A Moment of Sadness and Reflection...

This weekend my best friend from college lost her grandfather pretty suddenly. She was devistated and I told her I would come to the wake and funeral to be there for her.

It was the second time since 2006 I had been to a wake and funeral, and I thought I was going to be good to go.

We got to the wake on Monday and I discovered something that we could add to our list of similarities.... We both called our grandfathers "Grampy" and we both concidered our respective Grampys our best friend and our grandfather. I could see it in her. The bubbley, fun loving, sweet friend I knew had a broken heart, and it broke mine. I could see that she was going to be begining the long path of healing. One that I am still on. The funeral was so sad. My friend gave the eulogy. I couldn't stop crying for her.

I could tell when I left her after the funeral, she was just really down in the dumps. So I called her after work to make sure she was ok and didn't need me. This started a half an hour of her and I just chatting and going back and forth about things and I could tell it made a difference. But she will never know (unless she reads the blog) that it meant the world to me too. I know that she is there for me and I am there for her.

How lucky we are to have friends like her... I hope she can think the same about us!

Friday: Party Time!

We slept in Friday morning and then began the 9 hour trek down to NC.

America is gorgeous country. Virginia is especially gorgeous, but I drove that stretch, so no pictures! (YAY 70 MPH speed limit!) But I got to enjoy the foliage! And the many landmarks we look for on the way... such as the CHURCH ON FIRE!!! (Awesomest church name ever!)

Then we got to our hotel...and let me tell you the reception was so great! We were tired but by the time we got done with the rounds of hugs and checking in... I felt revitalized! We got help unpacking, cleaned up and headed down to the little get together that had been going on!


They were smackin' the Kracken... rum that is!

We played tons of catch up, as many of us hadn't seen us since before the wedding, so we got a chance to hang out. By the end we were either buzzed or drunk and things got silly!


The night ended with a trip to the Waffle House and some Cookout burgers. Thus setting the pace for our crappy eating over the course of the next couple of days!

PAX East: Day 2- Not so convention-y but full of friends!

PAX East was so busy that we couldn't get the three day passes or Saturday passes. It was sold out before we could order. So we got to do something we don't normally get to do when we are at conventions....

We stayed home and relaxed, watched TV, slept in... It was glorious!

Although we both kind of wanted to be at the convention center too....

The end to our day was dinner with good friends of ours from New York, their kids, and another friend of ours from Rhode Island. (One thing I can say about gaming, you are never short on friends.) We met at the Longhorn Steakhouse and spent 2 + hours talking about life, knitting, games, and PAX. Our friends from NY could only get Sunday tickets. But get this... their kids are going... they want to go, and the oldest would like to roll dice soon.... in an Avatar: The Last Airbender game. (Their daughter introduced me to Plants vs Zombies... I thanked her for that addiction. ) We met early so the kids could eat at a reasonable time and our friend from RI met us about an hour later. He was at PAX today, and said it was a mob scene to get into anything. But tomorrow we try again.

It was so much fun to hang out and just get a chance to catch up, as these are people we talk to all the time, but only see once a year or so... It really is a shame. I always wish that everyone lived closer. (What an amazing game group we would have then!)

Hopefully, we will run into our friends from NY while running around the con tomorrow. I have also mentioned to our friend from RI that we needed to get together for a Dragon Age game or something soon. Cause the last time we saw him (Get this!) was right after we met each other. We weren't even dating! Not even close!

So all in all a day full of win. The whole weekend has been awesome. Tomorrow is the end, and I can't help but be sad.

However, PAX will be in Boston in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and we have already decided that not only will we go... we will have 3 day badges!