Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board When Legion Worlder met Legion Worlder......

Just spent a wonderful day exploring Chicago in the company of Ms. Emily Sivana. I'll post a nice recap of our exploits tomorrow night when I'm home again after travel, but, for now - for those who have been following this thread recently - I feel that one component deserves immediate disclosure.

Within minutes of meeting Em, I had to ask her, "Say... how tall are you? Hmmm... you don't say?" At which point I dialed Lardy to tell him, "You're not the shortest!!!"

Congrats, Lardy... is that a load off, brother?

Sort of---I mean it's mostly a male machismo thang, y'know?

(Say...does that mean Conjy's taller than me, too? )

Well, Conjy and I are the same height... so if I'm taller than you, then yeah. I think I'm taller, right? 5'6''?

But, in any case, speaking of height, it's time for the recap of my visit with the LMBer tiny enough that Dev could keep her in his pocket... Emily Sivana...




Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town...



So, as I mentioned above, I spent this past Saturday with Emily Sivana in my favorite city. Since she's a local, and since I've been there several times before doing the touristy things, we decided to hit a few spots that we'd either never been before, or hadn't been in a long time.

We kicked off the day at the Field Museum of Natural History, a fun place which houses very sort of "Night at the Museum" type exhibits - a hall of animals of the world, an recreation of an Egyptian tomb, a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, that type of thing.

Have you ever been somewhere with someone who just knows tons of trivia about what you are looking at (or perhaps you are that person)? Well, when you and your companion are both that person... the results are fantastic. Emily is a wonderful person to go to a museum with, because she and I go head to head with our factoids. As I start going on about the number of bones in a giraffe's neck or the effects of human breath on cave paintings - she comes right back with common misconceptions about jade stones, or the history of the Han Dynasty.

After a couple hours at the Field, we headed uptown a bit to cool down at Buckingham Fountain (which I had only ever seen off-season) and checked out some of the free standing sculptures which are everywhere throughout the city. We then headed to Little Italy for dinner at the Italian Village Restaurant (the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago - where Al Capone used to dine, and Frank Sinatra held his wedding reception). Perfect for a wannabe wiseguy like me!

We capped off the night checking out some of Chicago's famous architecture in the form of the Palmer House, an historic downtown hotel (the second largest in Chi-town) where folks as diverse as Ulysses Grant and Oscar Wilde have stayed. Here are Em and I in front of their famous brass elevator...



Em is a wonderful person to hang out with - so full of life and totally enthusiastic about the city. She and I have long been collaborators in our fiction writing, so, at one point, our conversation moved to our preconceived notions about one another. How much like our characters are we? Oddly, the biggest surprise to me was Em's voice. I've always written her as very dry and sarcastic to Ex, and sort of imagined she'd sound like "Daria" or something. Not at all... Em has a totally joyous voice, and is smiling all the time.

So what about me? She thought for a minute and said, "You're a lot cooler than I thought you'd be."

Yes! In your face, everyone else I've ever met in my life, ever!

BTW, Kent, if you're still posting, check in! I swear, I haven't been snubbing ya'... Just mega-busy. If you're still anywhere near chez_cleome, we should hang out again sometime. If you wanna', of course...

Hi cleome! Been missin' you!

Ha. Just looked at the hright difference between you two, and I know how tall you were compared to me...so this might not be that far off base.

Would it help if I told you I'm 4'8"?

Dude! [smooch]

I spend all my time these days in Temp-ville or trying to whip my yard into shape. So far, the yard still looks like ed. However, my arm muscles are coming along nicely.

Depends on if it's true or if you're just trying to make me feel better, LT!

Well, it's not true.

So glad that Lardy was able to join in on the fun with Ex this weekend.

Too cool.

I must say, Dev...it was BEYOND awesome!

Would you say it was"Extra-awesome"?


So, as you might have seen from the "100 Toothpicks" thread, I spent this past Saturday in Charleston, SC in the company of Legion World's elite G.R.I.T.S. squad (that's "Guys Raised In The South") - Lardy, Legion Tracker and Rickshaw.

I have to admit this one had me a little worried... not at all because of the folks, but because of the weather. In the few days leading up to it the forecast was looking miserable, basically calling for non-stop thunderstorms. Well... I guess I must bring the sunshine with me, because - apart from a few drops earlier in the day - it turned out completely rain-free!

I started the day meeting up with Legion Tracker (up for the day from Georgia) and touring a little of the downtown area (including the historic Charleston City Market where you can watch the locals hand-weaving Charleston's famous sweetgrass baskets) and then making our way to Patriots Point to catch a ferry for a tour of Ft. Sumter (where the Civil War officially began). The Sumter tour was very cool, and it was great hanging out with LT. The past few years I've been beginning to learn piano, but he's made his career as a musical educator, and it was very cool to get a chance to talk shop.

