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You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups and social events / Rockville MD Meet-Up: Proof of Life

Rockville MD Meet-Up: Proof of Life

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From commentor & picture-taker Tobie:

The Rockville meetup happened last weekend thanks to efforts of Intrepid Elizabelle and Always-On-the-Ball Matt F.

In attendance at the meetup were: Elizabelle, Matt F, Uncle Cosmo, Uncle Cosmo’s swing dancing friend, Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerlyMumphrey, et al.), tobie, and mr. tobie.

Our group was small but feisty, and we even managed a midnight trip to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s gravesite. Who knew that the entire Fitzgerald family was buried in a small churchyard in Bethesda now wedged between several high-traffic roads!

The inscription on F. Scott’s grave is quite touching but a little tough to read, so here’s the text:
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” –The Great Gatsby

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Seems like a nice group of jackals. We have an out of the way cemetery here in LA. Westwood Memorial Park is in back of some office buildings on Wilshire in (you guessed it Westwood). It probably has more celebs buried there than any other cemetery.

  6. 6.

    cain

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @cain: I’m not sure about vacations, last I heard Cole was getting estimates on replacing his A/C because it’s a million degrees in West “By God” Virginia.

    Which makes the whole interaction suspicious. He’s probably been inhaling catnip again.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    I’ve been lucky enough to have two meet-ups in DC area with Elizabelle, and am always sick with envy when I read about/see pictures of BJ get-togethers that don’t include me! Hope for soon again!

    Seriously, y’all look as though you had a fine old Jackal time.

  11. 11.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    Sorry I missed it. I never go anywhere (or so it seems), but I was in PA at a sewing camp this weekend. :-/

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    The edit function seems to have disappeared again. I didn’t need it last time but this is disturbing.

  14. 14.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Hi yourself, Sweltering King Cole. You are not alone in your woes – my swingdancing buddy (at the far right) just had his central AC unit go belly up. (FTR that’s yerstruly seated in the striped shirt.)

    Sorry we could not join yinz for Chinese. The dance at Glen Echo was a disappointment – the band was decent but played about one number in 3 too fast for mere mortals to dance to. And there weren’t enough partners. (“And such small portions!” Grrrr…..

    At some point I’d like the location of the Fitzgerald graves – This Side of Paradise (a hot buttered mess of a book) was kind of important to me when I stumbled upon it at age 16.

  18. 18.

    tobie

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal: I think you should start a challenge for the blog–a skydiving meetup. You are a badass (in the best sense of the term) given your latest, incredible adventure. @John Cole: Would you be game?

    The inspiration to go to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s grave came from Elizabelle. The cemetery is attached to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Rockville, MD, just off of Rockville Pike. It’s open 24/7, as we learned.

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    @cain:

    Also your chirpy demeanor is suspicious.

    John Cole obviously decided the solution to sweaty testicles stuck to thigh is to just let it fly free.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    Nuck Fazis!
    @Johngcole

    if you are interested how my week is going I had ice cream for dinner and am thinking about going to bed

    That explains it. Sugar High.

  26. 26.

    RandomMonster

    RandomMrs and I have bought a house in Baltimore (just closed last Friday). I’m hoping I can make one of these sometime!

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m happy to seemy fellow jackals getting together. But it also gives me a sad, kind of, because I know there’s not going to be a meetup in Kuala Lumpur anytime soon. Pout.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven: If Tobie is taking the picture, then there’s one extra unidentified person. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess Elizabelle is leaning in from the left, in the green, and that Smedley is standing on the left. Uncle Cosmo already said he’s in the striped shirt.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic: We had our lovely waitress take the photo, I think with tobie’s smartphone.

    I look forward to our next meetup! After the midterms, and may we have much to celebrate!

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @Amir Khalid: If I win the lottery, I am flying you and a guitar of your choosing in to a meetup.

    The Bethesda one was marvelous. It was fun meeting everybody; really nice group.

    Thanks to MattF and tobie for seeing that a photo got submitted to Anne Laurie! I will have to look for photos of previous DC area meetups (including the elusive efgoldman) and submit them …. um….. one of these days.

    We can do a Richmond area meetup — which might include writing postcards for Abigail Spanberger and other worthy Democrats — along with adult beverages. Craft beer central down here. Do we have many central VA jackals??

  45. 45.

    RandomMonster

    @Gin & Tonic: We bought a humble little place in Beverly Hills. We’re now Beverly Hillbillies. Funny trivia: The house was once owned by Martin O’Malley.

    @Uncle Cosmo: Thanks! Yes, part of the tax base, but also a new infection of California dem voters into the body politic. I will keep an eye out for the next meetup!

  46. 46.

    MattF

    And, for me and Elizabelle, drinks were preceded by a day at SPX, the Small Press Expo, in ‘North Bethesda’, near the White Flint metro station. We met Roz Chast there and saw a movie about, um, Jeffrey Dahmer. Yes, the serial killer– by someone who knew Dahmer as a teenager. Who had previously written a graphic memoir ‘My Friend Dahmer’. Not exactly fun and games, but was more interesting than I’d have anticipated. No gore in the memoir. Dahmer was a very sick boy.

  47. 47.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @RandomMonster: I drive by your new digs a few times a week – I’m on the far side of the Morgan campus. Sounds like you & me & the tobies are a nice nucleus for a future meetup up here.

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