We're making new friends

Remember how I had stated “I need more friends” a while back? I had just created a Twitter account online and wanted more friends. Most of you, if not all, were like, “Huh? Who/Where/What is Twitter.” Despite the fact that my blog post didn’t inspire any of you to join Twitter, I didn’t let that stop me.

Abby and I did something last night that was a first for us. If you had asked me a couple months ago if I’d ever do anything like that, I probably would have laughed and made some joke about being white and nerdy.

Are you ready for this? We spent Thursday evening at Boundary Bay Brewery meeting 20 +/- people we’ve never met before. Technically, I’ve talked with most of them on the computer, but never in person. We attended what’s referred to in the Twitterverse as #BhamTweetUp. It’s probably better described as a meet up for those who use Twitter and live in Bellingham.

We had a good time. It was far less “nerdy” than I was expecting. Most in attendance were quite capable of social interaction. It was nice to match a real person to their Twitter avatars. (What’s an avatar? Essentially it’s your icon that represents you, or a picture of you in Twitterville.)

Two things happened last night that I wasn’t expecting. One lady told Abby and I that we looked really familiar. I don’t remember how we got to this point, but we figured out that she had seen pictures of us on Taylor’s photoblog (http://www.taylorswedbergphotography.com/). We had a good laugh about that. She is engaged and had been surfing local photographers’ blogs trying to find a photographer to met her needs. We highly encouraged her to go with Taylor. (You’re welcome, Taylor).

I also was surprised to learn that my @terpening avatar makes me look significantly older and heavier than I really am. Apparently most of the tweeples (twitter people/users) at the tweetup were expecting me to be 55.

I have two Twitter accounts: http://twitter.com/terpening and http://twitter.com/theterps. In Twitterverse users are referred to like this: @terpening or @theterps. My @terpening account is for work, and I use it to plug road related stuff. Abby and I share @theterps. We keep @theterps relatively private and tweet only with close friends. I’ve have nearly 100 tweeples following @terpening.

Abby helped represent @superfeet (http://twitter.com/superfeet) last night. Jessica, whom Abby works with, was also there and is the main tweeter for @Superfeet.

I had a good time and will definitely return to another #BhamTweetUp. I know, I can see you all putting your fake hand-glasses on right now to mock me and my ever-growing nerdiness. Bring it!