After 3 years of e-mailing, sending packages and working on what has become a major project in my life, Editor B and I finally met.
He and his family evacuated from hurricane Gustav. When their respective schools decided to close until Monday, they decided to head back to Btown.
He sent a twitter update inviting all to Upland at 8pm, also sending me an email asking I attend. I had a busy day, but I wouldn’t miss this for anything in the world. I didn’t want to miss this chance. The last time we tried to meet, tornado warnings and a worried wife kept us from meeting. B was heading back to New Orleans the next morning, on the long road home to rebuild their home and New Orleans after Katrina.
When I first arrived on the scene, I was almost too afraid to enter. Upland was severely crowded, something I had never seen before. People were parking up and down the entire block. I was lucky and got a parking spot right next to the door.
After waiting a while in the standing room only crowd, I introduced myself. H-T columnist Mike Leonard and his wife were there as well, then the interesting Paul Smedberg arrived. We finally got a table a few minutes later. Paul reminds me of a comic, but I can’t remember his name at the moment.
It was nice to meet Mike, as I’ve emailed him a few times and I’m sure he thought I was some local crazy of some sort.
I was amazed at the subjects of conversation, ranging from books to the lack of economic prosperity in this town. We went on to talk about how children change your life (not in a bad way B), to the founding ideas of the Green party (which I didn’t really understand until last night).
Back to the subject at hand, It was a pleasure to finally meet you B. You’re everything and more that I had expected you to be. Most conversations I have are intellectually lacking, last night was a much needed shot to the brain.
Hopefully I can make the trip down to New Orleans sometime soon.