Subject: Re: TAN: You're having a Social *where*? - A report from Toledo From: noell@concentric.net (Noell Milota) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan Organization: Amgen On Sat, 13 Feb 1999 21:57:53 GMT, mamamoo@stax.net (Maggie) wrote: >We were antsy Thursday, when Drew and Noell were scheduled to arrive, >having planned the Social for several months. Kenn wanted to meet them >at the airport -- at 11:30 at night! I'm going to back it up just a bit, here. I had told Drew that my flight was arriving about 30 minutes before his, and I'd meet him at the gate when he got off of his plane. He assumed I meant in Toledo. I surprised him by meeting him at the gate in Chicago. He did quite the double take when I called his name as he walked _right_ _past_ _me_. He seemed really happy to see me ... *warm fuzzies* ... then he told me he was glad I was there so I could watch his guitar while he went to find a place to smoke. Men. We got on the plane to Toledo, which Drew referred to as "a bus with wings" (it was a rather large prop plane), and he preceded to tell everyone else on board, that we were all going to die. The lady in front of us turned and smiled and said "Probably not. I take this flight all the time, and it hasn't crashed yet." Her confidence was such a great comfort. >Somehow, Mark and I managed to >convince him that we should let them check in to their hotel first and >decide what to do from there. Probably a good thing. I don't think Drew could have taken two airport surprises in one night. *chuckle* >Drew and Noell arrived at Chez Brazeau >around 1AM, interrupting a game of Trivial Pursuit that Mark and Kenn >were utterly killing me at. We couldn't find the entrance into the damned apartment building, but we saw three people who looked a lot like Maggie, Kenn, and Mark, sitting in the living room of the apartment in the front of the building. They laughed at us for knocking on the front window at 1 am, instead of ringing the buzzer ... how were _we_ to know the entrance with the buzzer was in the _back_ of the building? >Friday dawned bright and early. Drew and Noell arrived around 10AM Drew made a couple of derogatory comments about my Dallas Cowboys jacket and watch ... something to the effect of "you suck", which I agreed with. Kenn chose that moment to tell me that he thought he should have at least one sexual experience with a woman in his lifetime. After he had insulted me by telling me I looked like a cheerleader! Hmph! Love you, Kenn! *smooch* >The prospect of five hours in the car did not amuse any of us, but we >figured Drew would get us there in one piece. Noell popped in a CD and >we proceeded to sing all the way to Indy. Somewhere along the way, Kenn >dropped his cigarettes to the floor and couldn't reach them. > >Kenn: "Maggie, I dropped my cigarettes! Could you reach between my >legs..." >Drew: "Smoke me, baby!" And we made cock rings out of Fuity-O's. >Miraculously enough, we made it to Indianapolis in just under four hours. Even more miraculously, Drew made it the whole way to and from Indy, driving an average of about 85, without getting a speeding ticket. Thank you again, Drew, for driving the whole time. [snip the _wonderful_ dinner Mark and Deb made for us] >At dessert, Eric expounded on the merits of strawberries *without* cake, >then treated us to his dancing skill. Young Master Eric has a fondness >for stripping to the strains of "Bad to the Bone". > >Noell tipped him a buck. *grin* Always happy to do my part in encouraging kids to develop their talents. I think he's got a stellar career ahead of him! >We sat up til the wee hours, around 3:30AM, I think, laughing and telling >drinking stories. My favorite was Mark's tale of getting so far gone >that he lay on his bathroom floor and couldn't move. Deb checked >him...and stepped right over him to return to the guests! > >Noell: "You just left him there?" >Deb: "I had to! We had company!" > >So many stories, so little memory or space to tell them... My favorite from that evening, is when Deb was carrying Eric upstairs to bed, and Drew told Mark that he wanted "ten of those". Mark asked if he meant kids, or Deb, then called up to Deb: "Hey Deb, Drew wants you." "Well, send him on up!" [COSI] >Noell kept wandering off on us, I guess we were just too >slow for her. Yes and no. I knew we had _very_ limited time there, and I wanted to see as much as I could. And I was so tired, that I knew if I stayed in one place too long, I would have fallen asleep. As it was, you guys missed the best part ... the "life" section. While you were watching a pendulum swing back and forth for 30 minutes, I got to see a computer generated image of body heat distribution or something-or-other, while I was shooting hoops. That, and I got to see CT Scans of normal brains vs. brains with tumors, X-rays of a pregnant dog, and one of a dog that swallowed a fish hook. It was really cool. *shrug* I know I'm strange. [Tony Packo's] >I've no clue what was discussed at the other end of the table, We talked about football, NCAA basketball, school in general, chemical engineering majors in particular, rasfwr-j and posting, either Paul or Curt nagged me about not eating much of my food (or was that Drew?), and ... I don't remember a whole lot more. But both Paul and Curt were very charming, though. I'm hoping we convinced them to come out of the shadows of lurkerdom to start posting. >Steve, Drew and Kenn busied themselves with making fun of my computer >while Noell and I went off to fetch beer, etc., then we all gathered in >the living room to watch movies. I won't tell you what we watched, I'll >leave that to the others, since neither movie was my idea...both were >fun, but potential blackmail material! _The Muppet Movie_, I can see as potential blackmail material, but _The Princess Bride_? Besides, I think mine and Drew's a capella rendition of "The Rainbow Connection" in the car, had far more blackmail potential than our movie choices. >At one point, Steve mentioned that he had brought along a couple swords. > >Noell: "Steve's gonna show me his sword!" > >We kindly refrained from comment. He even let me _touch_ it! *smile* It was a most impressive sword. >Kenn: "That is sooo *gay*!" I'm _still_ laughing about that one! >We awoke the next morning to *snow*. Wonderful. It was _beautiful_! I was so pleasantly surprised to open my hotel door and see the whole place covered in white. I bounded to Drew's room, pounded on the door, insisted he open it, and gleefully told him to look outside. He was _not_ pleased. With me, with the snow, with my cheery disposition about the whole situation. I had planned to pummel him with a few snowballs, but I figured it probably wouldn't be a good idea at that particular moment. Our flight out of Toledo was delayed by about an hour, which meant that Drew missed his connecting flight home, but caught a later one. My connecting flight home was canceled. They told me it was due to mechanical difficulties, but the next day I heard about the American Airlines "sick out" ... mechanical difficulties, my ass. They put me on a later United flight, which was way the hell across the other side of Ohare! It turned out quite nicely, though, as I got the whole row to myself and got to sleep comfortably the whole way home. >Pictures will be posted either Sunday or Monday Most of the pictures I took, came out really well, too. Thanks again to Maggie & Mark and Mark & Deb, for their warm hospitality ... and to Drew, Kenn, Steve, Paul, and Curt for the wonderful company! I hope everyone else had as great a time as I did! -- Noell Milota "How do you put up with Mark?" "_Lots_ of Prozac!" - Deb Loy