Amazing weekend.

[k_crow]

I took Friday as a vacation day, because I seriously needed some time to myself, and time to prepare for the Game Day over at Sar/Runnerwolf/Damiana_Swan's place. I'm very glad I did, because Game Day was a lot more crowded than most of us expected it to be. I can't say I was entirely surprised, especially with all the folks who wanted to be able to meet jadine and dymaxion.


Saturday, P and I were up at 10am, getting some dim sum and then heading back to our place to fix sesame chicken with honey mustard sauce. That took a bit longer than expected, so we didn't get to the Redmond Polyglot's place until after 1pm. (Hey, guys, I think you've at least got an unofficial clan name now. *grin*) Helped with the last minute preparation stuff, and then played a few games. wolfieboy brought a very cool pattern game, whose name has completely escaped me. I was going to just watch, but I ended up joining in by seeing the needed patterns two times before the other players did. We also played Apples to Apples, and then wolfieboy had to get going, but not before he showed off his claws... *grin* Both jadine and I were quite delighted by them, and very sorry wolfieboy had to leave so soon.

I ended up doing a lot more hanging out and talking with various people than actual game playing. I know that for the most part I was not introducing myself by my lj name, so most folks who met me probably didn't associate the face with this journal. The one exception was corivax, and corvi had recognized me from my picture.

I've got a kaleidoscope of images and memories from that night buzzing through my brain. I know I felt overloaded at several points during the party. Most of the time I just fled to sar_anon and runnerwolf 's bedroom and took some alone time. Once though, I went down to the shaman's space, discovered once again that the soundproofing doesn't hold up against people walking on the floor above, and grabbed my coat and sat in their backyard for a while. We'll note, I'm highly arachnophobic and saw several spiders within 6 inches of the spot I was sitting on, and still felt it was better to be outside and clearing my head for a bit than going back in.

One small personal triumph. The group I hang out with is very okay with casual nudity. I'm okay with it at home with P, and with some of the folks of the Redmond Polyglot. I've still been very jumpy/nervous about being unclothed in social situations, however. Well, Saturday night I was back helping dustin_00 finish up his character for our Mage game along with runnerwolf. sar_anon had already left to go sit in their clothing optional hot tub, and I decided I was going to try that too. runnerwolf told me later that she was proud of me when I simply said I was going to go try and sit in the hot tub.

So, I went down there, and walked in the door. First thought, "Wow. Nobody's wearing anything." Part of my mind attempted to start gibbering, and I told it to switch off. It tried once more, and I firmly told it, "I'm not going to think about this. Switch off." It did, and I attempted to ask in a casual tone if there was room for one more. Not sure how well I did, to be honest. Got an affirmitive, and got undressed and hopped in. The most difficult part was not staring at the other people, especially because they were all worth an appreciative stare or two, but I really didn't want to be rude.

Part of me is still bemused that I managed this, and I got a lot of positive feedback later from damiana_swan , runnerwolf , sar_anon , and K.

Let's see, I remember playing Zendo with ocicat , the_tiger , angilong , mhutfles , lumiere , and damiana_swan, K, and a couple other folks whose lj names and regular names are both slipping my mind. That was a fascinating game, and I would've loved playing more, but I was reaching an overload point again.

There were lots of people that I didn't get much of a chance to talk with, including P's beloved aladriana and her clan, idle_thoughts and the two folks with him, rubylou and two other folks with her, and many more besides. Oh, and I still have the bead that Marty gave me, though I needed to ask both him and jadine what significance that had.

I like I said, a rather chaotic collection of memories and good impressions. Still, I had a wonderfully fun time, and I hope my people-tolerance is a bit higher next time. Most of the time I don't regret being an introvert, but every now and again it can get a bit frustrating.