The Token Rising Tide 6 Post
Name-dropping like a mofo!

Rising Tide was last weekend and I attended with my lovely fiancée Natalie. Here a brief rundown of events.

Friday Night: Greet-N-Meet at Tracey's (The Real Parasols™)

Natalie and I arrive around 7:30. I said hi to a few people I remember from a year ago, Sophmom and DangerBlonde to name a few. After placing a food order we were treated to a round of drinks by one VargVargas. I intended to buy him a shot but timing never matched up.

My friend Louis and his girlfriend Annie stopped by and hung out with us since they live in the area. We mainly hung out with them with brief guest appearances by the singing engineer Tim Ruppert, Lafayette homeboy Karl Schott, a sweaty Mark Mosley, and a nice hug from Mags.

Speaking of sweaty, I was dripping with the stuff. For some reason there were 5 parties going on at once inside of Tracey's: it was a steam bath. It was Tracy's one year anniversary, a parade krewe was meeting up there, and some odd folk singer was playing. Other mishaps transpired.

I mixed up LunaNola and Racymind on my twitters/in person which led to confusing exchanges in person and online, sorry. I also misread a tweet from Jeffery thinking he wanted to start a mosh pit in front of the folk singer(s). I was totally on board for this endeavor, but alas, maybe next year.

After like two drinks Natalie wanted to go home to spend "quality time" together. So she got her picture taken with a dude in a "EVERY DAY I'M HUSSLIN'" t-shirt and we were off. We left at 10pm and I totally missed meeting the internet's Brian P. Moore, of internet fame.

Rising Tide Proper
We made it to the con with the first panel already underway. We grabbed black coffee and some pastries. During the breakfast festivities I learned of the greatest innovation in the history of Rising Tide: the Beer Bracelet™. Half way through the 2nd panel I was starting to incite a beer riot on twitter. Luckily the beer started flowing at 11am: and boy did it flow (heavy on the head at first).

The panels were fun, I made snarky comments on twitter the entire time. David Simon's STANDING rant and calling Mitch Landrieu an asshole was pretty funny. The capping the well panel was good as well, especially when the panelists explained the state and the oil industry is constantly engaged in consensual sex. My favorite panel was the food panel, I dunno, smug assholes are endless entertainment for me.

In the middle of everything we enjoyed a kosher pulled pork with mac and cheese lunch at the "cool kids" table with Ashley Award Winner Clifton Harris and Cade "I can't make it to the after party because of the kids" Roux. I had constant beer trips throughout the panels, 95% of the time Karl was either walking up to or away from the bar.

Shocking moment of the day came during the Ashley Award ceremony. I was "nominated." 2010 was a pretty slow year for me on the blogging front, so maybe it was a hint? Luckily, a blogger who deserved the award got it instead, congratulations G-bitch. Keep on bitchin'! Please don't kick my ass.

During the final panel I started drinking a lot more beer and passing out cups to help Mags finish off the last keg. I later learned that Karl and myself made the best use of our beer bracelets. So after the panels Natalie and myself talked with Pistolette and Adrastos. I don't remember about what, I was pretty drunk.

After Party at the Rendon Inn
After the conference we all filled up the Rendon Inn. I was starving and nodding off at the bar. Talked a bunch to Karl and had to explain to Mr. Vargas that some random guy in the bar looked nothing like "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase. I also turned the world upside down by ordering half of a sandwich via twitter (thanks Pistolette). I'm all about innovation on the information super highway.

I felt sorry for the bartender since she was serving a full bar all by herself. I hope everyone tipped the fuck out of her. The food was pretty good as well. Couldn't drink the free Rum beverage everyone was drinking. I don't like rum, had it been whiskey-based I would have polished it off.

Epilogue
Overall Rising Tide was pretty fun. Xavier was ice cold and had working bathrooms so it's the best venue thus far by most accounts. I hope the Beer Bracelet™ is here to stay. Felt like a victory lap in a way, nothing too hard-hitting political wise, but maybe we all need a breather.

More Shout-outs
I wish Grandmaster Wang and Cenlamar could have made it. Loki was greatly missed as well: no one could pull off the whole Rockstar MC thing. Wish I said more than an awkward "Hello" with Maitri. Should have said hello to Athenae as well for that matter. Oh well.

Fun conference guys. See you next year.

PS:
Here's some pictures Natalie took because she's awesome.