Memories (of simpler times?)

Wow, two posts in one day after over a month of silence. Is the world coming to an end?

Anyway, as my valued friend, The Tank Hunter, posted his WoW memories a few days ago, I felt compelled to post mine.

It all started in late 2005, when after the continual hounding of a couple of friends (Shaloria and Prophetess) to get me to play, I finally asked for the game as a Christmas present. Since I was still dealing with a very slow dial-up connection at the time, it took me 2 days to get all the updates downloaded and installed (thankfully, I had 2 phone lines, so the telephone wasn't completely tied up.) and once I had it completely updated, I immediately set about creating my first character, a night elf warrior named "Shikyrie" on Eldre'Thalas server (so I could play with Shaloria and failed miserably on him. I stuck around there for about a day (Shaloria was in a guild already, and quite a bit higher, and I didn't want to take her away from her game) and made a mage, Wyrmsbane, on Windrunner to play with my livejournal friends Firni and Epique who had invited me to play with them, and I was soon joined by a pesky little gnome warlock by the name of "Dafodil" (who was played by my friend Dave -now Arystina in Eternity Matters, who promptly challenged me to roll a cuter gnome than he had, and thus Blossums was born. I played on Blossums for quite a while, and levelled her to 60, alongside of Arystina on Windrunner until constant server issues forced us to switch servers back to Eldre'Thalas. Once transferred, I rolled Rhowynne and he rolled another gnome, Trillee. We briefly started a rogues guild (I think we called it "Black Widows") before giving it up because people just joined to get a tabard and then left. We then joined The Unconquered where we stayed for a few months until I took a few weeks off due to burnout and the desire to visit friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and returned to find that I was guildless (they purged me due to inactivity for that month). That was August of 2008. It was then that I noticed an announcement in general chat that a fledgeling Christian guild was recruiting new members. I inquired about it and had a nice long chat with a character by the name of "Cuh" and his friend "Sidovan" and Rhowynne accepted into Eternity Matters along with Trillee. I was a bit of a loner at first, and didn't know too many people, still doing my own thing, and occasionally playing with Trillee, and Shaloria, who I also convinced to join the guild. At the time, I was unemployed, and spent most of my afternoons looking for work, and would get on late at night to play. It was during one of these late night sessions that I met one of my longest in game friends, Firager who was off work for a few weeks due to a foot injury, and began to play regularly with him at night. Shortly thereafter, I became acquainted with the "little kid brother" (who's not such a little kid anymore), Firager's younger brother BryanBG (which I kept insisting the BG was short for "Mr. Bigglesworth" long before I knew of the existence ofMr. Bigglesworth in Naxxrammas.I was constantly running around and doing things with these two, and helping them level up and having a great time. About this time, I had also just gotten high speed internet, and learned the uses of Ventrillo, and spent a lot of time talking in Vent with various people, which included the "Nightly Bedtime Song" for another guildie that I had gotten to know as my "little guild-sister", Hesta's older sister "Leihlani" (why she said I had a good singing voice, I dunno, but I teased her and said she was either deaf or needed her ears cleaned.) Eventually, Dave's wife, Rachel created her first character on the server, a priest named "Talamani" and joined the guild, Dave and I transfered Arystina and Blossums over to Eldre'Thalas and Eternity Matters and convinced Prophetess to take some time away from PVPing on his Hordey's on Dragonmaw and he rolled Prophetess on Eldre'Thalas and joined Eternity Matters as well. There have been many fun times, as well as those times that I got so frustrated that I wanted nothing to do with the guild and left, only to realize that I needed my guild family and admitted that I was wrong and returned. I have also had the opportunity to make many new friends, including those that left to pursue real life callings, and those whom I have had the privilege of meeting in person (Enok and Schaikera) who make life interesting when they make they're almost regular incursions into Erie to visit the gang here, and who I am honored to be their friend. All these people mentioned are more than friends, the are my extended family, and I love them all (despite any shortcomings).