Like I was saying in my last post, Matt and I spent a lot of time in the game room, since Matt was interested in learning more about games. And, as I also mentioned in that post, I was looking to do a little amateur anthropology work.
The game room ended up being the best place to talk to people. Whenever I'm in these situations, I feel very much like Elizabeth Bennet, since I find myself being witty and doing my best to endear myself to people.
I made jokes making fun of Republicans, and those went over surprisingly well. Because of all the time I've spent with Dean over the past few years, I guess I've gotten it in my head that all nerds are libertarians, but my sense was they were liberals, which made me happy.
One of the people I ended up meeting was Matt Arnold. When I first noticed he was wearing a tag with that name, I was tempted to ask him if that was really his name. (The last time I saw that name, I was at Westminister Abbey. Go on, look up who the historical figure is.) I was impressed with certain things about him, and he seemed game enough for my wit. (Along with his friend Nathan, who played along. Score!) Briefly looking around on his website, he appears to be way nerdier than I ever have been, but that's okay. And the best news? He appears to be pro-poly.
I hate to admit it, but there were some cute boys there. And there were some not-so-cute boys there who also had personality. And, let's face it, I'm a personality fan. If you want my immediate attention, sure, looking cute helps, but if you want to keep that attention long term, you better be something more. It's too bad that I will certainly never see some of those boys again. Some of them might be worth it.
The strangest thing that happened was that a young boy named Milo followed Matt and I out of the game room. He introduced himself to us as Milo. He was so young, and maybe a little too young to be wandering around the convention alone. Matt totally blamed me for getting him to follow us around, but honest to God, I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't even talk to the boy. But, really, he seemed harmless enough, so no biggie.
Matt and I also sat through this discussion of a steampunk movie maker. The movies were well-made, and the one director seemed a little boring, but his best friend with him was hilarious and maybe manic. I'd totally love to see the latter do nerdy stand-up.
So maybe I didn't end up doing much in the way of anthropology, but that's not the end of the universe. I definitely feel like, for the most part, people were very friendly. There were a few people who were exactly like the most negative stereotype of nerds, but I was mostly pleased with the experience.
Getting home? Not so much.
Matt is wonderful and all, but he managed to get lost three times on the way back home. I know what happened the last two times, but I'm still trying to figure out how the first time happened. I wasn't paying attention because Matt and I were having an intense, heart-to-heart conversation and I was dealing with frantic text messages from my Mom, so I wasn't watching where Matt was going. I think the first time he turned somewhere funny, because all he had to do was go straight before we hit a particular freeway. At one point, it became clear we were going east when we were suppose to be going north. And then for some reason, Matt turned around and went south.
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