Thursday, April 1, 2010

Weekend Recap - Part 3 (PAX East 2010 - Day 2 Continued and Engagement)

After the tournament, my friends and I were really bummed at what could have been. We walked across the hallway to the Main Theater again just in time to catch the beginning of the Video Game Orchestra (VGO). These musicians are known for playing music from classic video games with a full orchestra. After hearing their awesome renditions of Super Mario Brothers, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy, I felt a lot better. How can you be down after hearing the Chocobo theme song? We stayed as long as we could but we had to duck out about halfway through to catch our friend’s birthday party. It ended up being so much more.

On the drive back home, my friend S.I. whose birthday we were going to, texted me to find out when we were arriving. I replied, “About 45 minutes”. He followed up with another message reminding us to also pick up Tary. I then realized that something big was going down that night. My buddy was going to propose to his longtime girlfriend!

On the ride home, we swung by to pick up Tary. By the time we got to S.I.’s house, it was almost 11:30 PM. There were a ton of people already there which included his parents. I guess he was waiting for us so I feel a little guilty staying as long as we did at PAX. It only felt like a few minutes after we arrived before the festivities got underway.

A cake was brought out and we all sang Happy Birthday. S.I. paused briefly before blowing up the candles. The crowd lobbied for a speech and S.I obliged. He started by thanking everyone for coming. He then shared that the lines between friendship and family are often blurred and he considered many of us as his brothers and sisters. He rhetorically asked that without friends, what would we be celebrating?

Then S.I. pulled out a beautiful diamond encrusted ring from his pocket. After some coaching from the crowd to get on one knee, he then asked for J.W.’s hand in marriage. To his relief she said, “Yes!” I love seeing my friends in their happiest moments. I admit it; I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t believe that it was almost 2 years ago that I was proposing to Tary in front of the same group of friends. Congratulations you two lovebirds!

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