I met a fellow BDer!!

[Oddwen]

Herein lies a tale of the Wisconsonmoot.

It was a dark and foggy morning as my sister drove me to the airport.

"I can't believe you're meeting strangers from the internet," she said.

"You're registered there too," I replied.

"Shut up," Oliphaunts_Rule retorted eloquently.

Not even waiting to see me off, she sped off in her rattly little red car, blasting Ace of Base as I surveyed the revolving door before me. This took little time to navigate, and within the hour I was on a plane to connect at MSP. Minnesota is, of course, raining when I am there.

And very soon I am at the Wisconsin airport. There is a nice little display of Grimm's Fairy Tale items there that I take pictures of as I am waiting for my ride.

Diamond18, who graciously let me sleep on her couch and chauffeured me, arrives soon after due to inferior online directions featuring such instructions as "Turn left, then turn right".

"Stupid Mapquest!" I offer.

Diamond laughs uncomfortably, and I decide against using an Uncloaked joke.

She took me to the place where she works, which features an indoor theme park. We were butt-kicked at lazer tag, but excelled at go-carts and the ferris wheel. Diamond turned out to be quite adept at the rope jungle, while I experienced gut-twisting vertigo and turned back like a little(r) girl.

Though this is not a cat reviewing website, I will say that Merry and Pippin are five-star cats and are fuzzy and exceedingly cuddlable.

The next day we went to a waterpark, which was something I had never been to, but henceforth loved. My efforts to awkwardly grope Diamond and kick her in the head were mildly successful.

We arrived at Ibrin's on Wednesday a little later and a little more frustrated than we wished, as I kept giving such wonderful directions as "Turn left here. Yes, that way is left...no no! It's right!" and "Um...I think...yeah, that was our turn back there.". Usually I am a decent side-seat driver, but my directionlexia was flaring up.

We ended up meating Ibrin and Mr. Ibrin, Lommy, Agan, Greenie and Noggie at a restaurant that evening, and much squeeing and hugging was done by most.

At Ibrin's we talked about many things, excluding cabbages, sealing wax or kings, but did include Mythbusters, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Paper Telephone. McCaber joined us here, and we told him of our adventure in finding him.

The Tale of the Wrong McCaber

We were told which kind of store McCaber worked at, but as it was a very common store, we did not know which specific store he worked at. The hunt was long and fruitless, as the store we tried did have someone with the same first name working there, but was obviously not the right nerd.

Upon inquiring a sales associate if there was a person belonging to a certain name working at that time, a blank stare was returned to us, in addition to an "Uhhh" and an "Umm". She pointed us out to a young worker, to whom Aganzir boldly walked up to.

"Are you from the Barrow Downs?" the pretty young thing asked in her lovely accent. The young man's gaze flitted from her to the four other young women from the internet giggling insanely several feet away. He muttered something inaudible and dashed outside. This was not the right McCaber. So we gave up.

Here endeth the tale of the wrong McCaber.

Henceforth, we returned to the house of Ibrin and watched Mythbusters and talked. McCaber did join us later, and more talking ensued.

Aganzir was extremely tired that whole night and disappeared for a while, before being found asleep on the floor.

Sleeping was done in rather tight quarters, and Diamond claimed she sat up in the night at some point screaming, but nobody remembered that happening. Heh heh. Nobody at all. Nooooooooobody at all. Hem.

Not a one of us was happy to be up by eight the next morning, but it could not be helped. Certain Finns wished to be away to their next stop, alas.

Ibrin was not able to join us, so Diamond, Nogrod, Aganzir, Thinlomien, A Little Green, McCaber and myself picked up some doughnuts on our way to a picnic.

We talked Werewolf for quite a while, and enjoyed the pleasant if still muddy weather. At last came the Departure of the Finniship, despite Diamond's best efforts to get us turned around and despite my best efforts to be kidnapped.


Ibrin and McCaber I hadn't the pleasure of interacting with yet. Ibrin was a very nice lady with many stories to tell. McCaber seemed to be a little too obsessed with Cthulhu and the Old Ones and and that combined with his interest with hydroponics and ichthyology was bit worrying, but a fine young nerd nonetheless, and quite nice.

Lommy, Greenie and Agan were just as sweet and enthused as they seem on the board, and while I've skyped with Lommy and Agan I was very happy to finally meet them in person. Nogrod was very enthusiastic and animated about everything.


On my final day in the Cheese state, Diamond took me on an epic quest to free the four elemental wizards. We were only successful in freeing one, although much knowledge of the arcane was learned. And I totally defeated a dragon.



That dragon found itself defeated.

