Most of you know something about my gaming habits and that for two years, I've been part of a highly successful guild in World Of Warcraft. The game is set up so that you need other players to tackle the biggest challenges, so people organize into guilds that help each other out and regularly play with each other. Guilds serve as centers of social activity too, and over these two years I've gotten to know many people both in and outside of the game. I guess it's significant to point out that these people are actually worth getting to know. We pride ourselves at being a mature, inclusive guild, so there aren't a bunch of annoying kids running around with us yelling 'Time 2 pwn sum N00bsauce!!lol!!!' Most people have families and successful jobs and are fun to talk to online. We have IT technicians, soldiers, biologists, radio DJs, college professors, hippies, heavy metal bassists and yes, a few nerds.

I actually stopped playing about three months ago, but a friend from the game, Fualruna as I know her, invited me to the guild field trip that our leaders Alcander and Izellah had been planning. So last Thursday, I flew to Chicago to meet my guild, explore the City, party, ride the roller coasters at Six Flags and party some more. About 23 people came out from every corner of the country, as well as Canada.

I had a stellar few days. A full account would take pages and pages, so here's a few highlights:

-Exploring the Art Institute with Alruna and Fualruna on Friday. I got some serious culture while getting to know two of the coolest people in the guild. We spent most of the day, just the three of us, adding in a few folks as the day went on.
-Partying late into the next morning with Brennie and Krelian. When I finally left their hotel room around 3:30 in the morning (well blazed after having watched 'Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny'), I pushed aside the towel that we had used to cover the bottom of the door and opened it up to step into the hall. At that very moment, a cop walked by, looked at me, looked at the towel, looked at me, and kept walking. Boy did that ruin my buzz.
-Got help from Luchilla to survive the first roller coaster. I hadn't been on one in over ten years and I'm terrified of heights. She was a pro. The first one had me petrified and clutching the arm bars, the second had me howling in delight, by the third I couldn't wait to hit them all.
-Spontaneous swing dances with Jandiel throughout the day. She cuts a mean rug, can belly dance and pretty much anything else she sets her mind to.
-Guild free-for-all deathmatch with the bumper cars. "Eat it Wulfin! Oh shit Fualruna, you're going down, bitch!You like that Alvaro! Suck it! Suck it hard!"
-Hitting the vodka HARD before heading out to some of the finest pizza I've ever had.
-Returning to said vodka as soon as we got back.
-Belly dance lessons from Icewing. As an aside: I think I heard more country music in two days than I've heard in two years. And what's sad is that I was drunk enough, that not only did I not mind it, I started dancing to it thanks to an impromptu lesson from a random guy at the bar.
-Realizing that Aphyd is so drunk that not only will he not notice if Fualruna and I steal his last drink that he just ordered, but we'll be doing him a favor.
-Literally freebasing tequila with Alcander. No joke, no exaggeration. He set the bar on fire more than once. I'd be happy to explain how to perform this feat, but you have to promise you won't try it at home. That shit will fuck you up.
-Taking over the jukebox for more dancing with Jandiel, Izellah, Fualruna and anyone else that happened to wander by.

The not so highlight:
-Getting lost with Aphyd on the way to the airport and missing our flight, all while horribly hungover. But it was all worth is because I had such a great time getting to know such cool people.

And finally, go check out my new photo album with a bunch of my pictures from the trip. A lot of them are of Alruna and Fualruna because I spent most of Friday with just them (plus Aphyd later in the day) and a good portion of Saturday sticking close together.