Zub Tales

Back from Atlanta last night and I woke up this morning very tired, but good. This trip wasn’t as work intensive as the other conventions I went to, so it made for a good wrap up to the summer season. Instead of a hotel, I stayed with friends… instead of taxis, I got picked up at the airport. It was a nice change of pace.

Atlanta was a pretty neat city. Winding roads made it hard to gauge where things were in relation to each other and even after 4 days there, I have no idea how the city is laid out.

After Brian Glass picked me up, we swung by the White Wolf offices. It was odd seeing all the little cubicles decked out with RPG stuff, toys and in-jokes. Everyone Brian introduced me to was really nice, and seeing familiar faces of staff I’d met at Origins and Gen Con amongst the mix was cool too. The studio library is decked out with copies of pretty much everything White Wolf has done, which was pretty amazing. Some shelves have foreign translated versions of the White Wolf lines, in German, Spanish and even Japanese. But if the offices had an impressive amount of gaming books, the warehouse behind the office space was even more dizzying. Palettes stacked high with hard covers and plastic bins filled with packs of cards. It gave me a little peek at how the system works and reminded me that I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing.

Dragon Con itself was spread over several areas at several hotels. In turn, I’m pretty sure that I didn’t see big chunks of it, but I didn’t really feel like I’d missed anything anyways. I helped out White Wolf at their booth area, answering questions about products or ringing in items as they were sold. It wasn’t difficult, and the people working at the booth filled the lull moments with wacky antics or conversation. A flat screen TV they set up had a continuous loop of videos showing products and video games based on the White Wolf properties, which were neat…but after 20+ times of hearing them, we couldn’t help but parrot along with it all in overly dramatic voices.

Thursday night we hit an 80’s club called “The Masquerade” (honest, that’s the name of the place). It was a funky club and the music they played was a good mix of cheesy 80’s goodness. Staying out until 5am at a diner after the club closed, I chatted with friends at the company and indulged Mike Tinney’s sales pitch on “grits”, choking back a few spoonfuls of the drippy stuff.

Friday night was a laid back barbeque at Fred’s new house, where we were staying. We ate, drank and relaxed…I was surprised when my head hit the pillow before midnight and I conked out like a light.

Saturday night Brian and I dressed in zoot suits, mine even more bizarre looking because it was Brian’s and fit way too big on me. We went out for a delightful sushi dinner with a bunch of the staff and friends, chatting and drinking sake. Afterwards, we went to a gothic club called “The Chamber”, that was large and pretentious, but amusing in an aloof sort of way. Vampire wannabe’s and ladies in leather pranced around while we lounged about and danced a bit. The music was pretty good and the scenery was entertaining…not necessarily a place I’d go very often, but worth seeing nonetheless.

Sunday night was spent at a restaurant/bar called the Vortex, where White Wolf has bought several kegs for all out consumption. Lots of good food and beer kept all of us busy and I was surprised how minimal my hang over was the next morning when I got ready to leave.

When it all wrapped up, several people invited me back any time and told me to bring Gal next time so they could meet her. It was really nice, a little more calm then the whirlwind that the rest of the summer’s been.

My schedule is currently almost sane, but several big projects on the horizon could throw it into overdrive all over again. Gala has her University orientation this week and my cousin Lisa’s already moved out and getting settled in to McMaster. The start of school always feels odd now that I’m working, no matter how many years I’m separated from it. The fact that I’m working from home to boot makes it even stranger. I can’t complain, it just feels weird.

Anyways, all is good. I need more sleep and I have a bunch of e-mails to catch up on, but the adventure continues.