Last night marked the first-ever Toast away game, and it was a rousing success. You are all so charming! There were so many of you (including five very brave, slightly wide-eyed males), and you wore such sensible yet stylish shoes! Nicole did 30 pushups just because we all asked her to. (Later she did an additional ten as I placed my boots on her back and laughed. It was wonderful.)
“I did 30 pushups. I’ve only done 25 before, but I got an adrenaline rush from all the feminine energy.” — @Nicole_Cliffe
— Lauren O’Neal (@laureneoneal) November 5, 2013
There were certain common themes: at least three of the attendees had gone as Rosie the Riveter this past Halloween, and at least one went as Leslie Knope as Rosie the Riveter. Two of you had Veronica Mars shirts on. I’ve never hugged so many women with so much warmth and mutual affection in a single night before, and I had so much juice. Also, a lot of you wore cool and tough-looking leather jackets I wanted very much to borrow. No one started an arm-wrestling contest, but there are many things in this life we want but cannot have.
Super excited that I both got my @veronicamars shirt AND met someone in theirs at the Toast meetup.
— Jessica D. (@jwdmeow) November 5, 2013
Many of you were marvelously homosexual; a few of you brought your cheerful and friendly boyfriends; all of you were a damn delight. Nicole and I got there early, so as to eat some cheeseburgers, and tried to guess how many people would show up. (“Hi, I’m here for…the Internet, I guess? For my friends from the Internet?”) I guessed twelve, but there were literally dozens and dozens of us.
And thanks to all the other cool-ass folks at the @TheToast meetup for being so smart, funny, and devastatingly attractive!
— Fig (@figwiggin) November 5, 2013
One of you brought nametags! Another one of you made little felt toast pins for us to wear! Someone was so overwhelmed by the strong and intense female vibes that she got her period that selfsame night, which is the greatest thing that I have ever heard.
Were you there? Did you take pictures? Won’t you post them here so we can admire one another? Did you do something else last night? Tell us about that, too.
Woo, Veronica Mars shirts! I wore mine Saturday!
Gosh, I’m jealous! Voting for the Purveyors of Toast to embark on a grand national Progress.
Seconded!
International, please!
::goggle::
I forgot.
nooooooooooooooooooo
D:
My only solace is that I got to watch Sleepy Hollow, which was a different kind of fun.
I was there!! And a little overwhelmed by how many people were there. Everyone was awesome, and the pushups were particularly inspiring.
This sounds amazing.
Thwarted by my current location in the American Heartland, I spent my Monday evening getting so overwhelmed by the idea of planning a New York City brunch that I had to watch eight episodes of Will & Grace in a row. You win some, you just plain give up some.
I was one of the VMars shirts but I didn’t meet the other! We could have been best friends! Or dueled to the death! Or been best friends! Either one!
BOTH AT THE SAME TIME
Soooo, you all are going to make this into a(n) (inter)national Toast Tour, yes? Someday?
One that will come to middle-of-nowhere rural Canada, right? Right?
Here in the Great State of Georgia, I ate dinner in my living room and fell asleep on my couch at 8:30 pm. THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN.
The representative from the Commonwealth of Kentucky had chili and spiked hot chocolate with a friend, discussed Christmas cat-proofing strategies, and fell asleep on her couch around 10. CAN I GET AN AMEN.
This other representative from the Commonwealth of KY made black bean burritos, drank a vanilla porter and watched the UK game, then fell asleep in her bed around ten, approximately 30 seconds into a This American Life episode. Living the dream.
I’ll coordinate the Minneapolis stop!
Oh gosh, sounds lovely!
i was a leather jacket wearing person! i met so many magical warm female types and at least one wide-eyed male! i wish i could have met more of you gorgeous people before i had to depart, but i’m also not great at being outgoing and there were so many. but guys, thank youuu for this and i hope it happens again someday.
I was a pink pleather jacket that everyone thinks is leather but it was only $8 at a thrift shop person. So many cute coats and jackets. Did you see Mallory and Nicole’s blankety hooded coats?
Yep, time to move.
Please post pictures and also tell me everything that happened so I can pretend I was there
[too weird? or NOT WEIRD ENOUGH]
I missed it! When/where is the next one??
