Well.... My ProgPower preperation started over the weekend. I picked up 2 cases of Chimay, made reservations for the car rental, packed all the stuff I was going to need, and relaxed the rest of the time since ProgPower tends to be non-stop for me.... Monday night rolls around and everything is ready!!!!
Unfortunately, the excitement of the coming "family reunion" made me quite restless so sleep did not happen.... No problem.... I planned on leaving early anyway.... Around 9:30 Tuesday morning, I pack up the car and head over to the car rental place to pick up my wheels for the party.... Their choices in available vehicles was rather disappointing but at least it had a CD player and the AC worked. I officially started the drive down to Atlanta at 11:15AM....
On the drive down I stopped at one of my favorite food joints and got some eats, then stopped by Coldie, Scott, and lil Diva's place for a short visit before continuing on.... The drive went well so by 2AM I was about 70 miles outside of Atlanta.... Since there was no way in hell I was going to sit in a car in downtown Atlanta for over 5 hours, I decided to get a room for the night. I awoke around 8AM, took a shower, etc, etc and left the motel at 9:00AM. I finally arrived in Atlanta around 10:15AM Wednesday morning.... I have to say that it was quite nice to finally get to Atlanta with some sleep.... I usually drive strait through and then start partying....lol
I got my parking taken care of then hung out in the lobby of the residence for a short time when Teri came down.... Teri and I hung out for most of the morning & early afternoon greeting people we knew and just basically catching up on stuff.... Teri was also gracious enough to let me store my stuff in her room till my roomates arrived (Sorry about the frozen diet coke Teri).... Later in the afternoon, Kyle & Rod arrived (Roomates this year) so I got all my stuff moved over to the new "den of iniquity".... Of course my first priority was to put the Chimay in the fridge.
The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting friends and drinking until the pre-pre-party started.
The Wednesday night party was a blast as usual.... Listening to tunes, hanging out with friends, and of course drinking.... lots of drinking!!!! My only complaints were the over abundance of beatles cover tunes and the volume. Dont get me wrong, I dig the Beatles but only in small doses and the volume was waaaaaaay too LOUD for an acoustic set. Afterwards, I hung out at the residence and had a few Chimay's then crashed.... Highlight of the night: Teri disco dancing in her chair after her second long island iced tea.... A Kodak moment for sure!!!! LOL
Thursday morning started with the ProgPower breakfast crowd.... It's always fun to start your day with food & friends before the hustle & bustle start again. Anyway.... Later that day Teri and I went to the grocery store to pick up some eats (It may have been Wednesday) and teri treated a select few of us to one of her delicious home cooked meals after gold badge pickup....mmmmmmm!!!! The sad news about Vanden Plas made it's rounds a few hours before the nights activities and was met with much contempt and wailing.... Shit happens. Myself, I hung out with friends partying until Freak Kitchen's set.... Once again the freaks did not disappoint!!!! I was also glad to hear them play tunes from the first CD (Which is heavier IMO). Afterwards it was more drinking on the residence patio where I actually met "The D" (The creator of the original Perpetual Motion board back in 1996!!!!) for the first time. That was cool and I must say he and his girlfriend are really down to earth people.... I finally crashed around 3 or 4AM....
To be honest, I cant remember if Friday started with breakfast or not. The rest of the day went as usual however.... Hanging with friends, CD shopping, drinking, etc, etc. I had seen both Redemption and Pagan's Mind at ProgPwer 4 so I expected them to kick major amounts of ass that night!!!! I was not disappointed!!!!
They were both the highlight of the night as far as I was concerned. I had already seen Sonata Arctica so it was time to start partying early.... Apparently a few others had the same idea so back to the residence I went. A bunch of us killed a whole case of chimay that night.... Next thing we knew it was 7:30AM.... I think we only quit because we ran out of beer!!!! LOL I finally crashed at 8:30AM (Right after breakfast).
Around noon I woke up and realized I was still quite drunk.... A sure sign that it was a good night!!!!
I made my way to the seismic luncheon and hung out there for awhile.... I basically partied in one place or another until Threshold's set which was quite cool.... They were another band I really wanted to see that weekend.... After Threshold it was more hanging out and drinking at the venue.... Eventually the all star jam took place and I have to say that I was quite offended by the stripper/erotic dancer fiasco.... If your going to have one at least pick one with a nice rack!!!! LOL I finally got tired of waiting for the announcement and went back to the hotel to kill the last bottle of Chimay.... By the time I got there I decided to just get some sleep since I had another 15 hour drive home....
Sunday started with luggage packing and saying farewell to good friends and ended with me getting stuck in 3 seperate traffic clusterfucks in 3 different states.... I swear those F*&$ing cops in Delaware have nothing better to do than mess with drivers *grumble*. I finally made it home at 1:15AM Monday morning at which point I crashed hard!!!! I had a great time as usual and cant wait until next year!!!!
SHOUTS to familiar friends:
Teri and Jim, Christina, Angela, Amy, Todd and Colleen, Coldie, Scott, and Denis, Rob(Weebotech), Omar, Kyle & Rod, Kez, LarryD, Rob K, Dweeb, Barb & Rick, Ralf, Zilla, Norm and the Imagika crew, TJ Swoboda, Matt and Beth, Matt and Nancy (Congrats!!!!), Alex, JDubya, Patrick from PA, MetalRose, Jennifer, Scott (Inside out merch dude), Kim, Nick and anybody else that I know but cant remember right now (I'm still detoxing....lol)
SHOUTS to new friends:
Deitrick & Danae (Spelling), Tracy, Stacy, Whitney (OMG.... I think I'm in love), Shaye, Lasers Edge Merch dude (I'll remember your name next time....lol), Zod and his wonderful wife, Todd & Debbie Schnell, and anybody else that I may have forgotten (It's inevitable....)
