Day 2: Friday Afternoon - Evening
Be warned - I didn't have time to edit this post - had to write it quickly - so there are probably loads of spelling errors. I apologize in advance. I have to say, some AMAZING things happened this weekend.
I forgot to mention – on the drive down on Thursday – mom texted me a million questions about peptide nanotubes – 42 to be exact – asking me all sorts of questions – which I answered one-by-one until she ran out of questions and I got tired. I was deeply amused at the time. I guess she knew that I had time on my hands.
After my post of Friday morning, I found John playing in the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) for the 16th Invitational spot. He was just starting his first game at 11:30 a.m., due to a mix up with his first name being listed as his last name and the judges not being able to find him on the list.
Adventure to Find an ATM
Since he was near the back wall, I was able to settle down on the floor beside him with my laptop and phone, write stuff and grade IR reports. Then, I decided to find food for John. There was a concession stand outside the door, but it only took cash. The ATM in the hotel turned out to be broken.
At first, I thought that was the end of it, because I wasn’t about to leave the hotel by myself … but then I decided – NO – John MUST have food! So I went on an adventure to find an ATM, one block down from the hotel, at a credit union via my iphone Google maps. At the time, I felt like I was going on some dangerous fantasy expedition and coming back with treasure. I’m very easily amused, I suppose.
Story of the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ)
John was really frustrated after his first game, because he had it well in hand – well up on scenario points and was about to win, when his opponent killed his caster in the last fifteen seconds of the game. I’m not sure of the details but it was some slight details that happened in the last second that favored this happening. Sometimes, this kind of thing happens.
There are two ways to win a Warmachine game – either by killing the opponent’s caster (assassination) – kind of like check mating the king in a chess game – or through scenario. Each game will have a scenario named for it – there are several that change at intervals, and all involve variations of dominating or controlling flags on the board to gain points or making sure that your caster is always 14” from a board edge and such.
John was able to win all three of his next games in the LCQ. Walter won his first game, lost his second and won his other two. Matt and Jesse won their first two games, lost their third and won their fourth. Frank chose not to participate because his back and knees were hurting and it’s a grueling all-day event. Brian and David Kelley had already qualified for the invitational. Steven was the last that was left undefeated. The officials cut the matches short at round 4 and decided to just play the undefeateds on Saturday.
While it was going on, I was able to move to each new table location John played at, camped out near a wall in his line of sight, and sat with my laptop writing, posting photos or grading IR reports. After finishing the IR reports, I took a break and wandered around the room, taking more pics, watching a game here and there, going over and hugging John and making sure he didn’t need anything, finding out what was happening at our other people’s games and giving John status reports, etc.
David Kelley’s Insistence on the Youngblood Tournament
At one point, I was sitting by the wall typing and Matt came by and asked if I was having fun. I said yes. David Kelley was bugging me to join the Young Blood’s tournament. He was like – Jess! You’re going to play in Youngbloods, right? Right? Huh, huh? You BETTER! Gotta represent!
I was like - *shoulders slump* - oh ok, ok, David Kelley, I’ll play. Playing tournaments makes me nervous and I haven’t played in SOOO long. My last game was against Daniel Stabley how many weeks/months ago? But, I decided I wouldn’t be able to look David Kelley in the eye if I didn’t play, and I had planned on it anyway, since – I felt like – if I was here, I *ought* to participate, for John and to say that I had played in a real tournament at Warmachine Weekend and to be “official” and all that. So it was more than just David Kelley. He just provided the last push of momentum over the cliff. John made sure to emphasize I didn’t HAVE to play if I didn’t want to. But, for all of the above, I decided to.
However, I was not going to play on Friday. There were Youngblood tournaments going on – different point levels and types – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Friday, I didn’t want to leave John’s side while he was playing and I hadn’t looked over my list. I couldn’t remember everything I had in it and that was embarrassing. I wanted to at least re-familiarize myself with it and read all the cards again.
