accomplishedAugust 15th, 2012
I slept pretty badly last night. I got to sleep around midnight last night, but something woke me around 2:25 am. To make my day, I could hear a woman screaming, "Oh, Eric! Oh, Eric!" and it was obvious that two people were having sex in a room close to me. That would have been interesting in other circumstances, but not this one. Before I was able to fall back to sleep, I later heard people coming back to their rooms talking about stuff, but I don't remember what.
spross didn't snore too badly last night, no doubt due to the Breathe Right Nasal Strips that we bought at Marsh's. I fell asleep again around 4:30 am, and woke again at just around 7:00 or so. Not bad for the "3-2-1" Rule. :) The alarm clock in the room went off at 7:30 am, the time spross had set it for. Pretty wimpy alarm sound; may have to get a wake-up call from downstairs for Thursday.Had a bit more bloody diarrhea - uggh! :( Not happy about this. Likely the stress from yesterday's "flight day". After the morning ablutions - the shower was warm enough, but had no force to it -
spross and I went downstairs to eat breakfast. I can't say that I'm thrilled with the buffet set-up that they have down there, let alone the food itself or the price. I had a mushroom with onion, cheese, and basil omelette that was all right, but didn't have a lot of taste to it, and some multi-grain toast with margarine, and lukewarm decaf coffee. Eh, what can you do? Have to see if I can improve on the meal on Thursday. After breakfast, spross and I went back to the hotel room, cashed some traveller's cheques and then went back up to the room to gather the stuff we needed for GenCon registration.Took the walk once more from the JW to the ICC, but it wasn't as bad as Tuesday night's stroll; still, my left foot and toes were hurting something fierce by the time we got there. There were a lot of people in the ICC this morning, and the line-up for Will Call was quite large, even at 10:25 am.
The Will Call desks were not due to open until noon, but I guess that the line was so long that the convention folks decided to open things up at 10:30 am. The process went extremely fast and very smoothly (compared to last year), and there were friendly people in line. We had picked up the GenCon Program Book earlier in the morning while coming in, and at the registration this year there was no actual swag of any kind, just a coupons book for free stuff (that held no real interest for me). I picked up 12 hours worth of Generic gaming tickets, as I figured I would get to do some gaming on Saturday and Sunday, after all my Primeval RPG events that I was running were finished off by Saturday a.m.
While we wandered the area near the Exhibit Hall, I figured I would try to get inside to see Dom and the Cubicle 7 crew, but I couldn't get in. As luck would have it, I happened to be in the right place at the right time, as Dom,
corone, nezumi_sama, and Jon Hodgson were coming out. I managed to get a moment with them, as Dom mentioned that they were off to deal with some shelving for the C7 booth that hadn't arrived. He also told me that the Primeval RPG *had* arrived and they would have it for sale, and said that he would try to get a copy for me for when we saw him later on. Very pleased! They dashed off, and
spross and I went back to the JW to relax a bit more, and went down to High Velocity and had a pretty decent lunch of some baked onion soup and half a club sandwich (at a reasonable price). We stopped in the JW lobby bar to see if anyone I knew was there, but alas no. :( We went back up to the hotel room about 1:20 pm or so, and I was pleased to see that the room had already been done up. spross and I talked a little bit about his running a game (The Laundry) that he's never run before, let alone playtested, and I could see that he's got some serious doubts about this (he even used the line "Am I mad?" at one point). We chatted some more about this, and I tried to ease his fears and gave him a few pointers of what he needed to focus on for the game of that as well as the one for Airship Pirates that he was going to run on Saturday. I was feeling somewhat nervous about running my games of Primeval RPG as well, but I don't let it show too much, and besides, I'm comfortable with the game system.I had a pretty good rest of the afternoon, despite another bad bout of diarrhea, sitting in my crocs and relaxing until it was time to go and see Walt Ciechanowski and the Cubicle 7 crew. I had a bit of a nap, updated this journal, and had a snack of grapes, Edam cheese, and crackers. I managed to take a small sitz bath (not really that, since I just washed my face and upper torso, but it's the best I can come up with), and changed into fresh t-shirt, socks, and shoes before we had to leave for the evening stuff.
spross and I went downstairs around 5:30 pm, hoping that Walt and the others would be a bit early, but they weren't. The hotel lobby was *packed* with people, both GenCon attendees coming in and other folks leaving or coming in for the other conventions that were going on in the area. The noise level was terrible for me, and I started suffering from being on one's own and a bit of claustrophobia in the surroundings. Have to admit that it made me very depressed. I convinced spross to go with me, and we sought shelter up on the second floor, but didn't get much relief. We went back up to the hotel room for a bit, where I was able to calm down and get a bit of emotional control back, and then went down again closer to 7:00 pm. Boomer (who had run games last year as well, and we had talked quite a bit last year so knew each other somewhat) and his girlfriend were the first to arrive. Joe Kushner, Mike (didn't get his last name), and Walt followed soon after, and since Nick Seidt couldn't make it that night, we all trooped up to the second floor to get away from the racket, and the room we would be gaming in, JW 206. After a bit of pleasant banter and chit-chat, we got down to business, and Walt handed out the gaming stuff for the various Cubicle 7 games that everyone was going to run at the convention. Unfortunately, while he had the handouts and stuff for "Peril Beneath the Street" for me, he had forgotten to print up the actual scenario. He promised me that he would have that for me the next day, so I was appeased, even if he joked with me that I could run it from memory if necessary (since he knew that I'd run it several times before). Part way through, we were joined by
corone, nezumi_sama, and mytholder (writer of the Primeval RPG) and his wife, Edel. corone gave me the copy of the game that Dom had mentioned in the late morning. Lovely! Gorgeous! 'Nuf said! Yay! :) We chatted for a bit, and then mytholder and Edel head for their hotel (they'd only just arrived), and the rest of us went to the Pullman at Union Station.Dominic, Jon Hodgson, Gareth-Michael Skarka and Laura Skarka and some other C7 folks and friends were there.
spross and I still had not had supper, so at 8:30 pm we availed ourselves of fish 'n chips there (not great, to be honest, but edible). I talked at length with Dom about various things, as well as Jon Hodgson and GMS, stuff that I can't discuss here, but most of them were going to the Diana Wynne Jones Awards. After chatting with corone and nezumi_sama for a bit longer, spross and I begged off to get some sleep (I was still feeling a bit ill, and needed some more rest), and headed back to the room to read "The Infection Factor" scenario and had a bit of a light snack, celery and cream cheese before starting the evening portion of the journal entry. I was so glad that I had the LL Bean shoes with me, as they were a goddesssend to wear. They fit great, and my feet felt so much better. It was close to 11:00 pm that I crashed, as the alarm was due to go off at 5:30 am. It's going to be a long day on Thursday, and I need as much rest as I can get.
Anyway, so that's the wrap-up on the second day of the trip to Indy, and the day right before the official start of GenCon 2012. Next up, the first day of GenCon, 2012!