More from the Soiree

(the poll is still going on!)

There was no carpool that day so we were on our own schedule which got us there about twenty minutes after the appointed start time.

Amanda, Christine, Julie, Rhonda

I mentioned wanting to be at the soiree to meet Julie, and show some support, and make sure she had a friend to lean on.  I didn't have to.  She looked fantastic and was in "cocktail party" mode all night.  Any time I saw her she was chatting with one or more girls and seemed to be having a great time.

I spent a lot of time chatting with Julie, Michelle, Rhonda, and many others.  I spent not enough time chatting with Pamela, Christine, JoAnn, Pat, Claudia....  I have trouble pacing myself.  I may have mentioned this before: because I have trouble with faces I hesitate to go up to someone because I may or may not have met her before and I've embarrassed myself in the past, with either "Hi!  I'm Meg" ~ "Yes, we've met several times."  Or "Hi!  How have you been?"  "Fine.  By the way, I'm Edema, and this is my first time out."  (Note: 'Edema' is not a good girls' name.)

Anyway, if I'm talking with someone and have figured out the met/not met thing, I tend to monopolise her time.  If people come up to me, my introvert side sometimes takes over and I don't stay long enough to have a good conversation.  Maybe it averages out.  Maybe people just say "well, that's Meg for ya" and shake their heads and move on.

The bottom line is, I had a good time.  My first time meeting with a group of girls in a social setting was dreary.  Since then, I've met with several girls individually or in small groups, mostly on travel, and several of the girls in the DC area.  It turns out my first experience was an anomaly.

When I was young, I read a lot of science fiction on a limited budget.  I was in our local... I guess you'd call it a convenience store today.  They sold some groceries, some basic items, comics, magazines, cold drinks, ice cream, and some books.  They had two Arthur C Clarke books.  I had heard of but not read Clarke.  I picked up "Earthlight" and left "Rendezvous with Rama."  Earthlight was horrid and I didn't pick up another Clarke book for probably 20 years when I found Rendezvous again.  I bought it and it was one of the best of the genre I had ever read.

Connie and Sarah

My experience with t-girls kind of echoed that.  I had a bad experience and I am SO glad I didn't wait 20 years to try again....  But I was hesitant and passed a few opportunities by.  And Connie and I were discussing sf at the most recent Soiree and if you're reading this, Connie, "Earthlight" was the book I couldn't remember.