Things I’m thankful for: The FDL Gabbly People

 

Unfortunately, they were fresh out of clip art featuring a redhead typing away on her laptop while rocking bedhead, a Lanz flannel nightie, and huge socks

Once upon a time, a certain woman who’s much too old to keep doing this stuff decided she could spend most of Saturday sitting in forty-degree weather at Husky Stadium after being caught in a torrential downpour. Let’s just say it didn’t end well. As a result, I visited my doctor yesterday, and I’d like to welcome him to The Little Pink Clubhouse. He’s one of the people I’m thankful for, so it’s good I’m writing about all this today. In the meantime, I’ll be much better by tomorrow.

When I reflect on the past year, there are so many things I look back on and smile over, and I have to mention the Gabbly People. Hundreds of thousands of people spent the first few months of this year following the gavel-to-gavel liveblogging of the Libby trial at www.firedoglake.com (it’s all in the archives if you’d like to take a peek!). In some effort to minimize the effect on FDL’s servers, some of those who wanted to chat or make comments during the coverage each day were encouraged to go to Gabbly. Gabbly is a Web-based chat client that runs over any website. It’s fairly addictive.

Of course, while we waited for a verdict, we started talking amongst ourselves. Slowly but surely, we got to know each other. The same people showed up every day. After awhile, others drifted back to their normal lives, but we all kept talking. To say that the group that remained is a cross-section is an understatement. We come from every area of the country, every walk of life, every background, and range in age from twentysomething to sixtysomething. You’d think we’d have nothing in common besides politics. Obviously, there are things we disagree on, just like any other social group. At the same time, this small group of people I’ve never met in the flesh is so important to me. Even if I can only spend fifteen minutes catching up and finding out what’s new, I’m happy.

I’ll be attending a conference in San Francisco in July; I’m looking forward to meeting at least one of our number for lunch. I hope I’ll meet more. They make me laugh, they make me think, and we celebrate each other’s triumphs and mourn each other’s losses. One of us got married earlier this week. We look forward to business opportunities and family celebrations and the little things that make up the lives of adults everywhere. Most of all, I can call them friends.

When I sit down to dinner tomorrow, I’ll be thinking of them. Cyclo, jeffrey, leinie, Shez, PALady, EPU, Proud, Gari, Cait, Eva and a cast of thousands, you mean so much to me. Here’s to the best year yet for everyone, and here’s to all happiness.

-S

p.s. Congratulations, Leinie and Mr. Leinie — here’s to a lifetime of joy!