Two Caster Tournament
While everyone played in the Last Chance Qualifier, Brian and David Kelley played in the Twin Towers, two caster tournament, list size of 75 points. A typical game is 50 points. These are big games. There were about twenty-five participants and Brian ended up winning.
Discussions of the Day
We all piled in the van and ate at Hardy’s for dinner. Everyone discussed the Warmachine matches, the different strategies, what they had seen and what had happened.
Apparently during the day, someone asked Walter a question about who had won a particular event and he said that he didn’t know, but he knew the winner of the Twin Towers two caster tournament – and he pointed over the way at Brian. The guy asked him – oh, is that one already over? He said, “No … and yes.” I thought that was a hilariously awesome line.
Apparently, the two caster tournament is “Brian’s event.” People hailed him as keeping up the genius – and that his opponents couldn’t beat him because they were merely human.
In spite of being very good, Brian is actually not nearly as well-known or famous as Jason Flanzer, Jake Van Meter or some of the others because he purposefully avoids the spotlight. He refuses to do podcasts, videos, post voluminously on forums or appear on anything. He just plays the game. I wish he would do a podcast or two, if only so other people could learn from one of the best how to play Menoth.
Jason Flanzer is very famous for playing ALL the factions and winning tournaments with crazy lists that people say are no good or with factions that people claim suck. He’ll do something new with stuff – then everyone will start copying it. If you play Warmachine, you will have heard of Flanzer.
Basically, there are two schools of thought in Warmachine to master the game. 1) You play one faction exclusively against all the other factions, and you know your own faction SO well, that you can beat anything with it. 2) You play ALL the factions equally and thus learn them all decently well, so that no matter who you face, you know are they play and can counter their strategies.
Flanzer is good, but John says, he’s not as good as he could be if he only played one faction. He spreads himself too thin. John’s a proponent of the first school of thought and thinks that players who concentrate all their energy on one faction will ultimately be even better masters of the game.
Friday: FIN
Friday ended with Max buying beer and calling off the bet against him drinking – which is what I expected would happen. He had said he wasn’t going to pay anyone anything – so everyone else said fine – if he kept it, THEY weren’t paying either. Walter said he’d pay the whole bet himself, but Max still called it off.
Brian said he’d dearly love to know what I’d act like drunk and is convinced I’d become violent, start slugging everyone and yell at them all to stop cursing. I sincerely hope not. The very idea is incredibly disturbing. Gratefully, I’ll never know.
To be clear, John and David Kelley don’t participate in any of the bad language thrown around; and they and Frank also don’t participate in the trash talk horrible humor. John is my man – awesome. I wasn’t sure how Brian came up with this and worried about it, slightly. It’s NOT my job to change or condemn anyone – I hope I don’t give such an impression. I guess maybe it’s just obvious I don’t like it. In fact, I hate it, but I really like the guys. They’re all sweet and very nice to me. It’s just expected that, whether I’m there or not, they will act no differently. And honestly, I can’t complain about that. I don’t want people to wear false fronts around me. I want them to feel like they can be themselves. It’s important.
I’ve noticed so far at Emory remarkably less swearing in the labs than I was used to at UGA. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s so nice. It makes me feel so much more comfortable and relaxed.
Photos from Day 1
Day 2: Saturday, The Youngblood Tournament
Brian’s Funny Shirt
Fortunately, it seems no one got too stoned drunk on Friday night – not even Max. I loved Brian’s shirt. It had a picture of the original NES Nintendo console with the words “classically trained.” It made me smile, because that was James and my first gaming system as well.
Signing Up for the Youngblood’s Tournament
So, on Saturday, the ten undefeated people in the Last Chance Qualifier played each other and I joined the 50 points Youngblood’s tournament. Beforehand in the morning, I looked over all my unit’s rule cards, asked John questions, looked over everything and felt a little bit better. John wrote out my list for me to take down and turn in. I wasn’t too nervous because the Youngblood’s tournament is very casual, specifically for entry-level players and does not have timed turns. I just wanted to play so I’d feel like I’d participated for real.
