Chicago, My kind of town!!

Well not really my kind of town.  The drivers are awful and the roads are even worse.  The waitresses an incredibly stupid and what was that smell?  Thank God 2o2p was there 'cause they can totally make you forget all about that!  I have been to a couple of local LAN events in the past but nothing, and I mean NOTHING like the extravaganza that was held in Chi-town last weekend. 

First, let me just say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all the organizers who put it together.  I'd also like to say a special thanks to those who met and hung out with my wife (a non gamer, non site person) all weekend.  She was really apprehensive about what to expect and everyone really made her feel welcome and comfortable.  She even managed to earn a nick/potential gamer tag, "The Librarian", though I'm not sure how they came up with that.  The folks at Quality Inn also did a real good job of accommodating a sometimes "loud" group of guys running all over their facility.  They even let us hook up all our equipment to their 1 circuit.

To recap, the weekend started with a 3 hour drive to the city followed by a 1.5 hour sit on the I90.  Once at the hotel I met Doodi, Phreak, Scotib and Tait.  Doodi was waiting on DSmooth's arrival so that the 30 TV's could be picked up for the event but we soon learned that DS sometimes has a hard time finding the shuttle stations and would be a while longer yet.  Well the TV's still needed delivering so Doodirock and I headed back out into the Chi-town traffic to collect the goods.  After the quick drive to what seemed like the Wisconsin suburbs, and Doodi nearly being killed by a drunk driver we managed to jam 19 of those bad boys into 3 SUV's.  I'm not sure how the rest got delivered, but I'm glad I didn't have to fight that Chi-town traffic to find out!  That night DanLecrinque, Tait, Scotib, Smoke, Raste, Eksessive, "The Librarian", and myself piled into the Trailblazer and headed out for some original Chicago style pizza.  We made our way to Gino's East where we were quickly seated but waited another 1.5 hours for actual pizza to show up at our table.  All was good though 'cause it was great just to hang out and talk to folks face to face for a change.  Dan and Smoke pretty much occupied their time talking WOW all night (Dan even tried to explain to the Mrs. what it was but the blank stare he got back was enough for him to give up trying), Fetal joined us about half way through the evening, and the wife made an unfortunate attempt to joke about an email she had that I unfortunately will have to live with for some time.  She has a much better idea of how guys minds work now then she did when the weekend started.  When I got back to the hotel I decided to call it a night early knowing that this might be the last good night’s sleep I'd see the whole weekend.

I was so wrong about a good nights sleep.  I'm not sure if it was the room, my excitement level or both but I couldn't sleep worth a damn in that hotel (we were staying at the Hampton Inn next door) all weekend long.  We had breakfast down in the hotel lobby and decided to not make that mistake ever again.  It was fairly early (9:00 or so) but we decided to head over to the QI to see if anyone was milling around yet anyway.  The wife and I were pretty excited to try and head downtown to see the sites so we figured that would be our plan if nothing else was going on.  At the front door Tait and Scotib were heading to a shuttle bus so I stopped to say hey.  It turns out they were heading downtown as well so they graciously let us tag along for the days adventure.  After a brief shuttle ride we made our way to the Blue Line for a 45 minute commute to downtown.  Once downtown we made our way to the Navy Pier for a full day of site seeing.  Tait had heard there would be a "Butt Sketch" artist there and was anxious to get another portrait of himself to hang over his headboard.  Apparently he already has one of him and his wife made by the same guy.  I wondered all day how difficult it must be to sketch with your butt, but alas we never found him.  The pier was pretty busy and they had a Tall Ships exhibit going on so we spent a good part of the day walking through that.  As the day went on the sun got brighter and the heat got hotter.  At one point my wife pulled me aside after seeing Tait sitting on the ground and asked "Is he going to pass out?”  I managed to handle the sun pretty well escaping with merely a sunburned neck and a little more color on my face.  Scotti just walked from shaded spot to shaded spot.  We also discovered that there must be some pretty interesting activities going on down at the pier as we found not one, but two condoms floating in the Chicago River.  Next we headed back to the Sears tower via water taxi.  You couldn't have asked for a better day to go up.  The sky was so clear that you could see for as far as your eyes would allow.  It was getting close to the "official" start of the LAN so we headed back toward O'Hare next.  What we hadn't thought about was that we headed back during rush hour so the Blue Line was a little busier than on the way down.  It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder on the train and some "Side Show Bob" looking dude kept hitting my wife with his hair every time he leaned over to slobber all over his girlfriend.  That was ok though, 'cause that was the only way to get her to shut up.

