JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

We made it to the meetup tonight in Bellevue, and it was a great group – great as in large and great as in good…

First I saw Myk O’Leary as we were walking into the mall. We met for the first time in June but at this meetup we had more opportunity to talk.

Today for the first time I met Garrett Fitzgerald, whom I met via Anita Rowland months ago. He was the first one to tell the girls that he read their blog!

Even though we arrived at 7 or earlier, I was impressed immediately by how many people were there already, and by the number of tables we eventually required through the evening! A list of attendees is on Anita’s blog.

R—, Anita Rowland and Jack Bell’s grandson, hung out with the girls for a bit. Lion Kimbro and his daughter stopped by our table too. The kids had pizza and I had a plate of vegetable curry. I don’t know if I know what Ted had to eat but I think I saw him sit down with a plate of something (rice?!). It was a busy night!

As I was finding my dinner, Jeannie and Liz Lawley arrived and found us. Together we decided to defect to a separate table to have room for everyone and moved our small army of a family. Between bites of lentil soup I learned a little more about Liz. I didn’t know that her mother is also a professor at the same university! Liz introduced me to Linda Stone.

After pizza, the kids kept busy playing with the selection of swag, including Channel9 guys and leftover Gnomedex notebooks with liquid-filled covers. I said hi to Robert Scoble. I saw J.P. Stewart. Dare Obasanjo came and sat next to Ted for a while. It was fun to meet him after reading his blog.

I was glad Scott Koon came over to our table and introduced himself. We’ve been doing some blog dialogue about the Northwest. After linking to him last month, I enjoyed meeting Dennis Hamilton in person too.

Natasha found me. I was grateful she made the effort to come to Crossroads after covering the debates at BCC. It was good to meet her and I participated for a little while in the conversation with her, Kayne McGladrey and Myk.

At one point Ted and Jack took the kids to play on the carousel. The kids needed a snack so I handed out crackers. Jeannie exchanged drawings with the girls and they brought home some things she made for them. I also met Anastasia whose blog has lovely photographs.

Soon it was time to go home. The girls are now content to stay in the van during the ferry ride. This makes life a little easier. However, it also means that when Ted and I would like to nap, the kids are bouncing around and into each other. I was a bit tired by the return trip home but it was definitely worth the work to go to the meetup tonight.

Strange as it may sound, it felt refreshing tonight to talk to people whose blogs I read, and who read my blog. Right now, I am trying to find community, and so I am meeting new people who don’t know me at all. Even though I hadn’t met some of the bloggers or I don’t see them in person often, I have read what they write, and I felt comfortable mentioning these things in conversation as given facts – and I felt equally comfortable when they mentioned items from my blog. It’s not the same as being best friends or even neighbors on the same street. But blogging does build bonds and I felt these bonds tonight.

I had some good conversations and met great people. I know Ted did too. And the kids had fun with their camera….more pictures to be posted sometime on their blog….As we were leaving, Anita encouraged the girls to write on their blog, saying that she would be reading it…