Special thanks to Leontine from Leontine's Book Realm for the super header.


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

2010 Year of the Internet Get-Together














What the heck you ask is up with all the various junk up there? What does it mean? It means 2010 is my year to hook-up with total strangers off the internet. Woohoo. How fun is that? :-D No, not "hook-up", but meet-up anyway.

I've always said I exist in 3 distinct sphere's on-line. Rarely the three shall meet, although two and three tend to overlap. *Waves to Polt* So this year I have three meetings in the works.

The first in late June is a virtual group of ladies I belong to. We are all working moms (hence our fantasy tattoo I made up there WM) and have been together for 5+ years I think now. We've been through births, deaths, divorces, marriages, etc. So this year is one member's 40th birthday and she is renting a huge house near DC and at least a dozen of us (wish everyone could come) are going to meet up and spend 4 days talking and drinking and laughing. This is a Me-only trip, no kids or husbands allowed on this one so I'm quite looking forward to it.

My summer vacation plans with my daughter include heading down to New England and circling around to NYC, Philadelphia. A couple of years ago I discovered the blog Puntabulous (Super Viagra is a mascot). Craig is super funny and a great guy so I started posting and like our blogs here, I got to know the other posters and we've been going on for a couple of years now. Last year my daughter and I met 7 other posters. This year Craig is offering to host a party at his place for some of us. Looking at the invite list there is about 20, not all will make it but many will who live near. Oh yeah, me, Michelle, one straight guy and 17 gay guys. Ack. You can see why the term "hook-up" will be used in my case only in the most non-sexual sense. I'm very excited though. I'm going to get to see some of the guys again and meet a few I haven't met yet and Michelle of course.

Then in October falls the great yaoi-con convergence. :-) Kris, Chris, Tracy, Jen, me (and my kid again) will be in San Francisco where we will leave our mark on the city and attend yaoi-con (not my kid - must be 18). Clare London will be there and a few other authors and bloggers so it will be an amazing five days. Oh yeah, 6 females in an apartment. Should be interesting. ;-)

So this is my year of meeting new (and old) friends in real life. See? The internet isn't just virtual. It can lead to real life face-to-face friends and in the case of Puntabulous, one real life romance. I'm so keeping that plot bunny on the back burner. :-) Till they get married maybe and merge their cat children.

2011 is going to be hard-pressed to live up to this one. In honour of meeting new friends and reconnecting with old, some hugging cookies. :-)




33 comments:

Chris said...

Meeting virtual friends is awesome! I met up with a bunch of knitbloggers in Colorado (for the Estes Wool Market) a few years ago and it was a blast. Last fall, I drove to Toronto and stayed with blogfriend Brigitte and met many other bloggers. Now this fall - the multi-continent Yaoi Con gathering. Very excited!

You're going to have an extra fun year, with three events to look forward to!

Tam said...

I think the myth of "all people on the internet are scary" is getting debunked. Too many of us are meeting amazing people, mind you, meeting up as friends has probably a far lesser risk than looking for your twu wuv via the internet. That seems to bring out the crazies.

Chris said...

No kidding. I gave the internet dating thing more than a fair shot. Ugh.

Tam said...

I do know people who have met their current spouses through the internet but I know more who've had just whacky results. Not necessarily stalkers but major misrepresentation. I've never even tried. I looked around once on a couple of sites and all the guys in my city listed made 1/3 what I did. Umm. BTDT with my ex. LOL Call me shallow but I'm never supporting a guy again.

wren boudreau said...

This is the kind of stuff you need to think about when having a bad day! Congrats on having so much fun to look forward to!!

Tam said...

It certainly helps Wren. Knowing good stuff is coming down the line makes the bad stuff a bit easier to take.

Lily said...

Wow Tam, what a fabulous year for you. Meeting up with old friends and then meeting the new ones. I hope you have a great time on all of the trips.

I'm quite jealous! :)

I have a friend who met her hubby on the internet and they've been together about 10 years now. My youngest met her BF on the internet and after much visiting on both parts she moved to Ohio with him. Lasted close to two years but ultimately didn't work out. Now I wish she'd move back but she's settled and happy up there now.

Tam said...

Did she meet him on a dating site Lily or just "on the net". I have the couple I mentioned above who met through blogs, not looking for love but it happened.

It's hard that your daughter is far away but I suppose she's formed a new life there.

Chris said...

My ex-stepbrother (the modern family - so complicated) met his wife on some scifi board they both frequented. I didn't know that when I went to their wedding, so I was wandering around, wondering what tidbit of info I was missing that would make sense of the guests (clothing varying from leather to business attire, hairstyles tending toward alternative). Learning about the scifi board connection helped it all click into place. :)

Lily said...

