Chess & Games alum reunion

[kyrielle]

Glee, glee, glee, glee. This was a blast. We hung out at the hotel, laughed at the definition of 'suite' (don't ask), said "I AM--" a lot, threatened each other with spoons, played games, and went to Perkins.

It was so, so good to see people again. Several people I haven't seen in a decade (give or take a couple years, depending on the person). I'm not sure exactly how many we were, but more than 15 and I believe less than 20. I could go check emails, but I'm lazy.

There was a game of salad bowl, which once I figured out what we were doing, was quite fun. (You write names, fictional or otherwise, on slips of paper, draw them out, say clues, and your team tries to guess who it is.) There were seven copies of Spartacus in there. (Six of them from one person, due to confusion - most of us heard only a subset of the rules because in between listening to them, we were chattering with new arrivals and each other, or listening to the wrong conversational stream to catch the rules. It worked, though!)

There were many other games, many running simultaneously. Things that I remember for sure were played: a game involving mirrors and lasers that I missed the name of (a pity; it looked fun! - terram, do you remember it?), Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, RoboRally, a partial run of Faysylwood (it was aborted for a shopping run and not resumed, but it was fun while we played it), Castle of Magic, Hearts, Spades, both previous games double-deck both with negation and without negation, Ninja Burger (which looked surprisingly fun and playable from where I was observing), Talisman, I think the Phase 10 dice came out, MyWord, Unspeakable Words (I must get this!).... I am fairly confident I'm forgetting an easy half a dozen games here. [Edit: how could I forget The Great Dalmuti, for pity's sake?? Edit 2: Credo, Aliens....]

The food was hysterical. We (read, some of the local folks) laid in soda, water, some alcohol, a whole lotta candy and chips, some fruit, some granola bars and muffin bars, trail mix, and (once again) quite a few things I've forgotten. It was an impressive set of snacks. Not healthy (for the most part - a few things were!), but impressive.

The most important thing, was the people. Reconnecting with friends I haven't seen since I (or they) left Cornell, or in other cases, have seen since but not in years - it was GREAT. I missed many people who were not able to make it (for various reasons including a fairly short planning cycle - we're looking at doing it again in a few years, only with more planning and thus more forewarning and thus hopefully more people!). But I was so, SO glad to see the ones who DID. And I got to meet a few people whom I have known only as names (or not at all) until now.

I knew most of the people. Some were new, and one I apparently should have met once or twice but didn't recall her. I'm bad with faces at the best of times, so ... oops. But someone said it very well: even with the people you don't know, coming back to this group is very much like coming back to family. It has its own culture and feel, and...yes. This weekend, I was with friends as close as family. Not all of them, but some of them. And we had a blast.

I know it was a good weekend, because I did not want it to end when it did. I'm glad to be home. I'm glad to see Babe again and I'm glad to have my own kitchen and thus my standard food choices, because I am really a patterned and predictable person. But I wouldn't have minded putting this off a little for more of the same, if it had been reasonably possible.

I had a great time; I hope everyone else did, too.

Comments

[nix-guru.livejournal.com]

SPARTICUS!!!!!!!!!!!

[davedujour.livejournal.com]

Khet was the laser game.

[kyrielle]

Thank you!