[A Little Green]

Yay for Agan posting the Paper Telephone, and yay for everybody participating! I'm not going to write an accurate description of what happened in each moot since I beileve we have had (or will have) enough of that anyway. No sense repeating, and I'm too lazy to do that in any case. To further avoid repeating stuff, I will say that all of the 'Downers we met were such sweet and friendly people and just incredibly easy to get along with. (So, sweethearts, don't think I don't like you because I don't say that separately about each of you - because I do.) Like Nog said, they really made for an essential part of our trip with their awesome company and their help with lodging, food, places to see and routes to take. I miss them all and wish I was richer so that I could travel more often – or else that they lived somewhere rather closer.

So. The first 'Downer we met was Brinn, with whom we stayed in Boston for a few days and who also joined us in the bigger 'Downer meeting in Geneva. She was a great guide and host, and it was lovely to meet her again (she had spent a weekend in Finland two years ago). She also joined us in New York at the very end of our trip. It was great to get to know her better, I love her smile, we had a good time and I'm looking forwards to some stuff we planned to do a) in the next Finlandmoot and b) once we get back to NYC and are legal there... Kath joined us for our last night in Boston. She is just as lovely as I remembered from last summer, and it was refreshing to listen to her cute British accent among all the Americans. She has a knack for being both cuddly and mean, which I like a lot.

The two of them came with us to Geneva (that moot, at least, has been suffiently covered already) to meet Mac, Rikae, Boro, Wilwa, Fea, Celuien, Mira and Nienna. Mac and Rikae were awesome hosts, as hospitable as you can get! Apart from that, Mac had a truly scary evil laugh though he was otherwise among the least scary people I've ever met (a teddy bear, as opposed to a scary bear), and Rikae was just adorable and I loved her sense of humour. And the Wereducking of course was about my favourite baby ever. Boro had amusing tan lines and I loved ruffling his hair (he suspected me because of that in ww, actually). Wilwa was adorable, I wished I'd been able to talk to her more because the once we really got to talk was very enjoyable. She really reminds me of a butterfly except that a butterfly isn't half as huggable. I'm rather sorry I didn't get a ride in Fea's famous car (another thing to return to the US for?), but the owner of the car at least was amazing and completely understood my over-the-top fascination with Watkins Glen. I didn't know Celuien from the 'Downs, but she turned out to be a truly delightful person who also baked the best (though the first, too) cobbler I've ever tasted. I only saw Nienna and Mira for one night which was a pity, because I really liked them both – yet another reason to return to the US I think. We also met Bethberry and her husband and son at Niagara, and she turned out to be a friendly, smiling and just generally good person like all the 'Downers I've had the privilege to meet - and also another I'd love to meet again with more time.

After a night spent at Boro's place (we accidentally stole his laptop cable which I felt really sorry about because he is so sweet) we continued to Milwaukee to meet Ibrin, Diamond, Oddwen and McCaber. Ibrin laughed a lot and smiled a lot and her artwork was truly great. Agan and I managed to make Diamond miss a turn on the highway by chatting too animatedly about werewolf, but it was lucky actually because I enjoyed getting more time to talk to her. Oddwen had made us beautiful necklaces and provided us with much amusement by randomly pushing Lommy's famous nose. McCaber (once we had managed to find the right one and not the random fake Joe) ate pistachios. Though I'm generally no fan of cars I have to say his car was waaaaaaay cooler than any I've had a chance to get a ride in.

After Milwaukee it was Sally, Shasta and phantom in Omaha and driving through Nebraska, South Dakota and a part of Wyoming with phantom and Shasta. Sally had a very cute way of sniggering and we spent a lovely morning with her and Agan and some truly disgusting music videos. Shasta (whom we met also later on in Oklahoma) climbed every high rock we saw, sang beautifully, had a lovely evil laugh (though very different from Mac's!) and ate little green grapes in a truly disgusting manner.

Originally Posted by phantom

It turns out she isn't nearly as boring or mean as I was expecting her to be.

It did turn out though that he was just as boring and mean as I had expected. He is responsible for not only the breaking of my finger (it still hurts!) but also the most enjoyable car rides I've ever had. And whatever it may do to his reputation, I will venture to add that he was nice and cuddly and secretly a gentleman.

We met morm and his family in Salt Lake City, first for an evening and then later on, when we returned from the west coast, we spent a night at his place. He and his wife were both really kind and polite and he had a very nice voice. Their girls were totally adorable, all of them.

In San Francisco we met Alona and Lari, though only briefly – we had brunch and visited the Museum of Modern Art. It was a pity we didn't have more time with them, for they were both really sweet and funny and smiling girls.

In Oklahoma City we met Roa and Craydon (Crayon!) for dinner. I swear I'll never be even slightly scared of a 'Downer again, because Roa wasn't scary at all but very kind and funny. They both were. And once again it would have been nice to see them for longer but we had to get on driving..

In Missouri we visited Folwren on her summer camp. It was really interesting, and she was as warm and kind and attentive a host as we could possibly have hoped for. And I think we might even have managed to convert some others of the camp staff to join the 'Downs!

We had dinner with Inziladun in Alabama, and had great fun eating fish and discussing werewolf, traffic jams, and whatever came to our minds. He surprised us by pronouncing our names perfectly before ever hearing us say them aloud and was just generally nice.

In Virginia we had some trouble with our operation Finding Mnemo. Once we did manage to find her (or she us), we spent a lovely day together. There is definitely something elvish about that girl! She's totally adorable. We talked long about horns and antennas and buried Boromir.

We had lunch in NYC with Rune and Brinn. It was lovely to see Rune again if only briefly, though he did manage to start being mean to us in his old way in such a short while! Apparently the very cheesy onion soup Agan and I were eating was horribly funny. We then spent a few days in New York with Brinn and Encaitare (boring Rune went to Boston). Brinn lived with us in the apartment we had, and Encai spent time with us during day-time. We strolled around, went to see a Broadway show, played a bit of Apples to Apples, visited some museums... Encai was another I didn't know from the 'Downs but who proved to be a totally lovely person. She looks like an elf, has an adorable laugh, and was just so easy to go around the City with.

Argh. I kind of meant to write shortly. But on the other hand it was twenty-eight awesome, unique, lovely darling 'Downers in a month's time. If any of you dearies ever consider having a vacation outside the US, you know where to go, eh? (A hint: Finland, Finland, Finland, the country where I quite want to be!)