@mkarrett
active 7 years, 7 months agoForum Replies Created
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Good afternoon everybody! Alright, my turn about my experience but fair warning: lots of overlap with everybody else’s experience.
I arrived at the event approximately 1:20pm and spotted a lot of familiar faces, some new. Then about 1:30pm a woman in a flowy colorful dress (I think her name is Mary) opened the door and one-by-one gave us our name tags which had numbers on the lower right hand corner. Mine was #17, unsure if that really means anything. Someone pointed out the interesting observation that all females had their names written with a silver marker whereas the men had gold marker. I’d like to think the ladies had platinum.
A young lady in an orange romper and a name tag “Addison” was next to Mary and I assumed this is Attendant I that has been e-mailing us with event details. However, I didn’t want to assume AND she didn’t look terribly comfortable being there. In fact at times she looked sad. I really wanted to reach out to her and just see if she was okay but I held back and regret doing so.
After Addison gave me a yellow rose I had my photo taken by a woman who looked very annoyed. As much as I wanted to see how she was involved with the OOA/her position…I honestly didn’t want to annoy her any further by getting in her way.
Next, I greeted a few people I knew, shook my toosh to the music with @debzkim for a brief second and grabbed some coffee and water. While talking to a few people I did take notice of an older gentleman who was really, really energetic. We had a few moments of eye contact and he approached me. He then asked if he could tell me a dirty joke and because I’m not a prude, I told him to lay it on me. So he proceeded to tell me a variation of the Pastor Fuzz joke (see @thegilded link above): Pastor Fuzz got horny, Pastor Fuzz got in his car*, Pastor Fuzz found a cute lady, Pastor Fuzz and lady banged at Lover’s Lane, they got caught by the patrolman who was driving a specific car*, and Pastor Fuzz goes to jail. The energetic man then told me if I thought that was funny. I was kinda taken back by the lack of punch line and how close the energetic man was to my body (pretty much pressed up against my right side) but by no means was I offended. So, I nervously said something along the lines of “eh”. Then he asked if I was offended because I’m a woman and I proceeded to say something like “well I’m in law enforcement so the law has to be applied regardless of title” and I think I said “as long as it was consensual I’m not offended”. I think he complimented on my looks and asked if people say that to me often. I don’t get complimented and for reals, that’s okay by me. To which the energetic man said “this world needs more love” and I agree, it does. So ya, I feel like I screwed up the conversation a bit but leave it to me to basically dork things up. I asked for his name but he said he wasn’t allowed to tell me. Oh well.
So I went back to my table again and chatted it up with a few folks. As much as I wanted to sit with people I knew like Deb and Mike, I figured it would be best to get to know people I haven’t met like @vincentvega and @halfbloodfangirl. Then the energetic man came back over where I was sitting and asked the table if I was the prettiest person in the room. At this point I was like “oooh no”. He then asked @vincentvega if I was pretty and I’m not sure how she felt but it was awkward in a funny and seemingly well intended way.
Eventually an older looking man with glasses introduced himself and told us to sit down. He opened his speech with greetings but didn’t really give us a firm answers on what exactly will happen/the purpose of the OOA, etc. but he stressed again that no answers will be handed out/our path is not catered to, and that we must find our answers. @mike was then prompted to give his speech and he pretty much brought down the house (nicely done man!). Afterward the man with the glasses introduced a woman who played a very abstract but haunting piece with her cello. Again, I should have talked her because I did spot her just hanging out by herself near the stage almost the entire time. Next there was some business to take care of and that was bringing in The Traitor. I should have not been surprised who the Traitor was but as soon as he was unhooded I gasped, loudly. It was Michael Rizzo and it was up to us to either bring him back to the OOA -or- banish him for good. Majority ruled for having him come back!
Alright, so after that the man with the glasses informed all of us that a person must be disrobed and inspected by all of us, it was Addison (the assumed Attendant I). Energetic man, Mary, Addison, and annoyed woman were all dressed in orange and white robes. (I think this actually happened when Michael Rizzo was led in) At this point I think my mind was racing in a bad way at the idea that Addison, who seemed so incredibly uncomfortable, was about to be disrobed in front of all of us.
And then BAM this guy comes in from the back and starts screaming/ranting. Turns out this guy was Addison’s DAD. Holy shit. Addison’s dad did flag his phone at us with the idea that he was recording us all but his phone was a very outdated flip that I’m not sure he actually captured anything. The bouncer/security guy that was hanging out in the back quickly got on him and threw Addison’s dad right into the wall and BROKE THE DRY WALL. At this point it was an internal fight between a portion of my brain that was like “say or do something stupid” and “keep quiet”. The keep quiet part won. Addison’s dad was kicked out of the room and the older guy with glasses basically told us that our location was compromised but in the future it won’t happen again. Elders left and all of us were left in the room with the idea to hold tight. Almost immediately people started to comb the room and take mental notes/wave to the multitudes of video cams that were in the room. Some were speculating if it this meeting was over or not. At some point @kasch came in and basically said to get out. And so, we did.
All-in-all I thought it was very generous for the people of the OOA to have some of us come and get more answers. I’m humbled to be invited and my only regret is that I didn’t talk to more people that I didn’t know. I think I left the room with even more questions though, perhaps they will be answered in due time. We shall see…
*Yes, the cars in this joke were 1957 Plymouth and 1957 Pontiac. Kinda odd to specifying a specific cars in a joke like that.
Oh and I did notice many people who got their name tag penned with a black X. My tag was not X’d out, that action seemed to be triggered by talking to particular OOA staff, my best guess though.
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That takes guts to come clean @atticus360.
I’m like the trippy artwork, the seashell one definitely speaks to me.
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Nicely done! I happen to see that as the car was coming out from pit stop, it made me smile.
Oh and thank you!