I finally met TSandM (Lynne) and "Peter Guy" today after several years of wondering who these Scubaboard uberguru's were.
And it was great. There's always a risk when you meet someone who you only know online that you'll find out that they aren't anything at all like you expected them to be, but in the case of Lynne and Peter they clearly put themselves out there in cyberland exactly the way they are in real life. There's nothing I respect more than people who don't put on a mask and I was happy that my impression that they were "real" turned out to be entirely true.
A couple of first impressions:
Obviously the first thing you see is how someone looks. Lynne I knew was tiny because she's said it several times. She's more attractive than I thought she was going to be. Penetrating eyes that grab and hold on.... When she talks she sort of "beams" it at you as much as talking.... When the topic is diving she's somewhat intense, as you would expect,
but open hearted, honest and despite a little shyness (which I didn't expect) it was clear to me why people rally around her. We all do it on Scubaboard and for good reason and even Peter seemed to be captivated by it. A good sign after so many years of marriage, I would imagine 
What might surprise some of you is that for Peter's larger-than-life personality, he's.... let's say.... well.... not exactly Bilbo Baggins but smaller than I expected him to be and in terms of personality, he has something Hobbit-like about him. Quick wit, well spoken, engaging and the mischievous recalcitrant quality we all read into his posts comes across even more clearly in real life. I actually had no idea what he was going to look like but I did guess correctly that he would have a beard. He talks (and thinks) considerably faster than I expected him to do and the inflection in his voice was very upbeat.
Both of them were, as one would expect, full of life's energy, despite the jet-lag, humorous, engaging and it felt like visiting old friends.
In some ways these moments always remind me of job interviews. You hope people will see in you what you think you believe about yourself. But the contact was easy going and flowed naturally as if we had been friends for years, which I guess we have, actually. Some people under-rate the relationships we build in cyberspace but in this day and age it's a reality of our culture and the friendships are real. Beforehand I wondered what I would say. After the fact, I stayed longer than I really should have and felt like we were only getting started. I was a little sad to leave so soon after meeting them but happy to know that this won't be the last time.
It was an honour to meet them.
R..
And it was great. There's always a risk when you meet someone who you only know online that you'll find out that they aren't anything at all like you expected them to be, but in the case of Lynne and Peter they clearly put themselves out there in cyberland exactly the way they are in real life. There's nothing I respect more than people who don't put on a mask and I was happy that my impression that they were "real" turned out to be entirely true.
A couple of first impressions:
Obviously the first thing you see is how someone looks. Lynne I knew was tiny because she's said it several times. She's more attractive than I thought she was going to be. Penetrating eyes that grab and hold on.... When she talks she sort of "beams" it at you as much as talking.... When the topic is diving she's somewhat intense, as you would expect,
but open hearted, honest and despite a little shyness (which I didn't expect) it was clear to me why people rally around her. We all do it on Scubaboard and for good reason and even Peter seemed to be captivated by it. A good sign after so many years of marriage, I would imagine What might surprise some of you is that for Peter's larger-than-life personality, he's.... let's say.... well.... not exactly Bilbo Baggins but smaller than I expected him to be and in terms of personality, he has something Hobbit-like about him. Quick wit, well spoken, engaging and the mischievous recalcitrant quality we all read into his posts comes across even more clearly in real life. I actually had no idea what he was going to look like but I did guess correctly that he would have a beard. He talks (and thinks) considerably faster than I expected him to do and the inflection in his voice was very upbeat.
Both of them were, as one would expect, full of life's energy, despite the jet-lag, humorous, engaging and it felt like visiting old friends.
In some ways these moments always remind me of job interviews. You hope people will see in you what you think you believe about yourself. But the contact was easy going and flowed naturally as if we had been friends for years, which I guess we have, actually. Some people under-rate the relationships we build in cyberspace but in this day and age it's a reality of our culture and the friendships are real. Beforehand I wondered what I would say. After the fact, I stayed longer than I really should have and felt like we were only getting started. I was a little sad to leave so soon after meeting them but happy to know that this won't be the last time.
It was an honour to meet them.
R..
