Pseudotherapy

What can I say about an evening in which I got kissed by Jester and Karl at the same time, Dave handed me his heart on a button and my husband left me to go make out with another man? Pretty frakking great, that’s what!

Last night was Dave Diego, and the day was fraught with stress for me. Although Dave was the actual host of the event, I felt the burden of responsibility for assuring my home city made a good showing. With ComicCon 2008 having invaded the Gaslamp Quarter, scheduling a blogger gathering in the area was dicey. I don’t know which I was more worried about — everyone finding parking, or locating an eatery that could seat 20 people for dinner on the night of ComicCon’s Masquerade Ball. Plus, as usual I stressed about what to wear, when to leave, whether Bret would enjoy himself.

After emailing explicit instructions to the other attendees, I failed to follow them myself. Totally forgot to make sure we had change for the trolley ticket machines. Ended up driving into downtown and getting lost while trying to find a not-yet-full parking lot that we could afford. Finally decided to grab the next $15-or-less parking we saw. It turned out to be a multi-level garage with signs stating the elevator was not operating, only you didn’t see the signs until after you’d paid and pulled in. We parked three levels up, and began the trek to the restaurant where Dave Diego was already in full swing. And which was not the restaurant I’d chosen after many hours of research, because they’d neglected to inform me of two little facts: 1. There was some fight being broadcast to a full house that night, and 2. there was a $10 cover charge due to said event. Yeah, thanks but no thanks.

Karl and Hilly had been spreading the word via Twitter, which doesn’t work on my cheapo basic phone, but she called to let us know just as we started walking. Despite the last-minute change, the first arrivals had snared primo window booths right in the front of Whiskey Girl at 5th and Market, so we located the Dave Diego crowd immediately. Dave greeted us with personalized lanyards and passed us the bag-o-buttons with which to add flairage. And the hugging commenced!

In the course of the evening, I hugged and kissed Karl, Dave, Jester, Vahid and Hilly. Oh, and Bret and Juli, of course. I finally got to meet Winter and her daughter Motley. It was also my first time meeting the dashing Vahid, of whose photography I am quite a fan. Paul (Jester) and Michael (UncleMonkeyBoy) are both genuinely nice people and, in the time-honored tradition that frustrates straight women everywhere, the entire gay delegation was drop-dead gorgeous. Jerry (Othurme) was seated over at The Gay Table, so I didn’t get a chance to chat much with him or UMB. Next time! It was good to see Amandarin of Ordinary Extraordinary again — she was in town working ComicCon (at the convention itself, not the streets) and took time off to join us for dinner with her friend, Adam. The highlight of the night for me, however, was getting smooched by TWO of my crushes at once!

Wait. Maybe the highlight was the Handing Out Of The Cards. Yes, you jealous people, all of us Dave Diego attendees were gifted with TWO decks of the mythical Blogography playing cards!!! They are real, they are printed, they are beautiful. I have held them in my hands and marveled at their fabooness. Let the salivating begin. Because the cards? Are teh @w3s0me.

Blogger gatherings always amaze me. Sitting in a booth with a bunch of people I’d gotten to know online, several of whom I’d just met in person that night, I was pleased to feel completely comfortable and at ease. Although we are a diverse group, we’re brought together by our shared love of blogging, and from that commonality, real friendships develop. Those friendships in turn lead to other new friendships, and the circle expands. It’s a lovely thing indeed.

After dinner and the longest wait for the check in the history of mankind, there was more drinking and a trip to an artist’s studio. Bret and I missed those because we are old and cannot be away from our computers for extended periods of time without our health suffering. We departed after dinner and a final bout of hugging. It was tough for Bret to tear himself away from his make-out buddy, Karl, but he smoked 17 9 a few cigarettes in Karl’s honor on the drive home. And we didn’t even get lost finding our way back to the freeway.

And now I start counting the days until Dave2LA2 in November.

My full Dave Diego Flickr photoset can be viewed here.

Other recaps of the evening: Dave’s, Winter’s, Karl’s, Hilly’s.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Blogging, Friends and Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.