indy_go and sir_gareth, who are both absolutely lovely. malachan's puppy-dog face is even more adorable in person than the pictures would indicate. And muffinbutt seems to grow exponentially more fabulous every time I meet her (and I thought she was pretty fab the first time we met, so that's a lot of fabulousity she's clocking up there). It was really relaxing and laidback and totally cool. We had many misadventures in our attempts to ring miscellanny and copinggoggles, but we finally succeeded, and then I had the pleasure of listening to them giggle at me in shockingly non-American accents. ;) I hope they replenished their vodka stash!Near the end of the evening Jo and Cyg and I were discussing kind of the various paths of all our fandom friends, past and present; and I was reflecting that it seems like so many of us are a lot more settled, a lot more comfortable with where we are here than I think we used to be. I'd like to think that means we as a fandom have got over our most trying age. But mostly, tonight, I was just thinking about old friends and new, and how much each of you have meant to me. Livejournal especially is not about fandom as much as it is about community. And everybody here, whether you be friends or enemies, newbies or oldbies, active participants or lurkers, has meant a great deal to my community experience. I guess I just wanted to give a shoutout to all of you who've touched me along the way. You guys know who you are. And whoever, wherever you are: I'm grateful.
eta: I just want to add on one other thing, because I was thinking about this yesterday, and for some reason just reading the end of Penguin's Like Glass has put me very much in mind of it again. It's just this: I didn't think I was going to have a very good Thanksgiving, because I wasn't going to get to be with any of my family or friends from real life. But instead, I had a wonderful one. And it was completely because of you guys. All the love you poured out in your anonymous love letters was so wonderful and fun and moving. I have such a good time here, and it was so wonderful to be reminded of that just when I needed to be reminded of it the most. I am so very, very thankful, for you all.
