the quest for guildies

To really deal with this subject, i must back up several months... all the way to March. It's always great to go on a trip paid for by your company, and also get to have a little fun. In March, I found myself on a flight to Florida, for the purpose of checking out an AutoPacker system that Gamestop is interested in for the shipment of Internet orders.

I flew into Miami, but once business was done, I took my rental car and headed directly across the state to Ft Myers, to meet one of my favorite WOW guildies: Demise. He was my Hunter class leader for a long time, and taught me most of what I know as a hunter in the game. He's always been funny and easy going, and willing to help an almost total hunter noob. I should back up however, and state that it was truly Dynn, on his hunter Hroken, who got me started and pushed me to find out more about the game and the gear I needed, etc, etc. But it was Demise who taught me about shot rotations and how to maximize my DPS (damage per second).

Okay, I know... i know... i sound like a total nerd. I am. I admit it.

I once made up new lyrics to the song "Bells will be ringin', the sad sad news... oh what a Christmas, to have the blues..." I changed it to "Bells will be ringin', the sad sad news... oh what a guild run, to have the blues. My kitty's gone. I have no friends... cuz i've wiped my raid group, once again... (many more lines I won't post at this time) ... Friends and relations, send salutations... sayin' 'Surely you're addicted to this game.' But this is Warcraft, yes, Warcraft my dear... and all my friends here, are addicted, just the same..."

I met Demise at his GameStop store in Ft Myers. I'd helped him get a job at GameStop because he struck me as being such a good guy with a great work ethic... and he has been a great addition to our company. We had lunch at a Carribean style restaurant, sitting out on the patio enjoying the beautiful weather. We talked about the game and RL ("real life" for you non-gamers).

He shared his amazing story of mountain biking, taking a highly risky downhill (practically a cliff jump) trail, and ending up with a crushed wrist. He'd hiked 3 miles back out of the area, and I'm surprised he made it. But that's the kind of guy Demise, Shawn in RL, is. He's an adventurer, a risk taker, and yet also a sensitive, caring kind of guy.

It's for that very reason that I longed to share with him about the God who made him into such a thrill-seeker, but he shut me down pretty quickly saying he didn't want any of that "stuff" pushed on him. I didn't want to push, but I did wish he would have let me share. It didn't matter. It caused me to want to pray for him more passionately than ever, and I have been praying for him ever since that day we met.