Faceless Blog

I first made this list a while back.  It started as a joke, little things I'd tell people to make them feel more comfortable with my prosthetics.  (dealing with hardships through humor has always been a hobby of mine)  As it developed; however, I realized that a lot of these things really ARE awesome!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that you rush right out for elective amputations...but if you have to have it (or had it) done, here's why it's awesome!  (NOTE:  This obviously applies to double LEG amputation.  I don't have any experience with the other kind, thank goodness.)

So, without further ado...

Reasons Why it’s Awesome to be a Double Amputee

Wet socks no longer bother you at ALL.

You’ll never stub your toe again…ever.

You don’t have to worry about breaking in new shoes.

Cold bathroom floors in the morning never bother you.

The Achilles tendon, fabled weak-spot?  You no longer have one.

You can wear shorts all year round if you want.

You get access to some sweet parking.

You’ll always win those “Who has the biggest scar?” contests.

Rattlesnakes striking at your legs?  No problem.

You can walk through puddles with impunity.

Stepping on a nail doesn’t matter nearly as much, rusty or not.

Awesome ice breaker at parties.

You can change your legs to match your mood/outfit.

Hot sand and stingrays can’t ruin your trips to the beach.

Don’t have to take your shoes off at the airport.  (I’m waiting to see if this one’s true, once I’m up and walking on my prosthetics.)

You never have to trim your toenails.

You’ll never have athlete’s foot again.

You never have to worry about ingrown toenails.

Stinky shoes and/or socks are a thing of the past.

Not enough legroom in the car?  Take off your (prosthetic) legs!  (NOTE:  This ONLY applies to the passenger seat.)  EDIT:  Since the creation of the original list, I've started driving...with my hand controls, so I can say, in fact, that you CAN take your legs off in the driver's seat, if you're using hand controls like I am!)

 Toe/Heel blisters from poor fitting shoes or long hikes are a thing of the past.

Stepping on a LEGO block in the middle of the night is no longer a nightmare.

Handy storage area in the "heel" of your new feet.  (at least in my prosthetics)

First off, let me apologize for the HUGE gap between my last entry and this one.  As some of you may know, I had to go in for surgery.  I had one remaining pressure wound that was being particularly stubborn about healing, so my doctor thought it was best to close it surgically.  So, a procedure called a muscle flap was done, after which I had to be on total bedrest for quite a while.  During that time, it was very inconvenient for me to bust out my laptop.  As such, I fell off the face of the earth as far as Twitter, my blog and any other social media are concerned.  Since then, everything is almost healed up entirely, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Also recently, Becca and I made our annual trip to Boston for PAX East!  For a number of reasons, we had an incredible time.  We got to attend a lot more panels this year, and actually see more of the show.  The highlight of the event; however, was the fact that, for the first time, I had my walker with me and could actually stand up to hug friends who have never seen me standing.  Among these hugs were Kathleen from Loading Ready Run and Robert Khoo, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade.  After giving my little speech and hugging Mike at the second Q&A, I had several people stop me and ask me for a picture.  This is the second year that people are asking me to stop for a picture, and Becca insists that this means I am now a PAX celebrity.  I think she may be biased.  

Finally, I finally had my appointment at the CAT center in Pittsburgh.  There, I was pressure mapped...and found out that my pressure distribution is as close to perfect as they've seen!  Whoo!  After that was done (it didn't take long), I was measured/fitted for a new wheelchair!  I'm super excited about this, as I've had the same wheelchair since all of this started.  As this was my initial chair, it was designed for an entirely different me.  I was weaker then, and heavier, making a high back necessary (to support me) and a heavy-duty frame (to hold my still-swollen chubby body).  The new wheelchair will be a rigid-frame, ultra-light model, made either of aluminum or titanium, whichever insurance will pay for.  Either way, my new chair will be significantly lighter than the current model, that's for sure.  They also told me that after I get the new chair, I should consider scheduling another appointment so I can come in and go through some wheelchair bootcamp. I learned the basics at Harmarville Health-South, but there are a whole host of advanced techniques that I don't know.

