My Big Phatmass Meet-up Experience

[Papist]

I would like to say a few words about my experience at the Meet-up.

If you would have told me in December 2010 that in about 18 months I will be flying to Pittsburgh for a Phatmass get together, I would have bet my house against it. Like many, I lurked here and then found a thread that I wanted to add a comment. It did not take long to get drawn into the community. I never thought I would have become as active as I am, which I think is a testimony to the Phatmass Phamily.

The meet-up was an absolute blast. It exceeded my expectations.

My apologies to the attendees for my quick and short goodbye before Jason took me to my hotel Saturday night. I would of liked to have said,

[i]God calls us to love. I must say that these 3+ days that call has been very easy to answer. I know y'all learned that if my mouth is moving I am not serious. And you have not scratched your head so much in a 3-day span in your life. But, I am serious now that I tell you that I love y'all very much and I am very blessed to have been able to spend these days together. God bless y'all and hope we can meet-up again.[/i]

Missy, you are an inspiration. The way you don't let anything or anybody prevent you from living life is inspiring. You are a beautiful person. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Sixpence, you are a joy to be around. No matter what was going on or where we were at, there you were, always smiling. I believe sixpence is Latin for "she who smiles". I am inspired to do the same.

Brianthepysicist, you are a kind gentleman with a great heart. Your ability and willingness to suspend judgement until facts are presented. And at such a young age is impressive. Something to be emulated.

BG45, you are an amesome dude. They way you take everything in stride with calmness is most impressive. A quality I know I need to work on. Thanks for the inspiration.

Aloysius, I really enjoyed talking to you. You are a sound thinker with interesting insight. Very impressive for a snot nose kid. You have inspired me to study/learn more of Church teaching and liturgy.

Ardillacid, I regret that you and I did not get to talk much. It was hard to get a word in while Al was obsessing over some chess game. However, I can say you are genuine and selfless. I appreciate you making the effort to get to know me. You may dismiss that, but it really meant a lot.

Cmotherofpirl, first I want to say thanks for attending, with your presence I got a break from being the geezer. I really enjoyed spending time and talking with you. Special thanks for your knowledge of Pittsburgh. You made me think if I hosted a meet-up in Charlotte what things could we do.

Lillabett, I want you to know your stopping by was well appreciated. You are a lovely person and I was glad I was able to meet you.

Mikolbe, what can I say. You are most generous. Every time you opened your mouth you gave away your ignorance. Bull croutons aside, it was extremely generous of you and your family to open your home to us all. You have a beautiful family. God bless your wife for putting up with our loud foolishness. Thanks for putting this together, especially the activities. It was a well balance of activities, from a Catholic Relic tour to Hofbrauhaus tour. God bless you and your family.

Lil Red, thanks for starting the meet-up thread. This may have never happened w/o it. I totally understand and respect your reason, but nonetheless, you were missed.

dUSt, Hasan, LD, I enjoyed spending time with....what wha...NVM.

If anyone is traveling and coming through Charlotte, NC, please stop by for a rest, beer, meal or even spend the night to break up a long ride.

God bless y'all,
Papist

[i<3franciscans]

Shouldn't they are be propping this? Wish I wasn't so young so that I could have been there.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='i<3franciscans' timestamp='1338225172' post='2436412']Shouldn't they are be propping this? [/quote]

say what?

[quote name='Papist' timestamp='1338224676' post='2436410']Lil Red, thanks for starting the meet-up thread. This may have never happened w/o it. I totally understand and respect your reason, but nonetheless, you were missed.[/quote]

next one, i'll host. YNP is close by.

[Papist]

[quote name='i<3franciscans' timestamp='1338225172' post='2436412']
Shouldn't they are be propping this? Wish I wasn't so young so that I could have been there.
[/quote]

Props not necessary.

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1338225287' post='2436413']
say what?



next one, i'll host. YNP is close by.
[/quote]

You say that not knowing I have kin in MT.

