(you can follow along with our account of the trip and the party and the aquarium in pictures at www.angelfire.com/ny5/jrminga/nodeisland.html scary, huh?)
January 26, 2002
This was it. Today was the day. We'd spent all week planning, preparing, saving every dollar for Parkway tolls, and now the day was finally here. We piled our belongings into the car, popped the CD full of mp3s into the brand-spanking-new mp3 player, and we headed out.
We were going to Node Island.
We left at about 11.30 and crawled up the Garden State Parkway to I-287 in New York, which took us across the Tappan Zee Bridge to the New England Thruway, which led us to the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95). We documented the whole trip with the digital camera, but it was largely uninteresting.
We amused ourselves by singing along with the mp3 player and making fun of the names of towns in upstate New York and Connecticut. Names like Nyack and Tokeneke.
Around 2.00, we decided to stop for food, so we took Exit 49 (Stiles St.) in New Haven, which led us to the Forbes Diner. We had been attracted by its extreme proximity to the highway and the large sign that advertised many many items for a mere 99 cents each. Cheap, in Connecticut -- who knew? And believe it or not, it was really good food! (Excepting the fact that one piece of my fried chicken was still cold on the inside, that is.) It was good enough that we even recommended the place to the other New York Contingent that was about a half-hour behind us. And they thought it was pretty awesome, too.
So we got back on the road and continued, doing as we were doing, until we hit Rhode Island. Rhode Island is quite beautiful, in that New England winter way. It's also really goddamn boring to drive through. We got off at the right exit, thankfully (the other New Yorkers went the wrong way, unfortunately), and found the general area of the party house within about half an hour. Then we looked at the hill we'd parked at the top of, and decided to find the house BEFORE we parked so we didn't have to go back up to get the stuff out of the car.
We found that that was a good idea. It was a steep hill.
We finally arrived at the house, having parked the car, at about 4.45, to find that we were the first noders there. In fact, the only other people there were three kind of .... interesting non-noders. We sat around and talked listened to them talk gaming and OSes for a while. Non-noders kept pouring in, and we grew more and more frightened.
Thankfully, the Boston Contingent showed up! Cahla, randir, Orange Julius, Dis, and Chihuahua Grub came to save us! The line became pretty securely drawn between noders and non-noders by the time FoxtrotJuliet got there with WickerNipple and non-noder Erin in tow. (Erin was the *COOL* non-noder - she spent her time with us because we weren't disturbed by her and because she didn't really like the other non-noders, it seemed. She will soon be one of us, and therefore does not qualify as a non-noder for the remainder of this writeup.)
Right about then, Critical Mass was determined, and ...
...
Oh, yeah. Right. Why the hell were we all there, anyway?
See, mkb is going to France, like, tomorrow or something. So his girlfriend, moxie, decided to be extremely sweet and hold a surprise going-away party, aptly dubbed Bon Voyage Monsieur DJ. Invites were sent out, the node was made a superdoc and hidden rather well from mkb, and extensive plans were made, including several series of cover stories in case mkb should begin to suspect (which I understand he did for a little while).
...
So, anyway, Critical Mass was determined, and moxie was called to bring mkb to da house. Meanwhile, Chiisuta, QXZ, and Walter finally made it to the house (after almost making it back to Connecticut before turning around), carrying some very interesting containers of liquor, which only partially held out until the arrival of the guest of honor.
Meanwhile, the non-noders broke out a board game, and began playing extremely fervently. We noders were confused, so we asked what it was.
It was a board game adaptation of a first-person shooter. It was called Frag. We became quickly disinterested, and went back to the tequila.
A few minutes later, moxie and mkb showed up. Most of us were too busy to notice, but some said, "Hey." mkb looked confused. Then, about 30 seconds later, everyone turned and yelled, "Surprise". mkb was quickly absorbed into the noder area (the kitchen), having been handed two shots of tequila in rapid-fire succession. The tequila absorbed his shock, and he greeted everyone with the enthusiasm of one still slightly confused by all this.
Food was broken out, including (but not limited to) randir's famous lasagna (gear fab), moxie's famous cake (white cliffs of dover?), famous finger sandwiches (jeweler, you've failed!), some famous kind of indian chicken dish (Kaili!) and more famous tequila (doesn't sound a bit like Cagney).**
*ahem* comment of the night: "It's 6.48, and I'm drunk off my ass. I love Rhode Island." -- WickerNipple
After food, someone found balloons that had been purchased previously at a dollar store. We quickly learned why they were so cheap -- they were basically just a pile of balloons that no one else seemed to want. There were random "Happy Birthday" balloons, a couple saying "Mis Quince Años", and an awful lot of balloons that were either animals or aliens, depending on how successful one was at inflating them. (The ears occasionally looked like nipples; this amused us greatly.)
For the next few hours, music was played (Chris-O and QXZ had brought guitars, which provided a whole half-hour of entertainment before they realized that they didn't both know all that many of the same songs, but they played for another hour anyway; Orange Julius, QXZ, Erin, and anyone else who knew words sang), beer was drunk (and so were noders), "yardwork" was done, balloons were thrown around, and pictures were taken of people in various states of respectability (including while in the bathroom, whether or not the facility was actually being used).
