{"id":1714,"date":"2008-07-28T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-28T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/?p=1714"},"modified":"2008-07-28T14:15:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-28T18:15:00","slug":"simucon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/?p=1714","title":{"rendered":"Simucon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think this year I may skip Simucon.<\/a>
\n
\nDon’t get me wrong, Simucon is a great time. There are games, there’s the opportunity to meet people in real life you only know as words on a screen, there’s beer and dancing and henna tattoos and other assorted stuff that makes it a really fun event.<\/p>\n

But last year, I felt… isolated. There weren’t many oldtimer GMs there, and that’s what I am now, having been “behind the curtain” since 1997. I enjoyed talking with the newer GMs and brainstorming ideas, but I didn’t really feel like this was my tribe. I think it was for several reasons. One was we didn’t have lanyards denoting us as GMs, which meant that players who wanted to talk to a GM had to get up close and sniff your tag, and I think that made us harder to find. Another is that it was the first year that I wasn’t the wedding guru, having rightly turned over that responsibility to the lovely and talented GM Nhia so that I could run http:\/\/www.wearwithstyle.com and know that DragonRealms’ wedding couples weren’t getting short shrift. I didn’t have as much interaction with the players last year in-game, so there was a lot of “Oh, and you do what? Weddings? Oh.” and then moving on. In spite of that, it was fun, but it was kind of… faded fun. I enjoyed hanging with Riel and Quarel and others, but I just felt… I don’t know, tired.<\/p>\n

Most of all, this year I’m thinking about who definitely won’t be there. The best time I ever had there was with Pat. We were 12-year-olds at a slumber party. I don’t know, it just feels kind of… sad.<\/p>\n

I think last year the part of the trip I enjoyed the most, and the part I look forward to every year, is the trip there. I enjoy driving almost 700 miles by myself. I like stopping where I want when I want and not being responsible for anyone but myself. If I choose to hit three yarn stores in Nashville, then by God, I’ll do it. If I want to stop in the Blue Ridge and watch the sun through the rain for a while, who cares? And if I happen to pass near Metropolis, Illinois on the day of the Superman festival and veer off so I can see the Batmobile from the 1960’s series, there’s no schedule I’m throwing off except my own.<\/p>\n

But I can do that anywhere, and have the journey be its own destination. I’m sure I can find a way to do it that won’t cost a crazy amount of money and gas. The truth, though, is that I’m likely to talk myself out of a trip elsewhere on the theory that it’s money and gas and time away from my home that my family needs me, whereas since this is a once a year event, I’m more likely to say “well, I can’t miss this.” I’m still thinking about skipping it this year, though. <\/p>\n

I don’t know. I’m just thinking.
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think this year I may skip Simucon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kissmyknits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}