Last night was one of those nights where everything is just a bit off. The day started off badly, continued to be problematic with a finicky, sick kid. We were shifting the gaming venue to the lovely house of one of our group for the night, (And I mean, lovely!) so I have to coordinate to pick up one of the gamers, so that meant juggling the schedule with the wife so she was home early enough to get me out the door for the rendezvous. This was all accomplished with enough time to stop at the liquor store and pick up an on-sale six-pack of Blackthorn cider for the group. So far, so good.

My gamer nearly misses the rendezvous because he thought I wasn’t in my car; fortunately, I see him before he gives up. On the trip to the game — a trip I’ve done half a dozen times, so far — I simply miss the turn off and drive 4 miles out of my way. And miss the turn coming back. No big deal; amusing, if anything. Eventually, we all manage to get to the game. Food has been provided by the host — good stuff! We eat, we chat, and it’s time to play.

Except while I remembered to bring drinks, and my computer, and my books…I forgot the file folder with the characters in it. Crap! Do we have a printer? No! Simple — email the files to another gamer that has his laptop and tablet…except they’re out of power! We go Old School and I have to jot down the characters. this takes half an hour. We’re now getting toward 8pm.

Finally, we get going and have a blast — it was Hollow Earth Expedition last night. The teaser for the new character takes a bit longer than I wanted, mostly because i was having a blast. My descriptions, however, were a bit off; I’ve had a cold all day and I’m a bit fuzzy by 9pm. Press on!

We make it through the session and everyone has fun, despite the stumbling blocks. Takeaway? Roll with it and have fun.

CODA: After all this, I drop my gamer at home, and nearly get sideswiped by some college douche in a souped up Honda rice burner (a Civic, I think, but it was hard to tell a few seconds later.) He tries to jump the line of traffic getting onto I-40, biffs it at the last minute and gets ploughed into by the pickup in front of me. The Civic is tossed into scrap, the pickup loses control and hits the wall.

After checking on them both — the kid is hospital bound and good riddance, you idiot; the truck driver is just dazed from having his airbag break his face — I have to sit for half an hour until they clear the path onto the highway. This on ramp is too dangerous to just back up.

Eventually, I check my texts, find out I have to run a medicine errand for the wife, and get home just before midnight.