14th
Tumblr Metup (Past Tense)
Having flown all the way to NYC from Colonial Williamsburg, I definitely won the award for “furthest travelled” for last night’s Tumblr Meetup. That being said, everybody made me feel right at home. It’s comforting to know I can make a pit-stop in the biggest city in America, and have a built in network of people that are enjoyable to be around. Thanks, Tumblr.
Being the stranger from out of town, the first person I approached was the one that was instantly recognizable based upon the fact he has a grand total of 6 pictures of himself on his Tumblr— Mr. Peter W. Knox. He introduced me to Chris, another jovial fella, whose URL I forget.
At this point, I still had no nametag and was wandering aimlessly trying to read other folks’ nametags in a clandestine manner without appearing like I was checking out their pectoral area. Hoping to have a nametag of my own, I approached somebody who had a pack of labels and asked if I could snag one. Her name was Tiffany, and she was incredibly nice and welcoming and surprised I made it into town all the way from VA. Then, Marco rolled up, and since I follow his Tumblr I put two+two twogether and realized that Tiffany is the lady he speaks so fondly of on a regular basis. Marco and I briefly discussed the demographics of shufflepuck, and I thanked him for his great work on Tumblr.
Eventually, Lauren Farmer showed up and it was totally bodacious to hang out with her and express my appreciation for being the coolest Tumblr on the face of the digital planet. Her magnetic personality makes her the perfect person to hang out with in a bar of strangers. With her social butterflying skillz, I had the opportunity to meet a huge posse of her pals, like Josh, Vinnie, Travis, and Zach. And, I also had the pleasure of meeting the finest ladies of the Tumblr universe, like Mascarah, Erin, and plenty of others I am forgetting to name.
I also got to meet both Amir Blumenfeld and Amir Cohen. Amir B was understandably incredulous of my entire backstory (why would somebody come to NYC from Virginia?), and encouraged me to open a new bar in Colonial Williamsburg. I tried to convince him to resurrect the sandwich blog, but I think he and Amanda might be over sandwiches for some reason (they’re too 2K7). Amir Cohen was/is a cool dude and we made a few HTMLOLZ.
Much thanks to Lee for organizing this Meetup quite conveniently to coincide with the presentation I had to give yesterday in Yonkers.
And, thanks to Tumblr for making this community.
I met a ton of other people too, but I need to step away from my computer and go enjoy NYC for the few days I’m visiting. Anybody have any suggestions? Hit me up via email. Nice meeting ya’ll.
That was one helluva night, folks. It was sort of like going to a high school reunion but the only people there were the ones you truly wanted to see and were honestly interested in catching up with.