Small World

So yesterday was Ron's birthday and we went out for a few drinks as Uisge Beatha (If you simply called it "whiskey bar" your pronunciation would be better than most). We only managed to invite six other people but surprisingly they all made it. Four were fellow role-players and then there was one of Ron's ex-co-workers from the call center and his girlfriend. Now, one of the other role-players also works in a different call center as a team leader. So Ron's call center friend walks in and stares, surprised (and somewhat dismayed) at Kane. It turns out that he had been on Kane's team and had quite without notice last week! I guess the call center world is a small one. Hehe.

Ron's present this year was also funny. A couple of weeks ago our GM came to our game with a shiny new sourcebook: Dark Heresy, the first in the new Warhammer 40K RPG. He'd gotten it in pre-release somehow. Now Warhammer is no way my game, but I had to admit the book was pretty (in a dark and bloody kind of way). Ron was enamored. But then, he loves Warhammer 40K. So, I thought, here is a potential birthday present.

Well, the next week our GM came with some bad news. Dark Heresy had sold out in pre-order and amazon and all the game stores had not even gotten as many as they'd wanted...but there was not going to be a reprint. The company had decided to discontinue its entire RPG book publishing line (having apparently lost money on some LotR RPG stuff). Well, Ron was now determined to get a copy before they sold out never to be seen again except on eBay for ten thousand pounds. He decided to go on Saturday. His birthday was Saturday. Cunningly I looked up the location of the gaming store (they've moved) and went on my own on Wednesday. Then I could give it to him Saturday morning, surprising him and saving him the trip.

Unfortunately, his shifts fell out this week so that he would have to work today (Sunday) but had Friday off. He was impatient to go get the book--what if it sold out? I tried everything I could think of to delay him, to put him off to Saturday. Usually this would be an easy task, but he was quite infuriatingly motivated. So I finally asked him pointedly if it had occurred to him that someone might get it for him for his birthday. That stopped him speechless for a moment and he took my meaning. Finally he said, "Uh, no. It hadn't." Then there was a lot of laughing. Oh well, I did surprise him, just a day early. At least he likes his present!