GenCon was a lot of fun, but this year it was also very, very stressful. After Fluffy picked me up, we had our initial argument while packing up to leave and then got out on the road. Everything was normal. We dropped Inigo off at fightertype's for the week, chatted for a few hours, and then went to our hotel.

That was the first major problem. I won't got into details but I managed to hurt myself by not taking care of myself and it pretty much put my entire trip in pain (well, walking, sitting, standing, or changing between those positions hurt). I was also hobbling until end of Saturday. It also took out half my Saturday and is the reason I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. No... not going into details, 99.999% of you don't want to know specifics. But, it made moving around very painful for most of the trip.

The next morning, JL picked me up to help me cut down a tree at our house. We were both surprised to see it was still alive, so we just cut off some excess dead branches, cleaned it up, and moved on. I was very happy to see that my tenants are taking VERY good care of the yard.

A stop by my mother's, move a 100 kg television around and some cabinets, and we also picked up Ranger Tom, our con-mate for the trip. Then we were off. Just under four hours to get from Illinois to Indy.

Just over three hours into the trip, I realized I accidentally left my suitcase in the back of JL's van. With all my clothes, bathroom supplies, and my blanket (hotels never give enough so normally I give Fluffy all mine and sleep with the one I always sleep with). Because JL picked me up and I really wasn't moving comfortably, I just took my bag with me for the tree-cutting. And then promptly forgot it. So, a hunk of my entertainment budget went into buying clothes for the trip and critical bathroom supplies. Thankfully, there is Walmart and while I'm at the very top of their size charts, we found a few pairs of shorts and a few bags of shirts and underwear to get me through the trip.

Just a little stress spike. :) All while it hurt to bend over and move.

Once we got to the hotel, we got settled in. Ranger Tom and Fluffy went out to get the swag bags and program booklets. The swag sucked, pure and simple. For something you have to prove your badge and they mark your badge so you don't get more than one, five cards, a dice, and a 5-pack of common Magic cards isn't worth it. The program was very pretty this year.

I was miserable but decided to do as much as I could. I don't like ruining Fluffy's trips, so we crashed around 23:00 and got ready for our first day of GenCon.