Listening: Tales of a Librarian Tori Amos
Mentally Replaying: last night's Simpson's
I'd rather be: out of the office
Desiring: sleep

I forgot to mention that before limping into the service station in Santa Fe we visited a historical museum in Los Alamos, which is very close to Santa Fe. Obviously there is a lot of information on Manhatten Project and the scientists that worked for it. I would have preferred to go to the Bradbury Museum to investigate the physics of the A-Bomb but the boys wanted to see the other one. Los Alamos is a little town in the middle of no where and is actually very officious - think industrial/business park.

So where I left off was in Gallop; from there we soon crossed into Arizona and moved slowly toward Phoenix. It wasn't crawling, really, but there were some *extremely* strong winds kicking up that kept us from gunning it (and the wounded vehicle wasn't helping).

We stopped at the Petrified Forest/Painted desert. It's a huge area, much of it protected by the forestry service (though not very well as tons of petrified wood goes missing every year). But it's definately a sight to behold. You go driving away from the ranger station and wonder when the painted desert is going to show up when you spot a lookout edge. So you head up to it and look down... and there it is, stretching for miles, slicing deep and wide into the earth, in such amazing colors as you would have never figured rocks came in.

The rangers assured us that the intense winds (about 45mph) made for a typical spring day. I did what I could to keep my hair from whipping my face but it really wasn't easy. I "eskimo'd up" with my jacket and hood that severely limited what I could see, and still the wind had its way with me.

It wasn't warm and two hours in it started to drizzle. Normally I can shrug off drizzle, but when it's drving itself slanted at 45mph, every drop feels like a freaking BB trying to poke holes in you. Mama Nature saved the best of it for when Molasses and I went on a mini hike that was three quarters of a mile. I was never so glad to see the Agent's car when we got back. My pants were soaked and of course the previous day the heater had been unplugged so I got to sit in cold wet pants, but it beat the hell out of being exposed to some intense elements. Molasses swears it was haling. Better and better.

Still the land is amazing to see. But I recommend checking the weather first and calling the rangers for advice.

We eventually got out of there and headed on toward Flagstaff. We didn't see much of because we had to switch to a southward free way, but there must have been some elevation and regular precipitation there cause there was no lack of evergreens lining the road. We stopped for dinner on the edge of Flagstaff at a Cracker Barrel. I don't know if I've ever eaten at one before, but it was very cute. Obviously it was trying to be "quaint" and telling me their food wasn't as good as grandma's but a good second. I didn't bother telling them that when my grandma cooked she made tamales and posole, which weren't on the menu.

But the main thing is that in one of the eating areas they had a huge frickin fireplace. I mean HUGE, and roaring, and plenty warm. Molasses and I didn't hesitate before running and hopping onto the mantle and aimed our butts at the flames. AAAhhhh fiery warm goodness. Within five minutes we were dry, which was enough for the Agent and the waitress to laugh at us. We shrugged and didn't try to explain.

Dark came in half way to Phoenix, but it wasn't too bad as the suburbs started almost the second we crossed into Maricopa County.

At the hotel, which was some serious sweet digs, and the nicest place that we've had so far for SWRE (nicer, even, than last year), we unloaded and checked in, registered and checked in some more.

Much gaming then ensued:

We were one of the few parties (it seems) that didn't get our room screwed up... Too bad. Others got up grades to nicer suites and free dinner.

I got to garou as fast as I could but even by then I had missed pretty much any reasonable chance to place Lucia. Suck. Supposedly there was a chick Nuwie that swept a lot of people off their feet. I only know of one of other Nuwie and I haven't gotten any interaction with him either.

Right away I was, however, tossed/invited into a fight to save some folks from an ambush. AFter that people were doing all the lame shit I hate when a moot is planned but never happens because people are too busy doing lame shit. (Ahem, I play a galliard. I *should* be offended. The only cool bits about being a galliard that no one else does theoretically show up at moot. Without moots galliards are wannabe ahrouns. I don't want to be an ahroun. I hear you giggling. Don't make me come over there.)

So I made up some stuff to do, logged it and headed out.

Then promptly be depressed as the only thing people wanted to do was party and I wasn't really into partying. This went on for a while (well into the next day), which was really, really REALLY annoying. I fucking hate being the only person who's not into the swing of things eventhough I knew what was going to be going on and the prevailing mood of all involved.

Said hi to some folks, couldn't hang with the dizzing convos, couldn't find any place to rest easy, knew far to few people to comfy with and finally retired to the room.

In the morning dragged myself out of bed for the free breakfast (damn those was fine, sweet digs) and blinked at the sharp light. Phoenix was rare with clouds and typically strong with heat. And so it was.