THIS WAS SO GREAT
I honestly teared up a little on my drive back to the San Joaquin Valley, listening to Vienna Teng and thinking about how kind everybody was and how un-nervous I felt after five minutes of being around so many warm, friendly people. Thank you Nicole, Mallory, contributors, attendees. I love this community.
I only took one picture that made it look as though we were convening in a cave of infinite vastness for some disturbing and powerful ritual, but it is here:
https://twitter.com/figwiggin/status/397575718898…
Also I just–OF MY OWN FREE WILL–set up a small monthly donation to The Toast because at this point I’m basically ready to swear blood fealty to you guys.
OH MAN DO I LOVE YOU FIGGLES
I was actually thinking this morning (and figwiggin actually took action) about how Andrew Sullivan has a subscription thing going on his blog, and wondered if that was a good thing for The Toast? Obviously one could just pay up, but a paid subscription button could be happen?
And now I see the very wide, easy to see “Support the Toast” button. This is what happens when you read RSS feeds and not the website.
Click through! Always click through! Apparently it helps with pageviews and advertisers or some shit like that.
Good to know. I assumed that Feedly’s tracking of what I’ve read also added to page views. Clicking through from now on.
lol that pic looks kind of like that scene in one of the later Paranormal Activity movies where the shaky hand held video camera light finds the back room with the coven i.e. that pic looks amazing.
Nicole, I can’t stop looking at the light on your shirt. Is it a flash? Is it an Iron Man-esque replacement organ? Is it a ghost?
Cylon??
!!
TOASTERS
Apparently, God decided to blur out the Lululemon insignia so I wouldn’t be publicly branded as dumb enough to occasionally buy a Lululemon top.
This should happen again! I had to go to class 🙁 but I have a (faux) leather jacket, and am (not marvelously, but a little bit) homosexual!
This sounds wonderful, and think Nicole and Mallory should go on a rockstar-style tour to meet us all.
I’d buy a Toast Tour T-shirt, one of those with a skull on the front and a list of dates on the back for preference.
One of these in Toronto, maybe?
January, I’ll host!
yes please!
I GOT THERE LATE AND MISSED THE PUSH-UPS NOOOOOOOOOO
THANK YOU FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE, IT IS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE REAL THING THAT SOOTHES MY ACHING SOUL
It was GLORIOUS. Everyone here is wonderful. I am so sad I missed the pushups!
Thanks again everyone! I had a great time – SO great in fact, that I have finally signed up for a commenting account so that I can stop lurking.
Here in the Delaware Valley, I made Thai curry chicken soup (which was effing FABULOUS), and wrote a short story that I posted this morning (clearly this was nerve-racking enough to mention). I like to think I was there in spirit!! It sounds like it was a marvelous time!!
Recipe??
Sure! ingredients: about a pound of chicken, sliced; one bag of spinach, 2-3 carrots, sliced (or shredded); one yellow onion, chopped; 64 oz of chicken broth; a can of coconut milk; 2 tsp of red curry paste (it comes in handy little jars that last forever); 2 tbsp of minced ginger (also handily in jars); at least 2 cloves of garlic (unless you are unlike me and go easy on garlic, in which case, I don’t really know what to tell you); some olive and sesame oil, a little soy sauce, and a little lime juice.
You can use a big pot, or you can use a dutch oven, but either way, sweat your onions, garlic, and ginger in the sesame and olive oil. Add the broth, coconut milk, curry paste, soy sauce, and lime juice (ALL the liquids!), and stir it all up, and bring it to a boil. Add the chicken, and let it simmer for about 5ish minutes (maybe longer). You can add the carrots somewhere after the chicken to let those cook. After about 8ish minutes, turn the heat all the way down, dump the whole bag of spinach in, and stir it until it squishes down.
The nice thing is, you can add different veggies like bell peppers or snap peas or something if you want, and it will still be just as good. AND you can even turn it into a vegetarian soup by switching up the broth and taking out the chicken. Voila! 🙂
Anddddd, my stomach is growling. This doesn’t look difficult at all and like a really good reason for me to finally man up and buy curry paste which I’ve been somewhat considering trying for months now. Question: how long do you cook it at the end? Is the 5+8ish minutes enough for the chicken to get fully cooked?
