It was my culture! ON THE TEEVEE!

Oooh! What show?

(I get like that about things set in Yorkshire. Should have seen me squeeing over The Full Monty and Brassed Off.)

F2F first impressions...jings, that's tricky, and troublesome, since I know I'll miss people out. First 'ffista I met* was Lee, iirc, and she was lovely and normal and deeply unscary and Buffistalike, and I was all talktalktalkjetlaggedtalktalktalkshyshyshytalktalktalkshyshyshy but she was lovely like a lovely thing.

I remember thinking Hec was exactly like Hec, except that I hadn't expected his voice. Now I can't imagine any other voice.

I remember being startled by how deadpan and hilarious in a totally-together, totally-confident way Teppy was. Almost intimidatingly so. 'Cause oftentimes she'd post things that I'd think, 'God, that's me!' but in person she seemed so very much more confident than me that it seemed silly to have even had that thought. If that makes sense? Because she's totally Mandy from Grimm and Evil.

ita and Jilli were ita and Jilli, incarnate. Which was very exciting, except I was a bit intimidated. Except that then I fell in love with the Jilli'n'Pete show, because - Jilli! And Pete! (And I was just as excited about Clovis as I was about any of the less hirsute 'ffistas, actually. I was all 'I've met Clovis!')

Man, I loved Erin's voice! Also, as advertised, she has a remarkably smooth and silky posterior.

Plei's first words were, iirc, "You're shorter than I expected!" so I guess that's the first impression that I make, maybe. Shorter and probably broader and quite likely shyer than expected. I did quite a lot of hiding, iirc.

Mind you, then there was the kitchen of porn. But that was Plei's fault. Yes.

What else do I especially remember as first impressions? Erika's smile, which is fabulous. Anne's elegance. Wanting to kidnap Emily. JZ positively sparkling. Betsy! Oh, lord, bless Betsy! DX - I always sort of want to hug him, except I'm sort of painfully English about hugging unless being given very unambiguous 'yes, hug me now!' vibes, so I tend to hover and/or shrink in a prickly and tentative fashion.

Um. Aimee - so fucking empresslike! This in spite of the fact that I remember being impressed by her ability to cheerfully remover her knickers from underneath her trousers (or possibly PJs?) in a room full of people as if it were the simplest thing ever. Just one more reason why Joe is a Very Lucky Boy. (...my first impression of Joe is now completely obliterated by the subsequent image of him in stripey tights and Miracle Man T shirt, which is in turn almost obliterated by the recollection of the candy bra. Gosh. Yes.)

John! In Silver plether! Making music by waving his hands in the air!!!!!!!!!!! Most magical thing EVAH!!!!

Meara. Hot like woah. See also Juliana and Smonster and...actually, that list could take me a while.

JenP: strikingly hot, sporting possibly the best tattoo EVAH. Slightly intimidating, actually, because she seemed so cool. (I am easily intimidated. In some ways.)

Deb G - positively vibrating with energy, like the anthropomorphic spirit of a nuclear reactor after it's 6th espresso, and strutting in leather pants and heels that it hurt me just to look at.

Shrift slounging. Yes. And there was leather. She was the epitome of Shriftishness, and Dana was the epitome of Danaishness, and they slounged together on the sofa, and I vaguely felt like I should have bought tickets or something, because - Shrift! And Dana! Live! Together they fight crime write porn about crime fighters!

Suzi! And Toddson! .......I was still sort of the Jetlag Queen when I first met them, and my first impressions are now overwritten with the image of Suzi Queen of the Baseball Fen in wig and ensemble, and Toddson in that magnficent ballgown. Mag. Ni. Ficent. Like woah.

Vortex! Holy crap, with the gorgeousness!

Noise Design came across as very cool and nonchalent and cute like woah. (He (continued...)

( continues...) and Kristin are so well matched.)

Beverly! Being Beverly! Very much just as lovely in person as online.

P-C! Cute as a button! (I'd say hot like woah, but it makes me feel vaguely like a dirty old woman....I forget why that's supposed to be a bad thing, though. Hmm.) Anyway - P-C, all kinds of lovely on a stick, double dipped in lovely with helpfulness sprinkles. I quite wanted to keep him. Bless.

...and of course my first impression of Pete was that he was ADORABLE a smouldering hunk of butch and loomy manhood.

*well, no, 'kay, not true - had already met Herself when she visited the UK. And although it's been years since she posted, I still sort of think of her as a Buffista, and fondly recall saying "go on, you should write some fanfic! It'll be cool! Have a crack at it!"...ah, happy days. (Herself, fwiw, is way glamorous. I bow to her mad dress style skillz.) And a while after meeting Herself I met AmyP and family when they were visiting the U K, who were just lovely.

...come to that, I remember when Amych and I were going to write some Lex/Wesley fencing slash together, and she decided to go and do some research into fencing...and now she's the Queen of Fencing, and is married to a boy she met through fencing! Holy crap!

eta

Crap, I'm already thinking of a dozen other people I've not mentioned, because I am an ass and I'm typing in between marking and stuff. Ngah.

Also?

waves

Hello, Shambles! Good name!

eta II

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILLI!!!

a smouldering hunk of butch and loomy manhood.

This ought to be his tag...

(With which, I am off to sleep the sleep of the just, having concluded my night of Crackfic Research, which is silly, seeing as it's Just For Me, and I suppose means I Don't Have to be Exact.)

(Tomorrow? I draw out floor plans for it.)

(Crack, like Bats, Likes Carrots.)

(In conclusion: mmm... bed.)

Oooh! What show?

The Office had a Diwali episode.

Because she's totally Mandy from Grimm and Evil.

HA! That's great.

P-C, all kinds of lovely on a stick, double dipped in lovely with helpfulness sprinkles. I quite wanted to keep him. Bless.

Aw. You were a pleasure to help.

So, I couldn't sleep and got up for some Internet time. Apparently there was an incident at one of UCLA's libraries this week in which a student was tasered 4 or 5 times by campus police. I saw video of it and I'm just stunned and furious. WTF is going on in this country? I need to do something to get my blood pressure down. Jesus.

GC! My fellow insomniac! I took a Claritan D earlier for allergies and then, without thinking, made the mistake of taking two Advil Cold & Sinus pills for a nasty headache a few hours later. On the upside--no headache anymore. Downside? I'm practically shaking from the amount of pseudoephedrine running through my veins. It's the only thing that works for my congestion and headaches, so I love it...but too much is a very bad thing. I hate this speed feeling.

Anyone up?

I'm a little insomniac right now. Hoping to get past it soon though.

If you wouldn't mind chatting for a bit, I'm on yahoo. I promise not to keep you up too long.

I'll pop on.

So, my probably-a-con-lady person, to whom I handed a wad of cash the other day?

I just checked her email address that I scribbled down (in the faint and forlorn hope that she was, in fact, kosher).

Her name?

Amanda Conradie.

A. Conradie. Which, if you have a Thai accent, is how you'd pronounce "A con lady."

!!!!

I laughed out loud when I saw that. That's a really nice touch. Fair play. The clue's in the name.

...otoh, though, a half-hearted Google of that name brought a bunch of links to South African wineries. And she claimed to be South African, working in the Wine Industry. So it is within the bounds of possibility that she was for real. I guess.

But mostly I'm thinking she's a 40ish fat female Sawyer-from-LOST. Probably. Who will end up being a character in my book, because she's clearly leading a Very Interesting Life.