80 of My Closest Friends
Mar 27 '06 (Updated Mar 30 '06)
The Bottom Line Great food and good conversation... but no towel dance. There was a guy in a kilt right outside ESPN Zone, though...
I attended the DC Meet 'n Greet last year and had fun but this second one was at least as much fun. Some of the credit goes to ESPN Zone, as it was simply an terrific place for this event.
For a start, the food was excellent and there was lots of it. I had intended to eat lunch prior to arriving but was running late. The food quickly tamed the growling beast in my stomach and helped grease the wheels of conviviality. And that cheesecake with strawberries... yum!
Garrett and Christal were easy to recognize from before and my badge was found in a flash. I waded into the quickly crowded room and was impressed by the cool location, overlooking big screens showing sports at ESPN zone. I didn't much watch the screens but it made for an interesting background.
I immediately started bumping into Epinionators that I'd met before, such as pearannoyed (Amy), Joubert (George), fuche_bu (also George), voxpoptart (Brian), Krissieliz (Krissie), speeddemon531 (Mike), bob_tomato (Andrew) and others. There for the first time at a M&G were Eps staffers Tomiko and Andy, and it was great to meet them.
One of the things that I really looked forward to at this M&G was meeting some of Eps legends, such as popsrocks (Phil), jo.com (Jo) and bryan_carey (Bryan). These people do not walk on water but all made interesting conversation. Somehow, I thought Phil would be rather quiet but the guy is simply the center of all attention. Funny! Jo is quiet but approachable and friendly, as was her husband, who also attended. Jo looked stylish in her black leather blazer. Bryan mostly looks just like his picture and is also friendly and approachable.
I try to circulate and meet as many people as possible. Some of these included cascogirl and her mom, oldbikerhen, to whom I gave a bit of rock 'n roll instruction. How many other performers do a medley of Good Lovin' and La Bamba? Others included marytara and her lovely daughter Belle, of whom I got a great picture. I chatted some with javelina, and am very jealous of that baby sea lion on her foot! Others with whom I swapped first-time conversations are amykhar, djfrombuffalo, deenaf, beckytcy, davidmanning and brendan2, among many others. Brendan2 (Liz), who is maybe 20, turns out to be a big Beatle fan, so that featured prominently in our conversation. Who knew?
Several people showed up late but made an impression, such as ned1 (Nancy). She briefly exhibited a new tattoo that I saw most of. I'd have to get to know her MUCH better to see the rest.
Finally, kristinafh (Kristina) somehow tried to convince me to get speeddemon531 to remove articles of clothing, even promising $100. Well, Mike wasn't buying, despite my loud guitar playing in encouragement.
I'm definitely leaving out a few people, such as tombarnes, tbthorn (who won the iPod!) and mike.holmes who likes Civil War books. Mike brought Susan, with whom I discussed mystery novels and things to do in New York. Also there was the official photographer, colonialpara, who was on leave from his post in Iraq.
Finally, I chatted a couple of times with the photogenic Lorrie Norrington, CEO of Shopping.com. Really, nice party Lorrie. Thank you for that and also thanks to all the Epinions people who made it happen.
My favorite moment -- besides the food -- was gathering for the group photo. I somehow got a bunch of people singing Dust in the Wind as I noodled on guitar. Funny!
I didn't go to karaoke afterward, as my wife and I headed to a Broadway show. But I had a great time at the NYC M&G and look forward to attending another. Way to go Epinions!
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