Steven’s Games in the Last of the LCQ
Before my tournament started, I watched Steven’s game and tried to make sure he was supported and supplied with sodas. He won the first round and ended up losing to Jason Flanzer in the second round due to the clock. The clock is brutal. Everything is timed, like a chess match. If you haven’t won by the time your clock runs out or if your opponent is ahead when it does – it’s over – even if you would have won, if you had had thirty more seconds, which is basically what happened to Steven.
Jason Flanzer went on to completely CRUSH the next guy, a Khador player. It wasn’t even close. John said he must have gotten lucky in his other games because he clearly wasn’t the skill level to be at the end of the LCQ.
How My Tournament Went: The First Game
My first game ended up being against Jesse, this talkative guy I met in the lobby on Friday. He was playing Borka, a Trollbloods caster. He said he didn’t play much either – he just came to here to blow his vacation every year and play casual games with people for fun. As I mentioned, in the Youngbloods, turns are not timed; however, when dice down is called, everyone has to stop playing. He managed to get a scenario point by killing my contesting units along with his. At the time, I didn’t realize that’s why he was killing his units. I had feated with Siege and was in the midst of killing his ‘jacks when dice down was called. He won on scenario.
Note: To “feat” refers to a caster’s special move. Once per game, a caster can “feat” and do a litany of special abilities and give his army certain buffs. Each caster’s feat is different and is one thing that differentiates them. Knowing at what point in the game to cast your feat is a huge point of strategy.
The Second Game
I noted this and tried to keep scenario more in mind for my second game. John says it does take quite a while to get used to it. My second opponent seemed edgy and was very desirous of doing things completely correctly. These are the kinds of people I dislike playing because they are most likely to get angry at you, and will question you accusingly about fine points of the rules, rather than being like, “It’s whatever man, it’s a friendly game.” To him, this was SERIOUS. My mode is to always defer to my opponent – it’s not worth a fight – and I sure as HECK haven’t mastered the rules.
He was playing eStryker, which was neat. I’d never played against him. He feated and did his special abilities – which, as it turned out, let all his units move three more inches and do another attack and it took a long time to resolve them all. He left his eStryker out in the open while he was doing this and I was pretty sure I could assassinate him with Siege on my turn. Siege has some great assassination moves. However, near the end of his turn, dice down was called. We were both contesting the scenario zones, so it went on to point cost of units killed and he had killed more.
Interlude
I was feeling kind of depressed after that. I felt certain I would lose all the games I played – I expected it – and yet I couldn’t help feeling so depressed at it coming to pass. It didn’t help that I’d never gotten lunch and everyone else left for lunch without me – but what else could they do – they had to eat. The sandwich shop that John hoped to get my food at was closed.
So, I just prayed the Lord would provide food for me at some point that was good. I also prayed to be happy anyway, even though I knew I wasn’t going to win any games. I wanted to be happy no matter what, but it was hard, at the time. I mean, what could I expect? When you start Warmachine – you kind of expect to lose a LOT of games up front. The learning curve is somewhat high, depending on the faction you chose. Cygnar is a good faction – it’s not the hardest to play but not the easiest either.
I haven’t played in SO long, I knew I wouldn’t win anything. I was rusty. I realized later, I’d never played in a 50 point tournament EVER, and I’ve not even played that many 50 point games – maybe 3-4. It takes a while to get used to moving that many pieces around the board quickly.
Despite not being very happy about it, I was determined to finish out the whole tournament, because I don’t ever want to be a quitter when I do something. I didn’t feel like I could really say I’d played in a tournament if I dropped. And, John told me that as long as someone who played in a tournament didn’t drop after his first two matches, he would get entered into a raffle for free stuff.
