So another PAX West convention has come and gone, and yet again, I didn’t attend. I keep meaning to go. I live only a few hours away, it would be easy to reach via car, train, bus or plane, and I could afford it. This convention hits everything I’d like to see in such events, too.
… and yet, I’ve never gone. In fact, I’ve never really tried all that hard to go, either.
Like I said, I’d like to go to PAX West someday. From what I hear, the vibe is great, and the people behind it are supposed to be very professional, putting on a great expo. Especially when I was doing my old gaming podcast and the Actual Play, PAX West seemed like an ideal convention to attend.
Hell, our group Actual Play was invited to attend to play a certain game that was being exhibited there, but I couldn’t go that year, so it fell apart. I even tried to arrange a different game-master to replace me, but no one wanted to run the technical side of the recording process, so…
Anyway, my attending PAX West appears to be cursed. Something usually comes up to ruin my plans to attend, often health-related, but not always. Sometimes it is simply money that gets in the way. Bills come before PAX, period. But this year, it was a combination. I injured my right knee a few weeks ago, and I’m rather short on PTO at my work, and obviously can’t afford to go without pay.
Another year, another missed PAX West. Seems like a trend.