CHEERS:
Glenn & Cindy for putting on one hell of a party
Teri for her awesome cooking
Kyle, Rod, and TJ for being mega cool roomies
Freak Kitchen for kicking ass once again
Redemption for kicking ass once again
Pagan's Mind for kicking ass once again
Threshold for kicking ass
The Residence staff for being really cool
And last but not least.... All the ladies that let me grope them.... Especially the ones that groped me back!!!!
JEERS:
INS in Detroit.... May you be sodomized by a rabid heard of elephants.... Eternally
Unfortunately, the excitement of the coming "family reunion" made me quite restless so sleep did not happen.... No problem.... I planned on leaving early anyway.... Around 9:30 Tuesday morning, I pack up the car and head over to the car rental place to pick up my wheels for the party.... Their choices in available vehicles was rather disappointing but at least it had a CD player and the AC worked. I officially started the drive down to Atlanta at 11:15AM....
On the drive down I stopped at one of my favorite food joints and got some eats, then stopped by Coldie, Scott, and lil Diva's place for a short visit before continuing on.... The drive went well so by 2AM I was about 70 miles outside of Atlanta.... Since there was no way in hell I was going to sit in a car in downtown Atlanta for over 5 hours, I decided to get a room for the night. I awoke around 8AM, took a shower, etc, etc and left the motel at 9:00AM. I finally arrived in Atlanta around 10:15AM Wednesday morning.... I have to say that it was quite nice to finally get to Atlanta with some sleep.... I usually drive strait through and then start partying....lol
I got my parking taken care of then hung out in the lobby of the residence for a short time when Teri came down.... Teri and I hung out for most of the morning & early afternoon greeting people we knew and just basically catching up on stuff.... Teri was also gracious enough to let me store my stuff in her room till my roomates arrived (Sorry about the frozen diet coke Teri).... Later in the afternoon, Kyle & Rod arrived (Roomates this year) so I got all my stuff moved over to the new "den of iniquity".... Of course my first priority was to put the Chimay in the fridge.
The Wednesday night party was a blast as usual.... Listening to tunes, hanging out with friends, and of course drinking.... lots of drinking!!!! My only complaints were the over abundance of beatles cover tunes and the volume. Dont get me wrong, I dig the Beatles but only in small doses and the volume was waaaaaaay too LOUD for an acoustic set. Afterwards, I hung out at the residence and had a few Chimay's then crashed.... Highlight of the night: Teri disco dancing in her chair after her second long island iced tea.... A Kodak moment for sure!!!! LOL
Thursday morning started with the ProgPower breakfast crowd.... It's always fun to start your day with food & friends before the hustle & bustle start again. Anyway.... Later that day Teri and I went to the grocery store to pick up some eats (It may have been Wednesday) and teri treated a select few of us to one of her delicious home cooked meals after gold badge pickup....mmmmmmm!!!! The sad news about Vanden Plas made it's rounds a few hours before the nights activities and was met with much contempt and wailing.... Shit happens. Myself, I hung out with friends partying until Freak Kitchen's set.... Once again the freaks did not disappoint!!!! I was also glad to hear them play tunes from the first CD (Which is heavier IMO). Afterwards it was more drinking on the residence patio where I actually met "The D" (The creator of the original Perpetual Motion board back in 1996!!!!) for the first time. That was cool and I must say he and his girlfriend are really down to earth people.... I finally crashed around 3 or 4AM....
To be honest, I cant remember if Friday started with breakfast or not. The rest of the day went as usual however.... Hanging with friends, CD shopping, drinking, etc, etc. I had seen both Redemption and Pagan's Mind at ProgPwer 4 so I expected them to kick major amounts of ass that night!!!! I was not disappointed!!!!
Around noon I woke up and realized I was still quite drunk.... A sure sign that it was a good night!!!!
Sunday started with luggage packing and saying farewell to good friends and ended with me getting stuck in 3 seperate traffic clusterfucks in 3 different states.... I swear those F*&$ing cops in Delaware have nothing better to do than mess with drivers *grumble*. I finally made it home at 1:15AM Monday morning at which point I crashed hard!!!! I had a great time as usual and cant wait until next year!!!!
SHOUTS to familiar friends:
Teri and Jim, Christina, Angela, Amy, Todd and Colleen, Coldie, Scott, and Denis, Rob(Weebotech), Omar, Kyle & Rod, Kez, LarryD, Rob K, Dweeb, Barb & Rick, Ralf, Zilla, Norm and the Imagika crew, TJ Swoboda, Matt and Beth, Matt and Nancy (Congrats!!!!), Alex, JDubya, Patrick from PA, MetalRose, Jennifer, Scott (Inside out merch dude), Kim, Nick and anybody else that I know but cant remember right now (I'm still detoxing....lol)
SHOUTS to new friends:
Deitrick & Danae (Spelling), Tracy, Stacy, Whitney (OMG.... I think I'm in love), Shaye, Lasers Edge Merch dude (I'll remember your name next time....lol), Zod and his wonderful wife, Todd & Debbie Schnell, and anybody else that I may have forgotten (It's inevitable....)
CHEERS:
Glenn & Cindy for putting on one hell of a party
Teri for her awesome cooking
Kyle, Rod, and TJ for being mega cool roomies
Freak Kitchen for kicking ass once again
Redemption for kicking ass once again
Pagan's Mind for kicking ass once again
Threshold for kicking ass
The Residence staff for being really cool
And last but not least.... All the ladies that let me grope them.... Especially the ones that groped me back!!!!
JEERS:
INS in Detroit.... May you be sodomized by a rabid heard of elephants.... Eternally
