I’m no longer in the habit of writing up cons or good weekends or whatever, but I felt like I wanted to note some of the highlights of this year’s PAX, mostly for my own benefit. The whole past week has just been such a blur of fun and gaming and friends and parties that it could probably use a little unpacking.

On Thursday, I met up with Bongi, my PAX roomie and new best friend who you may remember from this Reddit post. I think ahead of time we were both like “oh man, I am spending four nights at a hotel with a stranger from the Internet, what have I done,” but then it turned out to be awesome, so well done Internet.

Four hours later, we arrived at the hotel and walked over to the convention center to pick up my badge and say hi to Khahil and a couple of friendly robots, and surreptitiously look around the main lobby in spite of a cop who rather wished we wouldn’t.

Then it was time to go on a beer run with the fabulous kazooie and her equally fabulous man. Here’s a pro tip I’ll be taking advantage of myself next year: Al’s Bottled Liquors in Southie, apart from being the closest liquor store to the Westin Waterfront, will actually deliver to the Westin Waterfront. And they have Gosling’s ginger beer.

Errands accomplished, I summoned my fellow early-arriving friends for what turned into a three hour snacking-and-drinking session at the fake Irish bar in the Westin lobby. Bongi and I were joined by cybersenshi, Hex and Cap, my buddies Pedro and Steve, Spice-J and fancy lady Rhiannon, Jerry, and I’m sure several other people I’m forgetting. Jerry got me thoroughly excited to see Supercommuter at the Friday concert and told us all to check out Quantum Conundrum at the Expo hall. Also, there was cake.

After taking up a giant table in the bar all night we retired to my room for a couple of low-key beers, then made a pretty early night of it in anticipation of several long days ahead.

Friday morning, after a fancy hotel room service breakfast, Bongi and I actually managed to drag ourselves out of bed and down to the convention center in time to be in the second row for the keynote and first Penny Arcade Q&A. There were questions, and answers, and of course also hustlin.

The rest of Saturday afternoon is a blur for me, because at some point I began consuming energy drinks spiked with whiskey. I make no apologies. I do know, though, that I met up with Pedro and Steve for a Dungeon Delve over at the WotC D&D booth, and that we kicked ass and cleared that motherfucker. I believe there were also boardgames, and socializing with robots at their merch booth.

At some point I realized that I would probably need to consume food before the long-ass Friday night concert, so Turbo Lover and I had perhaps the world’s fastest classy dinner at one of the other hotel restaurants. The steak tips at City Bar are pretty decent, if you were curious.

Then it was time to abuse my special powers and meet up with Mike around 8pm, who walked me past a line that had started forming at 4pm and straight into the VIP pit in Main Theater, where I claimed my favorite spot, right next to some fabulous friends.

As for the concert itself, I was totally won over by Supercommuter and am now a fan. Metroid Metal rocked as they are wont to rock, and the Minibosses were well received though they aren’t quite my thing.

And then, at long last, it was time for the Protomen. I could go on for hours about how they’re one of the few bands I know with the presence to really fill up that enormous stage, or how PAX is pretty much the only con I’ve been to with really excellent sound, or how perfect it was having a string quartet and a horn player for Act II… but if you were interested in that kind of thing, you’d already be reading it over on Protofans. It was my 20th Protomen show, and definitely among the very best to date.

As is traditional after a Protoshow, it was time to consume drinks, which we did in my room. I don’t remember very much about the evening from this point onward, except that we didn’t get to sleep until perhaps 5:30am, and that not all the robots made it out of my room, so I take it to be a successful gathering. Though I will say that waking up after a scant three hours of drunk sleep to realize there are more people in the room (and indeed in your bed) than is perhaps quite right can be a startling experience.

I actually managed to haul my weary ass out of bed and over to the convention center after the aforementioned three hours of drunk sleep, and scored a pretty decent seat for the Penny Arcade “Make A Strip” panel, in which the boys take turns answering questions while Monday’s strip is written and drawn on stage. The traditional hot dog fairy made an appearance, which pleased us all.

The bulk of Saturday consisted of more boardgames and D&D in the tabletop hall, with a break somewhere in the middle for lunch with a vast collection of Internet folk. At some point, gamed out and full of overpriced hotel bar cocktails, I ended up back in my room for a little recuperation time with some robots, and I seem to remember ordering chocolate Guinness cake and french fries from room service while we watched Pawn Stars, so that’s probably a thing that happened.

And then it was concert time again, somehow! We made a brief stop at Jamspace to catch part of The Protomans’ performance, and if you’ve never watched a cover band while hanging out with the band they are covering, I am here to tell you it’s an experience worth having. Then we headed up to Main Theater in time to catch the bulk of Front’s set, including an appearance by Random, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

And then, sleepy and with sated ears, we gathered in my room once more to finish off my whiskey, beer, and cookies. I don’t recall much about this bit, either, except that we actually managed not to get shut down by hotel security until the party moved to the Metroid Metal residence, which I consider a major victory. Also, we ran out of clean cups early on, and senshi was the hero of the evening for showing up with a whole stack of them procured from heavens knows where. Lessons learned for next year: buy two giant bottles of whiskey and don’t even bother with the vodka.

Sunday is always bittersweet at PAX, and this year was no exception. It’s the shortest of the three days, and ends quite early, with many friends taking off immediately after the closing ceremony. But I got the most out of it with time spent in the classic arcade, more boardgames in the tabletop hall, lunch with the boys themselves in the food court, the Protomen Q&A in Jamspace, and a final few overpriced hotel drinks in the bar.

For the second year running, in what I hope becomes an annual tradition, I decided to treat all my robot friends to a post-PAX dinner as soon as the bus and trailer were packed and ready. We once again took over a big chunk of the fake Irish pub in the Westin and ate until we were so sleepy we could hardly move. Perhaps because of the three previous nights of partying, we made it a pretty early night. Only the folks staying with me headed back to my room this time, and we got all cozy in our jammies for a last couple drinks and storytime with my favorite faux-brother.

And then it was Monday, and PAX was really over! I stayed in town an extra day to hit up the show at the Middle East, but you can read about that elsewhere.