I just spent a good 30 minutes reading all about the lives of href="http://urania.vineger.net">Marie, href="http://www.citywriters.com/chalance">Bess and href="http://poptrash.pitas.com">Richie (or is it Margeaux, Claire, and Lockwood?), and I
have to say that if I could teleport anywhere in the world right now, It'd be to Brooklyn, to the
new neighborhood Richie and Bess just moved to, just so I could sit around in a coffehouse with
these people and make fun of the urban hipsters and granola heads (although I think I may fit
into the first category just by virtue of spending the past five years in the Bay Area, sorry
Richie) and drinking copiously and using the word 'whatever'.

I have never encountered any of these three people in person. Bess lived in San Francisco for six
months, and I completely missed out on all chances to meet her because I'm a big California-style
flake, and you know how these things go. I met Bess and Marie probably 7 years ago on a little
online community I used to help run called Fluff BBS. They're both such great people. They seem
more alive and real to me than a lot of people I've met face to face. I identify with
their language geekery and their snarkiness and their inside jokes. Their personalities burn so
brightly that even just through simple written words, I can tell that they are truly the kind of
people I want be surrounded by. And while I've never had any contact with Richie outside of
reading his twisted little corner of the universe, he fascinates me, and he is well-loved by Bess
and Marie so I'm sure I'd love him too.

Over the years of being involved in one online community or another, I've met TONS of people who
have previously been known to me only as words on a screen. For the most part they are all bright
and brilliant and wonderful, and I consider them to be great friends. But I have never wanted to
meet anyone more than I've wanted to meet Bess and Marie, and yet time and distance and money and
my own flaky nature have conspired against me.

So if you need me, I'm the girl in the corner thinking wistfully of New York.