About fifteen showed up for the meet along with an alleged thirty Santas from SantaCon's Philly bar crawl. I got there on time for a change after heading over to Photo Lounge to pick up my 8" x 10" prints that I'm making an album out of as a gift to my sis and her new hubby. They turned out great and I'm psyched. I bought an album and I now have seven 8" x 10" photos and around twenty 4" x 6" photos to layout. While at Photo Lounge, I spotted a Nikon product manual. My eyes grew, pupils dialated and I may have started to salivate for just a moment. I grabbed a copy and stuffed it into my camerabag.
But before I headed to Fergie's, I stopped around the corner at Robin's Books to pick up a copy of a photo mag - their magazine prices are about half off cover price, I don't know how it works, but I'm not complaining. Then, it was off to Fergie's.
At the meet, I immediately spotted Scott, Michael and Tony in the front of Fergie's. I guess someone told the bartender that we'd be a larger group so she lead us to the back and pulled together two tables. I promptly ordered myself a Grog. Great thing about Fergie's and Nodding Head being under the same umbrella, I get to drink the delicious Grog in two of my favorite places in Philly. I ordered an Irish pint [them Irish like to drink it seems]. As Tony and I sat down, I promptly pulled out the Nikon product guide and he promptly snatched it away from me to protect me, but I got it back. Must... Not... Buy... Lenses...
Chatted a bit about my revelation that Photo Lounge's printers are perfectly calibrated to interpret the RGB colorspace I see on my computer screen and the needless CMYK I'd been doing for awhile now. Michael told me about a great flickr member named gakout, I added him as a contact after I got home, nice shots.
A few members of the Word Press meetup stayed for the broader group. Owen, Bobby and Michael were down on the other end of the table from me so I didn't get a chance to talk to them. But I did notice Michael's Canon 20D snapping away. Then, Luna arrived and took out her digicam and started snapping as well so I had to bring mine out as well [pictures didn't turn out so great].
I finally got to meet Tulin whose name I'd been pronouncing TU-lin in my head, but it's tu-LIN, my mistake. She's one of the few Philly area bloggers whom I had not yet met. Funny to talk to a person whose writings you read all the time.
The anonymous one from The West End was there as was friend Dan whom I missed at the Philebrity party the night before. I did see my former co-worker [and his current co-worker] Jill at the party for a sec though.
Duncan took some time out to laissez les Open Treads roullez for a couple of hours. Nobody [but me] knew who he was until we went around introducing ourselves. When it got to him there was as Marisa noted a slience broken by West End's "Whoa" to which I almost blurted out laughing from the hilarity of it all.
Marisa started a conversation about driving in Philly recalling a moment from last week when she was waved on by a taxi. That spiraled into a conversation about driving in foreign countries. I couldn't imagine taking to the roads at the wheel in another country. Not knowing the customs of traffic, I'd be too much of a safety hazard. I've always taken public transport and cabs while abroad. Duncan recounted a trip to Rome dodging the crazies on scooters all over the place.
I had me an order of chicken fingers which is served on a bed of fries and with a weird honey mustard sauce. I swear there was apple sauce in there. It tasted sweet and slightly cold which I wasn't ready for. I didn't like the sauce. But it may have just been that I was kinda shocked by it, not necessarily because it was bad. I don't think I'd order it again though, unless they had some spicy mustard lying around I could request.
A few minutes before I took off, Howard showed up and sat down by Scott at the other end. Didn't get a chance to say more than a "Hi" to him. Oh well.
I stuck around blabbering away with Michael, Tony, Marisa, Duncan, and Tulin [the rest were out of earshot] until 5p when I took off to go watch the Giants win another one. As Duncan and I got up to leave, I heaved up my camerabag onto my shoulder. Luna remarked [paraphrased] "So that's the bag?" "Yep." "I didn't realize it was so big" "That's what all the ladies say." Laughter. And I immediately waved and took off into the cold. Showmanship; always leave on a high note wanting more [any Seinfeld watchers out there?].
Oh well? How mournful of you. I was very sorry to not have the chance to talk to those of you in early crowd.
I got there much later than I would have liked, but to my surprise people hung around a lot longer thereafter than I would have expected them to. I don't know how long Scott, Owen and Michael stayed, but they were still chatting up a storm when I left around 7 (wanted to see the Sarah Silverman movie down at the Ritz Five).
Posted by: howard | December 20, 2005 at 04:19 AM