Pardon my getting in on this a little bit late... It was truly a wonderful weekend, but then launched into a truncated but arduous work-week for me that launched into a long, busy, fun, but exhausting weekend with my sister and her family and playing freeze-tag with my nephew and two dogs (we had to improvise for lack of other players to “unfreeze” the “frozen”)... But I digress... I needed to put something out there, but just haven’t had the time... Anyway, this is the first of two installments...
To the newbies to this sort of thing:
To Kayaker: Excellent to meet you, sir! I certainly hope this isn't the last of these sorts of events you choose to join us at. It gets easier once you get to know folks a little bit more. Hope you found it a fun experience.
To... that guy... you know --
that guy who was there on the deck on Friday and then had to go to work... ...and then didn't come back! You know who you are! Darn it! Memory fails me!!! What's your name? Frig! Well, good meetin' ya, dude! You seem cool, and I hope you make it to another one sometime, so I can remember your name!
To B ("ijustwannaplay", I think): I hope you enjoyed your time. During Rob's show, it certainly looked like Lee and the other ladies enjoyed your time.
It was good meeting you. Come out again sometime.
HDS: I know you're secretly a linebacker hiding in the body of Screech. Just
how you manage that, I'm not entirely sure yet, but it was great meeting the wiry man behind the Shadow! Hope to see you again sometime.
To The One And Only
RobACE: Dude! Thanks for being my ride! You're a lifesaver! As I said before, you're almost exactly how I imagined you -- and that's truly a good thing... Save for that moment with the butt-floss... ...that was unexpected... ...I may have to revoke your "Voice of Reason" license from the P & R Forum for that!
But seriously, man, it was a genuine honor meeting and talking to you. As always, I appreciate your thought and insight. Let's keep in touch.
For all of you, I sure hope you all felt welcome and appreciated, because you were. I always love to meet new folks, especially those new to this sort of thing, and I hope you all feel that this is just the new beginning of your engagement with the community. You’re all great folks, and I hope to see you again, soon.
To our Human Jukeboxes:
IvoryTickler and Amnesiac: Holy Shit! You guys rock! From Amn's uncannily accurate cinematic impersonations, and Ivory’s ability to pick up a tune from a youtube clip and then belt it out on piano, you guys kept us well entertained in between episodes of our other revelries... You need to do a musical or a cinema retrospective together... You guys cracked me up -- especially with Ivory on the “Peanuts” theme and Amn doing the Snoopy dance!!!
To Our Soul:
TickleEmperor:
You are always epic! 'Nuff said! *BIG (MANLY) HUG!*
To Our Centers of Peace and Harmony:
P.E.T.E.: It was awesome seeing you again and getting to meet R. I wish I'd gotten in on another deep discussion -- I think I may have passed through one in the kitchen at one point, but maybe I'll catch one next time. R -- sorry you didn't get to braid my hair...
After the CaramelDansen... ...dancin', I needed a dip in the pool, and chlorine-y hair isn't near so nice to braid... Perhaps next time.
Now, when might you all make it down to NEST?
Pokey and The Boss: It's always great just seeing you all. The both of you are like a visual hug.
You'll have to pardon me -- there are sometimes when my conversation gene fails to express itself adequately, and I think you just caught me at one of those quiet moments at the pool. But I want you to know I'm always happy to see you all. I'm glad you were able to make it out for at least the one day.
To Our other One-Day-ers (whom I saw altogether too little! *sniff*):
Questions: Always good to see you man! One of these days I
will be as buff as you, I swear! That’s my goal! In the meantime, I’m always happy to help you double-team Classy when she wants to think she can take you.
Ray and Tracy: Altogether too short a time to see you all, again... I look forward to catching you both at NEST next year, and grab a chair or something somewhere so we can just sit and talk sometime. Here’s to when Ray can take a little more time off!
*EDIT* Saw Ann’s thread -- I’m wishing you all the best and a quick recovery, Brother. If there’s anything folks can do, please let us know.
To the Philly Area Contingent:
Mark and Corri: You all are great fun to hang with -- but I missed that final rematch of that beachball/squirtgun game Mark invented... That was fun! We shall have to organize a bit more next time and maybe all head up together. And as an old-school Eagle Scout, I’m always happy to help with a tent.
Lilly: You’re just a bundle of happiness and light and optimism! I can’t wait to see you do some work for TickleEmperor -- though with all that positivity in one place, we’ll have to make sure some despotic dictator on the other side of the planet gets a shipment of nuclear arms or something at the same time just to keep the Earth from falling off its axis! Do keep in touch, babe, and we’ll have to hang sometime now that I know you’re so close.
To The Village Elders:
Dave2112: It was a pleasure to finally meet you. You’ve always struck me as a good guy, intelligent and well-meaning, even during our disagreements online. What can I say? Sometimes I’m disagreeable.
I appreciated our conversations, and I’m glad you discovered Lily (and it would seem she’s glad, too
). Sometimes conditions are such that connections are fated, and I was glad to see that you saw and availed yourself of the doors open to you at this gathering. I like to think much of life is learning to recognize open doors that we’d lose sight of if we spent too much time thinking in one direction. Good to see you enjoyed yourself.
Bella: It’s always lovely to see you. I wasn’t able to find much time to chat with you, but you’re always in very high demand, I reckon. Perhaps some other time -- I’d look forward to it. In the meantime, I would like to see about getting a few face-shots for reference for the art I’m working on. Whenever you have a moment, please hit me up in PM.
Jeff: I’ve always been a shy sort, and I imagine my disposition isn’t much changed over the years, but maybe evolved into my current quiet reserve -- sometimes, and in some company, more quiet than others. In any event, I appreciated your efforts to make me feel welcome. They were noted and I thank you.
Dan and Tracy: You all rock! It was cool to see the Great Grizz himself again, and to finally meet the lovely Tracy! I reckon all that bear-wrasslin’ you’ve been doing helped out when it came to HDS -- but they’re completely different animals -- still, clearly, it remained a joyful challenge, and those are the best kind.
Worry not! I’ll not hold against you that you’re in the line of work of seeing that those in my line of work get only a responsible level of pay -- I never expected to get rich doing what I’m doing.
It was truly a pleasure meeting and talking with you.
This isn’t over! There’s still a passel of you all whom I must get to, including some wonderful folks and hostesses past and present! Just running behind... Bear with me!
More soon!
It was a blast sharing some musical time with you, and I was cracking up at your ability to affect so many from a little corner of the room with a laptop. You're an amazing talent and a hell of a guy to hang with.
