PAX South Wrap-up and Thanks

PAX South was a more amazing experience than I dared to imagine. Prime was an eye-opening adventure and really helped me start to build some relationships, but South made me feel like I’ve finally successfully insinuated myself into the community (yes, that’s a proper usage of insinuated!) I couldn’t have asked for a better trip. Here’s a little recap, followed by some VERY necessary thank-yous.

Thursday: Our flight was pleasantly uneventful — I didn’t even spill on Jack this time! The landing was crazy-windy but somehow ended up being a very smooth touch-down. I was impressed. Noosh and Jooy picked us up at the airport and we did hotel stuff and then headed out to meet Travelyan and ZeeLady to go find food!

No one had any preference or knowledge regarding where we should eat, so we just started wandering the riverwalk following the prancing Jooygirl. The riverwalk is amazing, by the way — It’s a very cool place to walk along at night and there’s SO much food available. We ended up at a place called “The Original Mexican Restaurant” in their heated patio area. Super cheap and super tasty food, reasonable drinks; It was probably the most relaxing time of the whole week. We had a brief visit from MegMouse who spotted us across the way, and then MrBoombati and GoddessOfDay joined us for a final round of drinks.

After dinner we cruised the beautiful riverwalk while digesting. I have some gastro issues, so sadly I had to abandon the group rather suddenly and unexpectedly… when I next met up with the crew they had stationed themselves at a bar called, boringly enough, “Drink.” When I arrived it was really only our little crew and I think DizzyKitten with a couple of people? But within an hour or so it had become the gathering place for just about every caster who was in town! Yay for word-of-mouth and random coincidence!

It got loud fast and I wasn’t even tipsy after three amaretto sours.. I ended up feeling a bit like I was on the outside so I finally decided I would head home. On my way to tell Jack and Jooy that I was heading back to the hotel I had to push past DansGaming, and simply pushed gently and said, “Excuse me, Dan,” and was pretty shocked when he greeted me with “Hey, Badger” and talked to me for a minute or so. I.. was not expecting that. I don’t, as a general rule, fangirl — but that really made my night. And then Morag grabbed my nipple and I went back to the room. I chatted a bit with Noosh who had gone back earlier and caught the others creeping in over the next couple of hours. I know I may’ve missed some fun, but I don’t really regret it — it wasn’t really my scene.

Friday: I awoke at the unfortunately early time of about 7:30am to Jooy repeatedly proclaiming, “I want eggs!” until the rest of us were roused. We nabbed some breakfast at Denny’s and figured out our plan for the day. The Twitch booth was visited, friends were met, food was gotten, some games were looked at, then the Twitch town hall was attended. It wasn’t quite as interesting as the one from Prime, but there was some nice info and things to look forward to… I just don’t remember any of it! ;D Jooy had gone back the hotel earlier for a nap and I decided that was fantastic idea, so we rested up a bit before the evening’s activities.

The partner-only part of the Twitch party this year started 2 hours earlier than general admission instead of one, so we may’ve screwed up the timing a little :/ Jooy, Noosh, and I grabbed sandwiches at Jimmy John’s then I waited for Kasper and Sereniko. Sereniko and I hate to wait in line like plebians while all the partners hung out, but I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better line partner. We had lots of good gaming and life talkies and then headed in.

Most folks I knew had decided to hang out on the balcony, which was fucking freezing… and the bar was packed. Honestly, I didn’t like the party much compared to Prime. At Prime all the people I knew were in one relatively comfortable area with karaoke. At South we were more spread out, it was hard to talk but no one was really singing, either.. no real dancing. And the drinks were so sugary that I started to feel sick before even getting buzzed. Some complications arose that ended with some of us leaving early, but I wasn’t too sad about it. I do love parties and alcohol, but it needed to be every so slightly more intimate I guess.

Jooy went on a bit of an errand while Noosh, Jack, Zee and I chilled at Whataburger for a short bit. We didn’t stay too long, I guess we decided to call it around midnight. I wasn’t ready for bed and Jooy hadn’t come back yet so I went for a long walk around San Antonio by myself. The Alamo looked neat at night, but I mostly just enjoyed the fresh air. Briefly considered going back to the party… probably should have, I guess folks met up at Whataburger again. Oh, well. Man, writing this summary I see more missed opportunities than I felt when I was there!

Saturday: We got running a little later than previously, but not too much. Little miss early-riser went off on her own for coffee before the rest of us awoke. We ended up meeting with Zee and Trav for a quaint little breakfast at McDonald’s which was nice and relaxing. The others ran off to check out the Podcast hotel while I went to a panel about Geek Bars, one of my only “I’d like to do that” ambitions in life.

