Guest Post by “Amp 2-11”
It’s 11:30 am. I’m up early (stoopid daylight savings!) and waiting for my friends to arrive for our epic road trip to BLIZZCON.
The celebration of all things Blizzard, celebrated maker of wondrous games such as the Warcraft and Diablo series, will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center again this year and the streets will once more be lined with little girls in Minnie Mouse ears on one side and gamers dressed as various demons, death dealers and succubi on the other (ah, the succubi *stares wistfully into memory lane* but that is a tale for another day).
Tickets for this blessed event sell out within seconds every year. Only to appear on Ebay a seconds after that. Every year our attempts to buy tickets have been denied. But this time Fate’s smiling face turned our way and we were able to squeeze into the purchase queue during those opening frenzied seconds. And to Anaheim we go!
There are lots of reasons November is a great time to be in Anaheim, but the main three are:
A) The aforementioned Minnie Mouse girls are at a minimum since they are in school.
B) It is still warm enough to go surfing, as vs Utah, which is cold. I do not like cold, it makes me break out in Parka’s and thick socks.
C) The succubi.
I have to confess, despite their time honored tradition and standing within American culture, I do not like road trips. Being crammed in a car for twelve hours is a hell to me second only wearing winter clothes (Hey, my family is from Hawaii. If I can’t wear shorts and sandals it’s too cold!) But it’s a great chance catch up with my friends who I haven’t seen in a while. And eat far too much junk food and get crumbs all over the backseat of my friend’s car. It’s how I roll. Don’t judge me.
Things go smoothly. We stop for copiously greasy food just outside of Vegas. I generously give $20 to the Las Vegas Charity donation box cleverly disguised as a slot machine with pictures of The Big Bang Theory cast on it. (God bless you, Charity!)
As we near the San Bernadino county line my friend Jace, who is driving, announces she is tired. By this time the sun has gone down, which means I’m starting to wake up, so I take over the wheel. We are waved through the agricultural inspection point without so much as a glance (I smuggled in an apple, yo. Your economy is wrekt! Oh, wait, your economy is already wrecked…)
Immediately I am being tailgated. I pull to the slow lane. They follow. I pass around a Semi. The tailgater follows. I’m trying to figure out why this car is so intent on driving at an unsafe following distance when the red and blue lights whirr on. Crap, maybe they spotted the apple…
“I suppose you wondering why I pulled you over?” CHP are wondrous conversationalists.
I suppress a slew of smart ass remarks. Sometimes my filter actually works.
The officer continues without pause, “There’s a little thing covering the W on your license plate.”
And yet you knew it was a W. Welcome to California.
With democracy safe for another day and a grudging “Thank you, officer” we are on our merry way again.
We arrive in Anaheim and check into a hotel suite that is bigger than my house. I kid you not. Jace works in hotel management and got us the hook up. Yeah, I love my friends.
It’s 1 in the morning. I’m ready to hit the town. So what if it’s a Wed night? Sadly my friends are tired and decide to crash out. Day dwellers…
So it looks like I’m hitting the Anaheim night life solo. Maybe I’ll find that succubus…
Guardian of all things LOUD! Defender of everything with blinky lights! Champion of full frontal nerdy! Zombie by day, Rockstar by night (blatant plug: www.eyesopenmusic.com) AMP 2-11 loves taco carts, anything featuring David Grohl and long walks on the beach.