chewie & rizzo

Recollections Of State College

Back in September, we had our third annual quitter meet in State College, PA.  I’ve been wanting to write this post for quite a while now but some “real life” issues have gotten in the way and I’m just now getting around to it.  Please keep in mind that the title here is  “Recollections” rather than something more concrete like “What Happened”.  If you’ve seen the pictures, you know we all had quite a few adult beverages so my “recollections” are just that.  Your mileage may vary.

Friday afternoon, I took off relatively early (noonish) as I was giddy as a school girl on prom night.  I look forward to this particular meet every year as I know how much fun it always is.  I get to see some old friends and a TON of new ones which is always an incredible experience.  If you’re still freaking out about potentially meeting someone “from the Internet” I’m here to tell you to get off your ass and get it done.  It’s totally worth it.

After a pretty uneventful drive over the mountains, I pulled in to State College ready to get the party started.  I checked in, got my parking pass and headed over to the parking garage.  Once I parked, I started putting shit back together as I have a tendency to do after a long trip: iPod, phone charger, etc.  I took my phone charger out of the cigarette lighter and got some sparks… then some smoke.  Not good.  Naturally I didn’t bring my wall charger for my phone and now that I’d blown up not only my car charger, but the cigarette lighter as well, I was screwed from a power perspective for the weekend.  Fuck.  Luckily BBJ had a similar charger and I was able to steal some juice from him.

Jack and I headed to the bar to grab a bite to eat and to wait for the rest of the degenerates to roll in.  Joe (aka neveragain) was headed up from VA and he’d left pretty early in the day so he should get in soon (or so we thought).  We went back to the room and met up with Penguin (Rick) and popped open a beer.  I hopped on the site and noticed that Rizzo20 (Wayne) was actually in the hotel wondering where the hell we were.  This is pretty funny in retrospect cause he didn’t know any of us and just showed up hoping to find some quitters.  Luckily we hooked up and he, Rick, Jack and I started in.  Notice that I didn’t mention Joe in that  last sentence.  He was in the midst of the single worst trip from VA to PA in recorded history.  I can’t recall all of the details here but they included him nearly running off the road after hitting either a moose or a reindeer.  Hilarious.

Saturday morning and it was go time.  A couple of us headed over to visit Cliff’s grave site and a tree that was planted in his memory in the middle of campus.  Very moving indeed.  Thanks for everything Cliffy… you won’t be forgotten.  After that, we headed over Fish’s house and it… was… on.  The details are pretty fuzzy as I ate and drank myself into oblivion.  And no… I don’t mean I got hammered (though I did have quite a few adult beverages).  Really what I mean is that I had such an AWESOME time talking with my brothers and sisters from the site that I couldn’t possibly put it all into words here.  We had all types of quitters there ranging from pre-HOF status to those “long in the tooth” quitters that count their quits in years rather than days.  It was absolutely incredible.  If you think it’ll be weird to meet folks from the site I’m here to tell you that it absolutely won’t be.  It’s tremendous no matter how you slice it.  In all my years at KTC I’ve never had ONE SINGLE quitter tell me that a meet wasn’t fun or that it was uncomfortable.  If you’ve never experienced a meet I can’t say it loudly enough…. do it!  You’ll be happy that you did.

After the food coma had worn off, it was back to the hotel for some late night poker!  The hotel that we were staying at was VERY accommodating and hooked us up with a nice room downstairs, out of the way, and out of earshot of other guests where we could put on poker tournament… KTC style.

I’m happy to say that KTC is going to continue the “State College” tradition this year.  November 11th – 13th 2011 is the weekend.  And even though we’re referring to it as the “State College” meet, this year it’s going to take place at BBJ’s house in East Stroudsburg, PA.  There’s a block of rooms available for KTC members at the Pocono Budget Inn.  If you’re interested I can guarantee that you’ll have a great time.  In fact, it appears that there’s a group of quitters making a caravan trip all the way from Houston.  I already can’t wait.  See you then quitters!

5 Replies to “Recollections Of State College”

  1. lets not forget the couch in the middle of no where is that hotel or running out of beer and waking who I thought was fran for more.

  2. I am humbled by the response and excited beyond belief that so many are making the effort to come from some serious miles away … I promise this will continue to be the Meet of all Meets every year (can any one say Adult Beverages Galor and Lobster and Kobe Briskett ?? mmmm mmmmm mmmmmm ) … :-)~ B.B.J.

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