I checked out a bit more of the exhibition hall on my own after the panel, then headed to Twitch to poorly schmooze with people. We headed out for food and ended up at “Charline Wants a Burger” which, honestly, had some damn fine burgers and some surprisingly strong margaritas. I got more drunk off one 12oz ‘rita than the whole rest of the trip. It was weird.

More Twitch schmoozing followed by far-too-late podcast setup. There was a lot to coordinate in terms of getting computers and audio equipment ready, and frankly we did a poor job of being ready on time. And then everything that could go wrong did go wrong… I think the major things which most folks are already aware of are that Noosh’s monitor, our only monitor, turned out to have broken in the back of her vehicle. We drove to Best Buy to replace at, and on our way back we were informed that the wired connection was completely non-functional… so we turned around and bought a wireless adapter. That’s the very, very short version of what went wrong and what we bought… it was so much worse than that.

So we eventually started the podcast on shitty hotel wifi. Honestly, the cast went really well. There was a lot of drops due to bad connection, and we don’t have the very beginning locally recorded. . . . . . . . . but it was a lot of fun and I think everyone had a good time, and that was the most important part. More people were met, or gotten to know better, and that is the best part of PAX.

After the podcast those of us who stayed until the end went to find some late food. There was some small dissention, but the majority of us ended up at McDonald’s. They were kind enough to open the upstairs for us and that’s when the most surreal part of PAX (for me) happened. I sat with Jooygirl, who was basically my lifeline all weekend, and ThunderCast.. and Rami Ismail of Vlambeer joined us. So I shot the shit with head of one of the better-known indie development studios out there for the better part of an hour. If you don’t know Vlambeer… well, go look them up. They created Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, Luftrausers and, most recently, Nuclear Throne.

Sunday: What even happened on Sunday? Oh right. Jack, Jooy, and I had a long podcast-related discussion over lunch at Denny’s to discuss all the critical failures and future endeavors. It was really interesting, and while I still think we haven’t fleshed out my role in everything, I’m excited about the entire endeavor.

I had to return a sizeable amount of stuff to Best Buy, thankfully MasterGara was willing to drive me out there and get it done. After that I hung out in Twitch land for a while as the con started to slowly wind down. We managed to wrangle a *relatively* small group out to dinner afterwards and went to a little place called the Saltgrass Steakhouse. It was a good, relaxing meal with some lovely conversation. Everyone was talking about going to the Build Guild party aftwards. I was tired and heavily considering not going… but I was somewhat talked into it. So we hopped into an uberXL and headed over. It was a little over a 15 minute ride, which proved slightly too much for sleepy Jooygirl and Kasperr, so they took a widdle nap ;)

The Build Guild party was at some gorgeous old house outside of downtown. I knew so few people, but I was introduced to many of them and managed a couple of rather intimate conversations. It was BYOB and I didn’t bring anything, so I didn’t really drink anything. It just ended up being a very enjoyable hangout once I found people to settle with. Jack and I got to know Viking_Lass quite well that night, what a sweetie!

There were some feels as we left the party, as we knew we wouldn’t see many of those folks again until the next big gathering. ❤

Monday: Monday morning was spent attempting to coordinate with very tired people, so it mostly fell through. Jack, Jooy, and Santa ended up having breakfast while I worked on waking up, and I met up with them a bit later. Santa headed off for a nap and we just sorta meandered and ended up with a crew at Denny’s consisting of Kasper, Sereniko, DancingFighter, ThunderCast, and Rabbster. All too soon the time for goodbyes came and we started calling Ubers for the airport… Hugs were had, farewells were said, and then the last car pulled away… and I finally started to break. At Prime there were other issues that affected me emotionally, but leaving wasn’t too bad. At South, watching that last group drive away, it just really got to me. Kev and I started the walk back to the hotel room as I quietly cried a few tears.

The day wasn’t quite over! Very few people were left around, but Jack and I met up with Siri and hit up a really awesome Irish Pub called Waxy O’Connor’s. The food was fantastic — Shepherd’s Pie, Bangers and Mash, Bread Pudding, and Angry Orchard on tap! Definitely a place to go back to next year. Tired physically and emotionally we headed back to our hotel room and caught a little of Bryan’s inaugural partnership cast. Subscribing on mobile is hard!

And that’s really the end! The ride home was relatively uneventful — Jack and I both napped a little on the flight and didn’t talk about anything too serious. And here we are, safe and sound!

