Missing my favorite contest

As I write this at 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning Blizzardcon 2014 is underway in Columbus, Ohio, one of the best IPMS contests in the country. Hundreds of contest entries, great vendors, and top-flight organizers. I used to attend on a regular basis, making the flight from Newark, New Jersey to Columbus, but due to family obligations I haven't been able to attend in the last few years.

I'll write more about contests as we proceed further into the contest season in the next month or two, but I'm a big believer that every modeler should support local contests. I'll lay out a number of reasons why you should do so, but today, as I curl up and cry underneath two feet of snow, I'm reminded why I most miss attending Blizzardcon...the people. Some of my best friends in the hobby, and in my life, attend the contest, so yet another year is passing without my spending time with them.

It would be great to enter the contest and ogle at the other entries on the table; it would be nice to score a Hasegawa 1/48 F-15E as my friend Jason did an hour ago, and it would be awesome to bring home Best of Show (unlikely, but I can dream). But what I miss most is getting up at 6 a.m. to meet Mark, Graham, his wife Christie, Kurt, Dick, the other Mark, Jason, and others at a local breakfast joint. I'll miss shooting the bull throughout the day. I'll miss the emotional downer of packing up at the end of the day. And I'll miss the post-contest dinner where we talk about our favorite models in the contest and ponder what we might build for next year. Those are the reasons I attend contests.

Maybe next year.