August 2002, Inner Harbor
Another year, another OMP. This year started like any other OMP. People gathering in the
lobby trying to find their friends. Of course the hotel wasn't too happy about this and
tried, unsuccessfully, to get us to go into a meeting room. But well you can't break a creator
of habit, so the lobby won.
Friday afternoon as people can wandering in a small group decided to head to Burke's Cafe, a
local bar/restaurant. Little did we know there was a handful on site drinking and eat ting.
Even our friends from Ireland, Druss and Sadness, joined in for some American cuisine.
A few people headed over to the to see the National Aquarium
to see the dolphin show and the fishes. Everyone had a good time there, well except for
Skinless. I've also heard that a group of about 20 or so headed over to the Eastern House for dinner around this time. Boy Baltimore must be glad we are gone already.
One of the highlights for Friday night was the trip to
Edgar's. Imagine if you can about 35 mudders all walking down the street following
Rastafan. Then these same people all filing into a pool hall. I remember hearing one person in the bar/pool hall say "Oh sh*t" as we came walking in.
There were more activities for Friday night, mostly drinking, gaming and *gasp* a few people
mudded.
Saturday, the day we all came to Baltimore for, the OMP. The day started as your typical
Saturday, but it was not to stay that way.
Around 2:00pm the Uno Tourney was started upstairs in the meeting room.
Things were going great. Had a few people playing other games and even Groosh teaching a few
people how to play MahJong. Pendras even brought his Gamecube and let people use it. Then it started, the fire alarms. The first alarm sounded about 4:30pm,
everyone who was in the meeting room rushed to the exit, which couldn't be found. Next you hear Rastafan yell "We are all gonna die!". Believe it or not no one died, even though we did have to walk down thirteen flights of stairs. The next hour was spent with all of us gathering in the lobby waiting
to be let back upstairs. After this every time a fire alarm would sound, which they did about five more times that night, someone would call downstairs and ask if it was a real fire or a false alarm. Luckily they were all false alarms.
Soon we were all back in the room and we were getting ready to start the registration table. This year we decided to get Tensor. As you all know, at least you should know, Tensor hates AOL. So as a special entrance 'fee', everyone presented Tensor with an AOL CD. Needless to say there were over 100 of these by the time the registration process was over.
After the registration process was complete we dove right into the pizza and soda, don't ask Rastafan or Tensor about this. Needless to say most of the pizza was gone by the time the soda's showed up.
The hunt! We didn't waste any time jumping into the hunt this year. We did a lot of changes. For one a few items were listed on the mud a few days before the OMP. This gave a few a chance to bring those items with them. (Which not everyone had!) Also we decided to make the hunt more physical. Check out the Scavenger Hunt page for more details.
Once the hunt was completed we started the raffle. This year everyone walked away with something. Also how can we forget the Admission Marbles from the first OMP. Follow the link to see who won this year.
Over all the OMP this year was a lot of fun. After the official part of the party was over almost everyone stayed in the conference room. From what I heard they were still there at 6am the next morning. This year was one of the 'closest' OMP's to date. What I mean is everyone pretty much hung out together. You didn't have a bunch of little groups doing their own thing.
If you have anything you would like to add to this page please mudmail Vryce. Until next year,
take care.
Pictures:
Special thanks to all of the players and wizards who worked hard to make this a success. Some people have continued to contribute even after the event, by posting their party pictures for online viewing:
If you have any pics or stories that you would like to submit, please mud mail Vryce.