After the tour, we took a ride to Lardy's place of employment to stash a couple vehicles, picking him up as the three of us headed to the Charleston Battery (now a park) to meet up with Rick and his lovely wife, Carol. And... boom! Just like that, the long promised meet-up with those three finally happened. Though, of course, I was glad to be a part of it, the real treat for me was just seeing these good old boys together, their southern hospitality just coming to the forefront.

We gabbed a bit in the battery then headed off to dinner at a restaurant called "The Wreck of the Richard and Charlene". Here's a shot from dinner from Carol's vantage:



Such a good time! We just laughed and BSed through the whole meal (and for long enough after that the waitress had to subtly suggest that it was time to free up the table for another reservation). To have been a fly on the wall, you would have thought this group gets together every weekend as opposed to meeting each other for the first time. This is also where Lardy coined the perfect codename for the wife of "Cranky McBasstard"... "Snarky McBitch".

So, you might notice that the above pic is a little light on martinis. Turns out that restaurant only served beer and wine. No worries, I was just going to go with the flow, but - after dinner - Legion Tracker said no way... we had to make it official. Who am I to protest? So off we went for after-dinner drinks at the Shem Creek Bar and Grill, this cool place that has a dock-bar literally in the middle of the creek. (photo over on the Toothpick thread).

It was the perfect end to a perfect day with a perfect group of friends!


So... when are you guys getting together next?

Just when things couldn't get any cooler...

Oh! That reminds me... I forgot to mention my favorite quip of the day.

I mentioned earlier in this thread that when I met Emily two weeks ago she summed up our meeting by saying, "You're a lot cooler than I thought you'd be." Well, I forget what exactly we were talking about (careers or life goals or something) but, on the ferry ride back from Ft. Sumter, Legion Tracker turns toward me during a pause in the conversation and without missing a beat, says, "You know... you're a lot less cool than I thought you'd be."

Yup... Rick's got LT pegged... that boy is evil.

WAG: I'm not the oldest anymore?

In the 100 Toothpicks thread, I keep reading the computer with the voice of Sheila from the cartoon "Shezow."

Yeah, I think Ex and the computer have a "will they or won't they" thing going on....

And ooooooooooooohhhhhhhh, BY THE WAY! I suspected shenanigans re: the ongoing height thing, so I got a second opinion! LT and Cranky can confirm that I am actually slightly TALLER than one Mr. Nihil!

So, Ex: Kiss My G.R.I.T.S.!!!

How much did that cost ya?

^ Lardy, I can neither confirm nor deny that you're taller than Ex. It looked mighty close to me. And Cranky was looking down on both of you, so I wouldn't be sure of his eye.

Now you might consider asking Mrs. McBitch-McBasstard....if you dare.

Hey, I was lookin' on from the nosebleed section. It was like the Lusitania looking at the Minnow II.

The Slicked truth is... Thomas, Anthony and Phillip are three very cool dudes and Carol and I had a great time meeting them. And while we all met because of comics, and the legion in particular, they were fun, funny and knowledgeable outside that single interest. Very cool ambassadors for Legionworld.

And LegionGRITS was a hit as far as i'm concerned.

I gotta dial back the evil, twisted LT for a minute and tell you some good truth.

This past Saturday's meet-up was one of the flat out funnest days I've had in a long time!

I got to spend several hours with young Ex (we discovered that I'm the same age as his young dad) before we met Lardy and Rick. I've always liked his persona here on the boards, and now I have to say that I'm impressed with the real life guy. He's packing some good, adventurous living into his life, and he's letting us be a little part of it through this crazy project he's doing. I want to read his memoirs some day (you need to hear some of the stories he's already lived, if you haven't already) but I hope I have the privilege of hearing his new stories from time to time before then. Ex, you are definitely not a lot less cool than I thought you would be.

I met Lardy just a few minutes before we met up with Rick and Carol, so I had little "quiet" time with each of those three before the group dynamic kicked in. Ex was right, it was like we'd been getting together for years; you'd never know we were meeting for the first time. And if we lived close enough to each other, I'd definitely enjoy hanging out with them any weekend.

Everything I'd come to know and like of Lardy and Rick here on the boards was just real-er and more-er. They have big ol' brains and big ol' hearts, and with Ex and Carol, it felt to me that this was Legion, baby, and I'd be proud to go on a mission anywhere with these guys.

In three days I'll be celebrating 10 years since I registered on Legion World. For all those hours of following everybody via computer, this weekend was a great reward.

If I wasn't booked up with other tracking jobs (gotta pay the bills), I'd love to be tracking along with Ex to visit the rest of this team.

Long Live Legion World!

to that!