OK, here I am, following Shayna around again! I posted right after her in the other thread, but I’ll repeat my comments here.
SDMB Southern California meeting - the verdict
Well, the SCal doper meeting happened last night. pricciar’s organizing has finally borne its fruit. My personal re-telling of the experience:
I showed up at the restaurant with my fiancée at around 15:45. A quick peek at the reservation list showed the name Adams, 16:30 (as expected), due to Rilchiam’s careful planning.
Since we had some time to kill, we decided to view the wares offered in the neighbouring shops and favoured one of the local establishments with our patronage. (Amongst other sundries, we found some chocolate cigarettes, which we later pulled out at dinnertime, expecting to provoke an outcry of censure, but our well-travelled SDMB friends did not even raise a slight eyebrow of disapproval. I guess chocolate cigarettes don’t fool anybody anymore.)
Then we slowly wandered back to the restaurant (my fiancée was waylaid by a young lady with a persuasive sales pitch, and we are now the possessors of a miracle nail-buffing device!) and in front I saw a group of people chatting animatedly. Due to his height, the first person I recognized was ]pricciar, who looks exactly like his photo. I immediately recognized from the attractiveness and intelligence radiating from this crowd of people that we had found our dinner companions. Since I had previously described my planned attire on the board, I heard several cries of “There’s the hemp suit!” I was planning on trying to pass myself as Cecil Adams, but my attempt was met with frank disbelief.
Of course, what some of you will want to know is “are the s. cal dopers good-looking?” To repeat the words of Garrison Keillor, “all the women were strong, all the men good-looking, and all the children above average.” But actually that would be understating the case. The pulchritude measurement of my SDMB fellow posters would be well above 800 milli-helens (milli-helen = amount of beauty necessary to cause the launching of a single ship.) The women in our group would cause heads to turn in any crowd, and the men would be prime choices for the swimsuit edition of Scientific American.
The crowd already assembled (in no particular order):
pricciar, the main event organizer, a tall strapping youth with a look of disarming frankness and honesty. I imagine him as a future world leader.
chief, quiet, shy, bespectacled, with a physionomy that bespoke studiousness and intelligence. If this young man represents the future of humanity, we are in good hands.
Ursa Major, whom I had imagined to have a face lined with wisdom, and with a halo surrounding his head. Imgine my surprise when I saw a “surfer dude” with an engaging smile! I searched in vain for the encylopedia that I imagined he would be lugging around, but it’s all in his head.
Melin, a tall and statuesque woman who doesn’t seem afraid of anything. At first I thought I would be intimidated by her strong MB personality, but she was very friendly and convivial.
Rilchiam was flourishing her digital camera and had us pose for a picture. She is slight, bookish and has a look of discerning intellect about her.
Cowboy Greg, with whom I unfortunately did not have much time to get acquainted, did not wear spurs or chaps, but possesses a distinguised mustache and an amiable air. Next time, I hope I will get to chat with him some more.
Johnny L.A. was facing me at dinner, so I had a better chance of making his acquaintance. I was imagining a cocky pilot with mirrorred sunglasses, and was agreeably surprised to find a mild-mannered, yet jocular young man, pleasant and cheerful.
jab1, who to my surprise is not a college student (I don’t know why I was imagining that). He pointed out to me that his profile clearly states that he is retired! (Note to self: pay more attention to profiles.) Unfortunately, he was also at the other end of the table, so next time I hope to be able to chat with him some more, so all I can tell you is that he has a genial and kindly demeanour. I hope to get from him his secret for retiring at such a young age!
highlander, who (I don’t think I am revealing any forbidden secrets here) is also Melin’s significant other. From the short glimpses I caught of him, my impression was of a scholarly and kind-hearted individual, with a hidden inner strength.
Shayna arrived two seconds after us, and all I can say is that her screen name is well-deserved. She is obviously very bright and funny, and full of sparkling wit and charm. Her personality is one that will light up the room and be the centre of attention at any social gathering.
Catrandom arrived with Shayna. I didn’t see any air of randomness about her, rather she seems like a pleasing and lovely woman with a steadfast temperament. If you wanted to have a friend for life, you could do much worse than choose her.
Laura, and her significant other, whose name eludes me. She and her s.o. make a charming couple. Laura seems to be a high-spirited and enthusiastic young lady, with a mien bespeaking resoluteness and determination. When she arrived, we noted that she broke the trend of red-headedness amongst the female representatives in our gathering.
Melin and highlander’s progeny ran in and out of the restaurant at various times. Their names, from my recollection, are oldest, middle and youngest. They seemed to be great friends with each other, and full of boyish high spirits. Fine specimens of Generation Y.
Since we had more people than planned (an excellent turn-out!), we had to wait a few minutes whilst a larger table was arranged. Then we all trouped in and sat ourselves in typical disorganized fashion. Since my fiancée and I were unfortunately expected at another engagement and could not stay long, we sat near the end of the table most propitious for a discreet leave-taking. In my near vicinity were Laura and her significant other, Johnny L.A., Rilchiam and Melin. the conversation revolved around many topics, the inevitable recap of board business and previous posters, the comments on the kind hackers that graced the SDMB web server with their visit, and recommended books. Rilchiam and I shared our appreciation of the crime novels of Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine), Melin told me of recent developments in liability insurance for internet service providers, Johnny L.A. discussed helicopters (and since I know several people at his place of employment, we tried to find common acquaintances), Laura mentioned her search for a new computer andd the joys of teaching, and Shayna, the social butterfly, made the rounds and graced our side of the table where we discussed the clever Bricker challenges (and she revealed her childhood nickname.)
At this point, we had to take our leave, so we quietly (or maybe not so quietly) slipped away. Let’s hope that this social gathering will be repeated at a not too distant future date!
P.S. Johnny L.A. told a joke well-deserving of a rim-shot, and I promised myself I would repeat it to the board, but of course now it is lost in the mists of my brain.
P.P.S. In the car, my fiancée told me “Well, I thought I was going to be bored at your ‘nerd-fest’, but everyone was much more pleasant than I thought! They’re actually quite normal.” Some people might consider that “damning with faint praise”, but, trust me, the phrase was intended to be highly complimentary.
But the food was, indeed, delicious. Also, they had something I’d never noticed before: sugar cookies shaped like lobsters. I wanted one, and Melin wanted one each for Sons, but we were informed that they were out.
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