They met playing World of Warcraft. They were friends in the game for over a year before he came down the first time. More visits back and forth and then she moved up there.

Tam said...

Did they have a Star Wars cake Chris? LOL

I have a feeling that relationships between people who meet like that have more staying power than those seeking out "dating" sites. At least you know you have common passions right up front rather than starting with some vague notion of what you want.

2 years isn't bad Lily. She was young, it doesn't often last "forever" at that age. Distance can really be an issue though as often you meet people world-wide and not necessarily in your own backyard and boom, on person has to uproot their life if you want to give it a real chance.

K. Z. Snow said...

What wonderful plans, Tam! I'd love to be at the SF get-together, but I still haven't found a teleportation device. Or a sugar daddy. ;-)

Tam said...

Or a sugar daddy. ;-)

Well damn girl, seems you need to get on the internet for that one. Start hanging out at richbutstupid.com or moneytoburn.net. :-)

Kris said...

I'm so looking forward to yaoi-con in October. It will be Jen's b'day while we're there you know. We'll have to do something special... like get the girl child to cook a cake. :)

Tam said...

We'll have to have it be a flourless chocolate cake so Chris can have some. And Halloween is in here too, which is a big deal on is continent.

Chris said...

And I have the easiest flourless chocolate cake recipes evah. OR - we can just pick up a Betty Crocker gf cake mix. :)

Anonymous said...

Tam, you definitely have a fun and exciting year planned!

K.Z., if you find out where all the sugar daddies hang out online, could you please let me know?

Tam said...

Probably easier to go Betty Crocker since we won't have many staples. :-)

I want to find that site too Eyre. Someone to pay my rent and buy me gifts and then go away and leave me be. LOL

Anonymous said...

Tam, the perfect sugar daddy needs to be quite elderly, in poor health, and have no living relatives. I wouldn't want to have anyone take me to court like Anna Nicole Smith did. (Gosh, I sound mean!)

Also, if I'm going to land a sugar daddy, he'd probably have to have poor eyesight; otherwise, he definitely wouldn't pick me.

Erotic Horizon said...

Congrats on the travel year you are about to have..

Some really cool plans on the calendar there for you - Make sure you hit the beach at least once at some of these events..

Is San Fran ready for the six of you ....

E.H>

Tam said...

Is San Fran ready for the six of you ....

I truly fear for the locals. LOL

Jenre said...

Oh heck. I go awol from the blogs for a couple of days and you all start talking about me! A flourless choc cake sounds wonderful. I hadn't realised you were allergic to gluten Chris.

I'm so excited about meeting you guys. I met Clare London in, erm, London last weekend and it was just so fabulous to finally meet one of my internet friends. We literally talked each others' ears off for about 6 and a half hours, honestly we met at 6.30pm and we parted at 1am and I don't think either of us paused for breath the whole time, lol! It was just so great to chat to someone who shared my interests, as it will be when we get together in SF.

Tam said...

Oh my, if 2 of your talked for 6.5 hours, 5 of us? Eeek. LOL So glad you got to meet Clare and had a great time. Can't wait for October.

Chris said...

Jen: How fun for both you and Clare!! :)

Yup, I have celiac disease and am thus gluten intolerant.

Of course, since we'll be really close to Whole Foods, maybe we'll just pick up one of their very tasty flourless chocolate cakes...

Michelle M. said...

Yay! I can't wait!

Tam said...

Me too Michelle, will be fun

Polt said...

Well I'll wave back to you! Not really sure how I overlap two of them, but whatever.

More importantly, who's the straight guy that's gonna be there?!?!?!?!? I didn't know any straight guys READ Puntabulous, much less would be invite to the pool party! :)

HUGS...

Tam said...

John silly. Although I don't know if he'll be there, but he was invited. :-) You overlap in that you show up here with all my book friends.

Polt said...

Oooh, john! Yeah. Is Mr. Michelle M. planning on accompanying her? I thought perhaps he was the straight guy.

And who knew I was a crossover hit! :)

HUGS>..

Tam said...

I don't know if Mr. M. is coming. That would be fun.

Ingrid said...

I had a internet meeting in 2001 when it was my birthday with 2 others. One Welsh woman also attending made this huge cake. It was amazing.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5iVujreuHCqNmRiNjViYWEtZDAyNi00YmZjLWFhMTEtZjI4ZmNiMTg4Zjk5&hl=en

Tam said...

So cool Ingrid. Meeting internet friends is great and even better when it comes with cake. :-)

Ingrid said...

Yeah, the poor woman dragged it all the way from Wales to London by train.