Sail, yes still good. I had to check which one I had in there!

Do any NYCers (past or present) remember who hosted the watching party that ita came to? Not the first one, that was Fiona. This was a guy and maybe in Brooklyn, but not Scola, right? I would have remembered if it was Scola, wouldn't I?

Joe Boucher? David Rothschild? Joey...something? (Not a NYCer, just throwing out names.)

Aillean, I don't really remember you, but your story about your sister's death made me tear up. I am so sorry for your family's loss.

I am so jealous of all the F2F memories. I only ever made it to the first one in Chicago (which was crazy fun!). I met a few other Buffistas here and there, but I never had the pleasure of meeting ita. And now I never will. I hate that.

Maybe David. I seem to think he stopped posting soon after the event.

I think ita must have been in town for work?

Fear not, Callaluna--I still have pictures of you at that first Chicago F2F. :)

Though I just tried to look through all my photos and jeez, I need a better way of organizing them. Not only are some of them not in iPhoto, others are in there three times, some are way out of chronological order (because I scanned them, or got them from someone else after the fact), some were important at the time but should be deleted...and as far as I could tell, only two of them were of ita! I know I must have some hardcopies then, that I didn't scan...

From Firefly 1:

I could wear the Buffista thong.

I would do that, for the cause.

DC was my first F2F. I met Ginger on the drive up, riding with Bycyclops and his lovely wife--whose board name I seem to have forgotten. Planning on the board, I remember offering to drive while confessing that I was more familiar with manual transmission, crank windows, etc. He mentioned cruise control, and I said something to the effect that any more automation and I'd be in the back getting snacks and looking at the magazines. He rescinded his permission for me to drive his car.

Anne put me up in her lovely house, which was such a quiet, safe haven after all the hectic meet and greet. Well, except for MM and ND verbally abusing the pope after everybody else had gone to bed.

DC was my first occasion meeting any of the Buffistas, at all. And you were all exactly who I already knew. I met Vortex, and regret to this day not paying proper homage to her beautiful corsetted boobies. I met Deb, and they, Ginger and I were on the elevator on the way to prom when the doors opened and a gentleman waiting hesitated at the sight of the corsetted and tiara'd women regarding him. "It's okay," Vortex said. "We don't bite."

I gave it a beat. "Unless you ask."

Sharing the elevator with the bartender as he left, and thanking him for putting up with our shennanigans, I got a wide-eyed, "Oh no, thank you! Apparently it was the most fun he'd had on the job.

So many first impressions of Buffistas, that really weren't, after all--just 3D confirmation. Again, in planning on the board, the introverts among us had all predicted we'd be hanging out in the stairwell. To my knowledge, that was never necessary. I not only survived crowd-immersion, I thrived on it, with my people.

Free the snark! Give the snark free! You can't hold down the snark. Snark will find its own level.