[Lil Red]

for realz?

[Papist]

Wife's grandparents. I am sure we will be going there, sad to say probably soon for a funeral.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Papist' timestamp='1338226213' post='2436426']
Wife's grandparents. I am sure we will be going there, sad to say probably soon for a funeral.
[/quote]
sorry to hear that.

[Aloysius]

Here's my short reflections on the experience:

Hard to believe I've been a member of phatmass for almost 9 years... all of a sudden it seems as if there are real people behind these virtual facades. strange to think how big a part of my life phatmass has been. I expected ardillacid to look more like a squirrel. Anyway, I am always flattered by the level of respect the phat people have developed for me over the years (in fact, I think I may need to list some of you as references in future job applications, lol), so it was important for me to lower that as much as possible with an epic night of drinking ardillacid under the table, and then falling asleep under the table myself, lol. Many apologies to mrs mikolbe for the loud obnoxiousness, but the phatmass chess program from four years ago didn't let me get out of check with a legal en passant move, and that just had to be settled. (Tom and I will one day testify at your cause of canonization about your heroic virtue of patience).

Anyway, it was great to meet everyone in person, and to those who didn't make it I'm sure we'll see you at a meetup in the future. Papist has offered to host in Charlotte (seeing as he made such an effort to come this time, I'm inclined to give him dibs on where the next one should be), we were also talking about the possibility of organizing a cruise for one of the meetups (though the expense would be a problem there). I think it might be razzle dazzle to plan a phatmass pilgrimage to somewhere some day, I think there's companies that help people organize group pilgrimage trips.

Anyway, it's been brought to my attention that I have been far too inactive for far too long, meeting yinz in real life has motivated me to attempt to rectify that and be more active in the future.

I have even decided to forgive and forget the shameful and embarassing secret that was revealed to me, that is, the fact that so many of you are "my little ponies" afficianados, and return to my previous high level of respect for you by pretending that doesn't exist.

Anyway, I feel a lot closer to the people here now and hope to see you all again in the future. Sorry I disappeared without enough of a goodbye. And I echo the huge thanks to MIKolbe, who did the most work to make this meet-up a huge success, at great personal risk to his marriage I must say haha. and thanks for everyone who made the effort to make it. and a pox on L_D, dUSt, and Hasan for bailing. was looking forward to meeting the man himself, the legendary phounder, and the secret muslim gay atheist terrorist, and it's been far too long since I've seen L_D. one day.

[MissyP89]

All I can say is that I am blessed to know every single one of you guys. Thank you for being my phamily. It makes the struggles of this journey a little less taxing...

Papist, you lit a fire under me to go out and get something done for the Church. Thanks for being my bodyguard and a real source of comedy this weekend. I hope this is only the first time we'll see each other.

Sixpence, I had a lot of fun with you. The basement would have been a lonely place without you! Dinner at the rest stop was razzle dazzle, too. Let's try to meet up sometime this summer. You can bring the gentleman this time!

[MIKolbe]

Well, I am done cleaning this house. It smells like girls and apple juice again.

I am very happy and humbled to have been a part of the meetup.

It is at this point that I would like to seriously thank dUSt for this site. You, through your efforts, have brought the love of Jesus literally to my house. This is a gift that I can never repay. Through all the ascii, avatars, and animated gifs are people who share a love of Christ and His Church.

In communion we are IN COMMUNION with the whole Church. In the two communions I shared with y'all (see papist is rubbing off on me), it made this truth...true-er. I understood it better when I fell to my knees after receiving His Body. I fell to my knees with my friends, and we prayed together.

[i][b]Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brethen dwell together in unity.[/b][/i]

And of course, I loved the meals we shared. Eating is almost sacramental to me (insert fat joke here). I broke bread with my friends. Even the term 'broke bread' seems to evoke the supernatural mysteries.

