0171D: A Story For Jayson

Christmas gifts from the Sunday gaming group!

Today's the birthday of Jayson, a dear friend of mine who died a few years ago. Tobie and I had gone through a pretty crazy and entertaining evening and it was the sort of night that I would have loved to have shared with him whether in person or at least by telling him the story. So I guess that's what this blog entry is for, in a way. Let me tell you all the story.

So after our character creation session for Houses of the Blooded, Tobie and I made our way to O Bar given a few friends like PJ and Mikko had messaged asking if we were going to. Our O Bar trips are always driven by the friends who will be there since it's not like Tobie end up at O Bar to hook up or something. We're there for the drag shows and sharing fun times with good friends.

We had a blast of a time with friendly drunker banter, fabulous drag shows and even a little silly dancing to boot. And despite how tired I had already been at the start of the evening, it was certainly worth the effort to go out. I think the one moment that really had me going was when Shining Star played while I was dancing with Mikko and Tobie. That song will always be associated with Jayson and it was certainly timely to hear it just as my thoughts were wandering in that direction given it was already his birthday by then.

We eventually made our way home past five in the morning and were surprised to find that all the building's elevators were offline. When we made the trek from the third basement level up to the ground floor, we discovered that some guy had apparently climbed the nearby electric pole and managed to get himself shocked by a live wire. We don't know why he was up there - all we know is that he somehow tripped the building's mains and knocked out the elevators. Given the time of night, it was still going to be a few hours before maintenance teams would be reporting for duty to get things fixed.

So we ended up walking to a nearby motel and checking in if only to catch a few hours of sleep. Crazily enough, this was technically the first time that Tobie and I had ever checked into a motel together. Not that this is a required part of everyone's lives as couples, but it certainly happens more often than not for most.

We did eventually get back to the Sietch by lunchtime feeling a bit more refreshed but still pretty tired. We still made the trek to the vet though to get Yoshi's booster vaccination shot and now we're all back home. I don't think I could have anticipated the course of events that we had gone through starting from yesterday and I'd like to think that Jayson would appreciate the twists and turns of the story.

Happy Birthday, Jayson. I miss you. We'll never forget you. I love you.