I would like to start off by thanking those responsible for setting up this event. I know they put in a ton of work to get things to come together. Now for the events as I remember them....

The drive to Laredo was an experience in itself. Tex was in rare form, or shall I say in normal form. I don’t know if he broke any land speed records from Austin to Laredo but I don’t think I have ever been exposed to such high speeds for such duration. He confessed to having it floored for the entire drive. Needless to say the drive took about an hour less than I expected.

After checking into the hotel we terrified a few of the other guests. It is amazing what people will assume by the way you are dressed and what you carry. Something about black leather and funny hair cuts (Tex) and carrying loads of hard cases makes people think you are in a band. When a random lady entering the elevator asked us, "so are you guys in a band ?", I replied “something like that.”. She looked so happy to be sharing the lift with us “musicians.” Immediately after that we stated loading up the elevator with a few unmistakable assault rifles and a crate of ammo. You should have seen her. She squished herself in to the corner and her face went as white as a sheet! I thought she was going to cry or faint. I have never seen anyone go from talking to quiet as a mouse so quickly before. After unpacking we decided to go down to the bar in search of other con-ies. We found them and proceeded to get very drunk, the details are still a bit fuzzy, and I only have a few focused memories of the trip let alone Friday night. I will list them in the order I think they happened, but I can’t be too sure.

After leaving the hotel bar we got the hotel van to drive us to the border. I kind of remember that there were so many of us that we were piled in on top of each other. Then we were in Mexico. Nitz almost got into a fight with three Mexicans but they changed their minds when they realized he was not alone, but in a large group. At this point I don’t remember anything until around 4:30 a.m. Somehow most of us made it back. Nitz, myself, and I don't remember who else decided it was time to eat. I don’t recall what kind of car we were in, but it was definitly a rental. It certainly took a licking and somehow kept ticking. I think we jumped it a few times. It is kind of confusing. I thought it was an airplane at one point. Well I ate too much, and Nitz passed out in the restaurant. That was very funny because the next day he bitched me out for letting him drive back after he passed out. I didn’t grasp why he was pissed he was still the most coherent of us. When we got back we did a little exploration of the hotel and found some very cool electronics to play with. (More on that some other time) I crawled into bed sometime around 6:45AM..

8:00AM. A camera flash is no way to be awakened. It leaves you pissed off all day long. Tex thought it would be funny to wake every one of us up and take our picture. I don’t think he kept it up for too long. I only saw a few of the pictures. A few beers later and everything is a blur. I totally lost track of time for the remainder of the trip.

I enjoyed listing to the speakers, and my only bitch of the whole con is that there needed to be about twice as many. I went there to learn first and party second. It turned out to be the other way around. After a few topics we broke for lunch and, as fate would have it, some less than educated people were in the bar getting drunk. A small altercation followed. It seems Tex was in the mood to mentally spar with the annoying ones. The one who was being a typical redneck finally took one too many steps and Tex was up and about to go to town when Dr. No stepped in to separate them. I hate to admit this being a mostly passive person, but I was hoping it would come to blows because the redneck had insulted my heritage several times in one sentence. That took care of our lunch. A few more speeches and a very drunken game of hacker jeopardy later we were back in Mexico. More big blur. Somehow I was in boys town. Not something I want to remember. All I am willing to say is don’t let the monkey touch your table and the “Donkey” show is the most disgusting thing I ever seen, except for Homo-animal-sucking, ehhm, Ed. I left boys town shortly after that. I had had too much - too much drink, too much debauchery and too much bullshit for one day. I don’t do well on less than two hours of sleep. Something happened on Sunday. I don’t know whatit was, but something happened - I know it.

All in all I had a great time and look forward to next year. I recommend CurvoCon to all. Viva La CuervoCon!

SwifT@collusion.org

P.S. - to see images of CC2K, go here.