, which I'm pretty sure I've described here once before. It got to the point we had been playing one round for over an hour and a half and everyone was getting really tired of it. We had something like seven rules, two goals, and half the time we weren't paying attention. So I drew a card, it was a new goal that I could achieve, and I smacked it down and won the game. (Everyone was really grateful.)
Joe had also brought the wii as he wanted to share Boom Blox: Bash Party with everyone. It ended up being a big hit, even Bekah's mom got in on it! Then all the drinks Joe had finally reached him and he got pretty sick, and then passed out on the couch. Of course, as of this morning, he has sworn to never consume another alcoholic drink again. We'll see how long that lasts, though I'm sure he'll be more conscious of how much he's drinking.
I also ended up in a conversation with Bekah's dad about Marvel, and the big cheese, Joe Q. Bekah's dad isn't a hard-core nerd, but he apparently knows enough to get by. (I mean that by, he knows a lot more than the average person, but not as hardcore as some of the nerds who know what issue-what happened, ect ect) He also was not up to date with the happenings of Spider-Man and his happy deals with Satan Expys, so I filled him in. He was somewhat amused, and mentioned that Aunt May needs to kick Peter's ass.
He has a point.
We left around two, and we actually were pretty much the first to leave. Bekah took us home and helped me get everything in, and then I got Joe to bed.
Oh, and Bex found her brothers old PSP, and he has quite a few emulators on there. One of the SNES ones had "Zelda: A Link to the Past" on it, which if you know anything about me you know was my first Zelda game, and the game I first fell in love with. Bex, not being much of a gamer, but loving Zelda titles, was excited to start it, and I tasked her with the homework of beating it.
So this year was a fun one. I felt comfortable, even though this was only the third time I'd met Kailyn, or the first I'd met Corey, but I felt like everyone wanted me there and that I really had common interests with these people.
Oh, and I think I forgot to mention, but Joe and I decided to go to the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention with Bex, Amanda and Kailyn in April. It will be a little pricy, but I am super psyched. I've never been to a convention before. We'll be staying the weekend in Nashville and checking it out. I'm considering my cosplay options, and I'm thinking that a relatively cheap, easy to pull off costume for myself would be Gendo Ikari from Evangelion. I can grow a beard for it, and I've always wanted glasses like his anyways...(And I can reuse the gloves I used for my Luigi costume.)
Anyway, it's just an idea. Other ideas I like: Nick from L4D2 and Chris from Resident Evil. I would probably want to lose a lot of weight before tackling those guys though, and should probably stick with Commander Ikari.
What a great time. It's nice to have good friends who you, ya know, share interests with!
My friendship with Bekah has been growing quickly, and it's come to where we all hang out pretty often now. She invited us to her house where her family, Amanda, and Kailyn (who only has a week left before she returns to school), and Amanda's boyfriend Corey were all congregating. Joe made Coconut Macaroons which proved to be very popular, while I had perfected my Nicoroni and Cheese recipe which everyone seemed to enjoy. There was a lot of snack food (I had never heard of a "Sausage Ball" before, but Bekah's mom makes a very delicious dish!), and a lot of booze. The booze was mostly consumed by Bekah's father, Joe, and Amanada, while Corey stuck to basic beer.
Corey, who Bekah has informed us numerous times that she absolutely can't stand him, made a good enough impression. While he is a little "country", if you will, he is kinda cute, and a pretty big nerd. He's a big anime fan, and has played a number of games that I have which surprised me, as it's pretty hard to find anyone else who has played all the other Resident Evil games. We chatted for awhile, and it's probably because he was a little buzzed, but he was very cordial and even began seeking me out for conversation.
We played some games, including "Who Am I?" where everyone has a couple index cards and writes down a character or person that we assume a good majority of the group would know and then we shuffle the cards and deal them out. We then put them on our heads and play a round of twenty questions to see if we can figure out who we were.
There were a lot of comic characters.
