Post by fAB on Jul 12, 2005 16:45:29 GMT -5
Yesterday was totally awesome! Well at least I thought so. I don't know if my companions entirely thought so, but for me it ruled! So I guess I'd better explain before proceeding further... It was the 4th of July, those AM hours where it's late night in your head and early morning on the clock. Feldinaut and I were conversing over AIM as we often do, and somehow we'd gotten on the subject of meeting online friends. We made up a sequence of fictitious events revolving around an MMLS road trip that included her, Fire Griffin, Blyka, PharaohMan and myself, and were having fun just thinking about the idea. Then moments later came...
Feldinaut (1:44:38 AM): I'M GOING TO D.C. SOON
Feldinaut (1:44:41 AM): MEET ME THERE>
fab (1:44:42 AM): You are?!
Feldinaut (1:44:43 AM): XDDD
fab (1:44:45 AM): When?!
fab (1:44:50 AM): WHEN?!
Feldinaut (1:44:54 AM): Going with my family this Friday.
fab (1:44:59 AM): O-M-G!
Feldinaut (1:45:14 AM): Gosh, it's really not far is it? @_@
fab (1:45:15 AM): The 8th?
fab (1:45:19 AM): Only two hours away.
Feldinaut (1:45:24 AM): WHOA
Feldinaut (1:45:33 AM): It's the.... 8-13
fab (1:45:37 AM): OMG!
Naturally the conversation continued, but that conveys the exciting moment. The potential opportunity was too great to pass up! There were some problems standing in the way though. For starters, I don't have a driver's license. >_< YES! I'm 23. The reason I don't have one is partially due to circumstances, and partially due to the fact that I don't really care about having one. I basically never leave my house. Between Christmas shopping early last December and the present, I had only gone out into the world ONE time. But you must understand something here... I haven't really had any "real life" friends to speak of since the beginning of 6th grade when I started homeschooling and moved across country to "the middle of nowhere". Online though, I've made many friends, many as dear to me or moreso than the real life friends of my past. I did not want to miss this one good chance to finally meet one of those online friends!
My sister was the key to the operation. It meant having her along (geeky) but if that's the way it had to be then so be it! I asked her, using the incentive that she could claim it as the past two birthday presents she owed me. Hehe She's so great though, she would have said yes anyway without a second thought. ^_^ So anyway, with transportation solved, I told my parents and Feldi told hers. Blyka, being close to the scene as well was also invited and everything was planned out. All that remained was a few more days of waiting... Which seemed to last forever... My excitement built, but I was kinda nervous too. I'd be with my sister and Feldi (who was vacationing in D.C.) would be with her brother, so it would be rather a strange five-some (is that even a word?!). We kept saying to each other that it would be really awkward but really awesome! XD
So yesterday was the big day. It was two hours to D.C. but we allowed close to three, and thank goodness we did! For those of you who aren't familiar, D.C. is insanely designed, full of strange looping roads and one-way streets. Construction work didn't help either... We were to meet at 4:00 PM at the Lincoln Memorial. We pulled right alongside it at about 3:25...and then passed it by. >_< We got stuck on some roads and turned around again and again and didn't see it again till about 3:50. Finding a parking space was gonna be tough, and we were gonna be late, so Blyka and I hopped out of the jeep at 3:58 and walked the short distance to the memorial, leaving my sis to fend for herself.
Lincoln Memorial... Man, I hadn't been here in about 11 years. No one doing the hula in sight, but of course she'd only been joking about that. XP Could that be her sitting there? No. Wait, the hair looks about right... I circled around her a bit to get a look at her shirt. "Spider Man!" I shouted (not too loud though). Haha, she said she'd be wearing a Spider Man shirt, though it wasn't at all the shirt I had imagined. ANYWAY, so there she was, there we were! OMG IT'S FELDINAUT!
My memory as to what exactly we said to each other in this 15-20 minute stetch is hazy... Her brother showed up a minute or two later, and we talked a bit about D.C. and the heat, something about a baby panda... @_@ Who cares, I was with Feldi!!! Yes, it was that exciting, because she's like one of my two best friends ever, and probably one of only three people on the Internet I'd go to this much trouble to meet! So yeah! Too cool! Her brother seemed like a really cool guy also, but he's asked that we keep him out of our pictures. Pictures?! HECK YES! You didn't think we'd just let such a momentous occasion go undocumented did you?