Around 8.30, cahla, WickerNipple, Chihuahua Grub, mkb and I all trekked up the hill and piled into the car (comments were made about the state of the car prior to the people-pile, but I didn't rob a cabbie, I swear) and made another liquor run. Yes, Virginia, they had run out of tequila. And more beer, including a couple of forties, were brought along for the ride.
And the party resumed as mentioned previously, with yardwork, drinking, and downright debauchery.
Around 11 or 12, randir and Orange Julius left, as both had important engagements the following morning. We pouted, but not for too long; most of us were too wasted, in some form.
Around 12.30, the Monopoly board was broken out. cahla, FoxtrotJuliet, Dis, QXZ, Chiisuta, Walter, and I attacked the board vigorously and settled in for a long, drawn-out battle, with other noders dropping in and out of visual contact and/or consciousness around us. Chiisuta rather quickly retired, leaving cahla and Dis with a rather large, wealthy corporate holding in the yellows and oranges; QXZ and Dis developed a quick relationship with the dark purple properties; and cahla and QXZ partnered in the railroad properties. QXZ also held the dark blue properties as a solo venture. FoxtrotJuliet held her own with the reds and the pinks, while I struggled valiantly with the green properties and Walter rose to the challenge of the light blues. Around 2.30, I surrendered my holdings to the recently awakened Chihuahua Grub, who succeeded with them for a decent while longer before giving in to the evils of the clock and turning in for the night himself. At some point, cahla and Dis conquered the board, winning as the corporation.
The non-noders, by the way, were still playing Frag. 9 fucking hours of a first person shooter game? Holy shit. mkb played with them for a while, sure, but not for 9 hours, dammit!
** -- References from
Help!, if you must know.
January 27, 2002
At around 3 AM, moxie, LadySun, and i retired to moxie and mkb's apartment down the road from wherever the surprise party was. mkb would show up later, having played with his friends for a few hours more.
At around 11 AM, after the four of us performed our morning ablutions, we returned to Party Central. The noders there were just beginning to awaken, and told us fantastic and fabricated stories of the orgies of the night before. It turns out that Dis had left after the Monopoly game ended, but the remaining noders were ready for action. It was decided that this action should take us to the wilds of Mystic, Connecticut.
But first, breakfast.
We drove in a four-car convoy (mkb/moxie/cahla/Chihuahua Grub, FoxtrotJuliet/Wickernipple/Erin, Chiisuta/QXZ/Walter, and LadySun and i), and after making a couple of wrong turns, ended up at a Bickford's. The wait staff seemed bothered by the sheer volume of people at 12:30 on a Sunday morning, but quickly recovered, broke us into two groups, and proceeded to give us fine service and fine food. cahla and i went and played with the crane games, and the whole noder group examined the postcards displayed for sale.
After breakfast, FoxtrotJuliet, Wicki, and Erin decided to depart. After gassing up at the convieniently located gas station, we were on our way.
We met outside the Mystic Aquarium ticket booth, bought our tickets, and quickly ran to the whale tank to watch the belugas being fed, joining in a rousing chorus of "Baby Beluga. We wandered around the aquarium, disappointed by the closure of the penguin exhibit and frightened by the walruses and sea lions, all of whom appeared almost undead with their actions and their really creepy eyes. (It was later determined that the reason that the penguin exhibit was closed was due to the full moon, and that the penguins were actually werewalruses. I guess you had to be there). Then, we wandered around in the inside room. I won't relate the many inside jokes and other niftiness that occured therein, save to say that a good time was had, a large number of children were probably scared, and we actually learned a lot about sea life, especially frogs. We then found our way upstairs to watch a demonstration of Navy-trained sea lions. Afterwards, some of us ran to the gift shop, while others explored the bathyscape. We finally all met up in the gift shop (and are probably never allowed back). After making a few purchases, we returned to the parking lot and said goodbye for about ten minutes.
LadySun and i went back to our car, plugged in the mp3 player, and settled in for the long drive back to New Jersey, satisfied with one of the most fun weekends we'd ever had.
quotes of the day, given late that night: "we can't forget the
Navy-trained killer
cyborg sea lion robot of death. It
barked." -- LadySun, to
QXZ
and, "undead walrus vagina ++" -- Walter
More pictures! --
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/cspagnuo/RI/index.htm -- cahla
http://www.geocities.com/jenn0a/mkb.htm -- FoxtrotJuliet
http://www.bluesock.org/~mike/bonvoyage/ -- Orange Julius (whose captions don't suck, tell him)
January 26, 2002 by
LadySun
January 27, 2002 by
Chris-O
but LadySun gets it 'cause LadySun's faster
Note to editors/Gods: There *used* to be a node about this gathering, at least. The superdoc no longer exists.
PS
Walter is right about
OJ being able to sing like
he was kicked in the... er, frag. That's it, Frag.