Naxx 25

Last night we charged back into Naxx 25 to work on some of the wings we didn't get to on Sunday. We definitely had a lack of Sacred Pack folks, but we got a few friends and pugged a couple and went in anyway. It went really well! Even with as many "out of the norm" people that we had, we downed a few bosses and walked away with no de'ed items. Success in my book!

We've been talking about possibly cutting out organized ten mans all together, but that's still up in the air. I'm kind of on the fence about what I want to do in that respect. I love the ten mans and the intimate setting they provide. There's potential for a lot of fun to be had. But I am starting to agree with my husband that we're running out of time before Uldar hits. Heck fire, it could hit today for all we know. Although Wow Insider is pretty sure no patch today. I'm personally glad. I don't feel we're ready as a guild.

There's still problems that need to be worked on. I feel we have a couple of people who still have big heads and think they're da bomb. And I think at the opposite end of the spectrum we have some folks who haven't unlocked their full potential. I also think our leadership needs some bonding time. We disagree, which is to be expected, but when we talk on the forums, I feel like some people hold back. Now I don't mean they want to bite everyone elses heads off or whatever, but I don't think they let out everything they want to say. I myself am guilty of this. I worry constantly about hurting someone's feelings rather than saying what needs to be said. I think my worry of that really hurts my leadership potential at times. Just one of those things to work on. :-)

All in all though, I am a lot more relaxed with the whole guild situation. I don't think we're as close as we could/should be. But that comes in time. I think we have an awesome group of people and I'm excited about our future. :-)

A Weekend to Remember

Well it was a really nice weekend for Kroff and myself. I surprised him with a trip to the lake where I had rented a small lakehouse for us and the boys. We left out Friday after work and stayed up there a couple of nights. It was a nice place. Small, but nice. It was big enough for the two of us plus two dogs so I can't complain.

I packed a cooler to make all our meals all weekend so we never had to leave the cabin. We took the boys for walks, watched the sunset, and watched movies all day Saturday. We ended up taking a mid-day nap which was awesome! I can't tell you the last time I had a nap. And since the boys decided to get us both up at 7:30 each morning...it was very welcome. :-)

For our actual anniversary we checked out of the cabin, got breakfast on the way home, got home and unpacked and took it easy for a while. I did some laundry while Jeremy played with the boys outside and did some things around the yard. A little after lunch time we took showers, got ready and went out for a little bit. We went by Lowes and got some new blinds for the game room, had pizza at Metros, and did some shopping at Wally World. We got home a little before our scheduled raid so we played Mario Kart for a little while and took it easy before the raid. I popped on about half an hour before start time and chatted it up with everyone.

Jules popped on not long after I did and we talked about what we didn't have and what we did have for the raid. We were short a healer and a couple dps. I checked everyone I knew to no avail so I just sat back and waited for us to start. After searching for a while, they still couldn't find anyone so Del said we were gonna go with the 23 we had and just do the best we could. So in we charged to OS.

It went surprisingly smooth. I was very impressed with how well our guys did. We lost a few here and there and the Sartharion fight was anything but pretty, but we got him down. Everyone cheered and we raised the dead and distributed loot. Nothing was de'ed so it was a good night.

After OS we picked up another dps and charged into Naxx. The spider wing up first, we one shot Anub and then wiped on Grand Widow. I have to say, it wasn't a bad wipe. The tanks weren't all in sync and our shadow priest is brand new to shadow and still working on mcing. We talked about what went wrong and charged back in for attempt number 2. And it was perfect. I think we lost one person and only had to dispel two of the frenzies. How awesome!

We finished off the spider wing and went onto the plague wing. Maexnna was a one shot but we wiped on Noth. Again, it wasn't a bad wipe. The reason for our wipe was because curses weren't coming off fast enough. We only had one mage and I think the first go round she was the only one decursing. The second round, we had more decursing and we finished Noth off with only a couple of deaths. Not bad at all. Loot out, on to Heigan!

