Sunday, May 13, 2012

About Last Night...

This photo from last night embodies many of the things I love about Portland, Oregon.


Seated, clockwise from left: Joe, @snarke, @AubreyCello, myself, @JadeE1024, @FlameIsLove, @DeeAnnSole, @rmalena, @brittamarie, @ghalidrim, and @mariafi. Photo by Angela of @TheDoubleclicks. (Not pictured: Ana, Rob, and Matt, who arrived later.)

We had all gathered at the Funhouse Lounge to see The Unscriptables perform a Star Trek: The Next Generation improv show. I wasn't sure how crowded the place might get (being listed on GeekPortland is usually a huge nerd magnet), so I proposed we all meet at 5pm, when the venue opened, and enjoy happy hour while playing some games.


Photo by @ghalidrim.

It's not easy to find a game that can handle fifteen players, but Cards Against Humanity worked well. It was sometimes hard to hear across our four-tables-pushed-together, especially over the lounge music--but the woman working the bar asked us for requests (since we were the only people there for quite a while), so at least we were talking over songs we mostly liked.*


@JadeE1024's winning "haiku."

After we finished our supergame, our nerd party split up into smaller groups. Some of the menfolk dove into Lords of Waterdeep, DeeAnn and I introduced Aubrey to Zombie Dice and Bananagrams, and others just hung out and chatted. All enjoyed happy hour food and liquid refreshment.

That would have been a great night right there. But then the Unscriptables show started, and it did not disappoint. If you're anywhere near Portland for the next two weeks, and you have ever liked TNG, go. Closing night (May 26th, Memorial Day weekend) is the Borg episode, and if we weren't so busy with WarTron I'd totally be there.


@TheDoubleclicks with "Troi" and "Riker."

I'll be honest: When we moved to the Portland area in 2008, I was a bit apprehensive. I mean, we knew it was going to rain a lot (not to mention that first winter--yikes!), we'd been swindled out of $15 during our very first visit years ago (Thanksgiving weekend, no less--what is wrong with people?), and there were just a lot of unknowns.

But now that we've been here almost four years, I can say without a doubt that I'm very happy in our new home. We've made many new friends, started new traditions, and we don't plan on leaving any time soon. We love Portland!

Even if you do run into the occasional creepy clown room.


SRSLY, WTF? Photo by @ghalidrim.



* It turns out that a Pandora station set to "Jonathan Coulton" plays a mostly decent mix of JoCo, TMBG, Weird Al Yankovic, Barenaked Ladies, and Cake, with a few random nuggets of Da Vinci's Notebook and Garfunkel and Oates.

Curtis

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