The game generally went with Kailyn using comic characters, myself using some comic characters, and Corey using musicians no one had ever heard of. Darcy, one of Bekah's dogs, was used three times by Amanda, Bekah and myself. I put Bekah's name on one of the cards, which she of course ended up with. I had wrote a couple of popular cards, actually, including "A Zombie" and "The Goddamn Batman". (Bekah really loved that one.)
Also, I enjoyed this exchange:
Kailyn: *card says 'Jill Valentine'*...okay, so I'm a woman, in an adventure/horror game...didn't originate on the Nintendo...is it Resident Evil?
All: Yes!
Kailyn: Oh, okay. Um...do I have a brother?
Nico: Nope!
Kailyn: Oh...okay! Do I have a red dress?
Nico: No, you are not a bitch in a red dress.
Cue Kailyn lol'ing
Afterward we played the Cthulu dice game. It was kinda cute. Every player is a cultist for Cthulu and starts with three marbles. After rolling a die it's decided if you lose a marble to another cultist, lose a marble to Cthulu, or gain a marble from another cultist. The object of the game is to either make everyone lose their marbles or for one person to remain with some marbles. The marbles are symbolic of sanity, so no marbles = no sanity (You're literally "losing your marbles".) Bekah had gotten the game for her dad for solstice, but it was an funny, quick, play.
After that we played Zombie Flux, which I'm pretty sure I've described here once before. It got to the point we had been playing one round for over an hour and a half and everyone was getting really tired of it. We had something like seven rules, two goals, and half the time we weren't paying attention. So I drew a card, it was a new goal that I could achieve, and I smacked it down and won the game. (Everyone was really grateful.)
Joe had also brought the wii as he wanted to share Boom Blox: Bash Party with everyone. It ended up being a big hit, even Bekah's mom got in on it! Then all the drinks Joe had finally reached him and he got pretty sick, and then passed out on the couch. Of course, as of this morning, he has sworn to never consume another alcoholic drink again. We'll see how long that lasts, though I'm sure he'll be more conscious of how much he's drinking.
I also ended up in a conversation with Bekah's dad about Marvel, and the big cheese, Joe Q. Bekah's dad isn't a hard-core nerd, but he apparently knows enough to get by. (I mean that by, he knows a lot more than the average person, but not as hardcore as some of the nerds who know what issue-what happened, ect ect) He also was not up to date with the happenings of Spider-Man and his happy deals with Satan Expys, so I filled him in. He was somewhat amused, and mentioned that Aunt May needs to kick Peter's ass.
He has a point.
We left around two, and we actually were pretty much the first to leave. Bekah took us home and helped me get everything in, and then I got Joe to bed.
Oh, and Bex found her brothers old PSP, and he has quite a few emulators on there. One of the SNES ones had "Zelda: A Link to the Past" on it, which if you know anything about me you know was my first Zelda game, and the game I first fell in love with. Bex, not being much of a gamer, but loving Zelda titles, was excited to start it, and I tasked her with the homework of beating it.
So this year was a fun one. I felt comfortable, even though this was only the third time I'd met Kailyn, or the first I'd met Corey, but I felt like everyone wanted me there and that I really had common interests with these people.
Oh, and I think I forgot to mention, but Joe and I decided to go to the Middle Tennessee Anime Convention with Bex, Amanda and Kailyn in April. It will be a little pricy, but I am super psyched. I've never been to a convention before. We'll be staying the weekend in Nashville and checking it out. I'm considering my cosplay options, and I'm thinking that a relatively cheap, easy to pull off costume for myself would be Gendo Ikari from Evangelion. I can grow a beard for it, and I've always wanted glasses like his anyways...(And I can reuse the gloves I used for my Luigi costume.)
Anyway, it's just an idea. Other ideas I like: Nick from L4D2 and Chris from Resident Evil. I would probably want to lose a lot of weight before tackling those guys though, and should probably stick with Commander Ikari.
What a great time. It's nice to have good friends who you, ya know, share interests with!