Oh now there's a fun fight with 25 people! I have to say, my head wasn't in this fight either. We had two people dc'ing because of bad weather and one of them was texting me. I was trying to write him back when my mom called. It's almost the end of raid time so I was trying to talk to mom and do the DDR dance and it just wasn't happening. I didn't make it through the first dance. Totally my fault, I know, but what can you do?

So we lost people along the dances, but I must say, watching the fight, most of our guys did really well. I know a few people had never done Heigan before so it was definitely a learning experience for some. I'm confident we'll wipe the floor with his face tonight!

All in all, a VERY awesome night for our crew. It was relaxed...mostly, and everyone seemed pretty happy and excited to be there. There was no arguing over loot, which let me tell you, was awesome! And we blasted through some content. I'm excited about going back in tonight. :-)

Cake, of the Birthday and Anniversary Kind

I've been gone for a bit, I apologize. Nakar has reminded me of that a couple of times this week. :-P

So here's what I've been doing. :-)

Last weekend my husband and I went to my home town. I haven't seen my family since Christmas so it was a long overdue visit. The occasion was my birthday and it was nice. We stayed two nights with my grandparents. I went shopping with my grandmother on Saturday. A good friend of mine also came over and hung out with us. We had my favorite Italian place in Kingsport for lunch, hamburgers for dinner and Cheddars for lunch on Sunday. Mmmmm, Cheddars....

So all in all it was a good weekend. It was extremely nice to get away from the pressures of work and the pressures I've been feeling in WOW lately. Plus I got the added benefit of seeing my family. :-) Good times!

So now that we're back, we've had some changes in the guild. Most of Coyote Moon has decided to leave us. Honestly, I saw it coming. After the words that were said, I figured someone would get their feelings hurt and there would be a huge exodus. And there was....at 4 in the morning when no one was around. Oh well...not my problem anymore.

Three of those guys decided to stay with us and I can honestly say I'm stoked! Sejje, Drozz, and Akashin we thank you for keeping Sacred Pack your home and we hope you are more at home here than you have been anywhere else. I'm glad you guys decided to stay. I know Drozz and Aka pretty well, I've talked to them quite a bit anyway. But Sejje I didn't know that well. I got the pleasure of running with him and talking to him last night. I gotta say, I'm impressed. A very nice person all around. Very nice to talk to and the enthusiasm he showed last night for the guild and for the game in general was very refreshing to me. I haven't met someone that excited to be doing things in a while. It's definitely a needed reminder that we are just playing a game and it's not our job, even if it does feel like it at times.

So with all that going down, we've dropped our raids to two again and plan on keeping it that way. I held a small guild meeting last night and explained everything going on and reasured everyone that no one was kicked and they left of their own accord. We're not mad at anyone as a guild and we're going to keep trugging along at the ten and 25 man content. We've got the bodies and the desire so I'll do everything in my power to keep us going. :-)

I have to say, I'm honestly relieved that things are done now. I wish it had happened differently, as in, more than one person who left had the courtesy to at least e-mail me and tell me what the hell was going on. But whatever. Immaturity can't be hid for long.

I signed on last night and was greeted with "Taaabbbbsss" and "OMG TAB!" It was nice. Not just because I was missed, but because people were talking. Guild chat was alive and active last night and it was awesome! I had a lot of fun last night just chatting it up and hanging out with my buddies. That's what WOW is all about.

Ooooo as a side note. I received a mail from Dero yesterday... Yea, tell me about it. WAY out in left field for me. But, he apologized for his actions and what happened between us, told us he missed talking to us, and hoped we could forgive him. I talked to him quite a while last night and I gotta tell ya, it was nice. Definitely wouldn't have expected it in a million years, but I'm glad he's talking to us again. I hate tension and walls between people, no matter what has gone down in the past. It was a heavy burden gone when he apologized.

So things are improving and I'm actually feeling pretty peaceful. My job is picking up and that definitely takes the edge off at work some. This weekend is my one year anniversary and I'm excited! I can't believe it's been a year since we were married. We're not the newly weds anymore after this weekend hehe. Oh, which reminds me.

Nakar...baby room pictures...post on the forums...go.

