7.5 hours of sleep approaches a record for a GP but I still felt behind my a day or two, maybe it was the timezone change.  The hotel offered a continental breakfast which consisted entirely of bread products and cereals, in the words of Brian Coval “It’s a continental breakfast; the continent is Africa”.  The venue itself was long and without cheap WiFi and my first experiment of the day failed when I was told that suspenders were not acceptable.  Wearing them gives me an extra round as they don’t impede my breathing and let my pants fit in a more comfortable overall configuration, plus I can use a urinal with my hands above my head.  The opening announcements noted the location of the fire exits; something I’d never heard although few people heard as the sound system blew.

After the opening comments, we were asked to introduce ourselves with “our name, level, and something about ourselves”.  I said “My name is Terry Robinson, I’m a level 2 judge from Philadelphia, and I collect trivets” which is at least partly true as I possess three trivets; many more than most people.  Judges are a strange lot of people who dump time and energy into a community activity that benefits a for profit company.  We are self-trained rules-wise with little structure to support us between events and are poorly paid.  Each GP makes me want to quit playing Magic a bit more.  See everyone at GP: Nashville.