I arrived early at the\u00a0Eclipse Award ceremony Monday evening because I didn’t want to miss anything. You know how that is.\u00a0 Anyway,\u00a0<\/SPAN>I found a good seat at a table behind a pillar with lots of people I didn’t know so I could observe without being observed and boy, the sights you see when you ain’t got a gun!\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I know, I know, many of you are asking who the heck am I, well at least maybe\u00a0those that haven’t been here for ages and ages.\u00a0 Or maybe I am just flattering myself.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>My name is Conniecpu<\/B> and I have been here since Ace<\/B> drove a taxi and was the main way to get around the Sim, since Marky, Shelmo<\/B> and Flstables<\/B> did The Florida Flops<\/I>, since Socalslew<\/B> and Tizjuliet<\/B> did their romantic blitherings on the message board leaving us all in hysterics, since Drfager<\/B> used to turn that same board a rainbow of colors and since, well, since the old chat where whiteouts occurred every 2 or 3 minutes, was a Sim mainstay.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Iago<\/B> and I were friends long before he became a famous television personality and I knew UB<\/B> before he ran off and married his boss and Tanico<\/B> did what Kingab<\/B> does now. Ahhh, but I digress.<\/SPAN> Well, since the big D, I haven’t been around much, at least overtly, I no longer drive the Lexus but I was there last night for the big EVENT and what a time it was.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>The room was decorated by the Eclipse award committee with those\u00a0tacky red and white checked plastic table cloths (but I guess they knew their crowd and it sure makes cleanup easy)\u00a0and\u00a0with little plastic horses bearing the names of each of the nominees.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/P> The front tables were taken by those nominated for awards and all the so called dignitaries although by the end of the evening I must say, I had my doubts if they were very dignant at all.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>\u00a0<\/SPAN>However, it was the tables in the back that were the place to be.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>In fact, many of the so-called ‘choice seats’ were empty as the occupants opted for more ‘fun’ in the back.\u00a0 <\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/SPAN>The smokers, of course, were banished to the waaay back and poor Whirlwind<\/B> had to make like a whirlwind as he ran back and forth from the back of the room to the front\u00a0podium to pick up all the awards he won.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>At least it kept all his acceptance speeches short as he was so short of breath.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Not that the crowd paid a lot of attention to his, or any of the others that tried to give a speech.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>On the whole the crowd was raucous to begin with, a bit less raucous during, and really raucous after.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>\u00a0<\/SPAN>Do you think the booze had anything to do with that?\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Or maybe it was that odd smelling smoke drifting from the back.<\/SPAN> Snowchief<\/SPAN><\/B> and Rharfo<\/B> were the only two really dressed up.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I guess the word didn’t get out that it was black tie and most everyone showed up in jeans and t-shirts.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Of course to horse people, clean = black tie.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>There were a couple of rowdy tables – the drinkers had one and table 73 where Littlebit<\/B> was holding court was another.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He kept most of the place supplied in beer from the stockpile he had in his car, although Given<\/B> (I think – the pillar was kinda in the way) gave <\/SPAN> Snowchief<\/SPAN><\/B> took the stage and the lights dimmed and the awards actually started on time with that irreverent Irish<\/B> being Master of Ceremonies – whose idea was that?\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He only knew one magic trick which no one could see anyway and his opening speech was 28 pages long according to Nick<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Since it took so long to get everyone settled down, most people probably missed it anyway…\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Then to make matters worse he kept handing the wrong envelope (rumor had it that some were filled with money)\u00a0to Snowchief<\/B>, which rattled her so much she\u00a0kept having\u00a0to take short breaks and go to the back to get some liquid courage.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>But other than a few glitches the ceremony went pretty well.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Roys<\/B> kept shushing everyone and Kingab<\/B> tried to keep order but between Rharfo<\/B> and Shag’s<\/B> non stop, I guess you could call it, for lack of a better word – wit, the thrown pencil that hit Nick<\/B>, and\u00a0Ledwith<\/B> trying to translate everything into Spanish, it was a losing battle but you had to give him an A for effort.\u00a0<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> Some of the seen and be seen:\u00a0 <\/SPAN>IDEMANDARECOUNT<\/B> made his opinion known by just being there.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Nextbonus<\/B> was late, but he won an award and made poor Trotter<\/B> puke with his acceptance speech.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I certainly am glad I was on the other side of the room from that because that Trotter’s a big boy.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>After the ceremony, I heard Nextbonus<\/B> took all the winners, to his motel and the hot tub for an after hours party.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I think it would be fair to say he did not stay at The Motel Six because they always leave the light on and probably can’t afford a hot tub anyway, with their electric bill.<\/SPAN> Sandee<\/SPAN><\/B> arrived fashionably late and looked lovely.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>She hugged everyone but it was Zapspride<\/B> that made her blush with an email he sent her.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He claimed it was racy but I bet it didn’t have anything to do with horses!\u00a0 <\/SPAN>She must have liked it though because she asked for more.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/SPAN>A few others that arrived late were Jockeymax<\/B>, who had been moving poor Northern Red around, Dr. Afc<\/B> who was between surgeries and came rushing in with blood on his smock (I think thats what they call those green things they wear).\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Most untidy!\u00a0 <\/SPAN>He won some awards, bantered with the crowd a bit,\u00a0then left early, muttering something about getting to bed.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>That’s very\u00a0important when you are a newly wed\u2026. or old.\u00a0<\/SPAN> Billgulch<\/SPAN><\/B> finally showed up about halfway through, which was a great relief for Anonymous<\/B> who had been trying to tell everyone that he really wasn’t the boss.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Billgulch<\/B> found Texasace<\/B> right away and they proceeded to be quite rude (I mean they do have those private chat thingy’s) and talked non stop football\u00a0arguing the merrits of Vince Youthful or somesuch person.\u00a0 I could hear them from behind my pillar and the only time they came up for air was when Texasace<\/B> had to trot up to pick up another award.<\/SPAN> Stoners<\/SPAN><\/B> dropped in for a short time and was most gracious in defeat which surprised everyone, especially since SDMF<\/B> (under the alias of Zwango<\/B>), was keeping tabs on DelPen’s award total and there were a lot of them.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Given<\/B> never backs off and he continued to devil the Delpen group until late in the evening, but it was all in good fun\u2026\u2026I think.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Things didn’t start to fall apart until Balata<\/B> showed up but then everyone likes him anyway so it didn’t matter.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Others that were in and out or maybe just didn’t have a lot to say were Cvbear<\/B>, Liddleski<\/B>, Silverny99<\/B>, Bamstables<\/B>, Theatrical<\/B> and Barndog<\/B>.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Nick<\/B> was vocal early on but quieted down late in the program and there were a host more that I just don’t have room to mention – ok maybe the pillar got in the way – or maybe – \u00a0<\/SPAN>I didn’t really know them.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>I’m just not around that much anymore.<\/SPAN>\u00a0<\/SPAN> Chilcoat<\/SPAN><\/B> signaled the end of the evening by proposing a toast to the winners right before Nextbonus<\/B> steered them out the door.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>Although a few lingered on most of us took our leave and more than one of us wished Ace<\/B> still had her taxi.\u00a0 <\/SPAN>It was quite an evening, those that won awards were deserving\u00a0and Snowchief<\/B> did a super job. \u00a0<\/SPAN>Yep, I guess you just\u00a0had to be there. I guess you had to be there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}