Friday After a fairly hellish trip which included poor weather, a snippy AirTran clerk and a 90min wait on the tarmac, we arrive in Boston and catch the shuttle to the hotel. Almost everyone is already assembled and I make introductions of myself, hug the ladies, pat the men heartily on the back and find out that they're all about to catch a shuttle to the subway station whereas I will have to find my own way. I call DSD a new nickname I had created for her and have my creativity rewarded with a solid kick in the calf. The hotel room was small but clean and safe looking. We take out time changing clothes and head on down. A hotel clerk with a thick Boston accent tells us where to find the subway terminal and Flea and I slog off into the New England downpour.
After braving the rains and the subway and Flea pointing out everyone in Boston who was Peruvian or Bolivian, we find ourselves at some joint called the Rock Bottom Brewery. Although we arrived late, the gang was nice enough to leave me a spot of honor at the head of the table and Danalog gave me a button which solidified my status as a member of the Liberal Conspiracy. Apparently the rest of the folks had a mishap where Smash led them onto a subway train and then declared it to be the wrong train and hopped off just before the train departed, leaving everyone else to go on a mystical journey. I thank him as this meant we weren't as late as we could have been. Dinner was yummy and I chatted with Debalic, Flea, Yanari and gave Smash the ole "What the fu
ck?" for not posting more often. On the other end of the table, Danalog held court and regaled his subjects with tales of IP bans and who was whom's sock.
With our bellies full, we head back out into the rain and loiter in some indoor mall concourse for a few. People smoke. A lot. We head to some club where DSD gets us all in for free and we get to feel all Hollywood and stuff. She leads us through some halls, up a back stairwell and pulls on a wall sconce to reveal a super-secret lounge. We head in, buy drinks and get thrown out by security for crashing a private party. Go us! Apparently, the club had been rented out for some obnoxious college graduation party. Flea and DSD get their groove thing on and they convince Exodus and Kelvy to join them but some of us flee from the loud beats and ****** women (the college grads, not Flea & DSD). More cigarettes are smoked but I hold firm to my no-smoking status. I threaten Kelvy for having danced with Flea but he is easily cowed by my intimidating stature and demeanor.
The club abandoned to tomorrow's leaders, we decided that the next logical step would be to attend a gay karaoke bar. I drink gin and tonics while listening to a fat block gay man perform a passable "Minnie the Moocher" and younger folks butcher various other tunes. No Asylumites sing although Flea did persuse the songbook. Eventually we finish up and return home.
Saturday Part I: Intellectional Advancement The Forum=4 gang splinters into rival factions: Those who wish to visit a museum to better themselves and those who wish to squat in a gutter and pick lice from one other. Having been recently deloused I figure I may as well go to the museum with Flea, DSD, Debalic, Exodus, Danalog & The Future Mrs. Danalog. We admire great works of art, splendid gardens and debate the potential stats of a heavily ornamented glaive hanging from the wall. Dana & TFMrsD egt scolded for standing too close to a work of art. I notice that several statues look to have been repaired with QuikCrete.
We exit the musueum and head a block or so over to some art students who are hawking their wares. Flea buys a lovely silver necklace with had a glass encased butterfly wing for a gem. I bought nothing. We impress a passing lady by all impersonating geese while standing in the rain. DSD, Flea, Exodus and I get the worst cab driver in the world when we ask him to take us to the Holiday Inn Express at 69 Boston Street and he begins demanding that we give him directions. Then he refuses to radio his company and ask for directions and pretty much drives around randomly for bit. Eventually, proving the adage about blind squirrels and acorns, our own private retarded Magellan find the hotel and we begin to load up for our rainy trip to DSDs. Oh, and Jacobsdeception gave us all free bottles of win from his home town which was a classy act all the way.
Saturday Part I.V: Exodus with Exodus Preparing for the trek to BBQ Central, we load up into four cars. I have no idea who rode with whom other than that I was with the point-lady, DSD and her shotgun companion, Flea. I claimed territorial rights to the entire back seat and immediately made camp. DSD then led her convoy to a gas station, around Boston, over the road we needed to be on, through a tunnel, in a four-car U-turn in front of a bus finally on a horrible, horrible rainy wet trip up the mountains to Chez DSD. Or so I hear -- I spent about 70% of it snoozing. A "one hour drive"'s two-hour journey later we saw DSDs house which, I may say, is damned large and nice. It is also situated on a large wooded lot full of moose and wendigos and crazy axemen. But no mineral rights.
Saturday Part II: Poker & Wine Dog When we arrived, Mr. DSD (aka Sickabilly) already had grub on the table. So we ate, people smoked in the garage, Nexa took a posse with her to buy booze and we hung around and caused trouble. Smash taught TFMrsD how to play poker and soon had a high stakes game going with a couple others for loose change they found in DSDs couch cushions. The rest of us sat around and had geek talk about various MMORPGs, some chit-chat about the forum with Danalog for an insider's view, and various good times. The crowd kept moving from the library to the kitchen/dining room and back again and it was during one of these kitchen trips that Smash dropped a glass of wine on DSD's dog. Wine Dog excitedly ran through the house, trailing red wine where he went so he'd never ever need to get lost again.
Aside from that, I won't attempt to relate the whole evening because there was just too much going on. Smash showed great admiration for an accent he thinks I have. We tried to solve an argument about Hitler's advance into Russia by looking at a mock 14th century globe with dragons on it and Australia taking up the entire South Pole. Smash and Nexa played Super Mario-Kart and Nexa won all the time because Smash sucked. DSD tried to get Kelvy (?) to play EQ2 and we watched as his character wore a silly hat, flirted with a deer and was invited into a group immediately thereafter. Although we were originally going to do "something" Saturday night, we just pillaged DSD's place until about midnight. The ride home was
still rainy but Yanari handled the weather like a trooper as she carted myself, Danalog, TFMrsD and Flea back to the hotel.
Sunday: Game Over After lots of needed sleep, I went with Flea to round up some breakfast at the joint next door. There we found Nexa, Smash, Yanari, Kelvy & Exodus who had all ditched us.
Ditched us, I say! But we sat next to them anyway and attacked the Mother's Day buffet. Oh, and it was still raining. It rained the whole fu[Aqua][/Aqua]cking trip. The only time the weather changed was to start raining harder. If you didn't make the trip to Boston this year, you seriously missed out. not so much on the trip, but on Boston itself which is going to be swept into the sea under this flood. Anyway, we ate food, returned to the hotel and gave our heart felt good-byes. A great time was had and everyone was a pleasure to meet.
However, as I was leaving I saw yet another headline about NSA programs and potential invasions into citizens' privacy. There was only
one thing left to do... Edited, Nov 20th 2009 4:01pm by Jophiel