New England Meet 2006
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When did this go down?
On June 3, 2006, a Gamingforce meet was planned to be held at the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, a suburb of Boston, at 2pm.
The plan was to go to the Cheesecake Factory there, hang out, and follow-up with an arcade visit, including laser tag.
Who attended?
With a couple of months of planning, the following members came to the meet: AliceNWondrland, Dr. Uzuki, Monkey King, Radez (AKA Avalokiteshvara), The Quiet Fox, LeHah, Hydelloon, BurningRanger, Seris, The Dopefish, Plarom, and Sassafrass.
This photo, from left to right:
Top Row: The Quiet Fox, Alice, Radez, Monkey King, Hydelloon, Plarom, TheDopefish
Middle row: BurningRanger
Bottom row: Dr. Uzuki, LeHah, Sass, Seris
Members who flew in
Alice, Dr. Uzuki, and Monkey King flew in to the meet from North Carolina, Oregon, and Tennessee respectively. Dr. Uzuki pulled an all-nighter (which should be admired) by leaving Oregon on Friday night, arrived in Boston on Saturday morning, and went all through Saturday without sleep until it was his time to depart at 6am on Sunday morning.
FRIDAY, JUNE 2: Pre-Meet
The night before the actual meet, since Alice and Monkey King had flown into Boston, it was decided that there would be a little pre-meet to occur on Friday night with those who could make it. Radez, The Quiet Fox, Alice, Monkey King and Sass showed up Friday night around 7pm at the Hotel@MIT (after some chaos with delays in flights). From there, all five went to a restaurant on the corner called Asgard. It was an Irish-themed place, but it looked oddly gothic and medieval.
Monkey King was introduced to a sour apple martini, Radez swiped food off plates, Alice and Sass sipped pomegranate martinis, and LeHah called to rudely remind Sass of the plan the following day.
After the delicious foods at Asgard, it was time to walk around in the Bostonian rain in the direction of Harvard Square. Radez, being the country bumpkin that he is, had never encountered a prostitute. In an effort to learn what a real prostitute looked like, he pointed out a sleazy woman on a corner by a bar and asked in speaking voice "Is that a prostitute?" The woman was more than likely too intoxicated to care at that late hour, but everyone in the GFF group laughed at silly Radez. <3
Alice stopped a few times to stare at some interesting but extremely costly furniture and testicle-styled earrings in the windows of the shops strung along Massachusetts Avenue. At one point, she was so overwhelmed by the cuteness of a back alley next to a home, she literally took off down the alley to go look at how cute it was. Radez joined her, and only their silouhettes could be identified by the members left on the street.
By the time everyone had walked to Harvard Square in the rain, they were all too exhausted to walk back to MIT in the rain. Everyone hopped onto the train, where Radez and Fox travelled back to Acton. Alice, Monkey and Sass travelled back to the hotel. At around 1:30am, they called it a night.
SATURDAY, JUNE 3: Day of the Meet
It was planned that BurningRanger would pick Dr. Uzuki up at the airport using the train. Alice, Monkey King, BurningRanger and Dr. Uzuki would meet at a specific train station and have Radez and Fox pick them up, bringing them into Chestnut Hill.
Seris, Dopefish, and Hydelloon would drive in solo. Sass would pick up LeHah and Plarom in Sturbridge, MA on her way back into Boston.
Eventually, after some chaos, everyone successfully met up at the Atrium, where upon a small waiting period, all twelve members went into The Cheesecake Factory and proceeded to give the foreign waitress a heart attack.
Everyone ordered their food and drinks. Unfortunately, the table was so large that not everyone could speak with one another at the same time. Plarom and Sass, at opposite heads of the table, had to literally shout down the table to communicate.
(Clockwise from bottom left: Hydelloon's head, BurningRanger, MonkeyKing, LeHah {arm is visable only}, Sass, Radez, Fox, Alice, Dope, and Seris' head. Picture taken by Plarom)
At the end of the meal, the bill came to a surprisingly low $374, including the 18% gratuity. Once all the money was collected, it became clear someone was skimping out on the bill. The money in hand was about $60 short of what was required. To make up for this, Alice, Radez and others pitched forth cash to make up for the bill gap in a typical generous GFF fashion.
With the bill cleared up, it was now time for the scheduled activities. Everyone got up, shuffled out, and headed for the cars. Which is where the real chaos began.
CAR DRAMA
Five cars were present for transportation of 12 members: Seris' car, Dope's car, Radez/Fox's car, Hydelloon's car, and Sass' car.
All the members went in different cars. BurningRanger suggested we all drive out into Somerville to go play laser tag and generally enjoy an arcade. Somerville, being a good distance away from the Chestnut Hill area and with no one who was terribly sure how to actually get there, caused a little driving turbulence for the majority of the members.
After Sass burned out her clutch trying to get out of the underground parking lot in a line of traffic, the trouble them began with trying to get EVERYONE ON THE SAME GODDAMNED PAGE. BurningRanger mentioned that I-93 had to be found in order to get to Somerville. Sass was the only person who had an inkling as to where it was. "AIM EAST," pretty much.
After about 10 minutes of driving in the pouring rain on Rt. 9 in the BOSTON SUBURBS with huge amounts of retarded traffic, Sass' car decided this was insanely STUPID. Egged on by LeHah and Radez, everyone overrode the Somerville idea and decided to go to Fun & Games in Natick, which was only about 9 miles west on Rt. 9. Sass and Alice called everyone and gave them the directions. Everyone eventually turned around and got there successfully.
Dopefish showed remarkable driving excellence and despite not knowing the area whatsoever, he made it first to nearly every land mark.
LeHah made a few classic remarks in reference to the stupidity of BurningRanger.
Here, Sass road rages. Something about cunt motherfuckers. It's unsure. Possibly something about BurningRanger. Meanwhile, Alice and Plarom enjoy themselves in the backseat while smoking clove cigarettes.
Fun & Games: At the Arcade
Once everyone got over the car drama, everyone rushed into the arcade from out of the rain. Dope was already inside, playing PacMan; his reward for being so goddamned punctual.
The lasertag booth was the first stop. $4 a head to play a 5 minute round of lasertag. Yea, okay, whatever. Only 11 people could technically play, so Radez and Sass sat out to make an even playing field.
It took maybe 30 minutes for the assholes behind the counter to get prepared for a whole whopping 10 people in for play. During this time, some people just stood around idly, still pissed from the car drama, while others mosied around the arcade looking for something to do. (Okay, so this arcade wasn't as AWESOME as I remember it being when I was 10. SO SUE ME.)
Eventually, they were ready. Everyone went in, and Radez and Sass went to go relax at a table somewhere and discuss the next steps in the plan. About 5 minutes later, Dr. Uzuki comes out of the gameplay area, and sits with us. He reported that the vest for lasertag was not working for him. So he was asked to leave.
I will leave the details, scores, and particulars of the lasertag game up to those who actually played. Edit as you see fit, assholes. <3
The Dopefish - 4 kills, 10 deaths, 9 caps, 175 total points
LeHah - 17 Kills, 4 Deaths, 0 Caps, 1400 total points Let's be honest: is this fair? -The Dopefish
Eventually, everyone was done with lasertag. (It felt like a lot MORE than 5 minutes!) From there, we were all trying to figure out what was next. The 21+ wanted to head back into Boston and do shit there, but that would imply having to leave some behind due to time constraints.
