OK... aside from a few slip-ups when I accidentally-on-purpose-but-by-accident read Sam's Friday report -- I endeavored mightily to avoid other reports until I get mine done. Likewise, what follows is RUVI only as I remember it. Repetitions may abound; be forewarned. Oh, and yes, after briefly discussing it with Selah, I think I've concluded that RUVI is teh bets name. Yay.

-Thursday-
Yes, Thursday. RUVI started on Thursday for me, as that's when my 'vacation' started. Because Atlanta is about three hours from my house, and I was flying out at like night-o-clock Friday morning, I spent Thursday night in Atlanta with my mom, a sister, and friend -- girls' night out. We got there around 3pm, and spent the afternoon shopping, giggling, and being general girls. It was uber-fun, but you probably aren't interested... so moving on.

-Friday-
Like I said, it was like 1 in the morning (ok, add about 6 hours = STILL TOO EARLY) when I left for the airport. Because of the girl-thing we did Thursday, I think I got 30 seconds of sleep all night. Maybe. While in the shower. Meh.

I ended up just barely making an earlier flight connection in DC, which meant I got to Norfolk at around 1:30 -- instead of 3:30, like I'd originally thought. I was planning on meeting Monkeyman, Gahalyn, and later Gremlinn in Norfolk around 5, where we would all carpool together to RUVI. Since I suddenly had half a day to kill, and was going on those 30 seconds of sleep -- what better thing to do than, um, SLEEP. So I did. Yay. Like I told Monkeyman, et al, when you're a poor college student you learn to take sleep where you can.

So anyway... I woke up and read some of my book, when I get a phone call from Gahalyn. They're "almost to the airport". W00T!

...

...

Three years later, they actually show up. Apparently Canadians have no sense of direction, and like to blame that on the fact that in the States we don't have exactly perfect grids of roads. Canadians also have penchants for driving 500 miles IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. Luckily, the car on this hapless journey was Teh Suparcar, which had a COMPASS.

So by this time I'd given up on walking around to wait on them, and was back to camping out on the floor with headphones & a book. Sometime in the distant future, I looked up to see two ragamuffins staring down at me. Apparently neither Monkeyman nor Gahalyn had the nerve to ask whether I was me, and were just waiting on me to notice they were them. But anyway -- RINKIES HAVE FACES. YAYNESS. My first RinkMeeting was awesomeness in a can, and I had a blast killing time with those two.

Fast forward about two hours -- because of weather delays, we end up not meeting Gremlinn until later, because he first got rerouted to Richmond for refueling. Grem was very cool in real life, and doesn't even look like a robot much at all. But I could still tell. Once we grabbed him, we headed off in search of FOOD. In the questionable form of Taco Bell. Yeah, aren't we bright folk.

FINALLY we get on the road. It's like midnight-o-clock now, except it's still light out. The only bright spot of the arduous trip is the fact that we get to ride in TEH SUPARCAR. This car is nifty, nay, SUPAR. It has little individual islands of temperature controlled goodness. The seats heat up. It has ESP. It makes tea (Earl Grey, hot). But above all, it tells you when THE SYSTEM IS OK.

When we make it to the island, everyone except famous, wintermute, Ticia, and Don are already there. Everyone is by the pool, so I hung out there for a couple hours getting to know the rest of the RinkFaces. More canned awesome. I have to say, most everyone looks absolutely nothing like I thought. For one, real-life people are sans serif. (And yeah, I have no idea what I mean by that.) Also, it's a lot niftier not having to press 'post' after everything. Although I still kept getting Sam and my sentences confused.

After a while Leen starts playing "which car is the famous+wm-mobile"? and eventually her random guesses turn out to be right. Yay for more Faces. My enduring theme for the weekend was how COOL it was to meet Rinkies...! Also, I think it was after everyone was there that Monkeyman told the Tale Of Robin Hood Road. Not a show to be missed, but I still don't believe it. Also, for the record, I was going on VERY LITTLE SLEEP and VERY MUCH CAFFEINATION. So my saying my "little town has 30,000 people", or something, was TOTALLY ACCIDENTAL. I really AM from a little town. Really.

Anyway, I think after all was said and done, it was something after midnight before I got to bed. Happily, I might add. Yawn.

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To be continued... after I SLEEP.