Tomorrow, right? 7pm at the Burren?
I told you I was uncertain.
Post updated.
Yes, 7pm tomorrow at the Burren. See here, fr'instance.
So, uh, how are we going to find each other? I know I haven't met any of the people who will be there in person before; has anyone else? Will someone bring a sign? A kidney on a stick?
The first time I met anyone from Unfogged, the quizzical stares were pretty obvious. The way it goes is that you walk into the bar and stare around looking for anyone who looks as if they might be expecting anyone. If there's someone who stares back, and is clearly unable to formulate a non-silly way of asking if you're their invisible friend from the Internet, that't the right table.
Just home in on the vague air of embarrassment.
but in order to be helpful, I will be carrying a bag that looks like this. And wearing a vague air of embarrassment.
I thought the established protocol was just to ask "Who wants to sex Mutumbo?" to anyone who looked like they might be staring around looking for the unfoggers. Or maybe that method generated too many false positives and has been abandoned?
Either way, I'm likely to be late. Still hoping to make it though.
Brock, are you scrolling down to the main items on the page? Because if so, how many messenger bags with giant gaudy flowers on them are you expecting to see at the Burren? But so you can relax, it's the red one with the orange flower. And you better be there, and the baby too, if possible.
(Actually, I hear tell that an identical bag has been spotted in JP, but that's so far away. What are the chances its carrier will show up at the Burren tomorrow night?)
I'm short and have brown hair. I'll be wearing either a red mountain hardwear jacket or, if it's raining, a yellow slicker.
I have a queen bee bag, mcmc, which I linked in the great bag thread of some months ago, so you might want to reconsider your cool assessment.
All the cool kids may carry queen bee, but that does not mean that all who carry queen bee are cool.
Hey so how was the meetup you guys?
16- it was awesome. Best party of my life.
13: Does this mean you're definitely coming, BG? Great!
14: I consider you ever so cool, Ben, in a mean kind of way.
I think it's safe to say BG, if there, will be in her yellow slicker.
Can we get a roll call? I plan to be there, sans baby, although 7:30 is looking more realistic than 7:00 for me. Although I won't have eaten anything before then, so I'm going to be really hungry, so I'm apt to order a full-fledged dinner instead of some piddly little appetizers, which I know is pretty rude but the options may be either that or me showing up even later having eaten first.
I have a tan raincoat. And a large nose.
Brock Landers is: Flasher Pinocchio
I'll be there. I have black glasses, black bag, no coat.
Also- does the Burren have tvs? I just realized there's a big football game on tonight, and plus I always like to have a tv I can stare at and pretend to be watching so the conversation doesn't get awkward when I can't think of anything interesting to say.
I'll be there, as close to 7:00 as traffic permits. I will also be hungry, so Brock and I will be chowing down. I have black glasses, a red jacket today, and I look more or less like this.
Also, arthegall, you'll catch your death of cold with no coat.
This is a despressing roll call. Is it because the weather outside is LCRW? Should we reschedule?
In other news, I now have a ketchup spot right in the middle of my shirt, so that can be used as another identification tool. (Assuming we're still on.)
What is the roll-call-count? Five? Is that depressingly small? Do people really think that more Bostonians than that read Unfogged? I kinda doubt it's the weather, and presumably there's at least one lurker who hasn't responded to the roll-call but still plans on attending? I don't know.
Keep it tonight, or reschedule for another time, either is fine with me.
I'm local, but can't make it, other time-consuming stuff going on at home these days.
Well we definitely need to decide. I don't want mrh driving all the way up from wherever he's driving from and not have any of us show.
Do it tonight. Even if it's only two or three people who show up, you'll still have fun.
But mightn't it be awkward, if the three who show up discover that behind the pseudonyms are a triangle former lovers who went through two or more rancorous breakups?
Totally. If you try to reschedule, it will just fall through. Five is plenty respectable for a meetup -- we only had three at mine in SF and it was fun. Do it do it do it!
And wouldn't this be the first entirely-commenter meetup, with no Unfogged bloggers in attendance? If so, you can award yourself cool points for putting matters into your own hands. So now you definitely have to do it.
32: Beating the all-commenter LA meetup on Sunday by only a few days.
33 -- I'm thinking mostly awkward. But who knows.
32/34: I'm pretty sure that means we have no choice but to postpone. There's no way Boston is cooler than LA, and we shouldn't do anything to create a false impression otherwise.
27: Well, yeah. I'd have to hunt you all down and whine.
I'm happy to drive up and have a drink with four or five of you, as that sounds like a pretty strong Boston turnout. Also, beating the LA crew sounds like reason enough for me.
Besides which, the weather seems to have turned awesome.
If you decide to bail, just make sure you post that here before 5:30 or so.
I think we should just go ahead. Otherwise I bet it'll be years before we even try again, and even then someone will suggest it, and everybody will go "yeah, sure, like the last one, right?", and it will never happen. We even have a lurker volunteer. This is the time! Don't let LA shame us!
If everyone bails, and things get "rescheduled," then I guess I'll be drinking alone at the Burren tonight.
Won't be the first time!
Rescheduling is not a good idea. The weather is always like this in Boston! C'mon, just come to the Burren tonight at 7pm. You'll probably regret it, but whatever: isn't it always thus, with All-Things-Unfogged?
wouldn't this be the first entirely-commenter meetup, with no Unfogged bloggers in attendance?
