| Dateline: Friday, July 20th, 2001. Approximately 6:00pm EDT.
I was inspired by all of the other Noder Gatherings, so I decided to have one of my very own.
It was rather hastily planned, so attendance was extremely low:
The meeting took place at a local wine bar, The Wine Harvest. Ophie arrived before I did, and was sitting gracefully at the bar, sipping a glass of Australian red wine. We greeted each other cautiously... you never know what kind of weirdo you are going to meet. I sat down next to Ophie and ordered a glass of the '99 Jadot Beajolais, one that I had previously experienced. We chatted for a while. We ordered the Fresh Mozzarella and Tomatoes.
After we had both had two glasses of wine, I forced Ophie to select a bottle, something she would enjoy. She did, a bottle of Greg Norman's something or other (ask her if it is important to you). We drank some of it, then I spilled a glass.
At some point in the evening it became apparent that we were being photographed. There was a strange little man taking pictures of everyone in the place. Neither one of us was really comfortable being photographed, so we turned our backs to him and continued to drink.
A few minutes later, the guy is behind the bar, right in front of us. Evidently we looked like we were having a good time, because he just kept taking our picture, over and over, different angles, different lighting... Well, when he was done he came up to us and explianed that he was a phtographer for WashingtonPost.com. He asked us for our names. I lied. Ophie didn't.
Eventually, after much more talking than drinking, we finished the bottle, then we went home.
I learned several things that evening.
Not every one laughs at you when you spill your drink.
Some women are better company than a lot of men.
Ophie is a lot taller than her nodes make it seem. Except the ones where she talks about how tall she is.
Ophie should feature her eyes on her homenode picture.
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