EQ2 Guide What It's Over Already  

What? It's Over Already??

SOE Fan Faire 2007===

As I said before, on Saturday morning, I got a phone call at seven a.m. from Promise, wondering what had happened to Dar.  So, being the considerate and loving person that I am, as soon as I got off the phone with him, I called over to Radar and Dar's room to see if Dar had made it in.  Radar informed me that he had indeed made it back at around 3:45 a.m. and that people had been calling him at four a.m.

I went ahead and told Radar the story and let him know that Taea and I were headed downstairs to do that whole eating breakfast thing that we like to do in the mornings and would he and Dar care to join us.  There was a muffled sort of noise from Dar's direction and Radar figured that probably meant 'no' so the three of us were on our own.

We found ourselves a table back at the Sao Paulo cafe and managed to pick up a Talli as well.  Yay.  As we sat pouring over the menu and trying to decide what we wanted to eat, I shared with Talli that Dar had made it back before four a.m.  He was mildly irate, as they had been looking for Dar until six a.m.  The Beard was angry.  It's never good to anger The Beard.

So, here we are trying to decide what to have for breakfast.  I'm last because I still haven't decided.  Our waitress looks at me and totally seriously says to me:  There's Chinese food on the back of the menu for you.

Everyone at the table sat stunned, including me.  They all had the deer in the headlights look and I was struck completely speechless.  Every Margaret Cho routine I knew was running through my head at that point and by the time she left and I regained the power of speech all I could say was:  What do I look like?  Martin effing Yan???

I don't even LOOK Chinese.  Beyond that, why assume?  So of course, I had to share my favourite story from college.  One day I went into the Financial Aid Office and the girl at the desk there asked me for my greencard.  Yeah...  Okay.  I unplugged her modem on my way out.

Needless to say, the Chinese jokes didn't stop for the rest of the day.  Or week.  Or probably month as they're still going on now.  Naturally I've been doing my very best Margaret Cho since.  "Drink Vitasoy!  Is good for YOU!!!"

After we recovered from the hilarity, we made our way to Larry Elmore's panel.  It was fascinating to listen to his stories about playing D&D with some of the most famous fantasy artists of our time.  Tales of rubber band fights and deciding who would do which pieces and how.  He's a truly amazing man.  It was a tiny bit marred by Mr. Pajama Pants man who couldn't shut the hell up about how similar his profession was to Mr. Elmore's.  Yes, because being a programmer is so very creative.  I think we'd have all liked to lynch the guy just to get him to shut up so we could listen to Larry, but the blood would have stained the carpets, you know.

After that we all rushed over to the Rise of Kunark panel.  We were a little late, so we figured we'd just slip into some of the chairs at the back and that would be fine.  Except for that whole standing room only thing.  I'm pretty sure the people at the front speaking were SOE devs, but I couldn't see anything but a few ant sized people up at the front of the room.

It was a great panel.  Liz Sigmund, who is the official unoffical raiding dev had us all in stitches with her "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" story about the new raids coming up in RoK.  It was altogether a very positive experience.  I'm extremely excited about the expansion.  They're doing some very good things with the direction of the game.  Moving towards bigger zones and a more seamless feel to them like they started with Echoes of Faydwer.

Still a little delicate from the pool party, it was hot out you know, a few of us went up to our rooms to relax a bit and desperately rehydrate.  About an hour or so before the banquet and the wedding I got to run over to Niami's room to help her get into her costume.  She had this absolutely lovely green Renaissance dress.  She looked fantastic.  Many a jaw hit the floor when she came gliding past.

We met up with everyone else outside the banquet room and took our seats.  While we waited eagerly for the bride and groom to start up the wedding, we were entertained by Brenlo.  I think he's had the mic surgically attached or something, because I don't think I saw him without it all weekend!  There were all kinds of nifty little giveaways for emote contests and who had driver's licenses from whatever state Brenlo thought up.  Then there was the big guy in an itty bitty pink shirt contest.  Unfortunately, I saw it this year and have, as yet, been unable to bleach the memory from my mind.  I'm sending Brenlo my therapy bill...

Fortunately for my poor fragile and now scarred psyche, the wedding started.  The first people down the aisle?  Darth Vader and a pair of stormtroopers.  That's how you know it's going to be a memorable ceremony!  I have to say that it was a very lovely and moving ceremony.  The best part though, was the in game wedding where everyone was pelting each other and especially the newlyweds with snowballs.  I'm easily amused, I know.

After that everyone disappeared and showed back up in Dar and Radar's room.  Nathan and Kelly came by and we all congratulated them once again.  We spent the rest of the evening sharing funny stories from the various SOE games we'd all played at one point or another.  Somewhere around one or two a.m. Radar and Dar kicked us all out for some quality alone time.

I tumbled into bed somewhere around five a.m.  A night spent sitting up and drinking coffee with Calthine's husband and some of the rest of the gang does NOT lend itself well to actually sleeping.  I woke back up around 7:30 or so.  It was wrong on every level, but we needed to make sure that all the goodbyes were properly said.

Another Fan Faire come and gone.  It was over too soon, as always.  Most of the weekend went past in a blur because there was so much running about trying to see everything.  I wouldn't trade it for anything, though, and I can't wait for the next Fan Faire.  My deepest thanks to SOE and to Gethani, without whom I wouldn't have been able to get to Vegas at all.  To all the new friends I made this year:  I treasure you all and look forward to many years of friendship.  To all the friends I got to see once more:  I love you all dearly and can't wait to see you again!

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