When we finally got back to the hotel I dropped off the wife and headed over to get my evening started.  By the time I arrived all of the TV's, Xboxes, and cabling was already set up and people were already knee deep in the mayhem.  The tech guys did a great job of setting up the switches and routers to allow any Xbox to talk to any other Xbox and managed to get all of it running on only 3 15 amp circuits.  I managed to sit down and play a few games, but the night really was about shaking hands and meeting a lot of people that I've been talking to for a long time behind a Microsoft headset.  Unfortunately, I missed the "presentation" Phreak had for Mike James.  Hopefully, someone has video.  I met lots of great people that night, but quickly decided to not only drop my real name in favor of my GT but also only remember everyone else’s GT as well.  Scotti and I went to get some Chinese food around 9:30 or so and sat in the hotel lobby tempting fellow gamers and regular hotel guests alike with our surprisingly good meal. I followed up dinner with some more gaming and more hanging out at the hotel bar and headed back to my hotel early (if you consider 2:00 am early).

The next morning my wife ("the Librarian") and I headed back to the QI to see if anyone was interested in going out for breakfast.  I wasn't going to make the mistake of the hotel continental again.  We found some takers pretty quickly.  Gaius Caesar, Grim Reaper BTB and LeightyRx all jumped on board and we headed out to the Original Pancake House.  Now here is where the stupid waitresses comment begins to show itself.  Upon ordering a 10 star pancake breakfast the waitress asks my wife if she's like pancakes with that.  Then, when ordering a couple of eggs-scrambles, she says "So you want 2 eggs?" like she didn't understand what a "couple" meant.  Despite the waitress, the food was pretty good.  After getting back to the LAN, my wife met up with "Mrs. Zorbs" for a girls day out shopping (Mrs. Zorbs seemed really excited about checking out the local shopping  )  I spent the rest of the day going back and forth playing a little and hanging out with some great new friends.  Tait and I had each other laughing so much and so hard that our faces and sides literally started to hurt.  That night my wife, myself, Tait, Scotib and King Bayman headed out to Chili's.  When we got there Skeyewalker and her husband "happened" to show up.  I say happened to in quotes 'cause I think she may have been following Tait .   While there, we discovered that Pirates are relatively easy going, but their harems are a bit more "catty".  The waitress again assaulted us with one dumb question after another, to the point that we couldn't help but laugh at her every time she came to the table.   It was at this point the drinking really kicked into high gear, particularly for my wife, who never drinks more than once a month or so and only 1 drink at that.  This is also when I started getting my "contact drink" on as Skeyewalker puts it.  The rest of the night was mostly a blur.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't really begin to know where to start.  I will say this.  One of the highlights was when Mike James comes over and I introduce him to my wife.  He leans over to me and whispers, "Is it ok if I do it?"  "What?" I asked tepidly.  "You know the I'm Mike James Bee-otch thing."  "Go ahead."  So he says it and my wife shouts back "I'm the Librarian Bee-otch!"  which pretty much left Mike speechless.

The last morning a few more of us headed to IHOP for breakfast and you could tell that everyone was feeling the effects of the last couple of days.  I was really beginning to miss everyone at that point already knowing that I was leaving town in a couple of hours.  There was so much more that happened, I can't even begin to re-tell it all.  I was amazed at how little I actually played any video games.  It was really more about chillin' with your friends more than anything.  I can honestly say that that was the most fun I've had since my wife and I went to Disney two years ago.  She even said the exact same thing and she was just going to "tag along".  Thanks again to all who made it possible. 

Can I buy my ticket for next year yet?