Oh the baby called (emma) JAYNE... when she cries she's a PAIN... but her mamma loves her all the SAME....

think I really better go home and rest my eyes for awhile.

She is our very favorite baby.

The funny thing about that spelling? MM's mom doesn't like it. She thinks people of her generation are going to think of Jayne Mansfield and that I shouldn't want that. I couldn't explain to her that MY friends are gonna go for a whole other fandom.

Friday in New York

Saturday in New York

Jessica and Ethan's apartment is full of things to look at. Stacks of CDs, rows of DVDs, stacks of books, rows of comics. Plus some very cool posters, including a promotional Annie Hall poster with a scene not in the film and a print clearly from India. I had been wondering about the Indian connection, because Jessica also had a lot of Indian spices. It turned out Ethan's dad was in the State Department...or something like that. In any case, he interacted with India a lot.

Ethan and I started talking comics in order to alienate Jessica and Kate. We were diametrically opposed in our views of Daredevil. He thought the pacing was off in the current arc, and I loved the current arc. I wasn't so thrilled with all the Matt-less issues exploring the underworld and Yakuza, and he had loved those. Jessica piped in with a generic statement of agreement. We also talked Fables, which he wasn't in love with as much as I was yet. Neither was Jessica, who apparently hadn't been enthralled with the first trade. Come on! It has a parlor scene!

He was becoming disenchanted with 100 Bullets; he wasn't as invested in wanting to know the secrets of the conspiracy as I was. We both did enjoy the one-shots. Man, I wasn't used to having friends who disagreed with me so much! Of course, I'd only first e-mailed Ethan a month ago and met him that day, but he was definitely friend-material. Despite being wrong a lot. Like Jessica. Jessica and Ethan are made for each other cause they're so wrong. Not liking Fables. Puh.

Oh! Proof that Ethan is totally friend-material: he let me borrow his No Man's Land, since I'd been dying to read it due to its being brought up every third post in the comics thread.

Jessica tried to figure out how to play the TV Guide Game Ethan had helped make (he'd written a Buffy question or two). She didn't get very far.

The phone rang. Was it our compatriots? No, it was the pizza! From Little Tonino's, whose mushroom pizza looked to be more mushroom than pizza. But Ethan had awesomely gotten some Coke (there had been none that morning), so it was all good.

Jessica asked if Trudes and Kristin knew about the plan. I was pretty certain, yeah. I called Kristin's cell. No one picked up. There was a buzz at the door. Guess who it was. Scola arrived as well, sometime. Previously, I thought I'd be overwhelmed by meeting so many Buffistas at once, but I think it helped a little that I'd already seen pictures of most everyone before.

Trudes reminded me of Merinda, both in voice and build and the fact that I'd been hanging up on her with an "Okaybye." Her hair was in a ponytail.

Kristin is every bit as pretty as the pictures make her out to be, and then some. Except she's not really wee, peoples. She is, in fact, optimal hugging height for me. And one thing no one's mentioned is her voice, which is not one you'd usually expect from a teeny little blonde woman. It's a tad low, and the only word I can think to describe it is mature. She both looks and sounds mature.

Scola is...Scola. Aw.

Let's make fun of Jessica now! I mean, talk about Jessica. There are turtles everywhere. Three or so in the living room, one in the bathroom. It's her thing. Also in the bathroom? Emergency pamphlets from airplanes. Kristin wasn't sure whether to be more scared by the presence of those, or the box of rubber gloves on the floor. It was claimed she dyed her hair a lot, but I don't know...Although I could finally see her blue hair in all its glory. It was glorious. And blue. Cause you gotta have blue hair.

We started getting pizza and drinks. There was ice in the freezer. I was getting some for me, and Kristin asked if I could get her some as well. I said, quite pointedly, "No." Which of course means yes, as she found out when she came up to get it herself and I dropped some in her glass. I relate this incident as an example of how people were getting a taste of how I actually interact with people in the real world. Which, incidentally, isn't so different from how I interact with them on the board.

I gave Trudes her peanut butter cookie, and she looked surprised that I'd actually gotten it for her. She asked me how I liked them, and I said they were all right, but not as chewy as I like them. She seemed so sad. I wished I could have lied and said I loved them as much as she did, but I'm honest to a fault. Regardless, she kissed me on the cheek. I got a smooch from Super Porny Pants! I am so much specialer than you.

