[Formendacil]

I'm not yet fully rested from my incredible trip to Bostonmoot, and given that I didn't get a good sleep last night because I was dreaming that I was still there and was reliving having to leave, it may be a while before I am fully rested.

Certainly, it'll be a long time before I've fully sorted out what all happened. Bostonmoot came at a rather awkward time in the broader scope of my life, as I've been attempting to discern for the past semester and a bit of the summer, whether I'm heading the right way in life. Bostonmoot definitely had an impact on that, and hopefully for the good, but in the meantime I have a lot of mental and emotional baggage to unpack.

Enough about me, though--this post and thread should be about meeting other Downers, not meeting yourself in their company, even if that should happen.

Starting then with the Downers I already knew:

Nienna was every bit as awesome as I remembered. Insofar as we've been best chat-buddies most of the past few months, as I wormed my way ever so slightly into the ongoing planning and organizing of the Bostonmoot, it was great to see her in person again, and be best real-life buddies for a few days--subject to amused tolerance and the approval of various other actual real-life buddies. She's got to be something of a saint--or at least one of the most patient people I know--for putting up with and organising the whole lot of--and working some of those days to boot.

Feanor of the Peredhil deserves a round scolding for getting sick and not showing up until the day before she had to start school, meaning I hardly had any time with her, and when I did, I had to share her with the majority of the Barrow-downs... who are nice people and all, but hard to compete with in terms of shiny.

Brinniel also suffered from general lack of contact with on this trip. Part of this is because I am definitely an early riser--I was first to bed (the household curmudgeon) and first to rise (the household coffeemaker), more or less, the whole week, and Brinn is definitely a nightowl who sleeps in. We also have somewhat different attitudes towards doing things--Brinn is a sightseer, do-stuff-er, and I'm more of a moss-gatherer... so we didn't interact a whole lot on this trip (which is actually true of a few Downers...), but it was good to see her again, regardless, and her hospitality as the other resident hostess was also appreciated.

...and that's it for old Downers. Each of my three was present. Now I have so many more than three. In the order of meeting them, then:

Boromir88 is awesome, just for the record. He's one of the workhorses that kept the Moot running. He was in charge of our awesome turkey, cooked a number of other meals, and did half the cleaning during his stay, singlehandedly. He's not only a reliable cook, though--he's an awesome cook! And a more or less fun guy generally. While I don't think we had tonnes of overlap in terms of expressed interests, we got on fabulously well. I mean, we were glomping for fun (aka to annoy Nienna and Mira) within 4 hours of meeting. Boromir's pretty much the exact ideal in my head of a perfect brother-in-law... given that actual brother would probably be too squabbly.

Mirandir, too, is practically family now, in my books. Of course, as one of Nienna's roommates from last year, there wasn't complete newness when she sidled into our group. With no offence to the awesome Downers who came later, the 24 hours after Mira's arrival were probably my favourite part of the trip, as we drifted along in domestic/familial calm. There was no drinking then, or partying generally... just making meals, and making pies, and eating meals, and watching TV, and just hanging out. For someone who starts getting lost in groups larger than 6, because he can't focus, and who isn't a super-partier, it was awesome. Of course, Mira is just awesome on her own two feet, and had she come later in the week, I'm sure she'd still be my favourite. Whether or not she'd be my new adopted daughter, is another question. Definitely missing her, but also glad she got to stay the unplanned extra two days until I left too.

Rune son of Bjarne was our most exotic Downer--if Danes are exotic--and, I admit, I wasn't looking super-forward to him showing up, both because he was the first interruption of our awesome family, and also because I knew he was expecting to really get along with me... and I wasn't sure that we would. And, at first, I definitely thought that Rune was crazy over-the-top, with his random, wild, European humour and outgoing personality. By the end of the week, though, he'd definitely proven his point--we did get along quite well. In a weird way that's impossible to explain, he was both completely as I had pictured him after a lot of time knowing him online--and hugely different from his online persona.

Kath is simply a dear--an absolute dear. She's got the most amazing accent--Rune's is nice too, but not nearly so lovely. She is also just a lovely person. I didn't get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked--this becomes a quickly familiar story--but towards the end of the week, I did get more, even if never any real one-on-one. More Kath needs to be a staple of the future.

Diamond18 was not exactly what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting, because she looked like Diamond's pictures, could well have written Diamond's LiveJournal, and definitely seemed to recognize Boro and I when we picked her up. Unfortunately for getting to know her, she's a bit of a quiet Downer in a party that had a few loudmouths *looks guilty* Diamond definitely belongs on the list of "people I didn't get to spend much time with."