Group shot:




It was an great time and was awesome to finally meet some of you. I'm saving up my pennies and hope to do it again in the not-too-horribly-distant future.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

If the neighbor's obnoxious dog had gone on one of its barking fits at dawn, you might've had a wolf to add to the tale (albeit a small one). And you have such a nice and kind way of saying that I can't keep my mouth shut.... . And I continue to be remarkably unphotogenic.... *sigh*

It was a pleasure meeting you, and all the others!

[wilwarin538]

The tale continues.

We woke up on Tuesday and figured out the rides to head to Niagara Falls. I went in Fea's lovely truck with Kath, Boro and Agan. Mac and Rikae had to switch to another vehicle so went on their own with the Wereduckling. Everyone else went in Nog's vehicle. The way there I had a rather deep, but fantastic conversation with Aganzir. Her and I have very different views but she was very easy to talk too, and it was a very amiable conversation, despite our many differences. I adore this girl.

When we arrived in the city of Niagara Falls, NY, we got a bit lost, but since I had taken on the job of finding directions there and finding a meeting spot (with the help of my dear friend Google Maps), I was able to direct us to the correct parking lot and in no time we had met up with the other cars and with Bethberry and her lovely husband and son. I had other Canadians, and this pleased me.

We had some lunch inside a nice welcome centre, and it rained outside. Boro was sweet enough to buy Fea and I some matching necklaces that we were totally in love with, since the debit machines there hated my Canadian debit card. <3 We then went over to the falls and payed a dollar to get on the observation deck (keep that part in mind for later in the story), and some went on the Maid of the Mist boat to get closer to the Falls. We then discussed whether we should go over to the Canadian side, even though some didn't have their passports, and eventually decided there was no harm in trying.

We went through the free turnstiles onto the Rainbow Bridge. It was exciting to walk over the border line, and put one foot on each side, haha. Once we got to the customs booth Fea and I took the lead and walked up to the counter. She held up my passport along side Fea's driver's license, which confused us. She asked how we could possibly know each other and Fea skillfully avoided using the word 'internet' for quite some time, but eventually made the girl happy with 'literary forum'. Luckily, we all got through just fine, and lo and behold it wasn't raining at all on the Canadian side, it was actually very sunny. My country rocks.

We walked up a steap hill and looked in some little shops. On the way down we got some icecream and then looked at the Falls from the free observation deck (remember what I said about the US one? yeah, awesome). We then decided to head back to the US and had to pay 50 cents each to get on to the bridge (points out first sentence of previous paragraph). We had an immense moment of panic when Boro couldn't find his driver's license, but luckily a kind gentleman had found it on the ground outside customs and brought it in.

Then half the group had to leave. After some hugs and a very slow walk to Nog's vehicle, he and Greenie, Lommy, Agan and Boro left us. I lost count of how many times I hugged each of the girls, they are all just so sweet and snuggly and adorable, and I immediately missed them and Nog, and Boro.

I headed back in Fea's truck again with Kath and Brinniel. On the way when it was starting to get dark Fea exclaimed "Look at the deer!" and the conversation she described above then happened. It was really frustrating, cause I wanted to see a deer but clearly my eyes weren't working with me in this situation. On the ride home Kath and I decided that she would be taking the bus to Toronto with me, since she needed to get there and it was a stop for me on the way hoome. When we looked at bus prices I also looked at how much it would be to take her all the way home with me, and it was surprisingly expensive, but we decided that once in Toronto we would see if the prices could be brought lower.

We slept and woke up around 8:30 the next morning. Brinniel headed to the train station with the Wereduckling saying "bye bye" over and over, and it was adorable and sad to see her go. We watched Flushed Away with the girls and had some snuggle time with the Wereduckling. Then Fea left, and we were sad. Kath and I had more Wereduckling snuggles and eventually said goodbye to the girls and to Rikae. Mac drove us to the cute little bus station and then Kath and I headed towards Canada!

It was raining in Buffalo, but once we got over to Canada it stopped raining and was sunny. Haha, this made us really happy. We arrived in Toronto at 9pm and were very happy to get the bus tickets down to a more reasonable price. She was coming home with me!!! I immediately called Glirdan to make a date with him for the next day, telling him I got him a gift from Geneva that he had to have right away, and luckily he was available! We had something to eat and then hung out for 3 hours in the bus station, almost falling asleep and grateful to finally get on the bus. My dad picked us up from the bus station in Sudbury at 5:30 am and we took a nice little nap before going to pick up Glirdan at 9:30.

It was epic. He was so excited and so surprised and Kath was the best birthday present ever for him! I brought them out to breakfast and we had some epicly delicious waffles, then we went to Science North, which is Sudbury's snow flake shaped science centre. We say some cool animals and spent some time in the butterfly room (yes, I was very happy). We also used some picture of butterfly wings that looked like letters to make mine and Glirdan's names. We lied down on the bed of nails, and played with dominoes. We got to pet an adorable flying squirrel, and Glirdy was eaten. That night my brother (Wayne the Goblin, for anyone who may remember him), came with us to see the Big Nickel, and then we just hung out that evening playing Scrabble.

After our scrabble game Kath used the paper to make a little boat and this little claw thing. She then used the claw to pick up and throw over the boat saying something like "mwahaha, there goes the Titanic". And Glirdan responded with "So it was a giant claw that sunk the Titanic, not the ice cream." No, I didn't type that wrong, he actually said that. It's revealed people, ice cream sunk the Titanic, not some lousy iceburg. This kept us laughing all the way to his house.

Back home Kath and I (and my sister, Lote, if anyone remembers her) watched the first half of A Very Potter Musical, and it was fantastic, but then we were sleepy and so slept. Lote came with us to get Glirdy the next morning and we went out for breakfast, talked about Bostonmoot and eventually had to drop Kath off at the bus station. She left at 1pm on the Friday. I thought it was cool that my Downer time lasted exactly 1 week, down to the hour.

And that was my trip, and it was epic and I loved everyone and miss them all very much!!!

[Glirdan]

Originally Posted by Wilwa

After our scrabble game Kath used the paper to make a little boat and this little claw thing. She then used the claw to pick up and throw over the boat saying something like "mwahaha, there goes the Titanic". And Glirdan responded with "So it was a giant claw that sunk the Titanic, not the ice cream." No, I didn't type that wrong, he actually said that. It's revealed people, ice cream sunk the Titanic, not some lousy iceburg. This kept us laughing all the way to his house.

Best Freudian slip of my life, just sayin!!

[Blind Guardian]

You all look like children having so much fun!!

Cute flying squirrel!

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Blind Guardian

You all look like children having so much fun!!

There's not a Wendy amongst us.

[Oddwen]

Originally Posted by wilwarin538

She asked how we could possibly know each other and Fea skillfully avoided using the word 'internet' for quite some time, but eventually made the girl happy with 'literary forum'.

Maybe we should start using the code term "International Book Club".

[Blind Guardian]

International Online Book Club it's true

[Loslote]

Originally Posted by wilwarin538

Back home Kath and I (and my sister, Lote, if anyone remembers her)

...man that'd confuse me if she were still around.

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Originally Posted by Oddwen

Maybe we should start using the code term "International Book Club".

Haha!

Wilwa and I kept sharing these nervous meaningful glances as we tried to simultaneously and silently come up with a plausible and acceptable translation of:

"Our somewhat crazy group of internationals met on the internet, are having a massive party, and now want to cross into another country without the proper travel documents. Please let us."

But really, when the guard lady asked how long we'd all known each other and Wilwa and I were both just like, "Um... it depends on registration date?"

And then I started listing the approximate join date of people until the guard lady clearly decided that if we were going to tell lies, we'd have chosen a better one than, "We all talk about Lord of the Rings on the internet."

Which isn't strictly true anymore, since we mostly all just play werewolf or talk on Facebook! But we really didn't want to explain that we spend most of our hobby time pretending to murder each other!

[wilwarin538]

Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

But we really didn't want to explain that we spend most of our hobby time pretending to murder each other!

Can you imagine? I don't think she would have found that funny, at all, haha. Especially if we said "hey, see that baby over there? Yeah, she loves that game, and wolves make her happy. Wanna hear her growl?" :P

Then there was the guy getting back to the US. Fea showed her driver's license and he was like "Do you have anything else on you?" and so she said "My car keys and 10 bucks"(since that was literally all she had on her) and he was like "Car keys? What use are car keys? Why would you even say that?" and we both just stood there staring at him, totally confused, and rediculously annoyed. She was trying to get into her own country, haha, and he wasn't being very nice. Luckily that time we didn't let on that we were all together, we just went up in mini groups, so we didn't have to deal with the whole "how do you know each other?" thing.

[Durelin]

To those who are more in contact with the Finns -- they said they would be in the DC area on the 15th of July, and I had talked about maybe meeting up with them. But I will actually be out of the country through the 18th. Rather a bizarre turn of events... I cannot remember if they are flying out right about then? Anyway, it seems I will miss them...

Sorry to cut into the reminiscing. I just thought this the most likely place for word and my apology to get to them before they return home... Or if they are checking emails let me know if I should send them one. Thank you guys!