IDP and I had a very small meet-up when I was in Chicago in July. We win.
"very small meet-up" s/b "brief, torrid affair"
What can I say, I seek passion in my life.
In LA, it's tank top weather today. Take that, Bostonians.
Okay, I'm off. I can't believe I'm actually about to do this. I've never met anyone off the internet before. Aren't all internet people freaks, anyway? If I end up bound and gagged in some psycho's basement dungeon, I will be p-i-s-s-e-d I tell you.
Okay, WTF??? I sat at the Burren for almost an hour and NO ONE SHOWED.
I got there just before 7:15 and walked all around the bar, in my tan raincoat with my big nose, giving everyone the LB face of confusion, but didn't get any reciprocating looks. I looked all around for mcmc's bright flowery bag, but didn't see it. I circled around enough times, staring at the people at the tables, that everyone in the bar gave me a "WTF are you looking at?" stare, and got nowhere. I waited outside the front door for a while, then circled the bar a few more times, staring even creepily at the patrons. Then I just sat at the bar in a seat with a good view of the door, ordered a pint of beer and waited. And waited, and waited, with my eye on the door. Nothing. About 7:50 a curly-haired guy walked in and began looking around at everyone with the LB face of confusion, and after he circled around a bit I thought I'd finally gotten somewhere. So I walked up and our conversation went like this:
BL: You look as if you don't quite know who you're looking for.
CHG: Well, no, I don't exactly. You aren't him, are you?
BL (excited now): I don't know- who are you looking for?
CHG: Some guy named "Dave."
BL: Fuck. No.
I sat there are few more minutes, circled around the entire bar once again for good measure, and then left, just before 8:00.
So now I have to try and figure out if there's a Boston-area unfoggedariat in whom I should be terribly dissappointed, or if you really are all figments of LB's imagination.
Or, most horrifying of all, if you all were at the bar and I just missed you somehow, and now you're having fun without me. And by "fun" yes I do mean an orgy.
Sorry, we're all out orgying. Try again later.
Seriously, though, that really sucks. That was pretty much exactly what I was afraid would happen when I went to a meetup.
Brock, no!
We were all there. You must have missed us, 'cause we walked into the back room. You do know that the Burren has a whole 'nother room in the back, right?
Everyone was wondering where you were. I'm totally not joking.
Aw, man. I got there at about 7:20, wandered around a bit, and eventually found the group in the back corner of the back room. (mcmc's bag was the giveaway). I may even have seen you when I was in the front room nursing my beer, after totally failing with the first group to which I said "Are you the people I don't know from the Internet?"
Seriously? That's exactly what almost happened at my meetup too. If I hadn't seen CÆ and his family leaving when they got kicked out, I'd never have even known there was a back room.
The story is that four of us (me, mrh, BG, and mcmc) all recognized each other in the main room,by the bar. Mcmc brought her bag -- that was the touchstone. There was nowhere to sit in the main room, so we found a corner booth in the far back of the back room to sit.
Lurker J had seen us by the bar, and followed us back. N.W. found us on his own.
And Brock totally missed us, which is pretty much awful. Sorry! Mcmc had hung her back out on the edge of the booth so that you could see us, but we were all the way in the back.
I'm only speaking for myself of course, but I thought it was all pretty fun. We went from about 7-9pm, and we spent a fair bit of time talking about other Unfoggeders.
What? I walked all around the back room at least 5 times, staring at everyone (well, at their bags, mostly), and didn't see you.
Now I'm sad.
Really? Sh*t, man, I'm sorry. Mcmc had hung her bag right out in the open, and we were in the far back corner... On the other hand, it was kinda loud, and we had to strain (well, I had to strain) to hear each other, so we might have been paying less attention to the people around us than we should have. Or, it's possible that you might have walked by our table at one of the times when, like, both waitresses were taking our orders or handing us food.
We really were trying to keep an eye out for you...
Were you back left or back right? (From the perspective of someone walking into the back room.)
Oh no! I feel really bad. We'll have to try again sometime for Brock.
Far back right corner.
I second the suggestion of trying again, "for Brock's sake."
I don't know how I missed you. That sucks, I guess I'm an idiot.
No no, it was crowded. There will be another meet-up, and next time we won't leave until you've found us.
Yeah, definitely. I totally want to meet Brock. I was lamenting your absence. If you do agree to come to a meetup, we can exchange cell phone numbers so that you don't get lost.
Shit, I just knew you missed us somehow, Brock. But my back was to the crowd, so you'll just have to blame Bostoniangirl and arthegall. I probably would've missed them too, had I not seen the group of slightly uncomfortable-looking people making introductions and shaking hands while I was waiting for my beer.
I don't know about everyone else, but I had a good time. It will be impossible to explain this to my real-life friends without being mocked, though. "So I had dinner with some people who comment on this blog I read. No, not anyone who actually runs the blog. No, I don't actually comment on it myself. But I read it all the time! It's a community! They have inside jokes, and philosophy... and cock jokes... and..." And then I get an atomic wedgie and end up crying myself to sleep.
Oh man, seriously? That sucks, dude. I'm sorry we missed each other. Still, a fun time was had, and it was a pleasure to meet BG, mcmc, NW, arthegall, and lurker J.
Brock, we seriously said "I wish Brock Landers was here" several times. Next time, we'll carry a banner or some such thing.