Encaitare--also a Downer I wanted to spend more time with. I feel a bit guiltier with her than most Downers I didn't hang out with maximally, both because she spend a chunk of the trip making me a hat, and because she was one of my favourite online Downers that I wanted to meet at the Moot, and while she proved to be every bit as awesome in person as I'd expected after the online version, I don't really think we spent much time together at all. Still feeling a bit guilty that I didn't see her off, but I've been wearing the hat almost daily since, and it is a great comfort in my dreary, cold, Canadian, life.

the phantom... well... the phantom is still a bit of an enigma, as I'm sure he intends. He didn't stay at the apartment, but had the sense (and money?) to afford an hotel, so he didn't get as much of the full-immersion bonding as the rest of us. I also daresay that the first couple days, he was deliberately presenting a bit of a deliberate protective façade of his online persona. It got relaxed after that, and I think he ended up comfortable with the lot of us... but I lost track of him as we reached maximum capacity... The difficulty was that, on the one hand, he generally only came to us, so I could only see him at the apartment, where one-on-one with anyone was easily lost, and also because when things got that crazy I either needed to escape or power down, and as the phantom was only around then, there wasn't much interaction. We also don't have tonnes of things in common, other than the Downs, but it's not as if we managed to discuss everything we do.

Glirdan and Wilwarin came in together--they are best friends in real life--and they are awesome. And I don't just say this because they augmented our Canadian stats at the Moot, or because they travelled 18 hours one-way on a bus to meet us... but because they are. Glirdan is full of energy, full of fun, and can honestly be everybody's best friend. He's also an amazing cook, and fully complemented the Boromir Team in the kitchen--both in making epic meals and doing entirely too much of the cleaning.

Wilwa is also adorable. I got more one-on-one time with her than most of the later arrivals, because I planned a couple of minor excursions to get out of the craziness of the apartment in the afternoons, and since they involved bookstores and libraries, they were tailor-made for a Wilwa. It was also really nice to find someone who agreed completely with my rural Canadian appreciation of Boston's awesome ambiance.

Shastanis Althreduin looked only a bit like I imagined--unlike most, I hadn't formed a proper mental image of him from pictures, chiefly because his Facebook profile picture is non-revelatory, and because I'm too lazy to have looked for more. He's awesome too. I was a bit afraid that I'd been too harsh with the whole "Shasta is a Werewolf, certainly!" thing, but he took it and ran with it, and he is now my official favourite WW. We didn't --again-- get much time to know each other, as individuals, but within the context of the whole party of us, I think I know him rather well. Whether he feels the same... you'd have to ask him.

Lariren Shadow and Alonariel came in together from California, and because Lari is the four of the roommate Downers that started with Fea, I sort of felt like I knew her, once I finally met her. I think we got along well, in the interaction we did have--a similar appreciation for snarky comments towards "popular" literature, and perhaps a similar attitude towards needing common sense in doing things. Because she arrived as late as she did, I didn't get a whole lot of time with her--again--but like Kath, she cropped up a bit more towards the end.

Alona is a dear. Yes, I know, there were a lot of them about. Not my fault! It was a sneaky pleasure to meet my other WW partner (with Nienna) from my last, and victorious, WW game, and also to "adopt" her as a younger sister for Mira. I got a bit more time with her, because she came along for one of the aforementioned bookish trips with Wilwa. It's lucky for me that she never dragged me into a store, put on a pouty face, and held up a desired article, because I may have spoiled her if she had...

Celuien was a Downer that has been sorely missed from activity on this site, so I made sure I was with the welcoming party to see her in, and as her farewell escort out, when she became the first to leave on Jan. 2nd--but apart from these two instances, I didn't get a lot of time with her, which is a pity, because she's a lot of fun to talk to, one-on-one. I was afraid, since she's so quiet--I daresay the quietest of our lot--that she would get lost and not have as much fun during the Moot, but she said she enjoyed it as I saw her off, and I am inclined to think she told the truth. Though definitely quiet, there were moments when it was clear she was enjoying getting lost in the shuffle.

I think I only met Rikae and Macalaure--and their were-duckling--after we got back with Lari, Alona, and Celuien from the airport. Or, rather, later that same day, because my first Wilwa expedition (Boro was also along) was after the return from the airport, but before Fea arrived, and Rikae and Mac only made their first appearance then. Unfortunately, they suffered from the phantom Syndrome--they had a hotel room--wisely, for the duckling--and thus were generally only around when things were craziest. So I don't really remember talking with them much at all, directly. But I did get to see them together, and with their little girl, and they are an adorable couple, with an adorable baby, and I'm just extremely impressed that they were willing to immerse themselves in a full-fledged cauldron of young craziness. Not that Mac and Rikae are old... but there's a certain reliability that comes with marriage and children that is absolutely lacking in the rest of us, it seems. Of all the Downers present, I probably spent time with them the least, which is a definite pity. I liked what I saw... but I mostly only saw, and didn't get to talk/hear.

And... I think... that's the lot, but there were so many, I'm almost afraid I've lost one. That'd be a pity... but, really, it's a sign of how awesome things were. I can't wait to see each and everyone of you again--and those of you who didn't come? I can only guess that you're just as awesome. Someday...