OMG! It's Feldi, her brother (face blurred) and Blyka sitting on the steps! What a totally dramatic meeting place!
Feldi and Blyka, close up! Now how cool is that?!
Unfortunately the conditions for this trip left my sister's two toddlers in the care of my mother, who has bad arthritis and goats to tend to, so we didn't anticipate being able to spend more than 2 hours in D.C. As soon as my sister found us, we headed back to the jeep and hopped in for the next adventurous phase of the visit...
Feldi plays navigator as my sister fights the awful traffic and wacked roads.
They didn't much heed the words of the three guys in the back seat. XP If they had, we might have only been wandering the (often unpleasant) streets of D.C. for an hour instead of an hour and a half.
We were headed for Luigi's, a fantastic pizza place I'd been hearing about from my dad for years and years. Yeah, it really took forever to find it, but that definitely made our time together longer than it would have been. Feldi's brother, Kevin (why didn't I mention his name sooner, would have made things easier!) was cracking sarcastic jokes left and right, just my style of humor. XD
At last we reached what we were sure was the right area, though we still didn't see our destination until after we had parked, gotten out and started looking around.
Luigi's! WEEEE MAAAADE IIIIT!!!!
I got an ever so slight impression my sister had some romantic intentions when she told me to take the seat next to the one Feldi was taking. @_@ My family's so weird that way, always teasing me about girls. Someday they'll realize I am not the romantic type. XP Not that I minded sitting next to Feldi though, except I had to twist my head around to look at her. Indeed, my seat offered me a straight-on view of nobody, just the group of people at the table beyond. Haha!
Yep, that geek really is me! Sitting next to the awesome Feld, I'm sooo not worthy!!!
Basically a repeat picture, only this one's "natural" instead of posed.
As expected, restaurants always take forever to serve the food, so at 6:00 when we had anticipated leaving D.C., we were instead calmly (or not so calmly) waiting for our pizzas. The conversation was awkward but awesome, as predicted. Blyka's a really quiet guy (you may have been able to tell from his post count here), and didn't have much to say throughout the whole meeting. Though I found out later he'd had a horrible headache the whole time. Poor guy.
Anyway, since I'm not a particularly talkative guy either, and since I certainly don't believe in forcing a conversation when it's a friend I'm comfortable around, my sister (with the gift of gab) kind of lead the conversation. I feel really badly about that, I wish I could have come up with something more interesting to talk about. Forgive me, Feldi! I really was having a great time even though it probably didn't seem like it, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The pizza was good. Not as great as I imagined it would be, but then I really didn't have much of an appetite- very unusual for me -so I don't think I could judge properly. Feldi and Kevin seemed to enjoy it, or at least were really polite about it if they didn't. I think they were telling the truth though, because they made no bones about the terrible tea! XP I got to see one side of Feldi that I hadn't really before - she can be STUBBORN! I insisted on paying for dinner, but she insisted that she would pay for her and her brother, and she did not look like she was willing to argue about it! O.O And oh yes, we did make a number of Legends references throughout our meeting, but not a whole lot. I mean hey, that's what the forums are for, right?
Sadly, the conclusion of dinner meant the conclusion of our fun. It was time to head home.
I realized that I hadn't taken nearly enough pictures, so I whipped out the camera and started snapping like crazy. I LOVE my digital camera! Anyway, here are a few of them.
From left to right, Kevin's shoulder, Feldinaut, fab, and Blyka.
Feldi's so much fun! She's as cool in person as she is online!
Oh, and I got a little video clip too! Feldi turns around!
www.legends-station.com/forum/feldi1.wmv
Blyka fans rejoice! I would have taken more pictures of him, but I've already known him for some time, plus he avoids the camera whenever he can.
Haha, yes! More Feldi! *breakdances on D.C.*
Okay, last picture. It's cropped off center because of an impeding wall, and in order to cut Kevin out.
Just seconds after that picture, we piled back into the jeep and headed through a bit more of the mess to drop the two tourist folks off... So sad, just a little over 3 hours and it all flew by so fast. Here's one more video, Feldi navigating again as we're at a traffic-induced standstill.
www.legends-station.com/forum/feldi2.wmv
And that about wraps it up. I spent the next hour or so of the trip home trying to take it all in. What an awesome time! Kevin and my sister had to feel out of place I'm sure, and Blyka had a headache, but I totally enjoyed myself, and hopefully Feldi did too. ^_^ I can't wait to talk about the whole thing with her on AIM!