Papist
You are a razzle dazzle guy. Coming from me, that means alot..trust me... I was impressed with your wisdom: from Church history to beer, I was in awe. You are on-fire for your faith, and I must admit..it was contagious. You were the answer to many of my prayers...and one day, hopefully soon, I will share that with you. But know that I am happy to have met you and honored to be your friend.

Aloysius
Dude, you rock a killer pipe. And it smells wonderful. On a serious note, I am continually in awe of your knowledge and the level headedness with which you carry yourself. You are a ton funnier than I thought you would be. And again, coming from me; that's really saying something. You are also alot louder than I thought you would be... LOLOLOL...kidding...


Ardillacid
It was worth the price of admission to hear you talk to Hasan on Friday night. I know you sacrificed alot with work and your family to make it. I appreciate it greatly. The dynamic between you and Aloysius is as entertaining IRL as it is online. A little part of my heart warmed for you when you were able to finally meet Al after all those years. For as much as a smart arse that you are, you sir have a heart of gold. I too am honored to be your friend. And you owe me sushi, and I scrubbed the carpet 2 more times....but I was srsly laughing as I was doing it.


Sixpence
You rock. Whenever I see a house centipede I will think of you. I mean that in a good way, and I think you know that. At St. Regis, aka the hot Mass, I looked at you after communion. I never told you this, but you looked 'holy'. I don;t know what that means exactly, but it was inspiring. Next to my wife and 2 daughters, you have the most beautiful smile in the whole world. Thank you for the LONG drive to the meetup, it was a pleasure getting to know you and I hope our friendship grows.


Cmom
Will you be my mee maw? Thank you for being a wonderful tour guide!!! It was great to meet you and get to know you better. Thank you for being the voice of sanity when I tried to drive us around downtown Pitt. If the opportunity ever presents itself, Shea and I would love to have you for dinner.


Lilllabettt
Thank you for making an appearance. I know it wasn't the best timing for you and what you had going on, but thank you for showing up! I am sorry I did not have the tacos ready by the time you arrived!! We need to do thai again.


BG45
You are a kind man with a kind soul, and lots of pony knowledge. Thank you for coming. I know there was some issues with quals at the beginning of us proposing this meet up, so I was very very happy to see you come on down! Thank you for working with Good Brian and putting ponies on my ipad youtube. You were smart to choose something expensive to put it on so that I wouldn't smash it. LOL All kidding aside, you are a good friend..thank you.


Brian-the-w/e aka Good Brian
You are an amazing mix of wittiness, caring, holiness, and silliness. You showed me 'joy in Christ'. And I was really digging your KofC bag. Addie misses you terribly. What a great father you will make one day! In the second joyful mystery in front of planned parenthood, you taught me to bravery. I don't know what it was, but the way you stepped up made me reflect about things. Yes, this was just a little thing you did, but it struck me differently, I suppose. Thank you. And you have my blessing.


MissyP
i love you. You are wise and self-less beyond your years. I think you are Shea's favorite. No no... I mean like before me, you are Shea's favorite. LOL.... Thank you for that talk in the toy room with the tears. I meant what I said. If my other 3 'little sisters' are 1/8 as razzle dazzle as you, that would be great! Thank you for helping me and reminding me of something I seemed to have forgotten. This is the clip I was talking about:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5OookwOoY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5OookwOoY[/url]






To all those who were unable to attend, I missed you. And, more correctly, you missed out, too. I am not trying to be a jerk when I say that, just being honest: you missed out on an incredible 3-1/2 days. If there is another one of these in the future, I urge you to go. Your soul will say, "thank you".





Pax,

Jason

[HisChildForever]

If anyone ever passes through the NYC area we can chill

[BG45]

Thanks for the kind words Jason, I really do appreciate them and that you and Shea opened up your home to us.

