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oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Sunday January 11, 1999, 7:15 p.m. "We'll be home tomorrow, Jim." "Yep." "Don't we need to work a few things out before we go back?" "Yeah, probably." "'Probably?' Jim. Do we know where this relationship goes after this? What do we tell people? Do we tell people?" "At work, it'll have to be 'need to know,' Chief." "What about Simon?" "I guess he needs to know." ... "Are we going to tell the list?" "Oh, man! The list!" "They were pretty supportive. And you promised them a report, Chief." "Yeah-yeah .. It's just .. The stuff you said about me, Jim." "Do you think they'll even remember any of it?" "I don't know, man. Some of those people have incredible memories for detail. Have you read the analyses of the characters on that list?" "Yeah, well, they're pretty tuned in to Joe and Jake. Doesn't mean anything about us." "But Jim! Some people actually save the posts. All they have to do is look back. ... I mean, you said I was immature, man." "I said a lot of things. More about myself than about you. What's 'immature' next to coming out to 700 strangers as bisexual? Besides, consider the context. I was talking about my fears of aging. About losing my hair, my body, my attractiveness, my ability to .. perform .." "Jim you are so not old.." "I was afraid you wouldn't want me .. or that you wouldn't stay with me if .." "And now, Jim? ... Jim? "... Jim, c'mon! I already love ya, man. It's not like I ever knew you when you had any hair. And if this is what you call losing your body, well ... most guys never had a body then, because you are .. just ... well, just don't worry about that, ok?" "Well, you should just know .. be prepared .. that .. well, when guys get older .. " "You talkin' sluggish hydraulics, Jim? .. I already know a little about that. I'm only hitting 30, and sometimes the hards are not as hard as they used to be. "... Good to see I'm not the only one that gets to turn pink once in a while. ... So .. sometime down the road we'll turn into a couple of old softies. We'll work it out together, right?" "Looks like I'm going to have to write my own report to the list." "Jim?" "A retraction on my premature pronouncement of your immaturity." "Well, so far, that's the only thing that's been premature, so we're in luck. (Whack!) "Hey! No fair, all the pillows are on your side of the bed!" oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Sunday January 11, 1999, 9:15 p.m. "Really, I'm sort of glad we had 'Wolf' and 'Panther' as friends, Jim." "You are? .. But they weren't real." "Sure they were, Jim -- they were us. We're real, right?" "If you say so." "Jim.." "So why are you glad we had fictional friends that really were real because they really were us?" "Very funny, man. Well, I just think ... I mean ... Do you really think you would have .. you know .. in the phonetics lab .. otherwise?" "Now, that was coherent. OK, yes. I mean no. I don't think I would have had the confidence to try talking to you about .. things, if I hadn't sort of practiced opening up to 'Wolf,' first." "Same here. Can you imagine how much of a basket case I would have been without my talks with 'Panther'?!" "Worse than New Year's Eve, Chief?" "Way worse." "I don't get it. If you're so prone to panic attacks, how do you do anything?" "I'm not normally that bad, Jim." "Well, that's flattering." "No, it's not like that. It's .. most things I do are .. normal .." "Normal? You?" "Ha. Ha. Ha. How droll. .. I mean, normal for me. I've been in college since I was 16. I've had relationships, such as they were, with women for .. well, several years .. I've gone on field studies several times. All the things I do have become 'normal' -- nothing to panic about." "What about getting shot at or kidnapped and all of that?" "Well, then there's somewhere for all that adrenaline to go. I'm not just sitting there scared out of my pants for no obvious reason; there's an identifiable horror to face and either a place I can run to or some sort of thing to fight with. All that energy gets to go somewhere, man." "So .. with me ..?" "It wasn't about you-you, it was about a guy-you." "You weren't afraid of me-me, just guy-me." "Right." "Sandburg, that makes no sense. 'Me-me' is a 'guy-me.' Shit! I'm starting to talk like you." "Well, yeah, I know it doesn't make sense. If what I felt made sense, my room wouldn't be full of paper bags right now." "So-o, let me get this straight: You'll stop panicking around me -- not me-me, guy-me -- once we become 'normal' or there's somewhere for all that energy to go. Sounds great to me, Chief. Let's get to work on it!" "Jim?" "You just told me what we have to do, Blair. Which do you think we should try first -- doing it a lot or trying to use up that energy of yours all at once?" "Aw, man ... " "Yes. I am. Deal with it." oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Monday night, January 11, 1999, 10:40 p.m. "(chuckle)" "What?" "I was just remembering some of the stuff Wolf .. um .. you said on the list." "Was I really that funny, Jim?" "Well, .. not intentionally ..