Well I am almost where I can give a full account. I took a second vacation last week and just got back last night.
Wednesday started off good. Me and Jason (Dark Jedi 21) and another friend met Jim and rode up to the convention with him (Why oh why did we leave so damn early Jim?? j/k).
The first night there we bunked in with Jim and his group, which included Dean and his kid, Ray, Jim and Jonathan, the three of us from KY, and sithdragon (Scott). Between me Dean and Jim I don't think anyone got much sleep. We had a real chorus going on (yes I have to admit I took some of the blame, but even Dean woke me up - sorry man it was bad lol).
Thursday morning I couldn't check in to my hotel fast enough. I'm sure the guys in the room were glad to see us go, too; it was really cramped.
I spent most of Thursday goofing around, playing league, and perusing the dealer hall. The RPG session Thursday night started late because the tournaments had problems starting on time, and we didn't even get to the best part of what Jason and I had planned. It was okay, though; we had a great time with what we did and I felt good about it after because Dean apparently bought the core book!
Another convert... muahahahahaha..
Friday during the day was much of the same. Then we did the AT-ATs on Hoth event Friday night, and then to dinner. I think the socializing during the various meals the week of GenCon was my favorite part of the whole weekend. SWM has a great community and no matter how badly the top people at WotC treat us we always seem to rally together around our generally friendly attitudes. The biggest highlights were hanging out with Dean and Ray and Nate and Dajuan and Doug and Bill and ... the list just goes on and on.
Saturday was a day of hardwork; there's no getting around that. I was the head judge for the Masters (the TRUE Championship in all but name, as we proved with 74 participants). I have judged events for WotC before, but this was the first time I ever judged something with so many participants, so I was a bit nervous. Sithdragon was my back-up, and after the first round of the event, I realized he had things well in hand. I answered questions here and there, and walked around the tables. Scott did a great job with judging, and I felt confident in taking a step back and letting him handle most issues. There were a few things that I had to deal with, and I had to make a couple of really hard calls, but I knew going into it that that might happen. I knew Saturday evening I wanted to do something to thank Scott for the superb job he did, but I really didn't have any good ideas at the time. The solution would eventually present itself.
By the time Saturday night rolled around, I was exhausted. And I still had the Sunday morning finals to contend with. The next morning I headed down to the event hall early and watched the final games. After the finals were over, I picked up my "gifts" from Pasttimes - 2.5 cases of KotoR and a couple of boosters of LotF - and tore through them. One of the LotF boosters had a VR that Scott had said earlier he needed, so I went over and asked him if he still needed it. He offered a trade, but I just said, "Thanks for helping me judge," and handed him the mini.
The Godfather has taught me well.
Seriously, though, Jim couldn't have picked a better team of judges for the weekend, and I was glad -though surprised by Jim's invitation- to be among them.
So as we were leaving Jim handed me 2 more cases of KotoR and I finished my set on the drive home. I did it in a single day, and all I had to do was about 20-some hours of work. What a relief!
Well speaking of work, I should probably get back to my REAL job. Hope to see all of you again at GenCon next year!