I was glad to be able to come, first of all, because in order to do so, I had to pass all three of my Qualifiers on the second and last chance, as Jason aluded to. It was a true blessing to be able to do that and even more of a blessing to be able to share the time that we did together. I got lost on my way to Jason's house, a not uncommon occurrence for me. Two of the roads are insane in the way they loop about...combine that with my legendary (around the department I work in) lack of sense of direction and that my GPS maps are out of date and you have a very lost BG. I was too stubborn to call and ask for help, so an hour after I reached the township Jason lived in, I found the house. Then I had to wait because he was picking up Papist LOL.

I have to admit that I didn't envision the first thing of the Meetup being a tour of Shea's craft supplies, nor the second being a combined groceries and beer run (the first of two during the Meetup). It was fun none the less, and I even brought up the Piggy and Paws stuff to my mom when I was showing her pictures of the crafting stuff.

I've been a Phatmasser for five years now, and I've had the honor of meeting a few in the past. Jason in California, Missy in New Jersey, and Brian the Salesian in Boston. This was special in another way though, because instead of one on one, I got to experience so many of you as a community and as a phamily. The first night we weren't all there, but it didn't stop us from sharing a phamily style meal at Primantis, nor stopping for ice cream after!

Nor did it stop us from the Oven Mass of Doom, as I like to call our experience at St. Regis! Complete with kissing the cope and being headbutted by the BVM picture. I leaned over to Sixpence at one point as we left and whispered, "Please tell me we don't have to kiss anything else, I'm not a germophobe, but this is nuts! I only have Phatmassers left, and I don't want to kiss any of you!"

The Burgh Bits and Bites tour was not something I would have normally done, but I am so glad I did it. I learned so much about the rich history of the Strip that I had never known before. I never knew about the way the homeless built Old St. Patrick's or the raining green bananas from the methane explosion next to St. Stanislaus! I do think, however, my favorite part of the tour was the pepper shop where the old lady stopped shopping to walk over and listen to our tour guide.

The drinking...well, the less said about the chess game and phone call to Hasan, the better. I realize I didn't indulge too heavily, but it was a hilarious evening none the less! The Rosary for Life in front of Planned Parenthood was definitely one of the biggest experiences of the trip from my point of view; as the car I was in drove by, I could see that we weren't protesting across the street, but right next to it. There were pro-lifers with a sign of a dismembered fetus right outside the spray painted line that would lead to our arrest if we crossed it with a rosary in hand. I kept my eyes closed through that rosary, at first a bit out of fear of the looks people would give us, but after the first decade, it was to not cry from realizing how powerful the experience was. It's one thing for me to say I'm pro-life, but as I struggled to hear the physicist next to me (so that I could pray along), it hit me that I was finally putting my money where my mouth is. It was an utterly life altering event.

I was sad we didn't get to do the duckie tours, but I had never done the incline before, despite living within two hours of Pittsburgh all my life. The view was beautiful. Tacos were amazing!

It was so sad to have to leave after Mass. But I had an amazing time this weekend with each of you and feel truly blessed to have shared it with you. I know a couple of times I was a bit too serious and possibly dour, and I was glad to have all of you there to remind me not to take myself so seriously.

Papist, I always thought you were younger! All kidding aside, your sense of humor was a constant source of amazement to me during the trip; you never had a situation that couldn't be spun not only into a joke, but a funny joke! Your knowledge and orthodoxy was a reassuring rock during all the discussions, and I believe as we worked on the Phatties, your charity kept some bad categories from coming to light. Thank you for that inspiration! (And if you think I'm calm, please feel free to tell my bosses! Hehe.)

Aloysius, I always thought you were older! It was great to finally meet the man who keeps such a reasonable and level head on the Debate Table where so many of us fly off the handle after repeating the same points over and over while few people listen. You are one of those few who listen, and yet, you always keep a level head. I can't stress enough my respect for you, even if I was tempted to try and smack both you and Ardill as we entered hour number three of the chess argument.

