Digital Overload '08

I'm back from Providence, and I had a fantastic time. I was insanely busy the entire time I was gone, and probably need a week to recover from the trip, but it was definitely worth it.

Thursday morning I was up early to catch my train to Paoli at 8. For once, that trip went remarkably quickly. I have no idea why but I'm definitely not complaining! Got into Paoli just after 2, and of course Neil (Christian's dad) was waiting at the wrong platform to pick me up. Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out with Chris, and Kyle once he made it after work. Kyle and I introduced Chris to Boobah, which I'm sure he's eternally grateful for. >_>

Friday we only left an hour after we were supposed to for our drive to Rhode Island. Not too bad, considering. This trip seemed to take forever. But we finally got to Providence around 5pm. We met Laura, Zim, Kevin, and Austin at the hotel. Eventually we made it over to the convention center and met up with Doug, Rachael, and X. Went to Dave and Buster's for dinner, which was fun. Even though there's one in Pittsburgh I've never actually been there before. I had a good time, even though the drinks cost a fortune and there were the most obnoxious drunk girls ever at the table next to us.

After D&B, we headed back to DO for a bit, until Laura, Clegg, and I went back to the hotel to meet Askee and let him in the room. We just hung out the rest of the night until we finally went to sleep sometime after 6. It would have been sooner, except Laura and I kept having fits of giggles instead of actually going to sleep. >_>

We were up at 8 the next morning (Why do I always sleep less on vacations than I do normally?), showered, and headed to the convention. We played DS games and pictochatted, and I stole Doug's PSP to play God of War. I loved it...I didn't return it until the last possible moment at the end of the weekend. I wish I had a PSP, haha. For lunch, we went over to the Cheesecake Factory. I had some kind of Kahlua cheesecake. I tried everyone else's as well. It was fantastic; there's one near my brother's house so I'm going to have to go again sometime.

After Cheesecake Factory we went to the mall. Which is only important because I got in trouble for taking this picture of Christian and Kyle. Apparently we're not allowed to actually have fun in Spencer's.

We went back to DO eventually, and hung out for a while longer. Neil took us on a beer/Smirnoff/rum run. We went back to the convention long enough for the question and answer hour with Tim...which honestly was a bit of a waste to me. All it was was a bunch of silly contests for prizes, and five people got to ask Tim stupid questions. Though there was a guy in a banana costume who gave some other guy a lap dance. That was pretty funny.

After the Q&A a live band played. We stayed to hear them for a bit, and then headed back to the Hilton. Christian managed to get an early copy of Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and Rachael was nice enough to drag her TV over, so we hooked up the Wii and had a massive Brawl party while we drank.


Sunday I was up again at 8, then got ready and went down to the convention center with Kyle. For the most part, we all played Guitar Hero 3 that day. Doug kicked my ass, but I expected that. I beat him on one song, and I'm sure that had nothing to do with the fact we couldn't even hear the TV. >_> Laura and I went to see The Other Boleyn Girl around four, and Kevin met us there. The movie was good; I'm hoping to check out the book soon. We ordered in and had more Brawl in our hotel room that night.


Monday we packed up and headed back to Christian's. The trip back was a lot faster, possibly due to the three hours of Rome Kyle and I watched. Love that show. Once we made it back I went to the Sixers/Celtics game with Kyle and his friend Greg. It was my first pro basketball game since we don't have a team anywhere around here. I had fun, even though there was a drunk asshole behind us who kept talking shit and kicking me in the back of the head. I also finally ate at Wawa...Frank would be proud of me. Even though Sheetz is better.

Tuesday I got the train back to Greensburg. I played Phoenix Wright and read Magic's Promise during the entire trip. Oh, and tried to understand anything the three crazy Russians sitting next to me were saying, but that didn't work out very well. Danielle picked me up, and then I was finally able to get home and get some real sleep.

I know I've said I thought this year was my last year attending, due to real life obligations, but I'm already considering next year. It's always such a blast, and I'd really like to make it again. So I suppose I'll see what I can do. I'll leave you with a random pic of some of the group: