So, we met a bunch of awesome people. I'm trying to keep this short and just write general stuff about people. And I will ignore
Brinniel,
Kath and
Rune as I've met them before (sorry darlings!). Although I may want to add that
Kath proved more cuddly and violent than before (but I love her nevertheless, haha) and that when I met
Rune again I realised a summer (my mum tells me to write "sømmäre" instead of "summer" since I'm talking about a Dane
and she also adds that Danes are the funniest and most beautiful Scandinavians) is not a proper summer without
Rune. (For those who don't know, I've met him in the summers of 2006, 2008, and 2009.) So, here we go...
Well, there were a few 'downers who I thought might be slightly intimidating (reagardless how much I like them). First ones I met in Geneva, and they were
Rikae and
Mac. No one who has played ww with
Rikae or seen pictures of
Mac can say they're totally unsacry before meeting them! However, they did prove very unscary and wonderful hosts, and I just like them so much. They are both very kind and considerate, and very amusing. I found them both easy to get along with and I'm happy I got to talk with them as much as I did. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it anywhere, but I had a plan of adopting
Mac as my big brother and
Rikae as my big sister-in-law and having met them, I will definitely pursue that plan. Plus, that means I get the most adorable nieces ever.
Fea was also somebody who could've been slightly intimidating - not scary, but sort of "I'm here I'm having a show" type, which kind of people sometimes just make me forget I'm present too. However, I now must apologise for this concern, because
Fea turned out to be very empathetic and didn't have a show on at all. Also, she has a great talent for storytelling and it sure is not boring where
Fea is! I liked her a lot and I wish I had had more time to talk with her.
Wilwa is another whom I talked with too little. She's incredibly sweet and so nice to everybody. I loved her down-to-earth calmness and it was quite refreshing to have someone who's not just making mean jokes about their friends or anything else all the time! (Not that I mind mean jokes, I make them all the time myself as some people *coughphantomandshastaandprobablyotherstoo* might have noticed.) Plus, I just loved it how happy she got when planning future 'downer meetings and she looks like a wolf. (In the positive sense! She just has these beautiful bluegrey wolf eyes.)
Continuing the list of people I'd like to have talked with more...
Mira and
Nienna. They were both very nice, and in different ways -
Mira is the kind of straightforward and funny girl,
Nienna is calm and empathetic. Sadly, the thigs I recall the best of them was
Mira's obvious crush on
Fea's brother
and me sitting next to
Nienna while playing Apples to Apples. It was also cute how they were clearly part of "
Fea's gang" but they still took sisterishly car of her. Awws.
Celuien then, too. It was great to meet a person who has written a few of my favourite RPG characters ever. It turned out she was just as adorable as her Eorling Mead Hall characters - very kind and sweet and it was great to talk to her (although again didn't have enough chances of that). Plus, she had a very pretty dress and she used wonderful hippie bug spray which we all borrowed all the time.
Last one of the Geneva-mooters I haven't mentioned is
Boro. Now I'm happy to say that I got to talk with him almost enough and that we actually ended up making some kind of siblingly adoption plan... Anyway, it was great to meet
Boro because before the Kent-episode I had a certain kind of picture of him and after it a different one, and I was kind of lost what kind of person this guy who I considered my friend was. Turned out he was actually the mixture of the old
Boro and the new
Boro I had in my head and it made me really happy, because I could finally clearly see who he was and also because I liked this real person a lot, even more than the two persons I had had in my mind before. (Ok, I'm aware this is getting rather in-depth. Won't continue ranting here anymore!) Anyway, to go on my adjective spree,
Boro is both calm and funny, and smart and kind. I like him (although I guess I said that already!)
With the Geneva-mooters, we went to the Niagara Falls where we met
Bethberry and her family.
Bethberry was really warm and witty, although more quiet than I expected her to be. Anyway, she was great company, had a nice family and gorgeous hair. (What else could a woman ask for?)
Our next stop was in Wisconsin.
Ibrin was our hostess and she did very well in that, providing us with anything we might have needed and being great fun around. Like
Fea, she is a gifted storyteller and she sure had interesting stories to tell! She was also very cheerful and warm (not like the overtly dignified and sorrowful lady I thought her to be, mostly based on her avatar and I have to say I prefer her the way she actually was!)
Other people we met were
Oddwen,
Diamond and
McCaber.
Oddwen was very sweet, she gave us beautiful self-made jewellry and pushed my nose. She was quieter than I expected her to be, but very funny when she said something funny. (Getting Captain Obvious-y, eh?) Anyway, I liked her a lot.
Diamond was very nice too, and I just loved it when she and
Greenie were geekying together (sitting on the sofa next to each other, talking leisurely and both checking their Facebook). She's also one of the people I'd like to meet again just because I didn't have enough time with her!
