Boston or Bust!
Jul 22 '04
The Bottom Line The idiot Bottom Line left it's damn camera at Jillian's....
Having attended the New York Meet-n-Greet last fall and met so many awesome folks, I wasn't about to pass up one in Boston. What's a 10 hour drive between friends, right? Besides, there was gonna be free food and booze! And Towels! Randy had promised me a towel and he did deliver.. nevermind that everyone got one, all that matters is that *I* got one.. ok I scammed 2. HA!
Now see, usually I'm the type who likes to be at least 30 minutes early to everything.. but my Nick is just the opposite. If he was ever on time to anything it would cause ripples in the space-time continuum. Seeing as how he drove me to Boston that means I had to deal with his procrastination. ARGH! Soooo.. here's the deal.. and yeah I'm kinda of on a tangent here.. the deal is the hurricane last fall destroyed a lot in our basement (water damage) so he's been slowly working on remodeling that. Well he ordered a dump truck for the weekend but they couldn't guarantee which weekend we could have it. We wake up Friday morning and there it is. Murphy's Law in action.
Well, I was determined to go to Boston anyway. Screw it. I already paid for the hotel and told folks I was coming. Nothing was gonna deter me. Since I had a bad week prior (health crap) Nick didn't want me driving that far alone. He jumped in the Z and off we went. He was anxious to get back to Richmond to take advantage of that silly damn dump truck, so once my daughter arrived in Boston so he knew I wouldn't be alone, he wanted to take off. A bit of a debate ensued.
Bored yet? well that's why I ended up being an hour late to the meet, much to my irritation. but, once there.. oooh la la! What fun there was to be had! Azure and I took the T from the hotel and when we got off by Jillian's I heard someone calling my name and my first thought was Man who knows I'm here? heh. Well duh it was none other than MaryTara, that quiet, demure Kids & Family CL.... *cough* So we hopped a cab together and were at Jillian's within minutes.
Things were in full swing as we climbed the 18 (ok 3) flights of stairs to the billiards room, following the trail of Epi-kids. This was a pretty big room with several pool tables which were being used to hold various things from food to towels to even more Epi-kids. There was food pretty much everywhere. I'll go into more detail on that in my review of Jillian's which will be coming any day now.. no really.. I swear.. Suffice it to say for now that it was very good and I kept gravitating back to it for more.
The drinks flowed quite nicely. I'm not much into alcohol but if I were I'm thinkin I could have been under the table and quite happy in no time....
But, there's more to these than refreshments, kiddies. It's all about the people. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Having these functions was utter brilliance. Seriously. Not only do we have a great time meeting each other.. but you get to meet the staff and personalize it. It's no longer a who the hell decided that crap kinda thang.. (*duck*) but more of a oh man who broke the site now? I can visualize them pulling their hair out!. Yes, the staff are actually real people with real emotions and faults and senses of humor and everything! Imagine that....
They are also, as has been noted, very good looking. It's like it's a prerequisite for employment.. man, that leaves me out! heh. Garrett was his usual gracious self.. ornery as hell (we won't discuss his propensity for stripping on the pool tables.. you'll have to hit one yourself and see).
Sarah was working the room like only Sarah can..and while she wouldn't admit it to me, I know she's the new HMFWIC. I also know she'll do a damn good job and Epinions is going nowhere but up.
Alexis is still petite, cute as hell, perky..and can still kick anyone's butt that asks for it. I'm thinkin some folks might pay to see that actually... (PSsst Alexis.. love the profile update.. tooooo damn funny!!)
Christal was a new meet for me and I gotta tell ya.. that lil gal is gorgeous! what a winning smile she has too. I liked her before I met her because of how she deals with folks (yes, I've gotten a letter or two.. heh) but I positively adore her now having met her.
Of course DealTime Paul came along to stand there and make the women drool with his chiseled good looks.. (we have a bet going on whether he has a hairy chest or not so if anyone gets the proof on that email me or Kristina..)
...and then there was the new kid on the block, Randy. What a cuddly cutie he is! He was like one of the original Yahoo kids and man is he all smart and stuff. *grin* He claims to not be good at public speaking but I beg to differ. He is endlessly likable.. and I'm very pleased that he's on the team now (you know, cuz now I have another male to blame and harrass.. I am a very happy woman).
So geeze, how many writers... quite a few! There was of course me and my daughter (who I already linked to up there somewheres) and MaryTara...and Kristina (yes, the pictures do not lie, I did in fact and run ..ok hobble..and jump into her lap). At one point those two got a bit frisky if ya know what I mean... ahem.. don't deny it there's pictures of that too!
I was ecstatic to meet Vormancian finally. We had been trying to get together when he lived here in Virginia and never quite got coordinated enough before he moved up to Maine so that was a real treat. I gotta tell ya.. he is soooo damn cute in person. That profile pic does not come close to doing him justice. He's also very intelligent and fun to talk to... sorry ladies, he's married and his wife was very nice. He also brought Gunnar, much to my delight. What a doll that kid is! I wanted to kidnap him.
Ashok has been considered one of my best friends for quite awhile now so it was super nice to see he made it. He brought his wife Carmen with him this time, who I had been dying to meet. Ash is also a very good photographer. (I'll link to his pics at the end along with MaryTara's pics.) I here and now officially petition the Epi-staff to make Ash teh Official Meet Photographer and think that they should pay his way to go to every single meet for that purpose. Come on guys, you can afford it. I mean, look at all those fantastic pics from this and the NY meet! You need him at all of these...
Mikey got sort of talked into modelling an Epinions towel but chickened out and only got down to his wife beater..the wuss. Next time we'll ply him with just a few more drinks first....
I've rambled on long enough so I won't go into how fantasitc everyone was.. and they are.. but the other attendees were:
Becky
Dawn
Janice
Volition
Kjell and his family,
Tom "Pornoman" Thorn
Eric
Daquan
Mettaluk
Matt
Pinkants
Some of those folks I only got to say Hi too before being whisked into conversation elsewhere.. and one or two I saw and wanted to talk to but never got the chance... Sarah? Can we make these 4 hours long? *whine*
Me, Becky, Tom, Azure, and Mike did go outside and around the corner for drinks and further debauchery after the meet broke up. They made me feel young again.. and I thank them for letting me hang out with them for a bit before they headed off to their party. I already knew Mike quite well since he had come down and spent 4 or 5 days at my place over Memorial weekend, and I went on and stayed at his place in NYC after the meet for 3 days (thank you!)... let the gossip begin.. I have no problem being linked to a young good lookin guy. heh. (no, really, he's like my son)
I would just like to say one last time that you really must go to these meets. It's a great excuse for a weekend getaway and you come away from them so energized and with renewed enthusiasm. It's like an adrenaline shot. Absolutely do not miss one if it's within a days drive.
Now, go look at the pics for proof:
Ash's pics:
http://bostonmng.myphotoalbum.com
MaryTara's Pics:
http://photos.yahoo.com/marytaraw
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Epinions.com ID:
drdevience
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Member: Lori Leidig
Location: Sweden
Reviews written: 647
Trusted by: 781 members
About Me:
Game over.
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