Long read, eh? Well hope you all enjoyed it. Probably boring to the rest of you. XP
Feldinaut (1:44:38 AM): I'M GOING TO D.C. SOON
Feldinaut (1:44:41 AM): MEET ME THERE>
fab (1:44:42 AM): You are?!
Feldinaut (1:44:43 AM): XDDD
fab (1:44:45 AM): When?!
fab (1:44:50 AM): WHEN?!
Feldinaut (1:44:54 AM): Going with my family this Friday.
fab (1:44:59 AM): O-M-G!
Feldinaut (1:45:14 AM): Gosh, it's really not far is it? @_@
fab (1:45:15 AM): The 8th?
fab (1:45:19 AM): Only two hours away.
Feldinaut (1:45:24 AM): WHOA
Feldinaut (1:45:33 AM): It's the.... 8-13
fab (1:45:37 AM): OMG!
Naturally the conversation continued, but that conveys the exciting moment. The potential opportunity was too great to pass up! There were some problems standing in the way though. For starters, I don't have a driver's license. >_< YES! I'm 23. The reason I don't have one is partially due to circumstances, and partially due to the fact that I don't really care about having one. I basically never leave my house. Between Christmas shopping early last December and the present, I had only gone out into the world ONE time. But you must understand something here... I haven't really had any "real life" friends to speak of since the beginning of 6th grade when I started homeschooling and moved across country to "the middle of nowhere". Online though, I've made many friends, many as dear to me or moreso than the real life friends of my past. I did not want to miss this one good chance to finally meet one of those online friends!
My sister was the key to the operation. It meant having her along (geeky) but if that's the way it had to be then so be it! I asked her, using the incentive that she could claim it as the past two birthday presents she owed me. Hehe She's so great though, she would have said yes anyway without a second thought. ^_^ So anyway, with transportation solved, I told my parents and Feldi told hers. Blyka, being close to the scene as well was also invited and everything was planned out. All that remained was a few more days of waiting... Which seemed to last forever... My excitement built, but I was kinda nervous too. I'd be with my sister and Feldi (who was vacationing in D.C.) would be with her brother, so it would be rather a strange five-some (is that even a word?!). We kept saying to each other that it would be really awkward but really awesome! XD
So yesterday was the big day. It was two hours to D.C. but we allowed close to three, and thank goodness we did! For those of you who aren't familiar, D.C. is insanely designed, full of strange looping roads and one-way streets. Construction work didn't help either... We were to meet at 4:00 PM at the Lincoln Memorial. We pulled right alongside it at about 3:25...and then passed it by. >_< We got stuck on some roads and turned around again and again and didn't see it again till about 3:50. Finding a parking space was gonna be tough, and we were gonna be late, so Blyka and I hopped out of the jeep at 3:58 and walked the short distance to the memorial, leaving my sis to fend for herself.
Lincoln Memorial... Man, I hadn't been here in about 11 years. No one doing the hula in sight, but of course she'd only been joking about that. XP Could that be her sitting there? No. Wait, the hair looks about right... I circled around her a bit to get a look at her shirt. "Spider Man!" I shouted (not too loud though). Haha, she said she'd be wearing a Spider Man shirt, though it wasn't at all the shirt I had imagined. ANYWAY, so there she was, there we were! OMG IT'S FELDINAUT!
My memory as to what exactly we said to each other in this 15-20 minute stetch is hazy... Her brother showed up a minute or two later, and we talked a bit about D.C. and the heat, something about a baby panda... @_@ Who cares, I was with Feldi!!! Yes, it was that exciting, because she's like one of my two best friends ever, and probably one of only three people on the Internet I'd go to this much trouble to meet! So yeah! Too cool! Her brother seemed like a really cool guy also, but he's asked that we keep him out of our pictures. Pictures?! HECK YES! You didn't think we'd just let such a momentous occasion go undocumented did you?
OMG! It's Feldi, her brother (face blurred) and Blyka sitting on the steps! What a totally dramatic meeting place!
Feldi and Blyka, close up! Now how cool is that?!
Unfortunately the conditions for this trip left my sister's two toddlers in the care of my mother, who has bad arthritis and goats to tend to, so we didn't anticipate being able to spend more than 2 hours in D.C. As soon as my sister found us, we headed back to the jeep and hopped in for the next adventurous phase of the visit...