Kinda out in left field for everyone else, but Nakar's one year anniversary is NEXT weekend so it made me think he still hasn't put pics up haha.

Well I guess that's it. Back to work!

Keeping with the Positiveness!

Tomorrow's my birthday. Yay! I don't really care about my birthday and getting older, but I am excited. I'm going home to see my family this weekend. I haven't seen them since Christmas, and I'm definitely ready for a visit. I really do need to go home more, but the hubby and I are already struggling as is with our finances so we've limited our visits to special times and holidays. I don't want to add the expense of more gas than we need to plus our food and such while we're up there to our already hurting wallets. Hopefully things will improve before summer hits and I can go visit more. I really want to take Kroff up there for Funfest and go see the dog show! Yea, I know, I'm a dork. So sue me! :-P

So in any case, Kingsport tomorrow. Excited. :-) It sucks cause it's supposed to thunderstorm tomorrow but it could turn out to be a good thing. Mom said if the weather's too bad then her and dad won't have to work. Yay! So here's hoping!

I'm also hoping I get to see some old friends of mine. I really need to catch up with everyone. It's been too long.

You know what else I think I really am in need of?

A vacation. A real vacation. Time away from work, our home, and this place. There's been waaaaayyyy too many stresses over the past three months and I really think I just need to escape for a while.

I'm hoping our trek to visit my family will provide a little bit of a break for me, but I'd really like to get away for a week. We haven't talked about it because we're still waiting to see if either of us or both of us stay employeed but I'm hoping that maybe this summer we can take a week and go somewhere...anywhere to just get away.

Maybe I can make it til summer without totally losing my mind! hehe

Last One! I promise!

I watched this some time ago and I happened to remember it this afternoon as I was thinking about a lot of things going on right now. It's a great inspiration for all of you who feel pretty discouraged like I do right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU0aNAHXP0

Something Fun

So as a result of being upset today, I'm bored to tears at work. I swear I can't concentrate on anything long enough to do any good to save my life today. I'm just sitting here waiting for Nakar, Ize, or Jules to write me back...haha, what a day huh?

In any case, to take my mind of crappy things that have happened in the past few hours, I'm going to write about something positive! Something different and something not WOW related.

I'm going to write about the movie Twilight.

Oh boy! A movie review...well kinda.

Over the weekend Jules and her cousin came over to my house, we kicked Kroff out, and we ate dinner talked and watched Twilight. Now keep in mind they have both read the books and I haven't...yet. But I'm sure as heck going to now!

The movie, in my opinion, was freaking awesome! I'm sure my husband's going to watch it with me and go "omg that sucked" but I don't care. It was definitely one of those movies that I got sucked into. And that for me is a rare occurrence. I think the last movie I was this crazy about was A Walk to Remember. I read the book and was hooked, so when the movie came out, I saw it twice in theaters and bought it the day it came out. Yea...I love that movie.

So Twilight's probably going to be my next A Walk to Remember.

For those of you who don't know, it's a movie about a girl who moves to Washington from Phoenix to live with her dad when her mom and her step-dad go on the road. When she moves to Forks, she meets a strange boy at her new HS who ends up being her lab partner. When he disappears several days after she first starts, she realizes there's something different about him. Then the day he comes back, she demands answers out of him. He refuses to give any, but keeps asking about her and her life. She's telling him when she notices his eyes are a different color. She asks him if he got contacts and he said no it's the lights and walks away. He leaves her standing at her locker a little shocked. She's getting ready to leave school when one of her buddies comes flying around the corner in a van and can't stop. He's headed straight for her when out of no where, the mysterious guy jumps in front of the van and stops it from crushing her with his hands. He takes off before anyone else sees him and again, she's left standing there with no answers.

Other events take place and we finally figure out that this boy is a vampire. And he has fallen head over heels in love with this girl...a human.

Weird! Right? Definitely a different approach to a love story. But I'll tell ya, I'm a sucker for 'em and this one is right up my alley. There is a little bit of over acting in my opinion, but then again, we're dealing with young adults...it's to be expected. But overall, I loved it.

