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"Holiday mayhem
Ξ January 7th, 2006 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
Traditions can be important. Spending New Year’s in Austin with my Wiess friends has taken on a certain… cast. It’s a time for me to remember past experiences, revisit old places, renew connections, recenter, and just have a plain old good time with no pressures or expectations.
Even after being out of college for 6 years, I think New Year’s is essential. If anything, it’s grown in importance as I find myself drifting from year to year in ever increasingly uncertain shoals.
On a lighter note, this year, the big topics for me were Ogre/GEV, BSG, and Axis and Allies. Dave brought us Firefly last year, and this year it was Battlestar Galactica. I am again astounded with the quality of acting and production values for yet another TV series that blows away most movies 10 years old or sometimes less. Stefan and I hammered each other with tactical nukes, 1977-style, in Ogre, then we played a GEV Breakthrough and Raid scenario twice (switching roles for attacker and defender). Britton taught me about Manhattan distances. Todd got several of us in on a game of Axis and Allies. He said he’d never seen the Axis make a comeback as they did in this game — usually, the Axis forges its way to a quick victory, or else the Allies manage to concentrate enough industrial might to grind the Axis down. Our game ended in an armistice with no clear victor.
But I’m picking up my account in the middle. First, I drove to Dallas for my old roommate Phi’s wedding reception in Gainsville (north of Dallas) for his wife’s family. I couldn’t make the wedding (in the Bahamas) or Phi’s wedding reception (in DC), so I shot for this one. To judge by the pictures I never saw being taken, I apparently had a rollicking time. :P The parts I loved most, though, were afterward, when Phi and Mary-Margaret prevailed upon me to stay over at her parents’ house instead of making the 11 p.m. drive to Austin (~4 hours). We all wound down in front of the fire, then had a leisurely family brunch the next morning. It was unlooked for but certainly appreciated.
