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Jun 5, 2006 - 02:21 PM |
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This weekend I went places and did things |
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Not that I don't do that on other weekends, but this most recent one was certainly a time to remember. People have already said a lot, so this'll probably be short.
I get so nervous when I drive anywhere near a city. I get lost very easily and I'm bad at stopping and turning around in a timely fashion (this drives Radez crazy, ask him). However, I did okay getting to the general vicinity, except for mapquest completely screwing me over and pretty much lying about where the train station was. I also did not kill Monkey King, Burning Ranger, Alice, or Uzuki, all of whom somehow fit into the back seat of my car (also Radez, but I endanger his life on a daily basis driving him to work). I did bump into a pillar when trying to park at the mall's garage, though. More scratches ftw.
ANYWAY. Cheesecake Factory. I don't like cheesecake, so it was refreshing to find that the menu did not, in fact, consist of only that. All 12 of us at a table made for not-so-awesome communication, and I speak too softly to begin with, so I pretty much just sat back and let others do the talking.
The arcade was kind of not good at all. It dawned on me when I went in that I'd been there a really long time ago when I was like 10 - my aunt and uncle took me and my brother there once. I had thought it was the coolest thing ever back then, but... meh. The only thing that interested me was Pump It Up, and since Uzuki and Burning were already playing it, I just sort of chilled at the laser tag counter. Yeah man. Also, I was a complete dork in laser tag; I hit a total of one person and never moved from the base. WAIT, WHAT JUST FLEW BY MY HEAD? "SOCIAL INTERACTION?" WHAZZAT?
I'm sure this sounds like I had a great time. Well, I did! And in any case, the night only got better once we added alcohol. Chilling in the hotel room and drinking wine sounds so lame on paper, yeah, but it was really fun. Later on we walked in the rain to go get pizza at 3 in the morning, then we all crammed into the hotel’s business center to post on the forums. Only Internet geeks, I’m telling you.
I didn’t really talk to any one person a whole lot, since I’m quiet *gasp* and tend to float to the background of any given conversation, but here’s what I thought of everyone…
Avalokiteshvara/Radez – this is the person I date. I like him.
Monkey King – much quieter than I would have pictured from his posts. And a Reverend, who’d have thought?
LeHah – absolutely hilarious and surprisingly approachable.
Hydelloon – (I never could figure out how to pronounce your name until I heard you say it. I guess my brain reads it as “Hyde” and then “lloon”, and it chokes on the two-Ls-two-Os thing.) Very friendly, and another OCR visitor, so that’s cool in itself. I’d have liked to talk to him more.
BurningRanger – In my head, I was like “dude, why would anyone want to split a meal” when you suggested it at the restaurant, and then I couldn’t finish mine, so 5 awesome points for me. I also feel bad for not reading the meet thread and seeing your maps, because they probably would have helped. I thought you tried a little too hard to be the group leader, since things seemed to go better when we discussed and got consensus on them.
I just realized I switched from third to second person. Fuck it, I don’t want to rewrite the earlier ones.
Plarom – I didn’t even know who you were before the meet (that’s my fault, obviously). However, you were really cool to hang out with and I’m glad to have made your acquaintance. Why do I sound so polite.
AliceNWondrland – (We’ll all get together again somehow, I’m sure – it was too much fun not to, right?) You were unbelievably nice, quite funny, and most importantly calm and rational. I’m really glad I got the chance to meet you.
Dr. Uzuki – I sort of figured you’d be chill, but you were, like, really chill. I’m sure some of that was due to circumstances. You were really cool, and no, neither me or Radez took any offense, so no worries.
The Dopefish – You’re someone who I recognized by name but not necessarily by forum posts, since I’ve been so out of the GFF loop recently. Unfortunately I don’t think we really talked at all, huh? You should’ve hung out with us, if you hadn’t heard it enough from Sass by this point. XD
Seris – Your drawings are fantastic, even if I’m dumb and didn’t know who they depicted (I heard the names but I’m not familiar with them). We didn’t talk much either; stupid long table.
Sassafrass – You don’t seem to have changed much since I met you in 2003... I suppose I probably haven’t either, except for maybe my hair (I know, quantum leap). You rock, and you crack me up to no end.
That’s 11, right? We don’t have to write about ourselves, do we? Alright, so that’s it. I know I skipped a whole lot of stuff, but just read anyone else’s entry to get more.
OH, AND I HAVE ANOTHER POST COMING AFTER THIS ONE. YES, I’M MAKING TWO ENTRIES IN A ROW AFTER NOT BEING HERE FOR LIKE A THOUSAND YEARS, I KNOW.
Additional Entry Made Within The Hour (and now, I wax sentimental):
Why did I go to this meet if I haven't posted with any frequency for over a year now, I hear some of you asking (I know some of you did)? Well, I was a little nervous about it at first. I didn't even recognize some of the names that Radez told me would be attending, which made me feel silly - I mean, meeting people on the Internet is one thing, but meeting people on the Internet whom you don't even know on the Internet is another.
But I still wanted to go, because I don't think I've ever fully left GFF. I haven't posted, no, but I read over Radez's shoulder occasionally. He keeps me informed on the drama, which is the best part anyway. (Why lie.) Hell, I met Radez on these boards, so even if I wanted to leave, I owe you fuckers big time.
So I went, and I was blown away by how good of a time I had, especially the night before and morning after where we just chilled over a meal and talked. No pressure, no event to go to, just talking. Someone else mentioned that the Creepy Internet Factor was barely present among us, and I totally agree with that, we clicked so well. Obviously, especially at first in the mall, it was odd because there were 12 of us and we were, uh, quite disparate in appearance. It was like "whoa, these guys are from the Internet." But that didn't persist... really, it didn't, and I'm impressed by that.
So my only regret is that despite all the above, I still felt odd and slightly out of place because I was "the guy who went even though he doesn't post anymore" (at least in my head). Now I realize that I've been around too long to leave. I felt it during the awesome dinner we had on Friday night with the five of us. I felt it when on Saturday we all ran like motherfucking idiots into the business center to post about how we had been drinking and eating pizza at an ungodly hour of the night. And I felt it when we had to part ways Sunday afternoon, and the rest of that day (only you wouldn't know it because the boards went down >.>).
So yeah, I had a completely great time, and these have been some of the reasons why. I'm done, I can't write this much anymore. 
edit: I wrote this partially in Word when I was about to leave from work, so it fucked up the formatting when I pasted it in. However, I am lazy and don't feel like changing it.
| Currently Playing: Boom Boom Satellites - Route for Exile |
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