Forty Year Old Fanboy Update#9

Rode an Uber to The Getty, and there, I got to meet Ben Lehman (these are our games) and his friend, Winnie Garet. Man, that was incredible. It was humbling and uplifting. It was awesome. It was like meeting a friend I've always had. It was like meeting an idol I have admired for so long.

We explored the Getty, and got our full of paintings and sculptures and glasswork for two hours, talked about how a thousand years from now, archaeologists might find our rpg books and mistake them as religious stuff. Ponder over why the world obsessed over this tentacle headed monster. How some of the displays were like "Kickstarter editions" of enlightened tomes (This one comes with free tiny metal pins!)  We marveled at the intense details in the works, celebrated the keen eye for so many incredible tiny works.

Then we realized we were museum-ed enough and looked at our food options.  We didn't feel like any of the food choices in the museum, so we hit the road, had an odd snafu with a gate barrier that wouldn't come down, and made our way to Westwood.

Found myself reminiscing my time at UCLA since I walked to Westwood a few times back then.  We navigated around the nippy weather and eventually located the food place they wanted to try out.

The place was called Mesa, if I remember correctly, and it had these quite filling Steak Bowls.

While there, we talked a bit about our passions. I was fascinated with Winnie's love for languages, and history, and I admit I fell silent at lot and was just marveling at how much intelligence and charisma was pouring out from the two people I was with. Part of me was wishing they'd have a panel or something and really geek out and get to chat all about the stuff they love.

We then opted to head to USC, which was like around 45 minutes away, to be able to relax more at Winnie's place, and squeeze in a session of A Single Moment with Ben.  While I have my usual recording of the session, that recording will remain unpublished forever. I shall transcribe it for future posting, though.

During our game, I opted to give Ben a copy of A Single Moment, which I added a small dedication at the back and gave him a second gift, a copy of Talecraft which I felt was a unique enough local game that he'd enjoy. I didn't think they'd be able to easily get a copy, so I do hope he likes it.

Soon enough, it was 7p.m. and it was time to head back to my brother's place.  (Yes, that bright pic above is of us at 7p.m.) Gave Ben a final hug to say thank you for traveling to see me and took a long (and expensive) ride via Uber to head back to my brother's place.  My driver for the trip home was a fun guy who had a cooler with free bottled water and chips at the back. We talked about business, about chances, about the differences of traffic in Manila and Los Angeles, and even compared ages and the national identity.

There is truly something magical in finding new friends.

Got home at my brother's place, and decided to cook them some paprika chicken, fluffy scrambled eggs, and a hearty green salad.  It was the least I can do to thank them for letting me stay over.