29 Hours

This weekend was quite the action packed adventure. I haven’t been so occupied in some time. It was very fun. Let’s go over some details, shall we?

Friday, July 23, 2004: Sarah McLachlan puts on a show at the Frank Erwin Center. I bought tickets in January as a Valentines present to my wife. She had a blast, I enjoyed the concert and we made an evening of it. This was a very awesome show. And just when you thought the 2nd encore would truly be the end of it, she comes out for yet another two songs. What a show-woman. Brilliant. After the show, we had planned to go to Reed’s Jazz Bar for some relaxing drinks and sounds. The place was a mad house of activity. Very busy. Too much for us, we decided, instead, to head to Amy’s Ice Cream. I got the Chewbacca - a combination of Gummi Bears®, Chocolate ice cream and Grape Nuts®. My wife got The Circus. Mexican vanilla, M&Ms and something else I can’t remember. Mexican Vanilla is very good. While we were there, they were redoing their chalkboard menu. As we arrived shortly after 12 (and with only an hour before closing), the Amy’s employees were very "punch-drunk" and silly. We got to having humorous exchanges and before you knew it, I was behind the counter writing one of the flavors on the chalkboard. I got to do Guiness Lime Ice. It also turns out that one of them is a student at Southwestern University at Georgetown. I told her I designed the logo for her school and she told me she liked it very much as well as being excited to be meeting the guy who designed it. We come home to a letter from the Texas State Board of Public Accountacy. My wife qualifies to sit for the CPA. This is a task that is not easy to accomplish, let alone actually taking the exam.

Saturday, July 24, 2004: Based on the fullness of the prior evening, my wife generously lets me sleep in. I am the luckiest married man out there. My wife has many papers due for her school studies, thus she will be indisposed for the majority, if not all, of the weekend. I use this time to play a -little- FFXI (eventually the largest understatement of my life thus far). There is an event going on in the game (SummerFest) and with that, comes prizes. I log on to play at approximately 11AM. My character is in a hell hole on the opposite side of the world from where I want to be. I catch a ship back "home" and begin participating in the global event. I get my prizes. I do some quests. I make some items. I do this for the majority of the day. I decide to go back to the very place I am beginning to loathe as it is one of the few that holds opportunity to actually level my character. My character is currently halfway through level 27. I get there at God knows what late hour on the 24th. I sit for what seems like forever for a party invitation. Eventually, 3 of us decide to form a minor party of our own to take on lesser monsters in a nearby area. We do this for an hour or so when we tire of the low rate of experience points gained. I have been playing for over 12 hours, but, oddly do not feel tired. Once again, I am in search of a complete party invite. My companions get parties soon enough and I am left to my own devices. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour, the countless hours already on the game, or whatever, but I was in a very humorous mood. I was making everyone "LOL" with my creative /shouts for a party invite. Eventually, a group had an opening. The night was now beginning — at approximately 4 in the morning.

Sunday, July 25, 2004: I have been in the same party for many hours now. This group is very good and we are getting experience points at a phenomenal rate. Faster than I have ever before. For one reason or another, I forget how, leadership of the party gets changed to me. I take the reigns and also take it upon myself to maintain the dynamic that the party started with. I am successful in my campaign for experience points and good party dynamics. My party becomes the most sought after group in the area. People are literally lining up waiting for an opening in my party so they may join. My party sees the "Level-Up" of over 15 different players. I am ashamed I do not remember all their names. I will however mention Zenia and Illdin — the Mages that were integral in making my party -THE- best in the area. I, alone, leveled not once, but 3 times, becoming level 30 by the end of my run. At this level in the game, I should have been leveling faster, but I was pleased with the progress. I maintained the party (hiring members as needed) for over 12 hours. When it came time for me to relinquish leadership and step out of the party, I had to contend with 6 private messages (/tells) of people requesting inclusion in the party for which had made quite the name for itself. I ended my playing a little after 5PM. 29 straight hours. Not one complaint from the missus. You should be so lucky to have a wife as mine.

In celebration of getting level 30 and because the Taru Dance is the #1 (and ever evolving) /em on FFXI — Tötley Crüe’s Primal Scream!