For those who don't know, my wife and I went on vacation with her family a few weeks ago to North Myrtle Beach.  The family was sharing a house near the beach, which is how we were able to afford going down there.  Well, I was pretty upset, at first, to find out that my wheelchair did not fit through the interior doors of the house.  So, once inside, I had to use my walker to get around in most instances.  Like I said, at first I was upset about this.  As I had a chance to think about it; however, it occurred to me that ultimately, this was a good thing.  In addition to being a fun vacation, this was going to be a week-long PT session.  Well, Tuesday's PT session was the first chance that I had to see what kind of effect that extended vacation PT had...and I KILLED IT.  I had an incredible session, setting several new records for myself and coming away very happy.  Today, at my Thursday afternoon session, that trend only continued, with me setting a pretty intense new record for me on the Nu-Step machine. (it looks like a reclined stepper, sort of)  

Live from PT!  (Almost)

Today was my third PT session with Casey, who may be my favorite therapist of all time.  (His sense of humor meshes with mine very nicely, and he really pushes you to your limit.)  The first two sessions didn't get a blog entry because there was nothing too special about them.  They were mainly centered around mat exercises, strengthening and loosening up muscles that hadn't seen a lot of use recently.  Today; however, was different...

Today, I walked thirty feet!  Whooooo!!  Granted, during in-patient PT, I was walking around a hundred and twenty-five feet at a time, and today was around ten feet at a time, but this is a HUGE first step.  To be on only our third session and have this kind of progress is excellent!  Casey expects me to be able to take my walker home as early as next week at this time to practice walking on my own!

Whew, almost forgot where this blog was, it's been so long since I've updated.  Honestly, I can say there are three main reasons for that.  1)  We got a PS3.  2)  We got PS3 games.  3)  For a long time, I was stuck in a holding pattern.  Only now, roughly four months after getting out of in-patient therapy at Passavant hospital, is the blister that I developed at the end of my time there healed up well enough to permit me to start my out-patient physical therapy.  

That's right, folks, on Wednesday, July 6th, I will begin my out-patient physical therapy...one of the last phases of my rehab until I am completely back on my feet!!  I could not be more excited about this, especially since my physical therapist will be Casey, who was my PT guy back when I was just dealing with the wheelchair.  (Do I have a surprise for him!)  

I'm also going to have something very cool to report within a week or two.  There is a gift waiting for me at home from someone very special, and I can't wait to share its story with you all.  For now, though, just hang in there.

The "Dear 16 year old me" video that's been going around reminded me of an old note I wrote on Facebook a while back.  It still rings true to me, so I thought I'd repost it here.  So, here you go!

Good morning, folks!  Sometimes, it helps me to remember stuff for the journal (and book) if people ask me questions about my whole experience.  Also, I'm sure that there are people out there who have questions about what I've been through and are just afraid to ask.  So today, I'm giving you full permission!  Ask away!  Any questions will be answered to the best of my ability.  While I'll be taking questions from Facebook, Twitter, email and however else people figure out how to contact me, I'll be listing the Q's and A's here, just to keep it centralized and to make sure everyone can see the answers.  (My Facebook page is set up so only friends can see it...sorry, strangers.)  So, ask away!  Curious about how my prosthetics work?  Want to know what chemotherapy was like?  All questions taken, so fire away!

Q:  How did you keep focused on tasks through the hard parts, I often find myself frustrated with just basic tasks like reading a menu or even a news report, frustration seems to be my biggest killer.  How do you tackle that?

I've been talking about this for a while, but I wanted to post something and make it official, so I actually have a real numbering scheme in place.

Reasons Why it's Awesome to be a Double Amputee

Wet socks no longer bother you at ALL.

You'll never stub your toe again...ever.

You don't have to worry about breaking in new shoes.

Cold bathroom floors in the morning never bother you.

The Achilles tendon, fabled weak-spot?  You no longer have one.

You can wear shorts all year round if you want.

You get access to some sweet parking.

You'll always win those "Who has the biggest scar?" contests.

Rattlesnakes striking at your legs?  No problem.

You can walk through puddles with impunity.

Stepping on a nail doesn't matter nearly as much, rusty or not.

Awesome ice breaker at parties.

You can change your legs to match your mood/outfit.

Hot sand and stingrays can't ruin your trips to the beach.

