Mumah's Open House Experience

[mumah]

We arrived in Detroit Wednesday. I wanted to meet up with an old friend and spend some time, since I knew I wouldn't have a chance once the OH festivities began. I was travelling with my hetero-lifemate Karl, who I hadn't seen in over a year who took his vacation time to hang with the Palladium Crew. We purchased the crappiest beer we could find (Labatt Blue Lime) and wound up watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. Within the first ten minutes I was laughing so hard I threw up. I could tell it was going to be a good weekend.

After a rough night sleeping on an uncomfortable fold-out (and an unassociated rib injury) we headed to the hotel early. After charging everything I could to Brandon Aten's credit card, I sent out word to Nick Bradshaw, Brandon Aten, Jeff Hansen, and Josh Sinsapaugh that I had arrived. Sinsapaugh had just landed at the airport, and Aten was still a half an hour out. Bradshaw, Carmen Bellaire, Karl and myself went to have a terrible breakfast at Denny's. Bradshaw and I exchanged love with verbal barbs like we always do. I say he had to get court approval to leave the state, while he said I was the "Winger" of art. Once finished, we rushed back to the hotel and found Aten, Hansen, and Sinsapaugh ready and willing. It was time to go to Comerica Park.

Hansen being a cop, brought a gun to the game, which he delighted over once inside. Sensibly he never pulled it out, but his joy was infectious. Somehow my iPhone developed superpowers, because I would joke about using my "I need a Beer" app and the beer guy was instantly there. It even worked once when I declared I was using the, "I need a hottie" app, and boom, there she was, needing to get by.

After a quick shower at the hotel, we headed over. I have to tell you, walking through those doors Thursday afternoon was like coming home. The Mannings, Chuck Walton, Lonnie Langston, Mark Oberle, Irvin Jackson and Amy Ashbaugh were all there and happy to see me. I don't think i was there for five minutes before I got my first sketch request. It's always amazing when I see these people. We see each other once a year if we're lucky, though many of us do manage to communicate on the boards. We see each other's work, and are genuinely impressed and encouraging of one another. When I got to the warehouse, it was as if I had never left.

VIP night was such a blur. Kathy Simmons' food was amazing as usual, and Kevin's speech inspiring, even if I knew most of the announcements already. The enthusiasm the fans have for the product is always stunning.

I didn't game at all Friday night, though Jorel did bring beer by the hotel room for Aten, Karl, Sinsapaugh and myself, and we had the first taste of Aten's delicious bourbon. The only way to describe real Kentucky bourbon? Smooooooove.

Friday morning I got up bright and early. Forgetting about the "Do Not Disturb" sign, we first learned about Sinsapaugh's night terrors at 8:30am. Housekeeping knocked, and SInsapaugh sat bolt upright and screamed. I think we all yelled in unison to go away, but I woke up anyway.

To Be Continued...

[Jorel]

It was great to meet you and officially be able to put a face with the name. And now I have also met R.L.L. so thank you for that.

[mumah]

Whoops. Must have had Scott Johnson on the brain again. Fixed!

[mumah]

I was intrigued by Carmen Bellaire's Robotech game. Just from a visual standpoint it was brilliant, and I have a ton of great photos of the game on my facebook page (I also have a fan page on FB, in case you're interested.) I had zero intention to play, as I have next to no experience playing in Palladium's sandbox on the gaming end and my knowledge of Robotech doesn't extend past the Macross saga. Carmen busted me observing as a games was about to begin and thrust a character sheet in my hand. Somehow, I was the last to die, and aside from making the kid cry, I was the last one standing, but that didn't prevent a fairly memorable death. (I had found an unmanned Zentraidi battle pod and used my Veritech to pilot it poorly.) I was peeled out of both vehicles and skewered and carried as a trophy on the big bad's sword.

For dinner, Aten, Karl, Luke Buck, and myself went to Red Robin at Aten's insistence. Thursday's Tiger's game had exposed Aten to a lot of advertising for the restaurant, and he was unable to resist commericalism. We were already in a silly mood, by the time our waiter? came by to take our order. I heard her? voice asking for our drink orders I was fairly confused. Like a Bradshaw illustration, it was difficult to tell what I was looking at. The voice was distinctly female, as was the posture, and yet here was a flat-chested male with chin whiskers and Kate Gosselin's spikey hairdo http://blog.newsok.com/fashionmatters/files/2009/06/kate-gosselin4.jpg.

I would like to point out that Karl, Brandon, and myself are in our thirties, and are or were married. Karl and I even have children, yet when our waitress? Gerald entered our lives, we all revealed ourselves to be the perpetual 10 year-olds our wives have always known us to be. When he left, we began the debate; was he actually that effeminate, or was he actually a pre-op/post-op transvestite? We weren't being propelled by homophobia so much as pure curiousity. The only thing we could agree on that he was a good waitress. That's when he brought me my coke, and on reflex I said, "Thank you, sir!"

Silence fell over the table. I hadn't meant to say it, and you could see the shock on everyone's face. I just looked down at the table and hoped that my poker face was convincing. Gerald either hadn't noticed or was so used to people being uncomfortable around him. He just said that our steak fries should be ready soon and left. The silence held for a moment until Karl burst the bubble by slowly saying, "That just happened."

We all burst into hard, fitful laughing that we could not stop. We were jibbering idiots, and every time it started to subside, we'd see someone else laughing, or the replay of "what just happened" would throw us back into another hard, tearful fit. I had to leave the table to compose myself before returning.

We managed to control ourselves better throughout dinner, despite Aten repeating the word, "mayonaisse" over and over, until time for the check came. Gerald was feeling conversational, and somehow I got him to say the word "fabulous" which in and of itself was enough to propel me over the top, but when he held out both limp fists and asked us to, "pounce it," I nearly lost it again. I said something about calling my wife while suppressing a laugh until I escaped to the parking lot. It's completely juvenile, but I'll cop to it. It made the weekend what it was.

I don't recall much of what happened at the warehouse after that beyond trying to explain dinner to everyone. We returned to the hotel around 11, grabbed Aten's bourbon and headed down to the game room. Everyone was chatty and relaxed. Rat Bastard provided us with some of his delicious homemade brew while we sipped the bourbon. I look up just in time to see Shinitenshi walk in with a tin with my name on it....the first volley of her war against any diet I may or may not have been on, and it was deadly. No bake cookies. I shared as many as I could but ate the rest while playing in Carmen's bizarre carnival game. Amy Ashbaugh was a good guy, and yet killed 10 times as many civilians as all the baddies combined, including myself.

To Be Continued....

By the way, I have the first of two Chuck Walton pieces that I'm inking done. http://mumah.deviantart.com/art/Walton-s-Bear-163123193

[Xar]

By the way, I have the of two Chuck Walton pieces that I'm inking done. http://mumah.deviantart.com/art/Walton-s-Bear-163123193

Dayumm! That's insanely cool!

[Warwolf]

I'm always worried somebody inking Chuck's work will go into an epilleptic seizure.

Funny, I'm always worried that once a Walton piece has been inked that anyone seeing it will go into an epilleptic seizure because their brain can't hanle the awesome.

[mumah]

I had a blast inking it.