Then we headed over to the Steak and Ale, where we had tickets for a dinner with Robert Jordan. We got there early, so we sat around and waited for people to arrive. Hard of hearing that I am, I was still struggling at this point to figure out what was going on. I got the general gist of a lot of things, but sometimes I was completely confused. But it’s against my nature to bring these things up. Heh. Would make things easier, wouldn’t it?
Anyway, at one point two lurkers who are originally from Dragonmount (I think) walked in and sat down with us. They were both from Texas, I believe. And we told them that we were from Theoryland, and the girl says “Oh! I’ve been there a couple of times. I just have one question… ?” and everyone busts out laughing. I laughed, cause everyone else was, and I didn’t wanna look like an idiot. Oh well, I tried. Suddenly, SP stands up and says “You need to ask her yourself! I’m calling her now!” and dials the phone and hands it to the Lurker #1. Lurker #1 is laughing hysterically, so I didn’t understand her when she was on the phone with whoever, either. Then the phone was passed around to various people, and then back to SP. Then SP says, “Camel? Yeah, he’s right here!” A sense of dread entered my soul. Kinda like when a Myrddraal stares at you. I guess. I’ve never seen a Myrddraal. And they can’t see anyway. Or something. SP handed the phone to me.
Camel: “…hi..?”
Woman: “Hey, Camel!”
Camel: “…hi..?”
Woman: “How are you?”
Camel: “…fine…?”
Woman: “Good. How’s Zaela’s rack?” (I think this is what she asked)
Camel: “…okay…?”
Woman: “Sounds like you need to do more research.”
Camel: “…okay…?”
Woman: “Okay, let me talk to Strange Package again.”
So I handed the phone back. And wondered who the hell I was talking to. It was about this time that a bunch more people showed up, and we moved to our proper table. At about 7:30 or 8:00, Robert Jordan and Darrell K. Sweet and their wives entered the room. Sweet sat with us. I think I cracked a couple of jokes to WSB. Anyway, dinner was served and SP must’ve talked the entire time without shutting up. At some point, I realized that Sweet had said he’d only had 3-4 pages to work with when drawing the covers for books 4-11. I was like, “what?” Anyway.. it was an interesting dinner, and this is when I finally felt comfortable enough to start talking. I feel obligated to point out at this time that I had just realized, also, that Isabel is even cuter than the pics I had seen suggested. Anyway!
After dinner was finished, RJ and Sweet moved up to the front for picture taking and stuff. When it was our turn, we got behind him and everyone handed their cameras to various Dragonmount members and waiters and servers and stuff. I put bunny ears on Isabel in my picture, and on WSB’s camera was a picture of me putting bunny ears on Jordan. I think Harriet noticed. Anyway!
Then we left and in front of the Hyatt, we split up, with me, SP, Zaela, and Tamyrlin going out to drink, and the rest of them (Hopper, Isa, Dapple, and WSB) went back to the hotel. We wound up at a pub called Gibleys, where SP and Zaela proceeded to get drunk as fish. Tam and I sat back and laughed. There was a lot of talk about stuff I don’t care to get into on here, but I didn’t talk much, cause I felt I had nothing to contribute to the conversation. Besides, it was late, and I was exhausted.
SP was drinking a grey goose and tonic, and he finished that. I must’ve had like forty-seven glasses of water. Then SP went to get another grey goose and tonic, and then proudly announced his intentions to go to the restroom. Zaela followed. I understand there was a mishap back there, but that’s a different story. Anyway, Zaela came back first, and I proceeded to fill up SP’s empty grey goose glass with water, and put the full (real) grey-goose glass behind a stand-up menu thing. Then SP returned from the Call of Nature(tm). I kept trying to toast him with my glasses of water, but he was too drunk to realize I was toasting him. Before he could drink the fake drink, Zaela goes, “Hey! What’s this?” and pulls out the real one.
THANKS ALOT, ZAELA, FOR RUINING MY PRANK!!!!
Fortunately, the look on SP’s face when he thought he had two of them was priceless. Priceless.
Around 2am, we went back to the apartment, where I went to sleep. I understand they went back out for another hour or two.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.