Howdy hey! Made it back to Big D a few minutes before 4 a.m., not too bad considering what time I lit out... Wish I coulda stayed! (Especially with the day
I had at my "flagship" store... Sheesh. Three words, folks:
Yu-Gi-Oh! Nazi basterds.
Here, then, is
MY "take" on yesterday's Day One of the First
Very Nearly Annual
Fantasy Moguls Reunion:
What y'all gotta realize is, being in retail, and having four stores "under" me, my schedule's pretty much always in the air. I remember a stretch this past Summer, as the economy tanked and I dealt with seemingly interminable staffing issues, when I worked for 44 days
straight. (And very nearly lost my mind, or what remained of my mind, or that greying, congealed tapioca stuffed into my ears that occasionally
stands in for my mind. Whatever.) We had significant events scheduled at my store all this weekend, so there was no guarantee I'd be able to take off, even for 12 hours or so, down to Austin to meet
Shrykey as he made his first (required) pilgrimage to our Austin, capital of our state and Lone Star Holy Land, our very own Tex-Mecca. (Like that?) [Grin]
So I set about reducing expectations, 'cause the only thing
worse than telling my great good friend
the Shrykester that I
COULDN'T come down for the day, would be telling him I
WAS, and then not being able to. But, beginning last weeked,
Spannaus and I began secret negotiations in the event I
could come down and surprise 'im, first in the "old"
TFR Chat Room -- in my very
first, and now most likely
last, use of the thing! -- and then in E-mails. Even Thursday night, I wasn't sure I'd be able to pull this off -- I had a staff meeting at one of the stores first thing Friday -- but I was on the road by ten in the a.m., and
ALMOST managed to spring the trap on
Shrykey and
Spannaus at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, perhaps the only commerical aviation hub in the United States where shoes are optional, but hookahs are mandatory. Well, almost.
My GPS, as part of SkyNet's master plan for world domination, did its level best to kill me, but I managed -- after some highly covert phone calls to
Spannaus -- to find his house all right, and was standing at the top of the stairs when he, his lovely significant other, and
Shryke arrived. Man, you shoulda seen the look on
Shrykey's face! I was standing there holding a sign reading, "BOB BAGGINOTON, a.k.a. '
SHRYKEY'" (the 'Bagginoton' thing goes
waaay back to one of his first articles at
FM), and dude's reading it, trying to figure out if I'm a wayward limo driver, or a stalker, or merely yet another random Hill Country vagrant, but with exceptionally particular panhandling criteria. He scrunches up his face into this incredulous expression, squeaks out a hesitant, "...
Nico?" and, well, the Reunion was in full swing!
I have to interject here and say:
Spannaus and his mate are INCREDIBLE hosts, with exceptional taste in books and movies, and two of the coolest cats I've ever met (matter of fact, that goes for the two human residents of the flat, as well). After sitting around shooting the breeze for a time, catching up and talking about all the neato burrito things that are happening 'round these here parts, we grabbed lunch at a hip Austin sammich shop with a kickass club sandwich and personnel right out of the Mos Eisley Cantina, then listened to records --
RECORDS!!! [swoon] -- for a bit before heading on over to County Line, one of the very best Bar-B-Que restaurants in this state or any other, where we saw a fantastic sunset overlooking the nation's -- er, state -- capital city, listened to three chords played in an unending tapestry of bass bodaciosity, stuffed our faces full of onion rings and pepper jack cheese puffs and brisket and ribs and sausage, and met the lovely and talented
Alyson, fellow Fantaversian, and Ashley, one of
Shrykey's former colleagues, who teaches improv comedy in Austin and is a comedienne herself. After several attempts to have a group picture taken, we headed on over to the Alamo Drafthouse South, perhaps the coolest movie theater ever, for
Paranormal Activity -- one of the scariest films I've seen since
The Ring. A handful of t-shirts, some screams and laughs later, I called it a night -- too soon, much too soon, but I had miles and miles to go -- 204, exactly, according to my mass-murdering GPS -- before
I slept -- and that was about it for yours truly!
Can't wait to see the pics!
Aly, Nico, and Spannaus (l.-r.) at the First Very Nearly Annual Fantasy Moguls Reunion!
P.S. Congratulations to Ashley! Woo hoo!
E.T.A.: Dude.
Spannaus, you
TOTALLY should have fucked with
Shrykey,
Paranormal-style. [Grin]