Don't have to take your shoes off at the airport.  (I'm waiting to see if this one's true, once I'm up and walking on my prosthetics.)

You never have to trim your toenails.

You'll never have athlete's foot again.

You never have to worry about ingrown toenails.

Stinky shoes and/or socks are a thing of the past.

Not enough legroom in the car?  Take off your (prosthetic) legs!  (NOTE:  This ONLY applies to the passenger seat.)

PAX East:  Sunday

What you see above is one of the coolest things that happened to me at PAX East.  To not be able to say that it was, hands down, the coolest just shows you how awesome our weekend was.  Allow me to explain...

Becca and I got to the second Q&A a little early this time.  We'd been cutting it close on some other panels, and I wanted to get to the mic this time, so we made sure that we were there extra early, even for the medical badge admittance.  As soon as they were able to, the Enforcers let us right in, and we grabbed our normal spot up front on the aisle, so it's easier to move the chairs to accommodate my wheelchair.  I immediately checked with the Enforcers up front to find out when the lines were forming for the mics.  He pointed behind me and informed me that they already were!  He was nice enough, though, to place me first in line.  (I double checked with the people that were already there to make sure it was cool with them, I didn't want any hurt feelings...they were cool.)  As it turned out, representatives from the Cookie Brigade (well...other representatives) were placed in line ahead of me, since they had an announcement to make.  The panel was started, and they announced that the Cookie Brigade had collected over $8,900!  (the total has since grown to over $9,600!)  When Mike and Jerry turned back to me after addressing the other mic, what you see above unfolded.  I can honestly say, it was better than any signature I could have asked for, or other odd stunt I could have requested.  It was like a "get well and stay that way" hug fromeveryone at PAX.  I had absolute strangers coming up to me and shaking my hand for the rest of the convention.  I'm so glad that I have it on video now to share with the rest of you, because it meant an awful lot to me.

Now, let's try to cover some of the other meaningful events of Sunday.  (Hey, it was a busy day.)  If you'll recall, Friday night had ended a little prematurely when my stomach decided the day was over.  Since I had missed the chance to hang out with them and say hi, Becca mentioned that the LRR crew was going to be at some panel called "When I Grow Up" and we could probably catch them there.  I had originally considered attending that panel anyways, I thought, so why not.  On the way over to the right theater, we ran into our friend, Macrogeek and stopped for a few minutes to chat and catch up with him, as we hadn't had a lot of time to talk over the weekend.  As we were talking, we noticed Robert Khoo, standing on the opposite side of the hallway, posing for a picture with a fan.  He must have been on his way somewhere, as he almost always is, and was stopped for the pic.  I didn't want to miss the chance to say hi, and with a little prodding by my wife, I decided to get his attention.  After the picture was taken, and he was preparing to leave, I called out "Hey, Robert!" in what I hoped was a friendly tone.  He turned around and...I am not even kidding you...beamed with happiness.  "Jeff!" he said, "so good to see you!"  I am not even kidding here, I actually have witnesses if necessary, the man called me by name.  Now, I was an Omeganaut last year, and I've been in contact with Khoo a couple times (mainly to get permission to use the Child's Play logo when raising money for them and with questions about the medical badge last year), but I never expected him to remember, out of the 65,000+ people there, my first name.  It, too, was one of the best moments of my PAX.  Thanks, Robert.  You made my weekend.

