The next morning at 8:30 in the AM we got some cereal and some juice at the little store in the time share my sis and bro had acquired a few years ago which was where we were staying, and had breakfast. Knock-off frosted wheat squares and I had a rum and juice mixed drink. Now I’m not necessarily a heavy drinker, I’m much more of the hemp kinda guy, but after reading a forum on the fan faire and the posts indicating the amount of booze that seemed to flow through these things I was takin it to the limit. In retrospect, I was a light weight compared to some and a little more intense in comparison to others. So with a slight gurgle in my gullet, a pack a cigars in the pocket (which since I was on a slight hiatus from my imbibitions of choice there was no other smokable) we drove over to the Rio where the faire was held. And to be honest I take my hat off to the people of Las Vegas that can stand the heat that they have to live in out there in that weird desert adult play land. But I don’t take it off for long, my head would burn.
So now for those of you out there that have never been to Las Vegas, it’s a bizarre place. The heat would kill if it wasn’t for the gigantic turbine like coolant towers that feed these casinos allow for an artic cool within the opaque glass of their doors. So being a total complete and utter Californian (I packed nothing but tie-dyes, yes that was me) it took a few minutes to acclimate from the outside temperatures to the inside temperatures. And then the stench of barely hidden and cleansed from the air of stale smoke, even with a cigar in hand, is almost too much to bear. But we made it to where the line began for the check in and since we had already both paid way early, it was an uneventful wait. The guy behind us had been at the start, of all things, of the cannonball run. Now being sports retarded, self imposed of course, I was amazed that the run was an actual race let alone an allowed in the US. He told us that it had been many years since the race had been held in the US and it had just got back from Europe where the laws on speed in a car, and most all else, was less stringent. We saw pictures and some cell phone mini videos of some of the cars taking off, rolling over the asphalt “donuts” left there by the arrivals the night before. One of the SOE event staff (as the faire progressed I would find there was many of them) came over and asked what our character names were, took them down, and others were busily behind the counter getting the badges ready for the faire participants. Everyone in line was courteous and not at all pushy or obnoxious so it was a gentle wait. The people in front of us were talking, quite animatedly I might add, about SWG and the ways for space combat and what the PVP and PVE states were and how they worked them to their advantage. Was interesting for me being a primarily fantasy RPGer and being there for EQ2, but not enough to actually play it. So after the SWG fest-o-info we moved along in the line, not unlike cattle to a slaughter house, and got our badges. Yes. We needed stinking badges. Then off to the swag (I still feel it should be pronounced shwag, yet my bruthah said nonononono..swag is swag. And to truly give him credit, he let me know what the hell swag means…Stuff We All Get. At least that was his angle and it seemed a good one) counter for a shirt and some stuff. As we were waiting at the swag counter, one guy was trying to get us to grab the paper bags with the Station logo on it while the other guy was trying to figure out whether we had all the swag(shwag) or not. Needless to say, I waited till the crisis was abated. So with all our stuff in tow, in bag, and swagged up, we unleashed ourselves into the official 2007 SOE fan faire.
