Chicago 2012: June 12

[caption id="attachment_2866" align="aligncenter" width="867" caption="Chicago. Tried to get a picture of the skyline and the camera did not cooperate in time :("][/caption]

We arrived after 8am Chicago time and hit the ground running. When we were on the plane, I sent this text to Mases, including an obscure Zelda quote, but misspelled the word: "I'd do anything for a galapagos egg! Oh. We are here." And he immediately sent back: "*Arpagos" and that was it. C and I were laughing so hard! Our friends Mases and Joseph picked us up and we were on our way. While we were waiting to get picked up, Joseph was on the phone with me, trying to figure out where we were. They circled the curbside pickup once or twice and I suddenly saw the back of Mases' head - his excellent afro. :)

It was lovely weather and so nice and warm, probably 70ish? Felt great after a chilly summer beginning at home .

We arrived at the marathon and met everyone that we had not met before. Fun to see the faces live that we've been talking to for years :) We stayed up and didn't go to sleep like we planned. I definitely hit my second wind. We ended up having a barbecue outside and that was fun. It got hotter out, but we made it :P
By that point, we both started to droop. I was trying to stay up as long as possible so that we could get onto some kind of a normal sleeping schedule. We went to bed around 7 Chicago time...4 AK time. We both had a hard time falling asleep, and finally did. We slept for 4 hours only, and lay there for 2 more hours. We both got up at 2am (yuck!) and I stayed up for another hour, then went back to bed, and mercifully slept for 5 hours. It was just so hot in the room. I had brought pajama pants and a night shirt to sleep in, and immediately regretted it. I had to sleep in shorts and desperately wished for a tank top to sleep in as well. C ended up staying up and played one of the games he was scheduled for.

The Marathon itself was fun to participate in from the get go. If I recall correctly, when we arrived they turned the camera on our arrival and I think the chat went nuts. C is well loved in the community, and I started to get lots of comments as well, mostly of "Who's the girl?!"

Interacting with the chat was pretty fun, and it became more fun as we got to know the viewers and started recognizing names. It was also great fun to wave and say hello to friends and family members, as well as other website members who could not make it to the marathon.

We were raising money for Child's Play, an organization that provides toys for hospitalized children. To help increase the donations, we would tell the chat that when we reached "$__" in donations, we would do something special. This night, when we hit $1000 in donation, Mases brought out his super special copy of the game Gyromite and ROB.

 

[caption id="attachment_2873" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="C, Mases and ROB"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2874" align="aligncenter" width="650" caption="Ezlo Hat"][/caption]

One of my favorite parts of our first days was this hat. It features Ezlo, the hat (and guide) that Link wears in the Minish Cap, my favorite Zelda game. About half of the attendees wore the hat at some point during that day and I was delighted :)

Mases is a huge collector and many of his favorite items made appearances while we were there. This is the Chaoseater from Darksiders, and it made many appearances.

And with that, we complete the first day we participated in the marathon. It was tons of fun, but we were beat!