Move over Debbie, Epinions is doing Dallas! (Dallas Meet & Greet)
Nov 14 '05
The Bottom Line Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
As the saying goes, there's a first time for everything. Falling into the "everything" category for me was my first Meet & Greet here in Dallas, held at Gameworks in Grapevine Mills Mall! When I first heard about Meet & Greets, I thought "well, that sounds kinda cool, if there's ever one in the Dallas area I'd like to go!" Well lo and behold, about a month ago Epinions announces the Dallas Meet & Greet - finally! What do I do? I become a wussy, that's what. Even though all the other M&Gs have sounded fun, and to my knowledge some crazy banana-wielding psycho hasn’t assaulted anyone in attendance, you again have the whole "first time for everything" issue. I'll admit, I was somewhat uneasy about actually meeting fellow Epinioners in person. I knew that bob_tomato and pearannoyed were going (and have been to at least one M&G in the past) and they both seem like nice, normal people (from my limited interaction with them on this site anyway), so maybe it's not so bad. Right? But sometimes, you just don't know about people, you know? Finally, on the last day I could RSVP, I decided to suck it up and say I was going. As we were walking into Gameworks at 1:30 on Saturday, I briefly thought "oh Lord, what have I possibly gotten myself into?!"
I was pretty relieved when we walked into the conference room and I saw that no one was hanging from the ceiling, and everyone was fully dressed. Whew! So far, so good. Christal was greeting people at the door (yes, the rumors are true - she is really, really ridiculously good-looking). She gave me my name tag and made one for hubby, and gave Monkeyboy an Epi Doll (or “action figure”, depending on how you choose to look at it) to play with, and of course pointed out the food and drinks. Hubby, Monkeyboy, and I sat down at the only table with enough available chairs to have a quick snack, and then they left to go mess around the mall so I could do some actual meeting & greeting.
I recognized pearannoyed (Amy) from previous M&G photos (and the fact that she introduced herself when we came in also helped) so I sat down at her table. There was another woman sitting at the table with Amy but her name tag was turned around so I didn’t know who it was at first. It took about two minutes for me to realize that it HAD to be gracef. Eventually her name tag flipped the right way, and yep, it was gracef - Epinions very own book grump and “assassin of joy” as her profile page states. I can vouch that those two statements are absolutely, unequivocally, not true. I sat right next to her for a good hour at least, and she didn’t bite my head off, or try and attack me with a fork or anything. Not once! And you did not hear this from me, but I think she even laughed several times! I got the impression that Grace isn’t so much a “book-it’s-my-way-or-the-highway-and-if-you-don’t-like-it-then-you’re-a-moron-grump” as she is a “book-I-simply-want-my-category-to-be-the-best-that-it-can-be-grump”. Now is that so wrong?
Like I mentioned, Amy was also sitting at the same table. She seems very nice, we didn’t get to talk a whole lot, but got some sentences in here and there whenever the topic steered away from books for a second. ;) At one point, Amy’s husband Andrew (because of his username, bob_tomato, I keep wanting to refer to him as Bob even though I know his name is Andrew). Anyway, he comes over and notices Amy’s drink (a Spicy Parrot?) and takes a sip. Let's just say, it was like watching a cartoon character drinking something incredibly potent...Andrew was basically like "yeowwwwwwwww! What's in this stuff?!" hahaha. Christal took a picture of it - you'll have to look for it! (For the record, I think Amy said her drink had a couple of variations of Captain Morgan's rum?) I chatted with Andrew very briefly near the end of the M&G - nice guy, very friendly. He reminds me of someone....maybe Andy Richter? (oh please let him not hate Andy Richter). Andrew was the lucky winner of the iPod Nano. Hmmmmm, let me take a wild guess at the first artist he loaded into that thing. :)
I also very briefly meet a few other people. I met mike.holmes, mrkstvns, and thewasp. Just like Andrew, Mike reminds me of someone, although I can't quite place my finger on it. I know I've read some of mrkstvns's reviews, and for whatever reason, I got the impression that he was somewhat younger....maybe because I thought his short bio read that he liked "hot latin babes" rather than hot latin music. ;) Although maybe he does like hot latin babes, who knows? He said he's read a few of my reviews and liked them, so he obviously has good taste! ;) I found out that Jason (thewasp) is not a fan of Bush (the current Prez, not the band featuring Gavin Rossdale as singer).
Unfortunately there were some people I didn't get a chance to meet. Apparently the music reviewers were at one table, and I'm not sure what category was being represented at the 3rd table. I ended up choosing a good table to sit at however, because some of the stuff I heard, boy howdy! We talked about you, and you. And you, way over there where you think I won't see you? Yep, talked about you too. Nah, I'm just kidding. Maybe. ;)
I mentioned Christal, but I should probably point out that Garrett, Andy, and Greg/Gary (Epinions employees) were also there. I didn’t get a chance to really talk with any of them, however, Garrett did peek at my name tag at one point and said something like "I just wanted to make sure you are who I thought you were." Uhhh okay...I’m still wondering if that’s good or bad...
There were two people that I am somewhat disappointed were not there. Those two being drdevience and cosmoandgunner. I feel gypped! Doc just seems like a cool person to meet, and Shelly and I seem to have a lot in common, I thought it would be neat to meet her. Oh well, maybe next time!
Well, that’s my first Meet & Greet experience in a nutshell. I do apologize to everyone for not saying bye before leaving. Monkeyboy was out of patience at that point, and I definitely didn’t want a repeat of Chuck E. Cheese. I shudder to even think about it. If there is a Meet & Greet near you at some point, you should highly consider going! If any unofficial get-togethers are planned in the Dallas area in the future, I will probably be there! Oh, I almost forgot. Epinions did give out dark blue shirts with the cute Texas-themed Meet & Greet logo, and of course Epi Dolls for everyone. I know that Jana has mentioned her Epi Dolls shoes fall off. Yep, one of my Epi Dolls lost his shoe repeatedly, and another one keeps losing his hand. But you know what would be even better than Epi Dolls? If everyone attending a M&G got $5 income share! Woo!!
A big thanks to Epinions and the staff for a fun Meet & Greet!
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pnutmom
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Missy
Location: Somewhere in "Big D"
Reviews written: 63
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
There is no evolution. Only a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live!
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.