Thursday, August 30, 2012

Old Friends... and lots of booze



Yes, I’m still alive.

Haven’t been available to post much lately.  A few weeks back we were inundated w/ houseguests.  Then I had an assignment from my Owner that kept me busy for a week… then my seasonal job started up again last week, and getting re-adjusted to working for a living left me whipped out when I got home each day.

But now I have some time.  My Owner gave me permission to go to Dragon*Con w/ my amigos… but my motorcycle chain is having some kind of slippage issue (not a happy puppy!) and my car is older than cuneiform, so I’m kind of stuck at the Treehouse this weekend.  Oh, well…  Truth is, I haven’t enjoyed Dragon as much in recent years since it’s gotten so freaking big.  I think the first one I went to was summer of ’91, when it was in just one hotel.  Now it’s like 5 hotels and so crowded that it’s hard to enjoy… especially if you’re already not a big crowds person.

Let me go back a few weeks to the houseguest inundation.  I have a little group of very close friends (chosen family, really) w/ whom I go back to Jr. High School.  They’re sort of my vanilla pack (well… mostly vanilla b/c Max is part of it, and he describes himself as a closet sadist… to which I have replied, “Does this closet have a glass door!?”).  I kind of brought us together waaaaaaay back when I was 13 or 14… and my rather highly developed sense of loyalty has kept us together all these years.  I’m a pronounced introvert – INTJ – and don’t make lots of close friends… but the people I do bond w/ I have a tendency to be pretty devoted to.  It’s a puppy thing.

Now… among this little group would be one German.  I befriended him when he was over here as an exchange student – we got to be so close that I think he ended up spending more time at my place than w/ his host parents.  He now lives in Potsdam, but travels a lot on business b/c he works for the UN… so he gets over to the States about once a year or two.  Well, a few weeks back, he was here for a conference in DC, and he arranged to stay a few extra days to hang w/ us.  So my lovely Owner and I drove up to DC and stayed w/ him (free of charge… thank you United Nations) at a very posh hotel just a couple of blocks from Capitol Hill.  So while he spent his days in meetings, Ma’am and I took in some of the sights.  (This was an improvement over the last time he was in DC and Ma’am and I picked him up and we left DC as a huge, freaking snowstorm came in and buried the city.  We barley got out in time.)

We drove him back to our place and were joined by Max and his boy and another really old friend of ours.  One of my other best friends from since we were in the seventh grade is now in Naval Intelligence and has spent the last two years stationed at Pearl Harbor.  He has a month off at home before he ships out to Tokyo for the next two years to spy on the Chinese, and by a great stroke of luck he happened to be back home at the same time as the German’s conference… so we were able to assemble a part of our “pack” that hasn’t been together in over 10 years.

My Owner’s wife joined us from Atlanta, and we had a crazy great time at the Treehouse for three days and two nights talking, drinking, talking more… staying up until three or four AM… drinking more… and, oh yeah, we did a little hiking too w/ the bio dogs.  As usual, our conversations ranged over science, politics, philosophy, books, art, Shakespeare, role-playing games… and occasionally degenerate into some kind of techy computer talk that I lose interest in. (The German’s MS was in artificial intelligence.  His PhD was in neuroscience – I’m okay w/ the neuroscience; it’s the computer programming stuff that makes me want to go mow the grass…)

It really was an awesome few days… followed by moving the party from the Treehouse to Atlanta.  Max, Jake and I went out to the Eagle for their Black and Blue night.  (No, surprising as it may be, the German and the guy in the Navy are both straight… although from the way the German dresses, you would be fooled; he could be a contestant on “Gay or European?”)  

I said hey to a few people I knew, but mostly just enjoyed listening to Max and Jake be extreeeeemly catty about the other patrons.  LOL.

The next day was the Atlanta Dominion men-only play party.  Lots of fun.  I got tag-teamed by my Alpha Pup and his Handler, and had some great marks the next day.  :-)
And the Beagle tried on a sport-bike suit, which is such a fetish of mine!  *panting & drooling*  (Still having fantasies about that… er... I'll be in my bunk!)

Well, I know most of my peeps are at Dragon or on their way (except for the one who’s back in Germany now), and thus too busy to read any more of my ramblings.  Have a great weekend, and post some pictures for me!

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