The Adventures of Two East Coast Bloggers on the West Coast: A Moral Tale

Call it fate, call it karma, call it the ever-elusive whim of the blogospheric deity (if you’re into that sort of thing). Somehow, amid the bustle of post-Christmas happenings and pre-New Year celebratory city explorations, I managed to meet up with DC blogger Greg Piper, whose previous experience meeting me in person apparently didn’t sour him to future contact with me and my abrasive and annoying personality.
Pause to save and take this up later.
I’m back. I’m riding along I-5 heading back from downtown Seattle, an afternoon of the usual banter from bloggers long acquainted with each other’s websites behind me; a late lunch at Pike’s Pub, then slow meandering down past the Lusty Lady (those marquee holiday puns really heighten the erotic spirit of the season) to the Online Cafe, where the geek factor rises by at least ten points. IM’ing two to five feet away from each other is either the mark of total social ease or total social ineptness. I remain optimistic, and hope that it’s social ease, otherwise my future with women remains as foggy as Greg’s (Ouch! –Ed.). Credit for tracking down all these links goes to Greg, who is quicker on the draw than I’ll ever be.
Truly, blogging is the new paradigm in online meet-ups; Greg and I meeting in Seattle is probably a bit unusual in that we both are currently located on the East Coast, but the concept of bloggers meeting–specifically, meeting through their blogs–isn’t all that unusual. Given the availability and ease the medium offers, it’s heartening to see it, and being in the middle of the action, so to speak, is worth even more than a tantalizing evening with Seattle’s finest ladies of the night.
As I’ve stated in a previous entry, Greg Piper is a fine gentleman in person (I, on the other hand, am not), accomodating and generous (I’m expecting that PayPal donation any day now). He agreed to meet my brother Noel and I for lunch, which entailed beer and burgers and talk of resurrecting Rosie O’Donnell’s flagging fame and lax heterosexuality through a blogging campaign.
Yes, this is what some bloggers talk about when they meet in person.
As usual, I had left my camera behind, but fortunately Greg had his trusty Minolta SlimFast (or whatever it’s called). Take a look at these handsome fellas!

By the way, more photos from our adventure are up at Greg’s site. Honestly, we’re not gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that)!
Leave it to a 12 cents/minute charge at the internet cafe to draw us away from our amusing online repartee and back into the bustle of Seattle’s downtown and our separate ways.
It’s been a fine holiday for me; with added treats like meeting a fellow blogger on the streets of this Left Coast haven of commerce and capitalism, I can easily call myself a blessed man.
Okay, I’m turning off the cheese faucet now.