PAX / EBF

For those who don't know, PAX East is a weekend-long conference started by gamers for gamers.  It stands for the Penny Arcade Expo, Penny Arcade being a nerd-centric comic online whose two writers decided to start the expo.  It started in Seattle, but demand grew and now the one started in Boston actually draws more participants.  All kinds of nerds go there, gamers, music addicts, comic addicts, tech geeks, etc. and the atmosphere is just incredibly friendly and accepting because everyone knows they probably have something in common with almost everyone else there.  Tickets are surprisingly cheap for all 3 days (only $55!) so I tend to tag along with Anthony, to keep him company but also because I even find some of the stuff there intriguing.  I also like the concerts on Friday and Saturday nights, so that alone is worth the price of admission.

This year, it started Thursday night with an organized pub crawl/ scavenger hunt/ challenge-based activity for PAXers to come out and get to know fellow participants.  There were four teams of 100, and each challenge was based on you finding an opposing teammate and learning something about them.  I was a little intimidated about going, but everyone is so friendly, we had an absolute blast and made a ton of friends!  Most were from out of town, sadly, but it was still fun to hang out with them for a few days.

Friday I worked a little, then scooted down to the conference where I sat in some panels with Anthony, went out for dinner with some friends, then came back for the concert.  We were most excited about the headlining artist who normally plays last, but he came on earlier this year so we missed a good portion of his act because we were still at dinner.  Sad.  But at least we were headed home by around midnight!

Saturday started with Anthony and his best friend from high school heading into Boston for the annual Extreme Beerfest (which sadly was on the same weekend as PAX this year, boo!).  As I do not like beer, I dropped them off then headed to the PAX area and grabbed some food and drink in a nearby pub.  It was completely full of PAXers, and my admission badge gave me away, so it was easy to make some new friends and I had a blast just chatting the afternoon away.  When Anthony came back, we hung out some more, then headed to the concert at the starting time, since we were interested in all the acts.  The concert was hilarious but started at 8:30 and did not end until 2, so I was aching from standing that long, and very dehydrated and hungry.  Unfortunately, DST was also that night, so we did not hit the road until 3:30 technically, and we stopped at a gas station to get some grub on the way home.  We did not collapse in bed until around 5, and I thought I was going to pass out.  Long day!!!

We slept in a little (but not enough) on Sunday, then went out to brunch as the last hurrah with Anthony's visiting friend.  Once we had dropped him at the airport, we headed back to the Expo Hall to play some game demos they had available.  By the end of that, we were drop-dead tired, hungry, and so very dehydrated, so we popped out to a nearby pub to fix the last 2 problems, then headed home and fell into bed.

It was a very jam-packed, fun, exciting weekend, and I'm so very glad I went with Anthony again this year.  We hit it off with several people we met, and it was very sad to see that come to an end.  The ones we liked best all flew back to their home towns, and it's a bit startling to come back to reality now, with work and our old/ normal/ year-round friends :)  I really do wish Anthony had some more gaming friends in this area, because I know the adjustment back to reality always leaves him with a slightly bittersweet aftertaste, being around and exposed to so many games/ gamers but not having that much in his day-to-day life.  Alas!  Back to the daily grind!