Leaving for Spokane on Friday morning I looked at my hotel reservation one last time. I noticed in small print down in the corner that I had accidentally selected a smoking room when I booked the hotel. Argg. Not a good start to the day. Deciding that I would just wait and see what it was like when I got there would turn out to be a (another) mistake.
Upon arriving in Spokane I obtained my room keys and inquired about the possibility of changing rooms if the smoking room was too nasty I found out that they were booked up and no more rooms were available. I guess whatever room I got was going to have to work. After an elevator ride that lasted waaaay too long to make it to the 4th floor the doors opened and I stepped into the rather old, dark, and musty hotel hall way. By now I am thinking 'okay... if the *hallway* smells bad, what does this room smell like?' I plodded to the room with my bags and proceeded to open the door of my soon to be home for 2 nights and just about gagged. I am not a smoker and I normally am indifferent to the smell of most smoke. This room went far beyond that. I am guessing this hotel was built 30-40 ish years ago and it has old, stale, tar-ish tobacco product smell that must date back to the 70's to prove it.
Turning the air up to full power (probably just moving around more stale junk stuck to the innards of the A/C unit) and opening the window to attempt to get some oxygen into the nicotine rich atmosphere I also noticed that the windows do not have screens in them and as a safety precaution the window had a stop on it to prevent it from opening more than about 4 inches. Foo.
Well no time for this crap, I have stuff to do and people to see! Shortly after quickly arranging my things (aka throwing my duffel bag onto the floor and stashing my laptop) I headed out. This would be the re-occurring theme for the weekend. I didn't spend much time in that room. I went up to the 5th floor where the Mysterium goings on were happening to see if my friends were present and to try to get my badge/ shirt/ other convention related goodies. The registration table was closed temporarily when I went by but no matter. I got my things later that evening. I saw my friends just briefly and then headed out to meet with a good friend of mine who moved to Spokane a few years back.
I had a great time seeing Spokane with him. I hope I get to see him again sometime soon. It was fun to talk and see him again as well as getting a scenic tour of Spokane. (the picture on the left is a beautiful view of Spokane as viewed from the south hills) He dropped me back off at the hotel a while later on his motorcycle (which incidentally
was the first time I had ridden on one, weeee) but before he left I asked him if he had a set of hex keys in his collection of tools on his bike. He did! Perfect. Now to take care of my window problem muahahhaaha.With the window block no longer a problem (and falling out of the window now something to be avoided) I locked up my room and allowed it to air out and went to do Myst things. My friends a'moaca', Ashtar, Jane, and Gwyn were already back up on the 5th floor when I re-appeared. It had been a long time since I had seen them in person (along with meeting Gwyn and Jane in RL for the first time).
There were lots of fun planned events taking place in Mysterium but my favorite activity of all is just getting to hang out with my friends. Sitting at a table I pulled out my laptop and joined a'moaca' in enjoying the hotel's wifi. You can see how well it worked by the following picture:
Yeah... so.. okay, the wifi wasn't the most reliable thing on the planet.
Dinner followed, Ashtar, a'm, Jane, Gwyn, PigBristles , and myself went to a restaurant in downtown Spokane and on the way back to the hotel me, Jane, and a'm stopped by this awesome game store which contained just about every type of puzzle, board game, and table top card game known to man. I somehow managed not to buy anything and we made our way back to the hotel.
Later that eve
ning came a good ole' fashioned URU neighborhood dance party. Well except my avatar dances better than I do so I just watched. ;) The Bevin "hood" contained most everything the URU hood has. Cones, Eddie (the beachball), lantern lights, fire marbles, and a fountain (which unlike the URU one is not for jumping in/on). Joined by GreyDragon and many others it was great fun to watch and listen too. People attemped the URU avatar dance animations, and cones were shuffled. The fun continued into the night until we were booted out of the room at around 11pm.Saturday morning the 5 of us (Ashtar, Gwyn, a'm, Jane, and myself) went to check out Old European a resturant rumored to have yummy breakfasty things. It was true and I left much fuller than when I arrived.
On a side trip, I found a grocery store near by where I picked up a $3 set of hex keys to fix the window block I removed so I wouldn't leave the hotel without putting the block back. I am thinking the mini set of allen wrenches will just become a permenant part of my laptop bag supplies lol.
The Cyan trip follwed. Cyan has always been really wonderful to their fans. They opened up their facilities and fed us. We got a tour of the buildings, A Q & A session with Rand Miller (Atrus to Myst fans) and some of the DRC members from URU. Cyan also brought out shirts, soundtracks, books, posters, etc. for us to buy (I am guilty of spending more than a little on Myst related goodies over the two Mysteria I have attended). We had a big hot dog lunch, and Kierra made a lovely cake showing a relto book from URU, the Myst book, a KI from URU, and a Riven dagger. She really did an awesome job.
After lunch and the Q&A session things started to wind down. We hung out and just had fun being at Cyan with everyone. There are tons of things to just look at around Cyan. Concept art, Myst series related 'artifacts' used
in the production of the game. Even just the buildings themselves and the area surrounding them are interesting. Shown in the picture on the left are some of the Cyan employees and a couple interns (I think) standing out in front of the building.After Cyan and heading back to the hotel, The 5 of us went out to dinner and headed back for another night of Myst/ URU related goodness back at the hotel. This was my last night of Mysterium. The next morning I would be heading back home. Me and my friends staying up late into the evening working on Marten's (evil hehe) video puzzle and doing other computer-ey things. A great evening.
Sunday morning was a strange one. After getting my things all squared away for the pending trip back home and saying some good byes to people who were also leaving I found out that a strange illness seemed to be sweeping the group. of the 50-60 people attending Mysterium 15-20 were sick with something that sounded like food poisoning but was insisted that is was some sort of flu. (It had earned names like Fluru on the forums) whatever it was (is) it sounded like no fun at all. There was a planned trip to Silverwood amusement park for the remaining attendees but people were for the most part too sick to go. Some people as of right now are still at the hotel sick. I think just about everyone will be out by tomorrow (Tuesday) though. I (so far, knock on wood) have been one of the lucky ones not to have come down with this strange sudden illness but Ashtar for one wasn't so lucky. I hope everyone is over it soon.
Shortly after hearing the news it was time for me to leave anyways. I checked out (making sure to put the window block back in it's rightful place) and started heading back home. I had a ton of fun at Mysterium. I got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in a long while and I hope I can see them again soon. I will definitely be more careful of reading all my options on selecting rooms next time! The drive home seemed to take forever but I made it back. Just in time to get ready for work on Monday.
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