Party like it's 1999

So curtana assigned me to write about 1999 (yay memes!). If you'd like to have a year to write about, then by all means leave a comment and I shall give you one of your own!

In January of 1999 I turned twenty, and was living with my parents in our old house on Highland ave. My three high school friends surprised me on my birthday by coming to my house with slices of cake from the Second Cup. It was very sweet, and we all had a fun time for what turned out to be the last time we'd ever all be together in the same room.

That year I began my second semester at McGill. I had already joined a bunch of extracurricular activities there in the fall: the McGill Women's Union, Scrivener Creative Review, and Pillar Magazine. Since I was riding a high coming out of a high school which offered no extracurricular activities at all, I went to Activities Night, which is an event in which all the university clubs get together and set up tables so that the students can find out the myriad possibilities that are open to them.

I was staffing the Women's Union table that night, but at one point I decided to go look around. I passed by a table which caught my eye, because it had a book on it with an illustration of what looked like a romanticized version of a knight from Arthurian times, and the title "Pendragon." I didn't think too much of it and was about to continue on my way, when I was unceremoniously shot with a Nerf dart. Looking up, I caught sight of a very large black man and, next to him, a small red-headed girl who was blushing and giggling and holding the offending Nerf gun. Thus I met blackbuffet and joane and was introduced to the world of roleplaying.

I met RC at the McGill Gamers' Guild later on that same month, and by the end of January I had created my first character and was in my first ever AD&D campaign. I played in a LARP at the Guild convention (ConJuration), and generally had a very good time discovering a new form of escapism.

I had a not-very-interesting term in university that semester. I had an appalling teacher in Intro. to European History II, and was suffering through Prof. McSweeney's Intro. to English Literature II. I was having fun in a Modern American History class, and getting a kick out of my English lit. classes in general.

My parents and I put the house on the market for the first time, but it didn't sell. It would sell the following year for a lot more than we'd originally tried to sell it for, so it all worked out in the end.

I honestly don't remember most of what I did that summer. I think I may have taken a summer course in something, but it clearly wasn't memorable. I spent a lot of time with two friends I met in English class (CA and MCB), and we had fun having picnics on Mount Royal and hanging out in coffee shops. I briefly dated a guy, but it didn't turn out well (gee, I wonder why? Couldn't have anything to do with me, nossir). I worked at a job doing surveys (which I'd done the year before), but only once or twice when they called me and offered me one- or two-day stints.

I discovered Deadlands that year, and was introduced to fearsclave by RC, as well as to April and Anik (neither of whom have LJs), rotagar and Maggy (who also has no LJ). Definitely a summer to remember for that, at the very least. :)

In September I went back to McGill, started a bunch of new classes (including a course on Chaucer with curtana, which is where I flatter myself we became friends), and became more involved in the Gamer's Guild, where I made the rest of the good friends I've kept since leaving university. I became one of the poetry editors for Scrivener, and left Pillar Magazine. I eventually left the Women's Union, but for politically-motivated reasons (the petty kind). I was still playing AD&D every Sunday, and having a great time. The term passed in a blur of English lit. classes, history classes (Germany in the 20th century... *shudder*), and roleplaying. I was beginning a manic phase, although I didn't know it at the time, and was having anxiety dreams and hallucinations about my room filling with water almost every night.

All in all, 1999 was probably the happiest year I had at university. I made tons of new friends, spent a ton of time gaming and reading, and was still enjoying higher learning.