And I've been trying to figure out why I love it so much. Why does this movie spark something inside of me? I mean, I'm already married. I've found the love of my life so it's not like I'm sitting here thinking "I wish I could find a love like that."

But you know what I think it is? I think it's the very core of my femininity showing. I think it's the desire that all women feel to be protected coming out. There's part of my inner being that desires for a male figure to watch over me. And before I met my husband, I longed to have an older brother, or a male that would act as my older brother. I wanted someone like that to watch out for me and always be there to protect me. Then I met my husband and that desire for an older brother faded as I knew I now had a husband to fill that role for me. I have a man who loves me so much he would rather die than see any harm come to me. And really that was the essence of the movie. A man who loved this woman so much, he would do anything for her. Completely melting away the image of his maleness and the fact that he's a human killing monster. It was just a very cool way of showing the special bond between a man and a woman.

Now I just gotta get my husband to sit down and watch it with me so he can understand why I have been so clingy to him the past few days. :-)

Don't get me wrong

It was pointed out to me a couple of days ago that all I really write about on here is guild stuff and lately it's all been very negative. That's true, I guess I do use this blog as an outlet. I really feel like I have no one in my real life that I can lay everything on. I know there are people, but I really don't want to fuss every time I get upset about something. I know it wears on them as much as it does on me, especially my husband. So I come here and rant and rave and get it all out of my system and move on. :-) Something I've been doing a lot better at lately. Use to things would get stuck in my mind and on my heart and bother me and bother me and bother me. Now I get it off my chest and I can go on with my day.

There are sometimes that things get me down more than they should, or at least, more than I should let them, but over all I'm doing much better.

Case in point. Last night one of my husbands friends really disappointed him, well not only him, but me as well. There were two raids he was signed up to go on this week and he was a no show for both of them. Both of them. Can we say...jerk? Honestly, I expect that from people I don't know that well, people in my guild or on the server that I run into but don't know personally. Yea, those are the kind of buttfaces I expect to do that crap. But not my friends.

So yea, that was great fun last night.

And then...oh wait...it gets better!

And then I had a raid member...in the raid...in the middle of the zone...just leave. Just leave. We thought he was DCed but Kroff talked to his wife and she said no, he wasn't feeling good.

Time out.

I understand if things come up. I understand if you're puking your guts out and you don't feel like playing. I understand if a kid is hollaring "Dad I need you!" I even understand if you're so pissed off at someone you need to walk away before you start yelling profanities over vent. Dude, it's cool. But please for the love of all that is good in this world...TELL SOMEONE. Just say "hey, not feeling it, please replace me, I need to get off." That's all it takes. That's all. No big deal. I got it taken care of.

But do NOT just up and leave and not say anything. It's rude, it's disrespectful, and it really make me angry. And I expect better of you. I expect a lot better of you than that.

And then there's another kicker...dude that fussed at me the other day struck again last night! Started fussing about my second raid leader swapping out her priest for her druid. Both healers and both performing the same function in the raid. But he was pissed about it. Told her she couldn't roll on loot and she had no business being in Naxx. Umm...nooooo. I told her, last time I checked you're the raid leader. So she told him we'd sit down and talk after that raid.

He immediately logged.

How mature right? So here's yet ANOTHER guy showing his butt in front of the guild and my leaders. No respect, no nothing. Just being a prick because he feels like it.

Or maybe it's me. I mean is it me? Am I really that awful of a guild leader that I attact all the pricks in the guild? Do all of these jerks just migrate toward me? Do I have a sticker on my head that says "PLEASE COME TO SACRED PACK IF YOU ARE RUDE, IMMATURE, AND DON'T GIVE A FLYING FLIP ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S FEELINGS."

Hellfire, I know at least three people who should be in my guild then. HA! (Come on, I know you laughed a little :-P)

I don't know. It's just frustrating. I just want to go home, log on WOW and be welomed by what I consider my second family. I don't want to log on and get grief and rude jerks hounding me and my officers. It's a game people. We play it for fun. But you will be respectful if you're going to run with this Pack. End of story.