(chuckle) .." "Jim.. What?!" "Did you really try tasting yourself?" "Yes. Yes, I did. And if you remember that, you remember why." "Easy .. easy. Sorry. It's just .... " "I was being empirical, Jim. Doing some testing. How was I to know that I couldn't extrapolate my findings from one test subject to another?!" "Well, Chief what were your findings?" "Why don't you just find out for yourself?" "Aw, Chief, more tests?" "The best part of the scientific method, Jim." oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Tuesday morning, January 12, 1999, 5:30 a.m. "Wake up, Sleepybutt." "Nooooooo mmmrmrrrm..." "(chuckle)" ... "Chief? .. Chief, sit up. Coffee." "Mrrrnng, Jm..." "C'mon, Blair, we gotta get up." "But it's still dark!" "Promised Simon we'd be back to the station this morning. Early." "Coffee?" "Right here. But ya gotta sit up. Don't want ya to spill it." ... "We gonna tell 'im?" "Probably should. When the time's right. Don't ya think?" "Yeah. Probably. ... What you gonna say, man?" "Don't really know. Think of something." "Probably won't have to." "You think we're that obvious?" "Maybe not you, Jim, but Megan saw right through me. ... And besides, remember when Tanya in clerical and Eric the tow truck driver finally got together?" "Yeah, you're right. Couldn't miss it. At first, I thought there was something wrong with her. Rapid pulse. Shallow breathing. Flushed face. Thought it was an incipient attack of asthma." "Ah, my Jim, ever the romantic." "And then she told her clerk buddies downstairs. You could hear the squeals from the third floor!" "Well, you could, anyway." "So ... you think all our heavy breathing will give us away?" "(chuckle) Maybe." "Maybe not, though. If we've felt this way for a couple of years, then maybe we won't look any different." "Tanya and Eric were making goo-goo eyes at each other for months before they finally did anything about it." "'Goo-goo eyes,' Chief?" "But as soon as .. the deed was done .. as they say ... everybody just knew. They'll know, Jim." "Well, so .. I guess we won't have to say anything, then." "Ah, my Jim, the pragmatist." "I thought I was 'your Jim, the romantic.'" "Whatever you are, Jim, you're mine" "You're right -- they'll know." oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Tuesday morning, January 12, 1999, 7 a.m. "Why'd ya hit 'hold,' Jim?" "Gotta ask before we get off the elevator. You gonna be OK with people knowing? You ready for this?" "Kind of late to be askin' me now, isn't it?" "Well?" "Ready when you are, J. E. .. Kiss me, first?" "Why is it I feel like we're replaying the ending of 'Thelma and Louise'?" "Which one of us got Brad Pitt? -- mmmmph! Mmmmm...mmmm... "Ready! Definitely ready, Jim. .. Jim?" "Gimme a minute." "I'll give you a hint, Jim: loose pants and over-sized shirts." oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo Tuesday morning, January 12, 1999, 7:15 a.m. "Ellison! Sandburg! My office." ... "You gentlemen get that family matter taken care of?" "Yes, sir." "Whatever it was .. out of your system?" "Not exactly, Simon." "Jim?" "Some understandings have been reached, sir, but this isn't something that I'm likely to .. get 'out of my system,' any time soon." "Blair?" "I'm with Jim, Simon, all the way." "Well, whatever it is, don't let it interfere with your work. That clear, gentlemen?" "Crystal, Sir." "Sure, Simon." "That'll be all. .. And guys?" "Hmm?" "Congratulations." oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo
Got home from the Watchman rally at 10:30pm Sunday, turned on the roomie's computer expecting to get started on a week's worth of WXF, WatchAD, w2p2, and slashpoint... and the 'puter wouldn't boot. A friend is downloading and saving my mail so hopefully stuff won't bounce. My sis and I were planning to get a new 'puter anyway; we'll prolly purchase it next week. Guess my rally report's gonna be late. In the meantime... Ann -- I'm still working on the FAQ, I swear, I just haven't posted the changes yet. I'm trying not to be redundant with Maeg's Survival Guide. Bast, Wolfling, and anyone else wondering about "Improv" -- it's still in progress, but I hope to get it done soon. (Thanks for asking, Bast!) SammieC and EagleEye -- heh heh, this past week, a few more elements of plot fell into place on the other auction story. And I'm thinking about changing the title *again*. :) EE, please say hi to the #watchman and #watchslash folk for me. Virg -- I know it's been weeks since you wrote me about what I posted on the subject of why some of us complain about sex scenes interrupting plot, but I did write a reply and will send it when I can. Wasn't purposely ignoring you, I just get overwhelmed around the holidays. Jencat, Panther & Wolf, Patty, Marmot & sons, ratgirl, Allison (thank you again for the hospitality) -- It was great meeting