I just arrived home in Boston after a very long but tolerable bus ride, during which I managed to compile all the questions for Monday’s Boston Skeptics in the Pub. As always following big, fun meet-ups, I’m drained and a little sad, and also kind of smelly. I got off to a rocky start at the bus station, when I showed up with a ticket for Saturday night instead of Friday night, and the bus was sold out so I couldn’t transfer the reservation. Whoops.
David, the Bolt Bus rep who was at the gate, was the sweetest person ever. He offered to get me on a later bus and even asked if I needed to borrow his cell phone to alert whoever I was meeting in New York. I was more upset than I had any right to be, and recognizing that fact I thanked him and decided to go home and try a bus the next morning.
Happily, I was able to get a bus on Saturday — the same bus as Joshua and Blake. Yay! The only downside was that we arrived too late to see Lori’s talk, which I was really looking forward to. Booo! But when I showed up at the lecture hall, I got to meet Elyse for the first time ever. Yay! She was just as awesome as I suspected — bold and funny and smart. Plus, I got to see a lot of good friends, including Maria, Stacey, Lori, and the NYC Skeptics like Jamy Ian Swiss, Mike Feldman, and Matt McCarthy. Later at the bar, Tracy (who was a total champ even though she wasn’t feeling well) and Vy from Teen Skepchick showed up, as did the ever-charming Mark Roberts. Massimo Pigliucci showed up, though sadly I didn’t get much time to chat with him.
Oh! And did I mention Skepchick commenter Rystefn? Yeah, he was there, he was awesome, and he had a large table of skepchicks doing body shots. Speaking of drinks, we performed the final judging of the Skepchick Drink Contest, and we have a winner. You’ll hear more about that later, but in the meantime check out my pics on Flickr, with a few (NSFW?) after the jump. If anyone has more on Flickr, tag them skepchicknyc and/or upload them to the Skeptics photo group. Got video? Use yousendit (or similar) to send to skepchick at skepchick dot org, or put the not-too-embarrassing clips on YouTube and post the link below!
looks like you guys had a great time. sorry i had to miss it :(
can’t wait to hear the final results of the drink contest.
I don’t see anyone naked, pointing at stuff. Come on, guys.
You all look so young, so full of life. I envy you so much. I wish I weren’t stuck here in Texas and I was about hmmm 10 years younger. I hope everyone hade as much fun as it looks like you did.
Looks like a hell of a time… When are there going to be some San Francisco events?!?
Or a New Orleans event? We got lots of alcohol here, too! We even have drive-thru daiquiris.
Sorry I had to miss it (darn professional development, trying to make me a better science teacher!). I’ll definitely be there for the next NYC event.
Oh, and Tracey = the hottness.
S0 sad t0 have missed the fun. One of these days, I’ll leave my native Canada behind for the lure of the Skepchicks.
Great times. thanks for bringing some Skepchik fun to NYC. Drinking games, writing on drunks, and of course the required angst about the assholes who didn’t pay their fair share (which is what Maria was saying).
Gabriel – remember Texas Freethought Convention in October
Rebecca – Remember Boston to NYC for $15 every hour – Fung Wah!
Yeah, sorry I didn’t make it. I was on the fence the entire time, but in the end my unwillingness to stay over did it in…I wasn’t spending 8hrs on the bus for less time than that in the city. Oh well.
I will still be at Skeptics in the Pub on Monday, where I expect everyone to shame me with sordid tales from this weekend’s festivities.
Did you folks find out how to say “Rystefn”, out of curiosity?
Hey, you caught some ghost orbs in that second shot! Good job!
Hey we weren’t all so young and we still had fun:)
Gabrielbrawley: “I wish I weren’t stuck here in Texas and I was about hmmm 10 years younger.”
Hey, I turn 40 in 4.5 months and my life has never been better. It ain’t about the number on the odometer; it’s about where you are driving the car.
getting delayed on my flight home was awful. time does not go more slowly than when it comes between skepchick goodbyes and a welcome home.
I’m still exhausted. That was a pretty amazing weekend.
What a weekend. I’m still in the area, recovering and spending time with my family. Yes, I probably was complaining about people not paying their full share but it was all made up for by people who stepped up and paid extra. Also, why do I always end up being the one to work out the details of the checks? :) It’s not a good idea, people. Particularly after I’ve participated in round 2 of the drinking contest. :)
Remember, people – the next big party is in Atlanta for Dragon*Con. Be there!