The Third Game, with a Cygnar Expert
My opponent for my third game was a no-show, so the judge hosting the tournament gave me an automatic win. He found a friend of his that knew Cygnar well to play me and teach me some of the finer points, so I didn’t have to just stand around. I was feeling kind of depressed and wouldn’t have minded just standing around, but I agreed to play, because he was going out of his way to try to help me to have a good time and I didn’t want to let him down.
It ended up being a good decision. The guy who played me played eNemo, a caster I like, against me. He was really nice, congenial, casual, knew the rules well, and if I made mistakes, he’d tell me; if I forgot rules or to do something, he’d remind me, and he’d give me tips on things I could do to be more efficient and win better. It was a relief to play someone who wasn’t angry and I actually started enjoying myself. I ended up assassinating eNemo with Siege – he gave me some tips on good killing moves – and I know he let me win (which I usually don’t like when people do this) – but at that time, I just appreciated him, his friendliness and all his advice. It felt really good to kill something. Ha. :)
He said I knew all the rules and thought I could get good. He gave me a few tips on units to switch out of my army for better ones, if I was interested, and some cool website for strats. I didn’t realize some of the stuff he said and took notes on it.
I felt so much better and lighter after that match. I was actually happy. And I knew I wouldn’t mind if I lost the rest of my games now. I had had my “win,” so I could be happy with myself. And playing with a nice, casual advanced player willing to teach me helped me more thoroughly get into a “this is a casual for fun thing,” kind of mood, instead of being sad I wasn’t winning.
Half way through the match, John came back with a sandwich for me. He said the sandwich bar had suddenly opened back up. It was a relief to get some lunch, around 4:30 p.m. Everyone else was kind of jealous because most people weren’t getting dinner and didn’t have food either. Several other people I’m pretty sure skipped lunch and dinner. There was only five minutes at best between games.
Fourth Game
My fourth game was against a girl playing Circle. I played a little two quickly and attempted to assassinate her caster with Siege when I saw an opening – but I had to move a bit too far forward to do it. I remembered to late that – yeah, this wasn’t the best move – it’s a lot more difficult to assassinate a Hordes caster than a Warmachine one, due to differences in how they play. I did pour 21 damage points into her, which she transferred to one of her beasts and left it with one health point.
After that, Siege was left exposed, and she killed just enough of my units to trigger a charge move onto him and kill him. I didn’t feel too badly about that though. She said, this game was only about her 20th and she thought I played very well, because I was killing all her beasts. Neither of us got scenario points.
Fifth Game
My fifth and last game was against a guy playing the new faction – Convergence. I’d never seen it played before and certainly never played against them. Therefore, I was kind of excited. Whether I won or not, I just wanted to see how they played. I thought it would be cool. And it was! His army was beautifully painted to. It looked GREAT. I told him so.
It ended out that we both got 1 scenario point each and somehow, I had killed slightly more points of his army than he had killed of mine. So, I actually WON. I was so completely amazed, that I took a picture of the win/loss ticket sheet. I actually won a game legitimately, all on my own! And it was against a faction and a caster I'd never seen or played before! He hadn’t played Convergence very long or much – he usually played Khador he said. But still, I was very happy. And he had gone 2 and 3, so at least he’d won two games. I didn’t feel as badly winning then. It was a near thing. I had attempted an assassination on his caster but the dice said NO. I'm kind of glad it was a close game.
Saturday: FIN
The tournament ended at 10:48 p.m. and after that, I was SO tired. I ached and hurt everywhere from bending over the board constantly. Playing for 10 hours is exhausting. It was certainly the most Warmachine matches I’ve ever played in a day – ever. But I felt really happy that I could now say I’d played in a real tournament at Warmachine Weekend – the biggest one, for youngbloods – so I was legit. And I had a pretty good time. I felt a little bruised/battered in spirit, but not unhappy. I had had a good time overall.
