The next day we woke, somewhat groggily, and made our way down to the fan faire. We wandered around a bit, checking out the stuff they were selling and all, talked to a few of the reps from the online games like burning seas and had lunch with the live event crew. The day being Saturday we, my bruthah and I, spent most of the day playing penny slots and rum and cokes (though bruthah man had switched to Newcastle by now and was doing quite nicely) and jumping between the fan faire and the Rio’s shows. The real festivities started at the “banquet” later on. Now when I think of a banquet I think of food , good food, prepared by guys and gals in semi funny hats kinda perched on their heads with the main funny hat guy, probably foreign and holding onto the accent for all he/she’s worth, putting little strange designs in chocolate and saying things like “now she is DONE!”. But not SoE. Our banquet, our great feast from a mega company like them was hotdogs and hamburgers. Now I will admit the hotdogs were John Holmes specials in length and the hamburgers were quite tall, I was there for a banquet not a bar-be-que. Yet the greatest part of that whole night was the wedding of two people at the actual fan faire dressed in period renaissance faire kinda garb. They did their vows in front of everyone and then got married in game with their toons. Now the cat calls and jibes at anything and everything that were flying around the pace before this was, at least in my mind, deserved and somewhat expected. The entire fan faire had a tongue and cheek kinda way of running and so after drinking, the costume contest, and their version of a “banquet” I was surprised at the wedding. The hushed reverence while they got married in RL(real life) there was not a jibe or cat call from anyone. There was actually complete and utter silence. Now utter silence in a room filled with a few thousand people is an awesome thing, and when its for such a beautiful thing as well it means so much more. Personally I and my beautiful wife were married in a justice of the peace 15 minute special, our time with family and friends was a few months later when we had the reception. But each time, the actual wedding and the actual party, there was a love that was felt, id think by all, for us and for the aspects of true marriage vows and bonds. That same feeling was there at the fan faire. When they were pronounced man and wife in RL the cheers were deafening and then when their toons got hitched it actually got louder. I shook hands with the proud couple and told them how happy I was to be able to be there and they were graciously kind, not only to me but to everybody.
So after we went out for a quick carcinogen break we went back into the building to check out the dancing and fun. After the pool parties insanity and fun we all figured there would be some intense fun to be had for the rest of the night. We were wrong. Walking back to the banquet hall it felt like we were the confused salmon on the annual spawning run. We were definitely going against the flood of people exiting the hall. We arrived to Roy Orbison and about 50 drunks shuffling and clinging on the “dance floor” was all that there was left to this gig. It was dead yet no one had had the common decency to tell them about it. So we left and headed out into the Rio and where our feet would take us.
Now there was a strange love triangle thing happening between a few of the live event crew and that seemed to come to a head this evening. At the craps table some intermediate fondling turned into a stomp off and the rest of the night, intermixed with serious amounts of alcohol, was centered around the he and her side and then the he left out side of the triangle, and the he left out side was mostly trying to keep Mr. intense from damaging anyone and/or spending the night in a nice quiet Vegas holding tank. So I drank, and pronounced, and fed the he section some semi cliché yet heartfelt vibes to try to make him feel better, and drank some more.
So by three in the AM it was time to boogey to get at least a modicum of sleep before the long drive back to get the bruthas kids and the life we left behind. So he and I once again cruised back to the room, passed out, and rose again the next day. We went out to get the car from the valet guys, got in, and cruised out to the west, running from the eastern sun and back to the lives we had left for the short time at the SOE fan faire where we could let go and totally geek out.