McCaber then, he's very amusing and sympathetic although he speaks too fast (and laughs every time he finishes a sentence, which was just great). He also has the coolest car ever!
Next moot was in Omaha. We met
the phantom, and a day after that
Shasta and
Sally.
Phantom and
Shasta also accompanied us for a bit of our roadtrip.
Sally was cuddly and liked attacking people's kidneys. She was also just as amusing and sweet as on the 'downs, and she also proved very generous (she bought us Apples to Apples, yay!) She's also very wicked when playing word games!
Shasta is somebody you just can't help liking. He's very open and lively, and probably the most entertaining person we met. He seems to have two obsessions: singing Disney songs and climbing high rocks, but both obsessions provided entertainment. Also, he's very cuddly, funny and a gentleman despite his wicked sense of humour and his evil laugh. I'm very glad we got lots of time with him and we actually managed to see him twice!
Phantom then... I'm afraid I have to ruin his reputation. He's definitely not scary, he's very kind and caring and a good host. And as you have probably noticed on the forums, he's smart and a control freak. He's very good company probably partly because he seems to put effort to people having good time with him, which is kind of cute. And he tried desperately cling to his remains of reputation by being mean to me but it didn't quite succeed.
The next person we met was
Morm. He was again somebody I could've been scared of, but no - despite his rather intimidating height, he's the opposite of scary. He has a nice, soft voice, very gentle demeanour and he's very friendly and easy to get along with. Talking with him was very nice, and his wife was great company too, and their kids were just lovely. Liked the whole family very much, and they were also as kind as to put us up, which was great.
While
Agan was in Washington meeting
THE Ka,
Laurinquë and
TGEW, we others spent time in San Fransisco. On our last day, we met
Alona and
Lariren. I didn't know
Alona very well from the 'downs, but she proved to be awesome. She was very easy to get along with - again one of those people you just can't not like - , seemed genuinely interested in everyone around her and has good taste (she took us to SF museum of modern art. <3)
Lari seemed a bit more reserved, but she was really funny and sympathetic, and seemed very calm and sensible too. I'd love to meet both of them again!
Then there was a pause of meeting 'downers, until we met
Roa and
Craydon for dinner. Again, one more scariness myth busted.
Roa was very kind and calm, and gave a considerate and smart impression. (So not the kind of "hahaa! I'm right and I'm the boss, you listen to me"she sometimes has in ww.) I didn't know
Craydon very well from the 'downs, but he was very nice too (and had interesting stories to tell) so I say he'd better play ww again! And I could definitely have spent more than just a few hours with these two.
Next 'downer we met was
Folwren. Now I was really excited about meeting her because I have known her for a long time, I've had some good discussions her and I love RPGing with her but we are very different, partly it's our personalities and partly our worldviews. However, there was no need to worry about anything 'cos we got along great. We had some very enlightening discussions, got to do lots of fun stuff (for example petting goats and archery) and met her friends who were very nice too (please say hi to them for me,
Foley!)
Folwren herself was very friendly, thoughtful and welcoming and we had great time with her.
One could think that meeting a police investigator from Alabama could be slightly scary, but again,
Inziladun wasn't scary at all (well truth be told he's not scary on the 'downs either, at all). He made a lasting impression when he immediately recognised who is who (ok, telling
Nogrod from us three girls wasn't probably difficult, but it was quite good he was able to tell which of us was which given that he's not on Facebook) and pronounced our names correctly on the first try. Also, he was very fun to have around and easy to get along with, and I liked him a lot (especially after hearing that he uses his work hours for ww!)
Mnemo was the one we met after
Zil. After having some minor troubles with getting in contact with her, everything went fine. She took us to a nearby park to climb trees and arrange a funeral for Boromir. We talked a lot and
Mnemo was certainly one whom it was great to talk with. We talked more about LotR than we had with other 'downers before and it was lots of fun to be geeky.
Mnemo was very smart and funny, and somehow refreshingly un-American. (Can't really describe it better than that!) I got along with her great and I do hope she comes to Finland some day (and drags
Sally with her of course).
Last but not least is
Encai, whom we met in New York. I can't get over how sweet she is - very compassionate and kind yet she has a slightly wicked sense of humour and a slightly wicked laugh. Again one of the persons you simply can't not like. She definitely needs to post on the 'downs more, because she is lovely.
All in all, we had amazing time and met 28 amazing people all of whom I want to see again. You know, Finland always welcomes you (and also you who we haven't met yet because you know we're dying to meet you too)!
The bad thing is, I've already started missing people and I'm terrible at keeping in touch with anyone... so please, keep poking me on 'downs, FB, LJ, MSN, skype, anything... but not for the next three weeks or so 'cos I won't be around.
*sends a great hug to everybody she met during the trip*
PS. Pictures to follow...
PPS. Didn't read
Greenie's post before writing this so sorry if I'm repeating stuff...