Thanks

Thanks to all who responded yesterday to my questions about LARPing.  Interesting insights from that.  I hope to probe a couple of them deeper, maybe *after* the upcoming LARP weekend.  It was especially interesting to me to see the variety of reasons why people do it and what makes the experience for them.  To answer my own questions:

Why do you LARP?
Primarily, I want to have fun and LARPing is fun for me.
It's a rare form of exercise.
It's time away from the pressures of reality.
It's socialization time with people who understand the same needs and who generally are just very cool people to be with.
It's a chance to explore different sides of my personality and stretch myself in different directions.
It's a chance to enjoy fantasy (one of my favorite genres) in an interactive fashion.
It's another musical performance opportunity.

What makes it fun for you?
Dressing up.  I can't believe I'm saying that, but I think I've got a secret costume fetish.
Roleplay.  I live for roleplay at a LARP.  I can spend hours doing nothing but.  I will happily sit and talk IG with other characters for an hour without giving it a second thought.
A well thought out, intriguing plot that makes me think.

What parts of it are irrelevant to you?  
Combat for no good reason other than to hit things.  I don't like hitting things.  Purposeful combat is good.  Field pain ATMs, not so good.
Rules system (though simpler is better)

What would you make go away (from LARPing) if you could?
Rules lawyers.  Rules serve a function, and spirit is way more important than letter, IMO.  "You said 'the' instead of 'a'; blown incant"   I want to strangle people like that.  It breaks game.  It blows the atmosphere.  It's pointless.  This is recognizing that there is (or should be) a difference between enforcing the rules and being a prick.
OOG considerations brought IG.  It's a game.  It's meant to be played.  Anything that's not part of it should stay out of it.  This includes cliques, lovers' quarrels, etc.  Someone mentioned IG pairings that make no sense just because they're OOG friends.  This falls in here too.
Arms races.  (Who can be the first to hit 100 CP?)
Failure on the parts of players to accept responsibility for their IG actions.  If you mess up, you pay the price.
Desire by staff to coddle whiny players who fail to take responsibility for their IG failings.

What things about it annoy you but not enough to make you stop?
In retrospect, all the things I'd make go away annoy me, but not enough to make me stop.

What would be bad enough to make you want to stop?
I would never want to stop.  It's funny, but the things that I hear people getting all bent out of shape over are the things that annoy me that I would make go away.  Maybe I just have thick skin.  Maybe I'm just too stubborn to let other people ruin my fun.  Maybe I've just decided that I'm going to have fun in spite of other peoples' annoyances.  Maybe I'm one of those people who can overlook the annoyances because the fun is worth the annoyances.  Like Monty Python says, "Always look on the bright side of life. *whistles*"

What real life factors affect your LARPing?
Free time (directly proportional to Monique's tolerance for my hobby) and money (though to a lesser extent).

Thanks again all for your participation.