Through a Glass, Greenly
Mar 27 '06 (Updated Apr 02 '06)
The Bottom Line Head to the next Meet 'N' Greet and snag some free food while putting faces and beers to names!
I'm going to leave out an enormous number of people. For that, I'm truly sorry. But this brain, well, it just doesn't process information logically any more.
First, I'd like to thank the helpful, generous, and -- at least on the female side -- hot Epinions staff for putting together an amazing event for us lowly "writers". (Is that Christal on the home page?) I came in the ESPN Zone around 1:15 and found the elevators with a shy young woman whose name I NEVER GOT [ed. mjfrombuffalo, you rock!], but who was a fellow Epinions person who I did say hi to later at the party. You know who you are. We both love kids who press all the elevator buttons, etc.
Walking in, Tomiko greeted me as if she knew me all my life, and as I grab for my nametag, Garrett and I get into a conversation about why Duke let LSU win the other day. (*cough cough*) Alas, no decent basketball on the huge TVs that we overlook, so I content myself with working the room. By "working the room," I mean "finding a beer". Instead, I found a Heineken to be my best choice, but it would certainly suffice. I wasn't here for the beer, after all, but I was thirsty. Warm room with the food and the narrowosity. Beer number two at one-thirty.
In the first fifteen minutes, I came across a bunch of people in short order. Popsrocks, of course, since I'd enjoyed a few pints with him (and mrkstvns) a while back, Tombarnes, DC restaurant critic and hotel stayer-inner, and I think that's when I met George (fuche_bu), whom I've seen at beer events in the city before -- he's hard to miss -- and who very early on salvaged the beer situation with growlers of beer from Heartland. Who was I to deny him the opportunity to drink good beer with me?
A few beers later, I met a few others whose work I regularly laugh at, erm, read: jo.com came in from Boston since she has a place to crash downtown, but we barely got the allotted 26 seconds per guest to say hello and talk about Zen Palate; colonialpara, who, while I think he drinks beer, is constantly on certain members' reviews asking them to buy him a beer. As he's going back to Iraq, I think that's the least those people could do (even though he could hock one of those cameras and buy a brewery for himself); and bryan_carey, fellow beer snob and a wonderful conversationalist had only recently arrived on the scene, who no matter where I turned, there he was engaging someone else in an interesting conversation, so I rode his coattails for awhile in order to settle in and do some meeting and greeting.
Of course, a slew of message board people were on hand that I recognized in name only before Saturday, like speeddemon -- yes, I know there's a number after that -- who has to suffer the indignity of living in Jersey City, Davidk -- ditto -- who was also of sharp wit and low tolerance, pvreditor, replete with guitar which remained mercifully unstrummed most of the afternoon (kidding), naturally kristinafh, who leaves an impression wherever she goes and a wake of admirers in her path. Come to think of it, that describes a whole lot of you! I might have had more to drink, too. I blame fuche_bu.
Then there were others who I talked to not quite enough, like the dear krissieliz, gamely drinking even though she was with "love" child -- don't worry, I'm sure you can offset the father's looks with your genes. Beckytcy didn't seem to notice I got a little flustered around her and kept calling her 'betsytacy', so for that I am indebted. It's probably because I'm at least a foot taller than she. Javelina is far nicer than her rodent namesake, maybe as cute as the one on her profile page, and was exceedingly nice to big ole me. Codycat is hardly around the site, but he's a funny guy who kept me entertained over by the buffet.
Speaking of, how were the garlic mashed potatoes? I had to make a batch at home when I realized I skipped them. The chicken and the roast beast were nice alcohol absorption agents though.
Anyway, as I careened about the place, I signed someone's epi doll (kristina?) [ed. apparently not. sheesh.] -- on the taint, naturally. I have a little minus doll of my own, too, totally unsigned. And I'm not encumbered by a pesky iPod nano. Phew, dodged that bullet. Tom, well-done on that.
All throughout, there were apparently pictures of small groups of us taken, so once those are out I'm hosed. I apologize in advance for screwing them up, and I hope by hanging on the edge I can be cropped out. Not so brendan2, who was consistently taking the easy way out and allowing her hand to be photographed incessantly. I still don't understand why. Felon?
Afterward
After ESPN kicked us out, four of us wandered not to destroy everyone else's evening of karaoke, but to a nearby purveyor of alcohol -- go figure, beer snobs go off to drink beer at a bar. I know we shared six different stouts in massive quantities at, go figure, Stout NYC, and SOMEone drank a freakin' Brooklyn Brown Ale at the end. We watched LSU defeat Texas, much to my delight as the table of young women at the table in the corner were not drinking good beer and were rooting for the Longhorns. Fie to you!
After we lost George and Bryan around 7:30 -- who perhaps trundled off to nearby Penn Station, perhaps wandered into Madison Square Garden -- Tombarnes and I settled in at Ginger Man for an hour and a half more of drinking before I packed him into a cab and set off for home myself.
From what I can tell from the drunk dialing that ensued, I decided to take the bus rather than walk the extra three blocks to a subway station. I likely irritated more than a few people while waiting, as I was yelling into the phone. I do not remember one second of doing this, neither the calls nor the bus. I don't like the sound of my own voice on voicemail. And if someone keeps your message to play it back to you on conference call, you can press 7 on your phone during their message to delete it forever.
Final Thoughts
I loved all the talking, catching up, total misses on in-jokes, and generally getting to know a bunch of people I'd never meet otherwise. Lorrie Norrington, our Dear Leader, looks a lot like a beer friend of mine and was easily the most professional person in the room and handled the 'raucous' crowd with ease. I wish I'd gotten into a conversation circle with her, but alas. She's not the only person I pretty much completely missed out on talking to.
I am definitely not complaining about the food and drink. Spectacular, but I was so busy talking I forgot to eat very much. Somehow I didn't forget to drink though.
A lot of you have commented on my profile picture, and the more I look at it, yeah, I guess that's me with a corporate job and unstoppable filing techniques and a Land's End tie. Scary. I hope more of you know the origin of the username now, too, the origin of which was met with everything from "That's really funny!" to a blank stare. Hmm. Last time I open up to you people.
I hope everyone gets/got home safely, and maybe we New Yorker types ought to do this again soon. I know a couple of bars that might take us...
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Epinions.com ID:
davidmanning
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: New York City
Reviews written: 303
Trusted by: 115 members
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