Joshua Kronengold

Friday: Took the bus out. Left my phone on the bus. Got a number to call to find out if they had the phone, which didn't work. Played games, saw old and new friends, went to bed at 2. Lost the Alhambra qualifier, giving up my opportunity to win the Alhanbra "Nationals" a second time in a row.

Saturday: Ran/played Hot Tub Full of Magic, along with the rest of Straightjackets Optional. Despite flaws, and being drastically undercast (this my playing a PC role as well), worked. We did have a wierd result of two players getting pulled un, only to have the more interested one of the pair lose interest rapidly and go swimming, while the less interested one got...more interested as a delightfully (if not written to be so) incompetent villain. When they left (midway through the game) entirely, ebartley took over her role, which was good, since she'd been playing (and mostly, Not Playing) a romantic lead against me. Got The Talk (in character) from Dave Damast, which was delightful and unanticipated by me -- since when we connected his character to hers, they were both default-male, and the results of the gender swap was unanticipated. Got to swin around for a long while during the game, which was nice -- the almost only time I've gotten to swim for the last N years was during our three Hot Tub games -- plus exactly one beach trip. Had some annoying times not playing the games I wanted, due to a combination of half the board games being advancement events by Saturday afternoon, my not bothering to sign up for stuff, and the Shadowfist events not having the critical mass to run (despite my best intentions, I didn't play Fist this convention). Went out to the bus stop, got another number to call to check whether they'd found my phone. This one didn't work either. Played Perfectly Normal University (a LARP) between 2-6, which was fun enough, though I tire of playing loser PCs rapidly (and I've done it a Lot). Failed to get into the Set game at 8 due to getting on line for Sugarfest rather than signing up for it; watched ebartley go stomp like a very stompy thing over everyone else -- jlighton won one game out of many, and the two new players took no sets in any game that I could see (kinda like tossing minnows into a shark tank -- I'm not sure they'd have taken sets in a Julian/Me game, and Beth's that much better than either of us). Signed up for Goa, but it didn't run (only the alternates showed), so I did play/teach Clans (won). Played a rematch of Clans as well, which to my surprise (usually, I lose games of Clans where people have decided I'm the threat, as I am, since it's trivial to screw one player if you can figure out what their color is), I also won -- getting to arrange a massive horde which kills enourmous numbers of enemy pieces will help with that. Played a lot of casual set (went 1/2 with Julian), two quick games of Once Upon a Time (which was more fun than remembered -- I need to play with adult players more, also, my first games with the Darker Tales expansion) and taught/retaught Rowan Set, leaving her with my deck while I went off with Mindy to play Elfenlands. I've played Elfenlands 1 time (I think) before this, and don't remember it being this fun -- I'll need to start bringing it to places. I thought I lost the box in which I keep Set (out of the box)) and OUaT (in the box), but my conversation with Larry/Lorenzo went something like "Where's Lost and Found?" "You're talking to it" "Oh, good. I lost this box" "What does it look like" "Plastic and shit. Lemme see if I have another one like it in my bag...Ok, here one is. Er, never mind." Oops.

Sunday: got up decadently late. Played (even signed up for...again) Goa; taught the game, won (sensing a pattern here?). Left, got to the bus stop, got a third number to find out about my phone. Bus arrived quickly, so got on it. Called number, found that my phone -was- at the dispatcher's, and had been there since Friday, but that they'd only tried calling the first number we gave them -- that being the phone's own number, given for verification! (Oops). As advised, stayed on the bus -- taking it all the way to NYC, then all the way to New Brunswick, and after a half hour wait, all the way back to NYC. Got to NYC at 11, after a 4 hour "one hour" trip.