Feldi plays navigator as my sister fights the awful traffic and wacked roads.
They didn't much heed the words of the three guys in the back seat. XP If they had, we might have only been wandering the (often unpleasant) streets of D.C. for an hour instead of an hour and a half.
We were headed for Luigi's, a fantastic pizza place I'd been hearing about from my dad for years and years. Yeah, it really took forever to find it, but that definitely made our time together longer than it would have been. Feldi's brother, Kevin (why didn't I mention his name sooner, would have made things easier!) was cracking sarcastic jokes left and right, just my style of humor. XDAt last we reached what we were sure was the right area, though we still didn't see our destination until after we had parked, gotten out and started looking around.
Luigi's! WEEEE MAAAADE IIIIT!!!!
I got an ever so slight impression my sister had some romantic intentions when she told me to take the seat next to the one Feldi was taking. @_@ My family's so weird that way, always teasing me about girls. Someday they'll realize I am not the romantic type. XP Not that I minded sitting next to Feldi though, except I had to twist my head around to look at her. Indeed, my seat offered me a straight-on view of nobody, just the group of people at the table beyond. Haha!
Yep, that geek really is me! Sitting next to the awesome Feld, I'm sooo not worthy!!!
Basically a repeat picture, only this one's "natural" instead of posed.
As expected, restaurants always take forever to serve the food, so at 6:00 when we had anticipated leaving D.C., we were instead calmly (or not so calmly) waiting for our pizzas. The conversation was awkward but awesome, as predicted. Blyka's a really quiet guy (you may have been able to tell from his post count here), and didn't have much to say throughout the whole meeting. Though I found out later he'd had a horrible headache the whole time. Poor guy.
Anyway, since I'm not a particularly talkative guy either, and since I certainly don't believe in forcing a conversation when it's a friend I'm comfortable around, my sister (with the gift of gab) kind of lead the conversation. I feel really badly about that, I wish I could have come up with something more interesting to talk about. Forgive me, Feldi! I really was having a great time even though it probably didn't seem like it, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.The pizza was good. Not as great as I imagined it would be, but then I really didn't have much of an appetite- very unusual for me -so I don't think I could judge properly. Feldi and Kevin seemed to enjoy it, or at least were really polite about it if they didn't. I think they were telling the truth though, because they made no bones about the terrible tea! XP I got to see one side of Feldi that I hadn't really before - she can be STUBBORN! I insisted on paying for dinner, but she insisted that she would pay for her and her brother, and she did not look like she was willing to argue about it! O.O And oh yes, we did make a number of Legends references throughout our meeting, but not a whole lot. I mean hey, that's what the forums are for, right?
Sadly, the conclusion of dinner meant the conclusion of our fun. It was time to head home.
I realized that I hadn't taken nearly enough pictures, so I whipped out the camera and started snapping like crazy. I LOVE my digital camera! Anyway, here are a few of them.From left to right, Kevin's shoulder, Feldinaut, fab, and Blyka.
Feldi's so much fun! She's as cool in person as she is online!
Oh, and I got a little video clip too! Feldi turns around!
www.legends-station.com/forum/feldi1.wmv
Blyka fans rejoice! I would have taken more pictures of him, but I've already known him for some time, plus he avoids the camera whenever he can.
Haha, yes! More Feldi! *breakdances on D.C.*
Okay, last picture. It's cropped off center because of an impeding wall, and in order to cut Kevin out.
Just seconds after that picture, we piled back into the jeep and headed through a bit more of the mess to drop the two tourist folks off... So sad, just a little over 3 hours and it all flew by so fast. Here's one more video, Feldi navigating again as we're at a traffic-induced standstill.
www.legends-station.com/forum/feldi2.wmv
And that about wraps it up. I spent the next hour or so of the trip home trying to take it all in. What an awesome time! Kevin and my sister had to feel out of place I'm sure, and Blyka had a headache, but I totally enjoyed myself, and hopefully Feldi did too. ^_^ I can't wait to talk about the whole thing with her on AIM!
Long read, eh? Well hope you all enjoyed it. Probably boring to the rest of you. XP
Pitch knows how it is to have friends like that. *nod* If I didn't say it, someone else would have. ;D ...right, everyone? ...RIGHT?