After playing that Cygnar expert guy I thought – you know – I should really make more effort to play this game and try to get better, actually. I always feel like to really do it well, I need to study it like biochemistry and memorize every rule and if I can’t do that – why even try to play? People tell me I just need to play games over and over again, but my mind says no. Perhaps I should just get over that and try. I’ll try to try. That’s all I can do.
John, Brian, Frank and his son Frank were playing Battle Wizards – a magical slap fest of last man standing, pretty much. It’s a looney, silly game where all the spells are made up of three parts, mix and matched with ludicrous names: “Merlin’s Ritualistic Phantasma-goons,” “Magma Gog’s Disco-mirrored Chicken,” etc.
Other people near us were playing “Ship, Captain, Crew,” a dice gambling game, and shouting excitedly at intervals. Apparently, it’s very popular at these conventions.
Pictures from Day 2
Day 3: Sunday, the Invitational
The Invitational: Round 1
I was exhausted, so slept in today. When I got up, Brian and David Kelley’s first games of the Invitational were just starting. The Invitational is the top Warmachine tournament in the U.S. of the 16 people who won tournaments around the country.
John decided to play in a Scramble match – there was only one today – and so I gave him reports as I could. Matt explained to me what he thought of the games as they were going on. I supplied them with cokes and nervously paced back and forth between games. I had to watch and couldn’t sit still, even though, I still don’t understand most of what goes on in a game. I only know some of the Cygnar units and rules, and a few of the more famous, signature pieces from other factions.
And, Brian does get nervous – or excited – even though he looks so cold. His hands were shaking at the end. It was probably because he was about to assassinate the other guy – and it’s impossible not to get an adrenaline rush off of that. Every one of these players is exceptionally good – anyone could lose to anyone and as he said – it’s a brutal field.
He managed to assassinate eGaspy in his first match – eGaspy is the common nickname of a Cryx caster, epic Asphyxious, which is apparently a brutal, tough and tricky caster to beat – you can never tell how a game is going against them – he could literally beat you at any moment, though it looks like you’re winning. He’s one of Cryx’s best.
David Kelley very sadly lost to scenario points. He thought he had 10 minutes left instead of 20 minutes, rushed when he didn’t have to, and made some stupid mistakes which cost him a scenario point and the game.
Will Pagani, a very famous Circle player that is currently one of the best in the field was actually playing Khador in the Invitational. This caused quite a stir. John was like, “[…] Will Pagani is playing … Khador?” This was echoed by everyone. Pagani is playing Khador?? What? Whaaaaat???
And yet, he assassinated his opponent to win no problem. There were a lot of assassinations. John was kind of surprised, hearing about it.
The Invitational: Rounds 2-3
In round 2, Brian was paired with Flanzer. I really wanted Brian to KILL Flanzer because he’d taken out Steven. Show some ATL spirit! Kill the enemy! Flanzer was playing Trolls – not seen at tournaments quite as much as some – but he’s Flanzer. He plays what he wants and wins with it.
Will Pagani’s game was hilarious. His Khador army was SURROUNDED by Cryx troops and it looked like he was going to get creamed when his opponent feated. Somehow, he managed to slaughter them all. It seems to be due on a mistake the Cryx player did. Apparently, he wasn’t the best.
I missed most of the second game and the third. I went and took a nap. I just ran out of all energy in the afternoon. But the nap was very refreshing. Laying there for a minute, I was thinking very nervously of how I was going to DIE next week with all these scary assignments I had to do because I had taken this trip and not gotten much done. More of my time was monopolized than I expected. Honestly, I could have done better and tried harder to get work done if I had really wanted to.
And then I thought of the Salaita lab and how unlikely it was for me to see any of them any time soon and I suddenly was suffocated horribly with missing them and Khalid so much it hurt. So I just prayed for them and about that, because I can’t change it. I can’t do anything about it or make time go any faster. It just really hurts sometimes. So I’m glad I’m busy, for that reason. But the Lord gave me peace and helped me feel better.
