digitaldiscipline ◾ ◾ Finally Recapping

Thursday:

Got off to an auspicious start by doing laundry and K's getting a phone call from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, followed by possibly the easiest travel day I've ever had - five minutes late off the tarmac and ten minutes early to the teminal for both legs, followed by a quick luggage retrieval and relatively uneventful ride on the El [including some tourist asking -us- where the library was, and a local being helpful as far as saying "The lake is thataway," since

mpeace's directions for us were -compass- directions ("Go south a block, then turn east," as opposed to "Make a left on [street name]. heh. . . gotta love the subtle differences between Yankee and Southern direction-giving).

Before we even made it to the front desk to get our keys to the

suite_of_doom, I was tacklehugged and threatened with a shot-chess match by

rat_bastard and

lil_m_moses had dared me to guess her bra size {FTR: I was correct on the overall dimensions, but one size off in getting there]. Ahh, I do love this flavor of freaks.

So, off to the SoD, to finally meet

mpeace and her hubby, Alan, in person. Much hugging (and drinking) ensued, and dinner plans were made to get outside of some dead cow with

baobh,

jlasher, and

fross. "Follow that cab!" was said with all sincerity, and we were pleasantly situated in a side dining area, walled off from the main floor, and given some truly outstanding service [and terrific food] by the good people at The Weber Grill, who went so far as to re-concoct a multi-layered pitcher of boozy goodness that M & A had had there two years ago. . . between three pitchers of that, a couple of appletinis, and some damn fine flesh, we were all in good spirits, whereupon we headed back to the SoD for the first of many nights of hanging out and being generally social until losing consciousness.

Friday

Behold, the Chicago Carry Out, purveyors of fine, inexpensive comestibles. More lobby lurking prior to the meet & greet, with the requisite boozing (of course).

ladysoleil,

gavinsca and

maggledy were enveloped into the SoD fold, as were Keith & Kendra,

hellsop and

geekers, among others. I was taught the fine art of "diving one's shit" by the inestimable

the_macross and performed the requisite enthusiastic tacklehug of

cavalorn and a more sedate ass-grabbing of

lucybond, including finally meeting the oft-mentioned

roaster as well as catching up with and mildly sexually assaulting most everyone within earshot before being collared by

the_macross for an impromptu contribution to the Newbies' Introduction seminar before resuming the serious drinking.

I think most of the aforementioned folks, including

tylorael, eventually headed out for sushi before returning to the SoD for still more boozing. (Look,

mpeace laid in a shitload of booze to stock the SoD's wet bar, we were obligated, duty-bound, and expected to try and drink all of it, so assume any references to the SoD include at least one round for all participants. ;-D)

Our first sojourn on the Goth Bus took us to the Metro, where we met up with Gavin, Maggie, Keith & Kendra, who were already there. I had an attack of fatigue and a wickedly sore throat, so I mostly stood around and tried to steer clear of the smog machine output - I have no idea who was playing while we were there, but did have a nice conversation with

nyte, who earned a hug for providing me with some much-needed cough drops before I turned into a pumpkin and we headed back to the SoD for some cooldown chat and libations before snoozing.

Saturday

Other than the omission of the Meet & Greet, this was a lot like Friday, with a minor mission of mercy on behalf of

lucybond to procure some fruit juice while I laid in my own stock of lozenges, and being recruited by

maggledy to help set up her area for the vendor's bazaar, followed by a brief perusal of the various tawdry wares being hawked by the folks there, and being asked to render "boyfriend opinion" on some prospective purchases by

aishlynn before resuming bartending duty in the SoD, where the secret recipe for the Jedi Mind Fuck, and the concocting thereof, was recorded for posterity, and a brief sojourn downstairs, where I happened to run into Laura K from the C9 committee shortly after chatting up

trystbat and copping the obligatory butt-grab (I was admiring the fruits of her jogging regimen! Really! *cough*], and making Laura's weekend by serenading her with Melissa Etheridge, which promptly was christened her highlight of the weekend (prematurely, if you ask me, but I'll take whatever credit I can get. ;-)

"SoD is Room 830? I'm in 1030, you can take the fire escape up."
"I'll just knock and sing. . . Come to my window. . . (etc, etc)."

Back upstairs for more bartending, drinking, dancing, drunken Yoga, and lesbian threesomes!

[Just making sure everyone's paying attention. . . the lesbian threesomes weren't until Sunday.]

The aforementioned horde wandered off in search of food, our nominal goal being Arby's for fast food roast beef, but finding the purveyors of dead flesh to be offline, we tromped around the corner to an upscale pizzeria, where some superb pie was to be had, along with one of the best onions ever [and that isn't just the booze talking]. Meat, cheese, and carbs were consumed in giddy abundance before we toddled back to suit up for the Metro.

Unfortunately for me, some combination of food and drink had a bitter disagreement once subjected to close proximity, so my evening was cut short after a brief stint at the club. Drat. I apparently managed to sleep through some residual SoD festivities. . . behold, the power of exhaustion!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

More inexpensive CCO grazing for breakfast with the usual suspects, a bit of walkabout looking for additonal mixers with

gavinsca and Alan (we somehow managed to misplace

axissilverhand between the diner and the poorly-directioned "convenience" store we ended up buying soft drinks, chips, and dip from). The day was spent relaxing and socializing over the expected litany of alcoholic goodness and lesbian threesomes, culminating with a subset of the SoD heading down to commandeer the hotel bar's big-screen TV to watch the Sharks-Flames game [Yours Truly and

angldst in full hockeygoth regalia]; unfortnately, time constraints as far as getting to the

corpgoth dinner meant we missed

trysbat joining us. Dammit.

After taking over an entire El car on the way to Wrigley Field for the CG dinner, the three-block walk featured the one and only major negative of the entire weekend. Some incoherent local pigfucker [I will abstain from using the N-word here out of respect for more sensitive viewers] saw fit to accost, oh, FORTY of us as being minions of Satan, etc, etc, and basically interposed himself among us, so as best to make a complete threatening ass of himself. This went on for maybe a minute before The Men of Corpgoth, spearheaded by

hellsop invaded his personal space and let it be clearly known that his presence was unwanted, at which point, one of this bozo's buddies ran across the street and rescued him from his own stupidity. Let it be widely known that a dozen dudes whose lady friends are being harassed, even if we're in Nice Boots and eyeliner, make an impressive show of force when need be. Peter, Winter, Axis, Dragon, BillyName, et al. . . yeah, we are the Brute Squad when called upon.

Dinner was lovely, if crowded, and meteorological pyrotechnics outside made it entertaining to gaze out the windows. Lady K deserves much adulation for organizing this so smoothly, and the venue managed to shoe-horn 65 hungrty goths (and one baby) into a space declared fire-safe for 51 without it seeming anything more than companionably filled.

We adjourned to the Metro after settling up, whereupon the SoD minions decided to head back to the SoD and skip the fashion show [

aishlynn played the Savior role to

angldst and shepherded her back via taxi to get her back in time for the fashion show], and once we'd all settled in for "goths in comfy clothes" party, which lasted until dawn, and truly earned the SoD its moniker.

Monday

More CCO (twice!), including finally hanging out with the lovely and affectionate

ashbet before saying our goodbyes and narrowly making our flight home. We arrived exhausted but thrilled, and it's about fucking time K got to meet all of you lovely people, and vice versa.