Jackie Danicki

Oh, man. I just got to minute 31 of Perry’s conversation with Brian, at which point they start to debate whether Antoine and I met at a Samizdata party or at one of Brian’s Friday’s (the last-Friday-of-the-month talk that Brian hosted at his place every month for years). For the - embarrassing, sad - record, here’s the deal:

I met Antoine at this Samizdata party in November 2003 - my very first Samizdata blogger bash, where I also met Adriana, Perry, and lots of other people who are now friends and quite important to me. I took a real shine to Antoine, at very first sight; he thought I was a goth (!), and knew that I was otherwise involved…or so he claims. Part of me thinks he’s just too much of a gentleman to admit that I wasn’t that appealing to him back then (and I wouldn’t blame him if that were the truth). Anyway, I had really taken a shine to Antoine, and wanted to get to know him better. (I also broke it off with the other guy, though we were to reunite a few months before Antoine and I eventually got together. We’re all friends now.) So I used to go to Brian’s Friday’s very faithfully, every month, hoping every time that Antoine would be there. He never, ever was. The one Friday I missed, because I was abroad, Antoine was the speaker at Brian’s! It was really crushing, but it made a nice distraction.

To make a long and quite humiliating story much shorter and less incriminating, we eventually got together in the summer of 2004. I think both Brian’s Fridays and Samizdata can take some blame for us, but the Samizdata bash started a lot of good wheels in motion for me. Beyond Antoine, it has introduced me to many meaningful ideas and individuals, and utterly changed my life. It’s not exaggeration, it’s simple truth.

Filed under: Friends, Happiness, Life, Politics, Relationships