The Pre-Meeting Shmooze

Slowly people check in. Greeted at the door by the gaggle of smokers, and down the stairs where you get and spell check your name tag, and grab your comp/2-4-1s. Then you wait for the meeting to start.

Then the jocularity begins. Deb Fialkow is off to the side, dancing with someone, "shit, I have to follow. I have to follow!"

This is the first time the fest is being held at TOJ, and the thing the veterans note is the extremely effective AC. "You don't have to make up for all the other times, you know," Kaleb intones.

New faces, old faces. Lots of not-so-new and/or not-so-old faces. Faces faces faces.

Gary Menendez chats with Patty (Patti?) West, likely talking about the space.

We are now 10 minutes past start time.