y'all! I look forward to another gathering. Soon. It sounds like some of you (casually glancing in Panther's direction) don't take nearly enough vacations. (weg) Jencat -- Thanks for arranging the vanpool! I had a great time. Are we Bay Area fen making plans to see the return of "The Watchman" together? Guess I'll get in touch by phone. Happy new year, everyone. obwatchad: ******* Jake bounced into the loft, looking forward to next week's scheduled return of his favorite TV show, "The Guardian". "Yes. Okay," Joe was saying into the phone, facing the balcony. "Fine. Whatever." Jake stopped dead, looking at his partner. Then he carefully set down his keys and backpack. Joe touched the cutoff button and tucked his cell back into the pocket of his coat. Moving slowly, he shed the coat and left it on the floor. "What's the matter?" Jake said finally. "It was my dad." Joe's eyes were just touched with red, the only hint of unhappiness in his too-normal expression. Jake crossed the living room, hung up the coat, then returned to Joe's side. "What did he say?" Joe shrugged. Sliding his arms around Joe's waist, Jake lay his head on his lover's shoulder -- because it was what Joe wanted to do, because it was what Joe could not do. Because only Jake could do it for him. *end* --Gina, Keeper of Joe's table legs oooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooooooOOooo
Well, fellow fen, I'm back. And what a trip it was! I promised the list that I would give a report as soon as I returned from LA. Well, there've been a couple of RL considerations I've had to attend to. But now I'm ready. I've decided to write the report in parts as they occur to me. Some of my observations deal strictly with the show and others have more to do with how the weekend went .. socially and personally. Several people have already given their reports, I'm sure, but I haven't had time to sort through the 674 messages in my inbox, yet, so I don't know how much will be repetition. Here goes ... While we were on our way down, some of the timeline for the events changed. It worked to our advantage, though, since postponing the rally until the afternoon allowed us to get more sleep Friday morning, something I really appreciated after spending 3 days on the road. The first official event was the tour through the Burbank offices of Cuddly Termite Productions. Sometimes there wasn't much to see, especially in the hallways, but we did get to meet one of the editors, who was working on a scene from one of the upcoming episodes. I saw one 2-second scene, in which Joe is looking at a grave-marker. But I hear that others on other tours saw longer, more spoiler-laden scenes. I can report that our letters, e-mail and websites have definitely been noticed by Cuddly Termite. They were taped all over the wall of one office! We got to briefly say "hi" to the writer of one of the eps from third season -- the 'basketball' episode. The tour was quite interesting at times, but I would say that one of the highlights was this POSTER. Let me just preface this by saying that until I fell in love with my roomie, I hadn't really paid attention to guys' .. um .. physical attractiveness [can we say 'denial?]. And I never really noticed that my roomie looked so much like Robert Bergman. Not exactly, but similar. Well, I was walking down yet another hallway at Cuddly Termite, when I heard a chorus of feminine gasps and moans. Curious, I looked through the office window which separated us from what seemed to serve as an icon there on the opposite wall. And what was this icon, this source of combined agony and pleasure? THE POSTER! There in his tank-topped glory was Robert Bergman circa 1996, smiling smugly at the camera, his expression saying, "you *know* you want it." And I found myself thinking, "Oh god! Yes, I *do.*" Those arms! That chest! Those shoulders! It hurt to look! And what was the caption? "The Most Sensitive Man in America" Flashes flashed for long minutes and breathless fen asked where we could get copies of the poster. We were told that there weren't any. Several fen were heartbroken. Others promised to put photos of it up on websites for our ... enjoyment. For some reason, my roomie was not as affected by it. I guess when you see a similar build to that in the mirror every day, you get kind of inured to it. The roomie had his own moment, though, when we got to see the casting office. There on the wall was a picture of a slightly younger Gary Magnum with jaw-length hair. You've seen the picture on one of the websites, I'm sure. Roomie took one look and stopped our tour-line cold. For a *long* time. I might have been embarrassed but it was just too funny to watch. I can report that the tour guide and all the people we met at Cuddly Termite were quite friendly and approachable. And my fellow fen were polite and fun to be around. I'll end Part 1 here and post a bit later about the actual "Rally." --Wolf
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