Forum Friends are the best!

that after party at Scholz's. QUOTE] Best post meet party ever! Thank you Ande. Rich

Best post meet party ever! Thank you Ande. RichThat sounds like a challenge to you, Mr. Tall Paul Smith for 2011!

I moved to DC in 2006. Coming from a close swimming community in Oregon to suddenly not knowing anyone I was home sick and lonely. I had been to a few meets but hadn't really met anyone. After a few months I mentioned it on here and Muppet posted a picture of himself and told me to look for him at the next meet. From there I have met so many - SwimAvsFan, Swimmy, Fort, SwimStud, Wolf, etc. All it took was Muppet and his crazy hair. And I finally feel like I have a swimming home here (but I'll always miss Oregon). Thank you Muppet! :bighug:

I've met many forum friends at meets. It helped to have Nats in Austin in 2008 & that after party at Scholz's. Y'all are kind funny friendly folks. A few have worked out with longhorn masters when you visited austin. If you stay in a down town austin hotel, I'm happy to give you a ride to practice.

The first forumite I met was chowmi, so that was very cool. She is a contagiously happy person at swim meets, which is great because I am about as exciting as a rock. Rich Abrahams was the first forumite to come up and introduce himself to me, which was pretty cool. He was one of the people flown in for a clinic the day before the meet, and stayed to swim at the meet, so I knew he was there and was planning to introduce myself. He was sitting with chowmi and she mentioned I was swimming the 200, so he came up and introduced himself right after I got out. If you want a speechless response when you introduce yourself, I strongly suggest an introduction after a 200 :) no200fly was the first person I met in real life then found out they were on the forums. Nationals was just overwhelming meeting people. If you want to meet forumites, Nationals is the place to do it. What is funny was when I met two different forumites and had talked to both separately off and over the course of the meet, but they complained they hadn't met each other yet. If you goal is to be social, you can't have a full event schedule ;)

I had a triple whammey of meeting forumites. I met, Geek, Fort and Wolf at the sametime in Raleigh, NC. They had finished swimming in a meet, while I was working in Raleigh. A few weeks later, I ran into Geek again at a clinic in Charlotte.

Fort and Wolf were the first people who I met at meets when I started competing again last year. It was nice to have someone to talk to, since I was there by myself! I look forward to meeting more nice people at meets.

After reading Fort's blog and posts for months and exchanging messages along the way, I finally got to meet her at Nationals in Indy. Before the traveling to the meet, TALL PAUL informed me that THE FORTRESS was much different in person... really quiet - and also pretty tiny, maybe chest high :) Fort has turned out to be one of my most treasured masters friends even though I never see her except at nationals. ANDE, I saw for the first time at the Ron Johnson Meet in AZ. Had no idea really who he was - but I took photos of his record setting relays. Through the forum we were able to exchange the photos - and become friends. He has become one of my best swim coaches and a real coaching mentor. I've referred so many swimmers to these two friends. The USMS discussion forum is truly one of USMS's best coaching, swimmer mixing and marketing tools. Worth way more than any registration fee paid to USMS. I really realized - and appreciated how many virtual friends I had made through the forums at Clovis Nationals last year when we were all introducing ourselves to each other. I did go to the post-meet party in Austin 08 with Eney Jones who knows EVERYONE. Met a lot of new swimmers there and on the UT pool deck as well. But the forum participation through the next year made my Clovis a different experience completely! (still can't believe how nice JIM RUDE and others are in person :) )

I just started poking around these forums, and now I feel like taking a cross-country swim trip to associate some faces with avatars.

Before the traveling to the meet, TALL PAUL informed me that THE FORTRESS was much different in person... really quiet - and also pretty tiny, maybe chest high :) Fort has turned out to be one of my most treasured masters friends even though I never see her except at nationals. Aw. :) Right back at ya, lady. I'm not THAT quiet. I flip flop between introverted and extroverted. :D I met everyone at that Scholz's party in Austin! Then more at Indy and more at Atlanta, along with our local meets. Forum friends make every swim meet a blast even when your swimming sucks. And the trash talking, gridging and beer drinking rocks too.