How do you connect?
I was talking to someone who commented on my LJ about not living around other fans and never having met any. I thought, wow, that must be so hard. I've always been fortunate that I live in a big metro area where there are a lot of fans around. There is always something happening around here
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sanj cajoled me into attending Eclecticon in 2000, which was near enough to reach by car. (That helped -- it wasn't very expensive, so it didn't feel risky.) The con was pretty mediocre but I got to go out to dinner with a ton of people, many of whom are still good friends of mine today. :-) That was my first contact with fans other than sanj (who I knew in college and who I've been close to for years), and it was awesome. The summer after that, several of the dinner guests came and spent a weekend at my house (along with carlacoupe, who I had never met, and who I was amazed was willing to fly up to Massachusetts to visit someone she'd never met in person) and that was completely fantastic...
The big leap, for me, was going to my first Escapade. I still felt vaguely guilty about investing that much time and money (money especially!) but it was sanj's 30th birthday that year, and I decided my gift to her would be the air miles it took to fly us both to California. *g* (Call that enlightened self-interest.) I had such a fantastic time that by the end of the weekend it was clear to me that a) I would return every year, barring real financial difficulty, and b) the women I know through fandom are some of my favorite people in the world.
(It helps that my sweetie is tremendously fandom-positive -- he's a great big geek himself, and he can see how happy all of this makes me. I hear horror stories sometimes about fans who can't tell their SOs about fandom and/or about slash, or who tell them and the results are negative, and that always makes me so grateful for the sweetie I have.)
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I've never really done the IRC chats. I've been invited to a couple of them, but have never quite got there. People have described them to me as like being a con suite with a lot of people. I have often wondered if that were more like talking on the phone or IMing (which I don't do much of either).
willing to fly up to Massachusetts to visit someone she'd never met in person) and that was completely fantastic...
That's another thing about fandom, you're wiling to do these strange things. I had more than one person come stay with me for a weekend whom I'd never met. It's weird, but it's also wonderful. I rarely run out of things to say to a fan. *g*
It helps that my sweetie is tremendously fandom-positive -- he's a great big geek himself,
That helps. Mr L is very supported and a total geek himself, so he *understands* why there are all these women who come over and stay for *hours*. :-)
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Ahh, the good old days.
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sanj sounds like she did a good job in bringing you into fanodm. *g*
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