Drew Linky
12th of September - Meetings in Real Life
This is actually a retroactive entry, being written in October, but it concerns something that feels more than appropriate to mark down. I had the very fortunate opportunity to go to California, and there’s a number of people from the area that I asked to meet. Before I talk about that though, I realize that I never talked about a previous occasion wherein I met with WoC last year in late August.
We both live in the same state, so such a visit was inevitable. Not dwelling right next to each other, we decided to meet up in a city that was about halfway between us. For the occasion I made explicitly sure to wear the hat I won from him in a bet which says “WOC Is A Loser” on it. For the occasion we kept it simple and got lunch at a wonderful pizza place, as well as some gelato afterwards.
WoC has brought up the idea of hanging out again since, and some of his ideas are fairly normal (I believe he mentioned a New Year’s Party at some point?) while others are frankly ridiculous (roughing it in the Alaskan wilderness for an indeterminate amount of time). I’m unfortunately flaky, so it’s difficult to get me to actually agree to such a thing and show up. Nonetheless, I’m sure at least one future hangout is assured.
To return to the topic of California, I had the pleasure of meeting with no less than four people from the HSD while in California. Three of them were also mods, which in our minds made it the first intercoastal HSD mod meetup, or perhaps meetup in general. The first individual I met with was Toast. He traveled by train to meet me in San Francisco, at which point we decided to get food and check out the infamous Toblerone Cave where Hussie laid his treasure back in late August.
Toast seems just as chill and collected an individual in real life as he does online--the only thing I have to cast doubt on now is his taste in food. While we actually got food at a local place which was quite delicious, he’s been suggesting for months that I should go to the west coast burger chain In ‘N Out. I went there after his visit, and I’m sad to say that the food was positively trash. I have my own ideas for burger places to go to should he find himself on the east coast at some point.
Next, I ended up meeting simultaneously with Teratosapphic and Barry in Sacramento. We had to keep the visit short due to time constraints, but it still managed to be fairly entertaining. We kept it strictly to food, and visited a place called Smashburger. The way they both spoke about it on the way there was rather amusing: it was said that this place had fairly unique food, where they ball up the ground beef and smash it onto the grill to make a flat, more well-done burger patty. They made this sound like a complete novelty, but I couldn’t help laughing as I informed them that we have those literally everywhere in the midwest--we just call them steakburgers instead (although I don’t know why, smashburger is a far more appropriate term). It’s hard to tell what they might have been like separately, but together they were fairly energetic; indeed, the visit overall felt rather frenetic, and it was fun to talk with them about random things for the evening.
Finally, I had the unexpected delight of visiting Spiral back outside of San Francisco. In keeping with the previous visits, we got some delightful Hawaiin food at a place nearby and had a picnic of sorts in a local park. Spiral herself was exceedingly quiet and calm, which she later explained was caused by a busy day at work. Even with this, she offered some interesting details about the park we were eating at, and even went so far as to show me a place that she likes to sit and read in peace and quiet nearby. This visit was also short, but rather refreshing after a long period of time spent on the road.
In totality, these visits were an absolute delight to be able to participate in. It’s weird to think that I’ve met no less than five people from the HSD now, and it’s safe to say that I’ll treasure the memories of these visits likely forever. There’s always a sense of surreality in the moment where you’re both in the same area, but trying to find each other. Further, the feeling of recognition when you see their physical face for the first time is strange, but good.
There are vague plans to meet up with two more people at some point soon. These individuals will be Horse and Skyplayer, both of whom I’ve invited to my town to have pizza with. Skyplayer is moving to the east coast, while the ordeal with Horse will be in preparation for a far different visit in late October. Namely, he and I will both be going to a live episode of Perfectly Generic Podcast. It seems only sensible that going with someone you’ve met before would make it a more enjoyable experience.
Often enough, people who are less used to this process of visiting people from the internet will remark that it feels awkward and weird at first. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t weird and awkward at first, but it also doesn’t take long for that feeling to pass. If you’re really good friends with the person already, then before you know it the conversation becomes natural again, as if you’ve always spoken that way. These moments are something that are extremely important to me: getting to meet and know other people, and to become fast friends with them, is a fundamentally good thing. I wonder who else I’ll get to meet as the years go by.
Nothing more for today.
Makin
(No commentary for this month)