Thanks

I met a lot of awesome people at PAX.. and a lot of them deserve some thanks or recognition. I’ve already written so much, I’m not going to get to everyone, so please don’t be offended if I miss you D: In (mostly) no particular order:

Viking_Lass: I briefly met April before the podcast and could tell she was a bundle of positive energy. At the Build Guild party she, Jack, and I had a very long conversation about life things and it was very therapeutic and enjoyable. I really hope to get to know her better in the future.

Jacklifear: I actually have a hard time saying nice things to/about Jack just because of how long we’ve known each other and some of our history — but thank you. Thank you for both creating and introducing me to this community, thank you for introducing me to everyone you can in person, and thank you for always looking on the bright side.

tehMorag: Frankly, I kind of made an ass of myself the first time Morag and I met at East last year. I was super excited about the podcast and nagged the shit out of him. He’s either forgotten or understands, and always seems happy to see me. Thank you for being a friend.

iKasperr: I’m still getting to know Kasper, but I have enjoyed all the time we’ve spent so far. He’s such a very real guy and it’s inspiring how he’s going after his dream.

Sereniko: Tracy has been so sweet to me, both in person and online. I was terrified the first time Kasper asked me to go with her as one of the non-partnered folks, and I’m glad I sucked up my courage and did so. To be able to have a 90 minute conversation with someone is a rare thing for me, but we pulled it off in line for the party, and I’m sure the credit is hers.

DansGaming: I really don’t know Dan at all, but he knew who I was and that just speaks volumes to what kind of guy he is and how much he pays attention to the community. I will be hanging out in his channel in the future.

theNoosh22: Nooshie came through by bringing equipment and driving me out to replace what failed. We’re also food buddies! It’s rare to meet someone who hates vegetables as much as I do, but likes pickles :3

Mastergara_07: MasterGara is a seriously stand-up guy who was instrumental in the podcast’s success. He played JackassUber for a while and took great care of our food, water, and paper towel situation while we were focused on the technical setup. Thank you so, so, so much.

Ohsippycup: OhSippyCup joined us briefly for lunch and put in a lot of work helping set up the podcast — we were working on different parts, so we didn’t overlap much, but he seemed invested and was a pleasure to have around.

Manofwar: Manofwar was also part of our lunch crew and helped out with the podcast a bit, so thank you as well!

Trucker_buzz: Trucker was actually the first person we met at PAX at our departure gate in St Paul! We continued to run into him over and over throughout the week and it was always enjoyable company.

Curley: I was really just starting to get to know Curley through Drawful just before this adventure and I was so happy to see him Saturday night! We didn’t spend nearly enough time together, but what a warm, friendly individual!

KookiesAreYum: Kookies came on our Best Buy run from hell and helped keep me from snapping inside the store :P Thank you for all your assistance, and a pleasure to meet you!

RomComm: Thanks for continually reminding me that I got you killed in Earthdawn… ☹ Hehe. It was a great pleasure to meet RomComm and run around the show floor with him. I’m going to have to make an effort to drop in on him in situations where I cannot cause his demise.

Zee: I actually spent a bunch of time with Zee at Prime, and for some reason this was an entirely different experience. I think both of us changed a little since then, and it was an absolute delight. Zee gives the best hugs.

Travelyan: Trav is always a blast to hang out with, though for some reason shit always seems to be happening to him ☹ Thank you for all your work on the audio setup and sorry it was such a nightmare situation for production. Let’s have a happy gathering some time!

SeriouslyClara: OMG Clara made me the cutest balloon ever. What a sweetie!

Tenchi: Tenchi is always so happy to see everyone and so pleasant, and for some reason we just fail to strike up a really solid conversation. He is a lovely gentleman and I really hope we can hit a solid topic

Avalonstar: Bryan wasn’t even present, and that was a complete shame. He tried so hard to help with the podcast by texting us to let us know what was on his end, and no one was responding because we had so little signal D: He was the single most missed person at PAX, I’m going to bearhug the shit out of him at East.

Jooygirl: I have no shame in saying I saved the best for last. Jooy is even more fantastic in person than online, if you can imagine that. Her random silliness is always a delight, but beneath it is an intelligent, calculating and business-like mind that simply blew me away. I feel guilty for how much time I got to spend with her and honored by the layers of depth I started to get glimpses of. And she put up with me for the whole weekend! Needy person that I am, that is worth a lot. Joey, thank you for being the highlight of my trip.