Then. Oh then. It was time. For The Apple.

Jessica showed us the trailer first, which boggled our minds. Surely, this couldn't be a serious movie. There were dancing firefighters. "The Apple...WILL TAKE YOUR SOUL!"

No one can be..told what The Apple is. You have to see it for yourself.

Oh, hell. It's a musical from 1980 set in the dystopian future of 1994 in which the BIM corporation has taken over the world through the power of pop music. No, really. The costumes and set design really have to be seen to be believed. Trudes pointed out that one costume was made out of a dryer hose. Kristin's pictures do a good job of showing our reactions.

At one point, Trudes took a moment to note, "I'd just like everyone to notice that Sunil still has his shirt on." Never one to disappoint, I took it off. It was hot anyway. This led to the now infamous picture of me and Trudes which should be hitting newstands next week.

The Apple is so, so ridiculous. The ending is especially ridiculous. The dialogue is interminably ridiculous. The subtlety is ridiculously nonexistent. I don't think I'd ever seen a So-Bad-It's-Good movie this entertaining. We had no idea how much of it was supposed to be serious and what was supposed to be parody. It's far more amusing if you believe they thought they were making high art. Especially when a vampire pops out of nowhere. Or...well, there are a lot of scenes that just kind of leave you agog.

After the movie, I had Jessica show me the wax lion Ethan had brought her back from Comic-Con, signed by Tim Min. Like Van Gogh, Tim was earless. It was a real smooshed-face lion! She also displayed her signed John Crichton figure, but you know, whatever.

Kristin discovered the book 1000 Places to Go Before You Die and started making a list. We started playing the "Who's Been Somewhere Kate Hasn't?" game. Kristin and I had both been to Alaska, boo-yah! There were checkmarks in the book, but they were only for places Ethan had been or Ethan had been with Jessica. There were no marks for places Jessica had been without Ethan, like Las Vegas. Ethan hadn't been to Vegas? I'd been to Vegas. What a loser! Of course, he'd been to Mount Everest. Bastard. Kristin resolved to buy the book now that she knew it existed. She was a lone traveler, since Dave traveled so much already, following his wrestlers around.

And speaking of Dave, I think Trudes and Dave talked on the phone more than Kristin and Dave did. They had hit it off really well. When Kristin had told him about her trip to New York, his reaction had been something like, "Oh, you're going to hang with Buffistas, cool. You're going to hang with [Trudes]?! AWESOME!!"

Note that I haven't made mention of Scola saying anything. I'm not sure he did. He does quiet better than I do.

It was past eleven, so it seemed plans to hit msbelle's afterwards were out, as we'd gotten a later start than intended. People took their leave. I gave everyone shirtless hugs.

Jessica set up the couch for me, and Ethan and I started talking comics again. He was pimping Y: The Last Man, and he said if I wasn't too tired, I could read the first trade. I was afraid of getting hooked. We blabbed and blabbed in the kitchen until Jessica came and kissed him goodnight and said she was going to bed. Finally, I relented, and he tried to find it amongst his things in the bedroom, which was very LOTR-postered.

I bade the two of them goodnight and read the trade. Startlingly, the first issue not only contained a character named Alter but also mentioned a Sunil. It was like I was meant to be reading it here! And it rocked. A real page-turner. The bastard had hooked me.

I then went to sleep, anxiously awaiting the Big Damn Brunch.

I got a smooch from Super Porny Pants! I am so much specialer than you.

cries

Next time Nilly visits, she has to come to Seattle. IJS. Maybe I can find out what academic associations she's a part of, and start lobbying them to have their next annual meeting here.

P-C, you made me blush. Thanks for the compliments!

This made me laugh, though:

And one thing no one's mentioned is her voice, which is not one you'd usually expect from a teeny little blonde woman. It's a tad low, and the only word I can think to describe it is mature. She both looks and sounds mature.

And by mature, he means porn.

Well it kinda sounds like it, doesn't it?

Well it kinda sounds like it, doesn't it?

You're full of porn, I'm sure.

I wasn't very clear. I meant "it kind of sounds like that's what he meant", not that I think my voice sounds like porn. Which it may, normally; I don't know. In either case, it didn't offend me or anything--I am amused! Obviously I know that's not what he really meant.

At the moment with the laryngitis, I sound a bit like Carol Channing.

Disturbing, and porny only to those with a Hello Dolly fetish.