As just about anyone that's a regular reader of the Post knows¹, I don't get to go to meets in the flesh, so I send 'me'² in my stead. I've become as famous³ for that as for my footnotes⁴... (Though even for me, four footnotes in two sentences is a bit much...)

Well, I finally get to go to one! And has it ever been a journey getting to go... And this is the travelogue...

On 30.10.01, there was a query regarding the interest in a meet in Pennsylvania. And I expressed my opinion... You can see the conversation in its entirety here. (Don't worry - it's short.) Sometime in the middle of that conversation, I wandered over to Jimi's space, gave him a mufflewhump⁵, and started the tradition of bugging him about the meet...

Then began the wondering - would I be able to go? Would I even have the guts to mention it to Tom, as he wasn't too sure about these internet people? There's quite a few journals on my space concerned with this very question, but I'm not going to hunt them down now⁶

During this whole time, I was watching the meet page very closely - in fact, I was the first (other than Jimi, who wrote the page) to sign up as a maybe! And ask him - if he missed signing someone up, I let him know it

Finally, after a couple months of wondering, I told Tom about the meet. All I got at that point was a 'Maybe' that was very close to a 'No.' And I clung to that 'Maybe'... Then, in early January, as I was talking on the phone with Amy†, Tom heard me, and he inquired what I was saying I wasn't sure of⁷ And then, after some three way chit-chat, Tom said yes⁸

So, after that, I really started getting into the actual planning - after all, I didn't think it particularly fair to tell the people going what to do, if I wasn't going to be there. I also started running around fetching people... And then...

Potential disaster...

Taxes...

For a while, it looked like there was no way we could go⁹. And I bemoaned that just about everywhere...

But then...

*convinced she's got the sweetest husband in the world*

Tom and I were talking in the car one night, and he said that he realised I really, really wanted to go, and if I was OK with going by myself, I should, since we couldn't afford two round trip airfares, and his job wouldn't let him go anyway. I must have lit up the whole car!

So then, next came the question - tell everyone right away, or buy my plane ticket and say something like 'Guess what I just bought?' - and, except for the fact that I told Lady Scott offsite because I was about to burst, that was my decision - to hold off on the announcement until after I had the tickets. Then Lady Scott added another consideration, which has since fallen through, so never mind... I finally did announce before getting the tickets, though, because I couldn't stand waiting any more¹⁰. But I did finally get my tickets! YAY!!! And a couple weeks later, I reserved my hotel room.

So, anyway, I think everyone that knows me knows what I'm going to be doing this weekend

And yes, there'll be lots of pictures! And they'll be labelled! If I have to, since my scanner appears to be broken, I'll even go to the copy shop and pay to use theirs!

Amy Pawloski (aka paper lady)

01.08.02 Front Page

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¹At least if they read meet reports...²Just in case there's anyone reading this that hasn't come across my discussions in various meet threads, if I put quotes around any personal pronoun, I'm referring to my portrtait that gets emailed to someone going to the meet in question.³Infamous?⁴Maybe more so... I'm sure more people go to meets than read my stuff!⁵Surprise, surprise, eh?⁶Actually, I had looked them up earlier, and had linked them here so I could get to them easily, but I did it wrong...⁷'Penn-sill-VAY-nyuh?!?' (Which Amy heard, and I think she can tell you that that's a fairly accurate rendition⁸Pending finances⁹And, if you want to get technical, we aren't going...¹⁰That, and I'd told so many people offsite by then (and asked them not to say anything) that I thought it was silly to wait any longer...