The 8ish is, but I actually turned the heat down to low, covered it up, and just let it sit in its own juices for about 10 more minutes. And yes, it’s really easy!!
this looks fun I am jealous!!!
Actually just started weeping because I no longer live in the Bay Area and it is raining and soon it will snow here and there are no burritos. NONE. So jealous. So weepy.
As I tragically live on the other side of the country from the meetup, I started rewatching Bomb Girls (can I just do a massive spew of feelings about that show for Femslash Friday, because even beyond the canon queer stuff EVERYBODY can be slashed) and worked on my knitting. But my roommate is making superhero turkeys for our apartment door, which is also pretty great.
BOSTON TOASTUP SOON PLZ
I feel like there is very little I could do to convince Mallory and Nicole to come to Texas, and I’m not sure how many Toasties there are here, but I’m very jealous of this meet-up and wish I could have gone.
Instead I lifted weights with my husband and ate delicious Thai food and added a bunch of stuff to my amazon baby registry, but my sister keeps telling me it’s still not enough stuff and I must add more for the 50 people she’s inviting to my baby shower. BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO ADD! 500 boxes of diapers?
What things will you inevitably run out of? Register for ten apiece. Also books! Always books.
Add some stupid big things you’ll never need, and then you can rerun them for store credit.
I sat around, also in Texas, watching TV & plotting all the necessary steps to take my 18 year old to vote first thing this morning so he could still get to school on time. (Two hours until the polls close! Two hours until the mayor’s office stops calling me and reminding me to vote for her!)
Stuff in bigger sizes! Babies grow FAST.
I had a lovely time, and tried to not be too wide-eyed. The only thing I missed was Baby Cliffe, but that was, of course, inappropriate for the venue, and for the hour as well.
I decided to come because I have skipped other meetups (one for Ta-Nehisi Coates in particular) and lived to regret it. No regrets at all this time.
GUYS, I thought initially Doctor Jay was just a weirdo from the bar who drifted over to see why the hot ladies werer clumping in a corner.
YES! I’m glad I attended (and brought my friendly, slightly-wide-eyed boyfriend). Next time, I promise to be less socially awkward/more outgoing. Also, I’m stoked to have nabbed one of those awesome felt pins–it is in a place of honor on my credenza.
Too shy to attend or comment, but this thread inspired me to donate, in fear and trembling. Because the awesomeness, it is too much.
It was fun meeting people! I tried not to look wide-eyed, but it was a façade; wide-eyed on the inside.
See: http://instagram.com/p/gWmHafFldQ/
Tortured by camera flash was just an act.
Still upset that my plane was delayed, but maybe the stars will align again and I can come to another one! Alternatively, does anyone else live in Madison?
As someone who grew up, went to school, and continues to live on the East Coast, I am constantly amazed at how many people I “see” on the internet who are from all of these cities throughout the entire middle of America. I know it sounds terrible, but I am seriously so fascinated when I hear people live in Madison, Minneapolis, etc and frequent the same websites that I do. I don’t just mean the Midwest. This includes Tucson or Memphis or Boise, everything. It’s not that I don’t know people live there, but I love to learn that people like me live there! Ok, I know, time to expand my horizons a bit.
I know what you mean — when I moved here, I was really embarrassed at how wrong my impression of the whole “middle of the country” area was.
I live in Wausau, which is only an hour and a half away from Madison!
Yes! Wisconsin friends! Let me know if you’re ever in Madison — I’d totally be up for our own little meetup!
I’ve said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating: Y’ALL ARE AWESOME, ALL OF Y’ALL! I enjoyed the hell out of each and every one of you and I really can’t say enough about how great the hugs were. I am high on hugs right now, for reals.
Boston Toastup!!!
I was on about the 36th hour without sleep and having a beer was not quite the best idea since I am an embarrassingly lightweight drinker and so I was kinda delirious the whole time BUT YOU GUYS WERE SO WORTH IT. Even the ones I didn’t get to say hi to! You’re all so amazing and accomplished and well-dressed and I am IN AWE.
It was legitimately the most fun I’ve ever had at a social gathering, and I hugged so many people and loved everyone.
I gabbed about this on my blog because I’m not done being excited that it happened:
http://readinginskirts.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/o…