Plans changed by RPGers!!!

Greetings
So no Warhammer Fantasy report today. Saturday morning held great disappointment for me when arriving at my friendly local game store I found the entire store FULL of RPGers. Every last gaming table was taken. With small tears beginning to form in my eyes I left the store knowing my Saturday had just fallen into the realm of no plans boredom.
I returned home and spent the rest of the day watching TV with my wife and painting a few more figs for my Vampire Counts army. Not what I usually like to do on my designated "gaming day". Oh well what can you do about game store with too few tables and to many RPGers.
When it came time to write here tonight I realized... I didn't really have much to tell you guys, my day was a bit of a wash. I've decided to do a fast run through of my gaming background and what I play nowadays.
I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. From Hi Ho Cherry-O to Clue, my younger years were filled with the typical (read: found in target and toys-r-us) boardgames. It was my introduction to Star Wars at the age of 12 that got me started with less mainstream games. First I tracked down as many SW boardgames as possible. There were a few good ones, most notably the Star Wars Video Board game... holy crap that game was fun, but the well ran dry fast. That's when I found West End Games Star Wars Introductory Adventure Game. It was a boxed set starter RPG sorta like what D&D is doing nowadays. I was perusing through Game Daze in my local mall looking for anything new when I saw the box gleaming in shrink rap on the shelf. I immediately ran to it and flipped it over to read the information on the back. Adventure... check, Fun... check, Star Wars... check that was it I was sold. I threw down my $30 (all my lawn work and dog poo duty money) and raced home on my bike. My brother, a bigger Star Wars fan than I, sat next to me at the kitchen table as I tore through the contents of box. The first thing that really caught my attention was the maps. Fold out paper, square gridded, Black and white maps of cool obviously Star Warish stuff. A storm trooper camp, an Imperial outpost, the inside of a Star Destroyer. I spent a long time studying the maps excited to know how each map would work in the game. I found a few sheets of flimsy cut-out cardboard stands with all kinds of Star Wars goodies and baddies printed on them. While my brother began assembling the stand ups, I began reading through the collection of rule books. It became clear to my that this was no ordinary game, my brother and I would soon be adventuring in the Star Wars universe as our own unique characters, not Han or Luke, but Jedi Vhoss Darkwing (me) and bounty hunter Arden Plantaris (my bro). For the next few hours my brother and I digested every rule and scenario in the box. I called our friends Heather and Caleb (brother and sister duo I have know since birth) and invited them over to try out the new game. Being big Star Wars geeks like me, they raced over (they live three houses down, it didn't take long) With the addition of princess in hiding Sera Odoon (Heather) and stranded rebel pilot Ace Banner (Caleb) we set off on the included adventure and never looked back. A true gamer was born. Over the next 5 years the 4 of us played many other games. RPGs like Deadlands and Shadowrun. Boardgames like Robo Rally and Talisman (my garage saly copy of talisman loged so many hours of play most of the cars are unreadable today). I got hooked on miniature games with a birthday gift of 2nd edition Warhammer 40k box set, but no matter what new game we were hooked on we always founds time for a Star Wars RPG session.
Im 25 now and I still look back on my young gaming as the most fun gaming I've done. Heather and Caleb have grown apart from my brother and I, but I received an e-mail from Heather last month and in it she mentioned how much she missed sitting around the kitchen table at my parents house drinking Cactus Cooler and rolling some D6 together. Ill admit I felt a little tear in my eye.
Now days I spend most of my time playing Warhammer Fantasy/40k, LOTR, Federation Commander, Warmachine, and D&D with bouts of boardgames every now and again (Arkham Horror is my fav, and I just got a game of Twilight Imperium 3rd ed. in last moth).
Hope you enjoyed my little memory trip. Sorry it was a bit long.
Next I plan on writing about my Vampire Counts Army, both gaming and hobby/painting. Talk to ya soon

Your friend,
The Count