On to the final high point of my weekend.  After I finished chatting with Robert for a while and having our picture taken, we proceeded on to the When I Grow Up panel.  This panel, I had read, was being run by a gentleman named Sean Baptiste, who had suffered some sort of serious illness and used it as motivation to start doing the things he'd always wanted to do.  Frankly, it sounded more than a little familiar.  (This was also another example of PAX East being a non-stop conspiracy to get Becca to cry her eyes out.)  As it turned out, the "some serious illness" was an inoperable brain tumor that was preventing excess spinal fluid from draining from around his brain...slowly building up pressure and leading to some truly epic migraines.  What I thought was going to be a discussion of his plans or maybe some encouraging words for us all to go out there and hunt our own dreams turned out to be the screening of the first episode of what will hopefully be a multi-part documentary.  The first episode followed Sean through his becoming a stand-up comedian.  It seriously meant a lot to me.  Here was a man who had gone through something that was at least similar to what I'd gone through, and not only had he made it through, but he'd already started doing what I had planned on doing this year...moving FORWARD in life!  By reaching back to those memories from childhood and doing those things that he'd always wanted to do, Sean is living life on histerms...not the tumor's.  After the screening was done, there was a brief Q&A, so I wheeled up to the mic.  When they got to me, I gave them the short version.  I'd had a 2.6 pound tumor removed in a 22 hour operation back in '08, a surgery from which I woke up a paraplegic.  Then, this past year, due to complications from that original surgery, I'd lost both legs.  "So," I said, "since I can't currently, I have a request not for you guys up front, but for the audience.  I'd really appreciate it if you could give a standing ovation for me."  The reaction was immediate and intense.  People got to their feet and gave a resounding cheer, for which I'm glad.  Maybe my request made Sean's point sink in with everyone a little bit more.  I rolled up to the front, gave Sean and his comedy coach a hug, then rolled back to Becca.  When the panel ended, a few minutes later, a lot of people came to the front.  Most went the whole way up to the front to shake Sean's hand, but I was surprised to see that some of them were coming to shake mine!  The most surprising was a gentle tap on my shoulder which made me turn around to see a smiling older lady behind me.  She informed me that she was Sean's grandmother, and that it had taken a lot of courage to get up there and say that, then she gave me a hug and wished me well.  (chalk up another set of tears for Becca)

When all the dust cleared, I got to exchange contact information with Sean, and we have since been in touch with each other quite a bit.  We actually have quite a bit in common, from the fact that we both named our tumors to the way that we handled adversity to, of course, the fact that we're both going through our lists of things we've always wanted to do.  (He's just more organized about it...and has a film crew. :) )  I'm pleased to say that I have continued what might be my favorite PAX tradition...while I was here, I made a real and lasting friend.

If you would like more information on Sean's documentary, or if you'd like to learn more about him, here's his contact info:

You can follow him on Twitter at @HarmonixSean

Sean's personal blog can be found at http://www.baronbarometer.com

and you can learn all about "When I Grow Up" at http://www.whenigrowupshow.com/

Saturday at PAX East started with working the lines some more for the Cookie Brigade!  (I really tried to get as much time in as possible, and I think, by the end, Becca and I really had it down to a science.  Next year, the only thing we can do better is better cookie diversity and scheduling.)  After an hour or so of working the lines, it was time for the Make-A-Strip panel.

As with the Q&A panels, microphones are set up on the left and right side of the theater to allow fans to ask questions of the guys while Mike is drawing the comic.  As always, there was a combination of interesting questions, funny remarks and odd requests.  Like last year, there were a lot of people who were at PAX for the first time and, as always, they got a lot of cheers from the crowd.  Once again, it demonstrated so nicely the community of PAX (the best example of that to come tomorrow).   

I'd also like to take a moment to comment on my phone.  This is the first year that I've had a smartphone, and thus the first time I've had a smartphone at PAX.  So, having experienced both sides of the debate, I can honestly say that my phone (a Droid X) definitely improved my PAX experience.  Being able to constantly update and check Twitter (to announce where we'd be distributing cookies or keep up with friends) from using one of the PAX East apps available in the Marketplace, it just made all the difference.

Speaking of seeing things from two sides, I also met a girl on Saturday that reminds me of that topic.  (sorry, I don't remember her name)  Her leg was in a temporary brace/cast, and a guy was pushing her in a wheelchair.  She had a medical badge on, of course.  When I saw this, it immediately occurred to me that, while she got to experience PAX this year behind the medical badge, next year would be entirely different.  After being able to get into every panel first, and being let on to the vendor floor an hour early, she'll be stuck with the rest of PAX, waiting in some pretty intense lines.  Honestly, that medical badge is one of the few perks of the whole "no leg" thing.

