NO! SLEEP! TILL GENCON!!!

So… we went to the Indiana Convention Center yesterday and picked up our badges for GENCON. What a madhouse. It was literally crawling with geeks and gamers of all flavors. I’ve been to all sorts of cons over the years, from Gun Shows to Comic Conventions, World Horror to Writers Symposiums, but this thing looks like it’s going to be crazy. But crazy in the best sort of way.

We got our badges without much of a hitch (other than the overwrought cat behind the will call desk forgetting my wife and son’s tickets). It was a monstrously large line, but it moved pretty fast. Snatching up an official program and coupon book was easy enough, but I was hoping for some kind of swag bag. I always got a kick out of the freebies they’d toss your way at Wizard World and World Horror, but GENCON had nada. Not a huge deal, but a very minor disappointment.

All in all, picking up our badges was a blast. We got to get our bearings, which, as this is our first time, was a must. I was worried about parking, but now, not so much. I think we’ll be square. Now it’s just a matter of counting down the hours till Saturday…

But you know what, our day didn’t end at the Convention Center. We stopped by Half-Price Books on the way home, which, as always, was a treat. We snagged up a couple of school books for Conn and some birthday presents, but I’m kicking myself in the tail this morning for passing up some really groovy items. They had several Conan: The Roleplaying Game items that I was drooling over, like the Shadizar- City of Wickedness boxset ($20), Across the Thunder River ($17), The Free Companies ($12), and The Road of Kings ($14). And I bought none of it. For one thing, money is tight. For another, I’m a completist by nature  (or hoarder if you listen to my lovely wife) and it was better for my sanity to walk out with none rather than one. But the primary reason is that with GENCON looming on Saturday I needed to keep my purse strings tight on a Wednesday so my gold dragons can better serve me come the weekend.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to pore over this GENCON Program Book and plot our strategy for the Freeman family’s full-on Convention Center assault. There wil be no quarter asked, nor none given.