When John came back up to the room after his Scramble, I woke up and he told me that Brian had lost his second game on a near thing – Flanzer death clocked him, like what happened to Steven. I was broken-hearted. He won his third game though in another assassination. John ended up winning the Scramble he was in – first place! He won a gold dice and something else cool – I forgot.
The Invitational: Final Rounds
Flanzer ended up winning his third game as well. It was Flanzer and Will Pagani in the Finals. They had the coolest finals table ever setup – it was beautifully crafted with spinning gears under the table – but no rough terrain – it was kind of oddly shaped. It looked like part of some space age ship.
There was a screen setup for people to view the match because so many people were watching. It was streaming live. Unfortunately, the wifi sucked in the hotel and it was really lagging behind, even after the judges told everyone to shut off the wifi on their phones. After a while, people gave up and looked up the match on their phones or ipads which was streaming live with commentary.
John was starving and decided to eat instead of watching the match. He’d only had one piece of pizza all day. Brian and David Kelley finished up their last games. Brian assassinated his opponent yet again. His opponent was shocked and stood staring at the board looking literally dazed for nearly ten minutes, counting up points, and saying … “I can’t believe it. What happened?” At last, he just sat there, looked at his board and said, "I've just been 'Brian White-ed'." Apparently, when I got up from my nap, Brian's 3rd game was over especially fast, because he had killed Keith so quickly, who is a famous podcaster for Warmachine. Keith did not have a good night. He lost his first round to assassination and his third game to Brian by assassination.
We left the finals area just in time to see Brian win that last game. Then we waited around a little longer because suddenly, the finals ended – Flanzer tried an assassination on Pagani’s caster and it failed. As a result, he quickly died. Will Pagani won the finals with Khador! Amazing. The game ended sooner than expected.
What None of Us Ever Expected
After the finals, the judges had a “closing ceremony” kind of thing, thanking people and giving out raffle prizes and awards. We stayed so Brian could get his trophy and so we could listen to the awards given out. Everyone who played in a real tournament for at least two matches was entered into a raffle. There was a raffle for each of the tournaments that had a big prize attached to it and then a general raffle for everyone in which people could come up and claim something from the prize table.
The Youngblood’s tournament raffle was announced first. The prize was a Convergence army fully-painted by Quick Work, some master painters. The judge announcer said, “And I’d like to congratulate … Jessica Petree!"
[…] SERIOUSLY?? {…] That was the very last thing I was expecting. I looked back at everyone in shock and went up there. I looked at it. They said I could come get it later, because I didn’t have anything on me to carry it. I actually WON an entire, beautifully painted Convergence army. […] There are no words for my speechlessness. I’m still in shock.
John was grinning from ear-to-ear, Steven, Matt and Brian with his subdued and quiet smile – all the guys were grinning at me with overwhelmingly, OH MY GOSH!, shocked faces and when I got back said, JESS!! WHAT THE CRAP!! You won the BIG PRIZE RAFFLE!! Jesse of course gave me congratulations combined with inappropriate jokes. John said, “I TOLD you you might win something!”
We didn’t get a chance to say much, because we just waited for the other prizes to be raffled off for the other tournaments and then lastly, the general raffle. They listed the names of that one on a TV screen and then called them out. There was a big pile of loot people could pick from at the judges table. About the fourth or fifth name down, they said “Jessica Petree” again! :O
[…]
Double shock. Something felt rigged. I won … AGAIN?!
I looked at John panicked and said, what should I pick?? I had no idea. I was afraid I wouldn’t know enough about the game to choose wisely. But he pushed me up there and I saw some beautiful holding trays for armies. Holding trays are expensive and I don’t have one for my army with the right base size holes. John’s tray is specifically for the larger base size troll models. And I’d just won a new army. So I picked one of those. It seemed appropriate.
I won an ENTIRE painted Convergence army – which looked gorgeous and whose armies I was interested in anyway – AND separately, a gaming tray to hold them on. My own and first tray I’ve ever had. […]
I took the tray and started putting the army on it. My hands were shaking. It’s so gorgeous. They had setup my army on one of the specially painted tournament tables while the other prizes were being named off earlier.