In the afternoon, we went to the Females on Female Characters panel, partially because Becca wanted to see it and partially because Kathleen from Loading Ready Run was going to be on the panel.  It turned out to be a very intelligent and entirely too short discussion on the state of female characters across all the game genres, as well as the kind of female character that's really needed right now.  All in all, we really enjoyed the panel and I was glad to be able to shake Kathleen's hand afterwards.  Lisa Foiles, who was supposed to be on the panel, was strangely absent.  It's a shame, I was hoping to meet her.

We finally got to have a real, sit-down dinner with a pretty big table of friends at the weird little lobby-restaurant in the Westin.  As always, I got to have some wonderful conversation with my friends, as well as laughing until I hurt.  What I didn't count on was a surprise sneak attack.  It was my own fault, really.  Since I've gone through chemo, I've tried to limit my red meat intake.  It just doesn't agree with me that much any more.  Well, I must have been feeling overconfident, or I got swept up in the PAX experience or something...because I ordered the TNT Burger.  It was a big, thick, red-meat burger with buffalo sauce and blue cheese.  Although mine seemed to come without the blue cheese (and we had no time to send it back and wait for a new one), what it did contain was a GIANT BEEF PATTY.  So...while it tasted great, (really, it did) it ultimately wrecked me.  More on that later.

After dinner, it was finally time for the Loading Ready Run panel.  I was anxiously waiting to see which LRR crew members had made the trip from the Moonbase (their headquarters, near Vancouver, Canada) this year.  Last year, for the first PAX East, nearly all of them had made the trip.  This year, money must have been a bigger issue.  We got to the panel to find out that Graham, Kathleen and Paul were the only ones who had been able to make the trip.  Fortunately, even these three are funny enough that it was still an excellent panel...or, it would have been an excellent panel, if my stomach hadn't chosen this moment to start doing back-flips.  After several trips to the restroom, I made the call that I was done, and had to return to the room for the night.  

Friday started out with the first Cookie Brigade meeting in the lobby of the Westin.  The Cookie Brigade, for those who don't know, is a volunteer group that raises money for Child's Play.  We bake and distribute cookies for free to people at PAX, then take a (strictly optional) donation to Child's Play.  This year...spoiler...we raised $9,600.  Aside from just being generally amazing, this total also blew away last year's total and even beat the total amount gathered at last year's PAX Prime!  (where the Cookie Brigade was born)  After dropping off the Cookie Brigade flag that Becca and her mom made with VT, I picked up some supplies for the day, double checked my cookies and headed off to the convention center to start working some of the lines.  I got over to the convention center and, not being very familiar with it yet, actually ended up working the line for the Penny Arcade Merch booth.  Recognition of the Brigade was much higher this year, I'm sure partly due to the several shout-outs we received throughout the year, especially from the awesome folks at Loading Ready Run.  I was only able to work the line for an hour or so before I had to meet up with Becca and get to the Main theater for the Keynote address, but by the time I booked it up to the third floor, I had already raised over a hundred dollars, so that was a nice start.

I won't spend too much time speaking about Jane McGonigal's Keynote address, other than to say that it was incredible.  I'm sure that if it's not already available on Youtube, then it will be shortly.  As soon as it is, I recommend that you watch it.  Her main theme, which was how games can be used to genuinely improve our lives, struck very close to home for Becca and I.  She went through a pretty serious head injury a few years ago, and to ease the mental trauma of her recovery, she made a game out of it.  Seriously, as soon as you can watch it, do it.  At one point, it even made the members of Team 9 all smile to ourselves simultaneously and text each other with comments of support.  (Since Becca and I had the medical badges and Steph and Andrew didn't, we were in different parts of the theater.)  The Keynote also kicked off the three great conspiracies of PAX East.  

Make sure Becca cries at least once every day of PAX.

Make sure Jeff and Becca eat very poorly for the duration of PAX.

Make sure Jeff and Becca get not nearly enough sleep.

Becca got her tears out of the way early on Friday, crying a bit (several times) during the Keynote.  It was definitely a trend that would continue.

We stayed in the main theater after the Keynote for the first PA Q&A which was, as always, hysterical.  I have to say, I admire Mike and Jerry during these Q&A's for being as patient as they are with some of their fans.  While most of the people that get to the microphones have legitimate questions or requests (sign this, sing a song, etc), there are some...shall we say...less mature fans.  Whether they're actual kids or they just have a similar mentality, they feel the need to blast out some vulgar joke or request.  Mike and Jerry, to their credit, handle it all in stride, calmly brushing it off.  I tip my hat to you, gentlemen.  (and it's a nice hat, too!)