I so very much enjoyed meeting you all, and look forward to more such events. Oh, yeah, hey, Rebeccca: any chance I could persuade you to post that “Brian Boitano’s Sig” Flickr photo to Facebook too…? Puhleeeeeeze? Thanks!
awwww…it looks like you guys had lots of fun! I wish I could meet up with you guys sometime…does anyone know of anything going on in Virginia? I just recently became a skeptic, and there aren’t very many people that I can get together with.
I just related to my coworkers the story of walking down the street Sunday afternoon and having Elyse (or Maria?) say, “Rebecca? Bad news. You didn’t manage to wash off all the Tang.” My coworker’s response: “That’s what friends are for — to point out the day-old Tang on your neck.”
dday, “Rebecca – Remember Boston to NYC for $15 every hour – Fung Wah!” Dude, I put the Fung Wah’s kids through college, that’s how often I rode the thing. Now I’m all about the Bolt Bus – $2.50 more for wifi, more leg room and less flipping over.
I’ll be back in NYC over Labor Day weekend for a wedding, but I’m not sure how much free time I’ll have. However, I could be convinced to host another, probably smaller pub night then?
nighean_ruaidhe: Not sure about VA meet-ups but I know DC is active . . . I’ll let you know if I hear of anything!
Rebecca – don’t reinvent the wheel. If you’re coming to town, just let drinking skeptically host the event (or drinking with atheists, or ethical culture sober family fun time)
Yeah, people always forget to get pictures of the REALLY fun stuff, don’t they? ;)
My biggest regret is forgetting I had a camera in my pocket and not getting any pics of Rebecca wearing my hat (which is, by the way, about a million times sexier than me wearing it).
Wristeffin,
No worries, I got pics of that…I’ll be putting them online tonight. :)
Oh good. Looks like I owe you one, then. Have I told you lately how awesome you are?
Not since Saturday. It was awesome meeting you too. I’m so glad you were able to come. :)
So am I. Thanks for pretending to care about my rambling stories, I have a tendency to go on and on and on, as I’m sure you noticed.
WristEffen-
She didn’t notice at all… she was too distracted by my rambling stories that went on and on.
Sigh. Sigh. SIGH. Majorly bummed I missed this. And fascinated about why there was tang on Rebecca’s neck. I kind of want to know, but I kind of don’t.
OK, I don’t.
Glad you girls had fun. I hope there’s Skepchicking at D*C, as I am all in for that one.
the tang on rebecca’s neck was there because i did a shitty job licking it off.
Elyse – no way, I loved your stories. You were several drinks in and I was still learning stuff from you.
I had a wonderful time there, but I swear next time I am driving to Trenton and taking NJTransit from there.
I’m glad I finally know how to pronounce “Rystefn”. But now that we’ve determined that “y”s can be pronounced however we want, I’d like to be called Stac-eye, or maybe Stac-ih.
(Ok, I’m just bitter that I had it wrong)
It’s the e before the y that limits the fun you can have with the y in your name… at least if you’re not willing to completely ignore standard rules of pronunciation, which I very much am. English is a horrific mish-mash anyway.
Fantastic time! Great to meet / reunite with such fun skeptics!
Rystefn — I stuck around until I had to leave for train back to NJ — hope you were able to retrieve your credit card from bar #1…
The only problems I encountered were caused by my acute ADLaK – Attention Deficit Look a Kitty!
I’d just like to point out that the pics going up on Facebook right now are out of control. Stacey, can you add those to the Skeptics Flickr group when you get a chance? They’re fantastic!
Done. I also added them to my flickr with the tag skepchicknyc.
I also have some good video. I’ll work on getting that up tomorrow night. :)
Oops, I got the link to my own flickr wrong. Try this.
Stacey, the shoes picture in your flickr….. the dark red patent one in the middle made my heart skip a beat… any chance I can get more info on that?.. ::drool::
And I loled that Rystefn wore his hat, no question of who is who in that case. I hope I can give a meetup a shot one of these days. And I vote for New Orleans, that’s on my corner.
The dark red one in the middle is MasalaSkeptic’s. The black one further back is mine.
Also, I pretty much always wear the hat. It’s far more distinctive in person than my icon would lead you to believe, though some of the pics from Saturday do a decent job of catching it… Honestly, though, those who know me well can recognize my hat from sound alone – though the bar was far too loud for all that.
Oh pleeeeease oh please oh please don’t tell me that you have to meet Rystefn in person to find out how to say his name. Just tell me, is it really pronounced “Bob”?
it’s like wrist effin with the emphasis on the STEFF
and from now on stacey is pronounced “stac-eh”
Yep, that’s me with the patent leather. I heart those shoes :)