Meet up

Last night I went to my first "Washington Weblogger" meet-up. There were seven of us, including DV$, who provided the moral support of a familiar face; John, who wrote a nice summary of the meeting at his site; Rob, our fearless organizer and an editor at DCist; Michael from DCFUD; Patrick, who I should have asked why he chooses to print those particular excerpts from Grateful Dating on his site; and Dan.

My big faux-pas was when I gave my real name and then corrected myself. "Hi, I'm J--I mean, I'm Jamy." Did they notice? For the purposes of the meet-up it seemed that Jamy was the name to go with. It is a legitimate nickname, though rarely used (Princess, stop making that face).

We went around and introduced ourselves, naming our blogs. As my turn approached, I felt more and more nervous. I was the only anonymous blogger in the group (except DV$) and here I was, exposing myself to complete strangers. It's one thing to expose yourself to strangers you will never meet--that's surprisingly easy. "I'm Jamy. I'm a little embarrassed to say...I didn't know I'd be so nervous." They encouraged me. "It's Grateful Dating." This was met with a small chorus of "Oh, Grateful Dating! Sure." Rob said he'd been reading the site and "got really into it." Who knew?

The conversation moved on and I talked a lot (as usual) and the range of topics was broad and interesting. Just read what John posted if you want details.

The guys thought it was hilarious that I still use dial-up at home, but I explained the economics of it to them and they relented, slightly. With the fast connection at work and more free coffee shop WiFi than you can shake a stick at, why do I need to drop $30/month on DSL or a cable modem (I don't have cable TV, so it's really much more than that) when I can pay $5/month for my no-frills ISP and $15/month to Verizon for the phone line? "I even wrote a post about dial-up!" However, my system doesn't work unless you have a cell phone. They seemed a little disappointed that I was that high-tech. Hey, I still have all my LPs and a record player at home--I'm a mix of old and new technology. I use what works.

It was good fun and there was consensus on meeting next month somewhere that offers beer. I'm all about the beer and the blog talk.

Back to our regularly scheduled dating news:

More email today from CC! We're all confirmed for Monday after next. My favorite line from her short and friendly message was, "I’ll be sure the gentlemen get it on their schedule." If there were ever any doubt that she was on my side, this dispels it.

Talking to Princess last night, we agreed not to let each other spend time worrying about things that 1) are completely out of our control and 2) are not actually problems. No creeping doubts allowed. I shall continue with my busy life and I am open to other dating opportunities. The socializing will continue.

Grateful for: meeting new people.