Ardillacid, I always thought you'd be more sarcastic in person than you were. Like Aloysius, you were razzle dazzle to meet as one of Phatmass's living legends who have been around forever. Also like Aloysius, I was getting tired of the chess argument. Oh, and you're destroying the Earth, remember that as you lead to the extinction of the squirrels! (Just joking, but I have to keep trying to come up with ones you've not heard!) I look forward, perhaps to the regional meetup you and Al pitched, though I must admit, I dread the thought of standing between the two of you holding shotguns.

Jason, I can't thank you enough for putting up with us on your iPad. I can't thank you enough for opening your home to us. I can't thank you enough for dealing with the drinking and the late nights. Are you sensing a pattern yet foolish person? Seriously though, it was wonderful to see you again! Thank you for being a good friend. (And thanks for letting us all leech your wifi.)

Missy, it was good to see you again and I'm glad we managed to have so much fun together! You were great with Jason's youngest and always had an insightful or funny comment to add to any situation. Thank you for letting those of us who wanted to, do the Novena with you and Brian.

Brian the Physicist, you are amesome dude, never change. I was inspired, like Jason, by your courage at the Rosary for Life, and loved the Knights of Columbus bag. You are a truly brilliant individual, always cheerful and ready to help. I was so glad to have a fellow Pokemon fan there, and watching you play with Cooper without tiring was astounding. I wanted to sigh with exhaustion just watching you do that. Watching you with Jason's kids, I have no doubt that one day you will make a wonderful father and husband.

Sixpence, you also, are amesome. You never stop smiling, and I wish I could emulate that. Though I have to admit, I thought we were all kind of creepy when we crowded around you during the nap to see if you smiled in your sleep...you did. You were also great with Jason's kids and at comforting poor Cooper after he was traumatized by the Red Dot...even if you helped control Red Dot. I have a better understanding of the sort of work entomologists do thanks to the discussions we all had with you as a group and a renewed appreciation for how thankless the work of identifying insects and disease vectors can be.

Cmom, it was great to meet you. Your knowledge of the Pittsburgh area was definitely unmatched and amazing in depth. You took us to see a number of things that I know we probably would not have explored without your guidance, nor would we have had as much information on those places.

Lillabettt, I was so glad you got to come, even if it was a really brief time. You did so well with Jason's daughter in that short time, and she took such a long time usually to acclimate to everyone!

Hasan, I feel like you were there, even though I think I was the only one not on the phone with you that one night. I appreciate the hipster Catholicism posts to my pictures on Facebook.

Dust, is it possible for a mod to ban an admin? We were pondering this as we lamented that you didn't show and we had access to Jason's logged in iPad. We really missed you, Hassy, LD, and everyone else who couldn't make it though. We felt diminished without you and were intending to do a standing ovation when you walked in.

Cooper the Dog, Cooper...you were big and somewhat scary. But I think we got used to one another by the end of the trip. Boy did you run after your nemesis the red dot though, that was amusing. You keep protecting the family and providing hours of joy to them!

HCF, I felt like you were there at times during our texting! Thanks for always not telling me I was too chatty nor enjoying myself too much.

Selah, thanks for the messages during the Phatties! We're sorry we weren't very responsive, or at least I am. We missed you and your knowledge of Pittsburgh would have been a great supplement to Cmom's.

[arfink]

I wasn't able to go, and I was all

But I did get to meet some of you via tele-commute, which was

While I think it amesome that people want to plan these crazy annual meetups with people traveling from all over the country, I also think it would be razzle dazzle to do some more local things.You know, like an MN area meetup. HINT

[EmilyAnn]

Totes jel that I couldn't be there. I'll have to make my own meet-up for UK Pham.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='arfink' timestamp='1338247089' post='2436676']
I wasn't able to go, and I was all

But I did get to meet some of you via tele-commute, which was

While I think it amesome that people want to plan these crazy annual meetups with people traveling from all over the country, I also think it would be razzle dazzle to do some more local things.You know, like an MN area meetup. HINT
[/quote]
Or they could go with the pilgrimage idea and we could go to the approved apparition site in Wisconsin...Not IN MN, but not that far to travel.