An AlphaBytes 2004 entry.

I�ve always been a rather social person. I�m loud and at times boisterous, I enjoy a drink or two or ten and when I was younger, Bill Cosby and his tremendous storytelling ability enthralled me. Slumber parties always included me telling some story or other in the dark, usually 'Revenge', a Cos masterpiece. I never took risks and felt most comforted when surrounded by lots of lovely people.

That�s why my family collectively fell out of their chairs in 2000 when I told them I was going to make the 10-hour drive from my house to Indiana, PA for a party. A party made up of people I�d known for three years but had never laid eyes on.

Not one person understood. A few of them tried really hard but still wound up giving me the look one gives an idiot or a small child; I award them an A for effort. I guess in order for you to understand, you have to have immersed yourself in the Online Chat Culture. There are people online I talk to more frequently and openly than my immediate family.

Obviously, I made it there and back without being cut up into little pieces and found along the side of the road in a garbage bag. Is that the same story everyone else hears? It�s always pieces and garbage bags and ditches with my family. The people I met were warm and funny and there was not even a hint of strangeness at meeting them face to face. I spent three days down there and cried the first hour down the road on my way back. It was something I�ll always remember fondly. The meeting of them, not so much the crying.

The second time I set out on my own was this past March when I attended another party for members of my current online community. Again, three years had passed during which I struck up some pretty amazing friendships and I was anxious but nervous about heading to the Big Apple to meet them. The interesting thing about this group is the sheer number of incredibly intelligent members; truth be told, I�ve always felt a little like the slack-jawed cousin around them. Still, I was bound and determined to go and it wound up being better than I could have imagined.

So now I�m hooked. I�m a long-distance party addict. I scan Hotwire and Expedia for the best airfares and impose on some pretty wonderful people to put me up so I can afford things like eating once I�m there.

Don�t think I�m getting used to the whole �meeting new people/making a good first impression� thing, because I�m not. And don�t say I don�t enjoy a challenge, because this next trip is going to be a doozy.

I�ve registered for JournalCon 2004 in DC.

I�m heady with thoughts of meeting journallers I�ve read for years, some of whom I�ve exchanged pleasant emails with over one subject or another. Some may only know me as an ISP number. And yet others are so widely-known, I might just watch them from the corner, trying my level best not to pee my pants from the excitement. God, that last sentence might just disqualify me from attending�I should check with the committee on that.

Don�t be scared, I�m just Meg. I�ll go to as many panel discussions as possible, sing some karaoke and restrain from cornering people in the elevator and asking them to sign my bra. I�m harmless.

Posted at 7:26 p.m.