Aaron C, who I'm pretty sure is the leader of the Special Forces branch of the Enforcers, informed us after the Q&A that if we were planning on attending the Blamimations Alive panel, we could just hang out here, as it had been moved to the main theater.  Aaron was just one of the many Enforcers who were just awesome throughout the whole event.  Scott and Kris, not surprisingly, arrived a little early for their panel.  Scott must have just bought a copy of Pokemon Black (or white, I'm not sure), and he openly invited anyone that wanted to trade Pokemon to come up to the stage and trade.  A line immediately formed, and didn't completely dissipate until moments before the panel was to begin.  Kris did a good job of looking frustrated and left out, not being into Pokemon and having no one on his side of the stage.  Graham, of Loading Ready Run, was in the audience and must have felt bad for Kris.  He walked up on to his side of the stage, waited for him to turn around, then calmly talked to him for a minute or so, reassuring him, I can only believe.  After that, Kris leaned down to his mic and suggested that if anyone had any real stuff they'd like to give him rather than the...and I'm quoting here..."fake bullshit."  Amusingly, a line started up on Kris' side as well.  If you watch the videos of the panel (that feature the lines before it started, you can actually see Becca in line delivering Kris some cookies!)  Once both lines were dealt with, and the proper time rolled around, the panel actually started.  Scott and Kris were a little hesitant at first.  You can tell that, down inside, they're still a bit insecure, and not sure whether or not they'll meet everyone's expectations.  As it turns out, there was ABSOLUTELY no need for that concern.  Their panel was possibly the funniest hour of PAX, absolute genius, through and through.  As I mentioned, the panel is already up on Youtube, I recommend that you go watch it, though I'm sure it won't compare to the actual experience of being there.

The last panel that we ended up seeing on Friday was called "Gamers Doing Good," and it was all about how gamers are combining their love of gaming and their desire to do charity work.  With our involvement in the Cookie Brigade, not to mention future plans to raise even more money for Child's Play, we were very interested.  This one was slightly disappointing.  I think I was just expecting something different.  While I went in hoping for instructions on how to set up your own charity event, or tips and tricks on such a thing, this panel primarily just discussed charitable events that the two groups running the panel had already run.  It was useful, if only to get their contact info, but just not what I was expecting.

By the time we got out of that panel, it was 6:30 and we hadn't had anything to eat since some pastries in the morning.  We met up with some friends for a quick dinner, then went back over to the convention hall to hit the lines again.  Cookie Brigade duty never stops!  Becca and I have a very effective distribution of duties for our Cookie Brigade work.  She is an incredible baker.  As many people can attest, she is a baking machine.  Not only can she crank out impressive numbers of cookies, she'll show up with some pretty bizarre, yet strangely delicious recipes.  This year, unfortunately, we didn't have quite as large a variety as last year, but we had more than enough cookies, and they were all damned tasty.  My job, on the other hand, is to be like the old time carnival barker.  As we walk up and down the line, I call out "Free cookie from the Cookie Brigade!  Chocolate Chip, Toffee Chip, all benefiting Child's Play!" or something similar.  I've got it down to a science now.  I can spot the faces that look interested or curious, then target and convince them.  Once one person gets some cookies, the others around them begin to see that it's for real, and two or three more people say that they'd like some.  Usually, we'd get one person in each bunch that didn't even want any cookies, they just wanted to give some money to Child's Play.  For them, we'd have one of the little buttons that VT had made, looking like an 8-bit cookie with a number eleven on it for PAX East 2011.  

When we had finally burned through our supply of cookies for the evening, we retired to our room at the Westin and invited our friends Stephen and his wife Tina over to the room to hang out, talk, laugh and generally experience the community high that is PAX.  We must have been up until 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, laughing with friends that we don't see nearly often enough.  As with every PAX, we agreed that we shouldn't allow ourselves to only meet once a year, and I think that this year is the one when we'll hold one (or more) "Mini-PAX's," either here or abroad, where we can laugh, chat and have fun with our extended PAX family.  

