It was really a blast! I know a lot of you have thanked me and Ab, but honestly, it wasn't that much work on my part. Ab did a lot of work puting together the rules and the registration process. I would say the hardest things I did were finding a venue and lots of recruiting to try to get to 21 players. If those of you in the Midwest or South or West have 2-3 people willing to dvide up the tasks, you can easily put one of these together.
One reason the workload was light was because we really have a fantastic caliber of people on this website. I didnt know what to expect, having never met so many people via internet before. I expected to have to do a lot more clean-up for example, but it was so impressive to see everyone pitch in. Everyone pitched in, it was truly amazing. At one point, I was trying to microwave some pizza and I was losing as Italy anyway, so I put my orders in the box and said whoever needs to diplome with me, come in the kitchen. An FTFer (I think he was bitter because we took him out early) stated that once my order was in the box, I couldnt take it out. IMHO that was a stupid rule, because I was just trying to get lunch ready for everyone, and there was no timer in the kitchen to see when the dealine was. Anyway about 5 minutes later, someone (not an ally) came into the kitchen to tell me that I would be allowed to change my orders before the deadline after all. That was the kind of looking out for each other that everyone in our community did. What a great community! Even Babak , immediately after his solo, instead of gloating or celebrating, ran around cleaning up dishes and putting food away.
I know I am rambling, but one more funny story: After everyone left, I waited 15 minutes for the security guard to return. Not sure why I waited, but I'm glad I did. On duty was Flaming Gay George. He informed me that he had to inspect the room and asked me if we had taken out the trash (no we hadnt) so he came up with me and helped me take out the trash and the recycling. He 's a very nice guy but I did have to listen to about 20 minutes of stories about the Gay Pride parade the day before and how Jewish families in Beverly had to send their kids to Catholic schools in the 1970s to escape anti-semitism, and lots of other George stories.
Altogether a fabulous weekend-I am so glad we did it-So glad I met all of you-Am definitely looking forward to meeting and playing you again next year in Boston or wherever-and I hope the randomizer works next year so I can play all the people I missed playing this year
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Anyone fancy a game?
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