I took many naps and a longish walk before happy hour (did I mention free drinks at happy hour? Sweet ass digs, I tell you). Then onto the Vamp game. I don't remember what I did before the Nos meeting. I know I was a the game site, just don't recall what I did. I know it wasn't exciting, but I guess it wasn't boring. Then came the Nos meeting. Then came the obsessing about the Nictuku (which was fun) then came the false alarm that sent us scurring to the multidirections we who can fly, dig, go invisible and run go to when we're scared shitless.

I actually had a lot of fun playing up Roberta, making sure all of her "kids" were accounted for. Subconciously she thinks of all her friends as her kids and she's very protective of them. She has a strong mother hen attitude, even when her kids are hundreds of years older than she.

For me the funny was the the Agent promised to leave if he felt the slightest interest in playing. Then he was asked to play a mystery character (requiring NDAs and everything) and suddenly he was interested and playing - and scaring the pants off of everyone. }:>

Course it was also fun when I compared stats with the Squire and realized my character was likely as buff as his and if we went hand to hand I'd probably run him out of blood before he could take me down. My character isn't as *competent* at fighting but she has a few tricks up her sleeve that other PCs don't.

On Saturday I hung out a little bit more and was a little better keyed in. The big ass garou fight was on which on other days would have annoyed me, being a steady RPS fest. But I was up for it and it moved along nicely. I actually didn't get into much combat as my PC. If she hadn't recently learned to use a gun she would have made no violent charges at all. }:/

But I'm told that she did Howl often enough that it helped. So that's cool. Galliard-y and everything. It was a pretty hot fight for many of the PCs and there were over a dozen deaths. That's an incredibly rare number, eventhough it doesn't match what source says a real fight should have. Still people were very emotional about it IC and OOC, and some folks were literally saved by the bell (by bell, I mean Gaia, and by Gaia, I mean Plot) and were one more hit away from dying when suddenly their PCs were completely healed. It was the best to look at the players and see them in tears after having made up their minds that their PCs were obviously going to die.

We wrapped and headed to happy hour. BTW my character is Athro now (was so walking into the fight) and can - and will - challenge for Elder at the next game. I may actually end the Chronicle the way I wanted, having gone from Cub to Elder. well I'll try not to get ahead of things.

Anyway. More Cam/Anarch in the evening. Not feeling like jumping into things I watched some TV until ten PM flipping betweeh The Matrix: Reloaded, Remember the Titans and Wild Things. That made all of them a little more bearable, especially WT, which is still my benchmark for HORRIBLE MOVIES OF ALL TIME (tm). I had forgotten so much of it (possibly on purpose) that I kept being surprised by the people that showed up in it. I had completely blocked out Bill Murray's existence in it. heh.

So when I wandered out and headed to the game and immediately found the SUPER SECRET Nosferatu meeting. It was neat primarily because the Agent also found us and came over scare the bejeesus out of us. My character freaked but wouldn't clear out of the site (eventhough we were sure it was suicide to stay) until all her ducklings were accounted for and then we vamoosed. Finally we wrapped our PCs in a plane ride home. And OOC headed to a party.

Sunday was somewhat sluggish: breakfast, shower, packing, Nos photos, check out and good byes, not necessarily in that order. One last lunch with the Agent on Schetzuan (one of the few non-Mexican meals had outside the hotel) at the Chinese cultural center. Then back for our gear and onto the shuttle to the airport.

Got the pleasant news that LA was so much hotter than Phoenix that it was on fire. And we were off.

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Since then I've mostly been working running whatever chores that come up. Fairly normal: Horrified by the news, hanging with the boy and the Squire, laundry... Last Friday had dinner at Lone Star with my Molasses, the Agent, his girl and AM. Then off to watch Van Helsing which, probably because of the near food coma, didn't seem to suck as much everyone else claims it did. *shrug* It doesn't hurt as much when you don't have high expectations. And when you can go home with good friends and tear it to shreds. }:> You know you love it.

Saturday I cleaned like a mofo and in the evening headed to 3rd Street with the boy to gawk at the freaks and generally have nice time. It was a little marred by bad news, but rather pleasant all the same. On Sunday I tried to get to church with the family but totally got my wires crossed and only found the family at brunch when they were already halfway through. Had some yummy La Barca and then took Mom, two of the boys and Alexa to Pasadena where Mom could have Italian ice cream. It was a lazy and warm afternoon and Mom decided she wanted to finish off her chores for the day and go home. So we went our separate ways and I headed to the LBC and then to Hermosa Beach for a damned tasty BBQ dinner.


And that, as they say, is that. Questions? Comments? Concerns?