5.16.2006

The gathering of the nerd herd

I went to a blog party tonight. What is a blog party, you ask? It's an excuse for people who know each other only virtually to get together in person. I had a brief junior high flashback at the beginning, walking into a crowd of people I didn't know and having to just put my hand out and start making friends. But that feeling quickly faded. I mean, hell, these were folks willing to come out after work and hang out with other people simply on the basis of the fact that we all make blogs. How threatening could any of us be? Gotta love the nerd herd.

I will say, however, that I got the distinct impression that I was the less desirable of the Baxter Sez authors for this particular gathering. Although everyone was polite and happy to meet me, their eyes lit up when they heard what blog I do, and they all asked, "Where's Biffle? Is Biffle here? Did he come? Can we call him Biffle?" When they learned that Biffle has headed back to MA to defend his MFA thesis, they made valiant efforts to mask their disappointment. I can hardly blame them--he's always been the flashier member of this couple, and this blog is no exception. I can't compete with Jemima and the Grits for provocativeness (although I am cooking up a good post about leg shaving that you should be on the lookout for), and if you've only recently started reading Baxter Sez it's possible that you don't even know there is another writer here.

But anyway, the party was a lot of fun. Thanks to Dan, Joan, and the other people who pulled this event together.

4 comments:

mary said...

are blog parties a common thing? I'm not sure if I would go to one.

Anonymous said...

My theory is that "The Biffle" was playing coy, avoiding the party to drive up press attention, trying to build public anticipation to a frenzy.

However, your assumption that this meant we like Walter better is pure horse-hockey. For one thing, you have like the single greatest blogger profile photos ever taken. Secondly, we know you sunburn easily.

But I will cop to one thing: I WAS planning to poke him with a stick to see if he'd run off and jump in the water.

Kenneth Burns said...

I got invited to a blog party once, but the guy organizing it seemed kind of lonely and desperate. So I blew it off.

Kelly Love said...

I promise you if it had been Biffle who showed up without you, everyone would have barraged him with "where's Alison? Where's the Alison? Can we call her the Alison?" And I would have forced him to listen to my "no man no cry" rant instead. Really!