The guy from Quick Works who painted it came up and congratulated me on winning his army and pointed out some of its features of what made it special. The model’s bases are have a specially designed insert from Forge Works. And the colossal comes apart in the middle and rotates freely for extra mobility. I was in shock and overflowing with thanks. I told him I hoped I would be worthy of it and put it to good use. There’s no way I’m worthy of it. But, I can try to honor such a nice army and play it for certain. I had really wanted to try out Convergence. It’s got some exciting rules that make it super focus efficient – something the Warmachine side is usually weak on.
I got to congratulate Flanzer and Will Pagani who were nearby and ask for their autographs. They autographed my new caster card for me, introduced themselves and asked where I was from. I said from Atlanta and they asked how I got here. I said from a big group who came up here for the tournament – and they said – oh! In the VAN? Ha, ha, we love Brian.
The guy who ran my tournament congratulated me. And other people I didn’t know. One of the judges pointed out another guy named D.C. who he said I should also get his autograph – he invented most of the faction rules for Convergence. So I got his too. They said I could stay if I wanted and get pictures of the models on the finals table, but I decided not to. I was too overwhelmed.
I got back with the army on its new tray and Max gave me a high five and everyone looked at it. They were all exclaiming their shock and all looked very happy, especially Steven and Matt, part of our closer trio of Warmachine gamer friends. Jesse said, well, I don’t know WHAT karma you have going for you Jess, but KEEP IT UP! John said, hello! She’s actually nice to people. Matt was like, Jess is more than a good person. Being “nice” I’m not sure wins people things – there’s lots of nice people around. I don’t deserve that army – I don’t even PLAY well. I only know One who is so good to me. I’ll never know why. Why?? It’s crazy. Thanks so much, Lord. Everyone exclaimed about this for some time. It was the talk of the night.
I got back to the room later and thanked Him in shock for the nice army, and prayed I could learn to use it well someday, and learn to like Warmachine better, so I can keep supporting something John loves. I want to support him in stuff. And Warmachine is fun! I just have to learn it better. It’s full of strategy and I like that.
We got pizza after that and John and the group played boardgames while I wrote stuff. Flanzer came later and talked about the game. He and Brian discussed their match and all Brian’s assassinations.
FIN
We’ll leave here about 11 a.m. CST for home. I’m not sure how I’ll survive the week and I’m afraid I might get back too late to do the orgo lab – so sent Mr. McCormick an email about that. I pray somehow we get home faster so I don’t have to keep missing those – it’s not right.
But, I have to say, can I really be worried about the week when the Lord takes such good care of me? No. Not really. I think it’ll be ok. And John and I had a great time together doing something that he loves and I participated and he even won a whole tournament event (the scramble)! And we got to support our friends and see them win some high level games, which was SUPER exciting. And I unexpectedly won my own army and a tray, which everyone STILL can’t believe. They’re like, when does that EVER happen?? Jessica cleaned HOUSE! I was the only person to win TWO raffles and all-in-all, the tray and models are about $300-$350 worth of stuff. And that's just the models and the tray. If you include the price of the paint job on them, you can add at least another $100 minimum. John said that paid for all the money we spent on the van ride, food and part of the hotel! It’s amazing beyond belief. I’m so incredibly humbled. Those people praying for me must still be praying extra blessings upon me, or something.
John did in fact buy me a case recently, which he just happened to bring extra empty “in case someone won something or needed room in one of their bags.” Ha ha. Now we also have a way to transport the new models home.
Wow, is the Lord ever good to me. I will never understand it. And that’s the story of this weekend! It was surely the most amazing thing in a while – oh MY word. There are no words. I’ll update the post with pictures later tomorrow I hope. I’ll try to post the best few for each section – I took LOTS! It was fun. :D
~ Jess