Though PAX doesn't officially start until Friday, there are some people who prefer to show up on Thursday.  Becca and I are, as you'd guess, among those people.  I always prefer to get my medical badge early, and this time, Becca had something to drop off with the Enforcers.

We found that the BCEC was much easier to get to than the convention center from last year.  Our driving instructions had us on main roads for the majority of the trip, with only a couple quick turns at the end to get us to the Westin.  Unfortunately, just as we started the last portion of our trip, where we'd have to pay closer attention to the turns, my buddy Andrew called.  This year, our first year with both Becca and I having Droid X's, we were using the phone's Navigation rather than the old GPS.  This was the first time I saw a problem with this idea, since I had to hit Ignore on Drew's call in order to keep up with our turns.  As it turned out, he was calling to let us know that he was waiting for us at the hotel, which we found out moments later as we pulled into the valet parking area and found Drew waiting just outside the passenger door, waving happily.

PAX, from the outsider's perspective, is about video games.  It's easy to think that.  Games are everywhere, gaming references abound, you'll frequently see people dressed as video game characters.  To say that PAX is about video games; however, is only partially true.  Just as much as it's about gaming, if not more, PAX is about community.  I was reminded of that when we pulled in to the hotel lot and saw my good friend waiting for us there.  

As soon as we got the van unloaded, Becca went to check us in while Drew and I started to catch up.  The hotel was nice enough to store our luggage while our room was being prepared.  (We'd have to wait a few hours which, after talking to other guests of the hotel, ended up being pretty reasonable.)  This was just fine with us, as we had things to do anyways.  Becca grabbed the cooler with the Gobs (aka Whoopie Pies, Moon Pies, etc) and we headed over to the convention center.  As soon as we entered the building, it was obvious that the BCEC is much bigger than the convention center we used last year.  We had been hearing about it all year, but it really was a striking difference.  We headed over to the registration area and were immediately helped by the Enforcers, who happily and quickly provided my wife and I with medical badges.  (I'm a double amputee, and I get one extra badge for my wife.)  Just a quick note:  If you have any reason to need one, I highly recommend you take advantage of the medical badge.  It allows you (and your "plus one") to be let in first to any panel, have front row seating at the concerts, and be let in an hour early to the show floor when it opens.  At PAX, I have friends who are paraplegic, quadriplegic, have nerve problems in their legs, etc.  The common thread is that we all deeply appreciate the medical badges.  It makes things much easier for us without making you feel singled out, or any less of a person.

After we retrieved our medical badges, we hopped over to the Info desk, where a lot of Enforcers were busy checking in and getting their initial assignments.  I wheeled up to the desk and announced our presence as Ambassadors of the Cookie Brigade.  Becca, wanting to show our appreciation for everything the Enforcers do, had baked close to 200 gobs to deliver to the Enforcers at PAX East this year.  They were thrilled when she opened the cooler and placed a box of gobs on the counter of the info desk.  They were surprised when she placed the second box there.  By the time she got to the fourth box, they had already called for some assistance to take the gobs to a secret location.  Throughout the weekend, we would then continue to run into Enforcers who would thank us for the Gobs.  (It seems that while not everyone got one, a lot of Enforcers did.)  

I also had one of the best things, and worst things of my weekend on Thursday.  On the bright side, we finally got to meet Steph in person, after becoming fast friends via Twitter.  The down side?  Due to the blister that I developed towards the end of in patient physical therapy, I wasn't able to stand up to give her the hug that she deserves.  After talking, laughing and lots of hugs in our room for a while, we eventually made it downstairs for a nice, if overpriced dinner at one of the hotel restaurants.  We also got to really spend some time with Drew's friend Adam.  We had met briefly last year, but hadn't spent a lot of time together.  I'm glad we got the chance, this year, he's a really funny guy.

After dinner, we retired to the room where we continued to catch up, laugh with each other and enjoy some of Becca's delicious jello shots.  (The best ones were the Strawberry flavored with Strawberry rum in the shape of two bite sized brains.)  This is the one time a year that I drink, and considering that I'm also taking prescription painkillers, I barely drink, even then...but those jello shots are damned good.