<p>I mentioned latetoschool. </p>
<p>Grand Central Terminal is so beautiful it was a wonderful setting. Everyone was warm. </p>
<p>No cheesecake for me, yay!</p>
<p>jym and momof3sons: Thanks for so much organizing work.</p>
<p>I hope I get to see the folks who sat at the other end of the table soon.</p>
<p>I should have known better - it did seem a little odd, but still feasible. I know from my D that the “celebs” don’t usually frequent public areas such as Grand Central’s food court for any length of time. They’re usually too busy running here and there going about their business. Also, whenever we’re up in nyc on a weekend, we don’t see them unless they’re in a play (or in the audience) or at a film premiere (as in Johnny Depp, and that was on a Sunday). D has seen many celeb spottings, but they’re usually coming/going somewhere, shopping in a store, dining in a trendy restaurant, etc. You’re right about the Olsen twins - there would be a better chance of seeing them at Bungalow 8 than Juniors.</p>
<p>Had this taken place last weekend, I might have joined you (as I was in Allentown to visit my daughter for her birthday), but ::: hold on to your hats here ::: a couple of us had our own little meet-up in Allentown! I hope I’m not blowing any secret information here, but I met up with Mikksmom (posts in the MT forum mostly) for a wonderful visit. We both laughed as we exited the restaurant/bar at my hotel and had to be let out by bouncers. When we arrived over three hours earlier, we were practically the only ones in the whole place and it was quiet. By the time we left, it was packed and loud (we now know where the happenin’ place in Allentown is) and bouncers were covering both doors. Neither one of us could remember when was the last time we were in a place that had bouncers.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying, mythmom. Want to give correct credit where credit is due. </p>
<p>We sat at a very LOONG table (took equally as long for them to set it up for us!). We actually talked about rotating around so we could talk to everyone. Twinmom got smart and just stood up and came down to the other end of the table! How long did the rest of you guys stick around after we left for the 2:37 train??</p>
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<p>Good to hear you guys didn’t just sit around and talk about colleges.
;)</p>
<p>I am so sorry that this could not happen two weeks from now when I will be in NYC!!</p>
<p>jym and momof3sons: Thank you from me, also. Even though I am a relative newbie and hadn’t really yet envisioned how you all looked, I recognized the group immediately and felt very at home. Although D claimed she only came to ensure I wasn’t kidnapped by crazies, she also enjoyed meeting and talking with such an intelligent, accomplished group of (mostly) women. And I think I really believe I didn’t kill that thread!</p>
<p>OK. So why Jake and Natalie? The Ivy League connection? Inquiring minds still want to know…</p>
<p>OK, even at my “advanced” age, I can still get taken for a ride! Great story – right up to the elephants! LOL. But, is the part about JG’s uncle true, at least? And is this going to start a rush of real life meetings? If so, count me in!</p>
<p>Well Alumother I couldn’t bear the thought of being with the Olsen twins, even in a cyberspace fantasy.</p>
<p>So I know they are often seen together around NYC and Natalie Portman is very on my mind because my mom is going to a wedding where she is expected. </p>
<p>Well jym, twinmom, twinmom’s H, GreyDad, mathmom and I sat around for about 40 minutes I would say. Then twinmom, H, GreyDad and I went down to the Angelika for a fabulous movie – The Counterfeiters. We had over an hour to kill so we sat in their cafe talking some more. All four of us really liked the movie.</p>
<p>I had a wonderful day and missed D who would have been in NYC except for semester abroad so I called her in London! Paid actually money because I would have gotten home after she was asleep with five hour difference, so no Skype. She thought our meeting was great. Said she’d never been to the Angelika where I used to go as a teenager.</p>
<p>The Natalie Portman & Jake Gyllenhaal thing coulda happened… </p>
<p>2 years ago D and 23 other kids her age had just “graduated” from a Jewish Teens as Leaders group (they’d all been part of it for at least 4 years). They went to dinner at a lovely restaurant in Newport Beach (CA) (which was funded by us parents). They were dressed nicely, were excited to be at such a beautiful restaurant (read: probably a bit rowdy) when a man at a nearby table (with a group of 5 others) asked what the celebration was about. He learned of their last 4 years together, shared a meaningful story with them, told them all to do great things with their leadership skills, and said his name was Jack Welch. They all shook hands with him (D said his story was “inspiring”, and he was “grandfatherly”), took several group and individual photos (my D had 2). And he and his group left. Moments later the waitress came over and said the gentleman had paid for their tab, and the tip. The kids went nuts. I have the photos, and indeed it was ex-CEO of GE, Jack Welch. So things happen.</p>
<p>Alas, no elephants.</p>
<p>So, did you call yourselves jym, twinmom, mythmom, GreyDad, etc? :D</p>
<p>Nah. Mostly we used names, but I have a fondness for the screen names. And someone, one of the husband’s, said we were incognito on CC, but I explained that mythmom seems to have more of a public persona than I do. It’s as myself that I travel incognito, a paradox, I’m sure.</p>
<p>mathmom printed nametags (courtesy of the M.S. editor program,I believe she said) with the CC monikor, a place for our screenname and an AKA line for our real name. So, we had both names in front of us, but called ourselves, for the mostpart, by our real names. Some, like Sybbie, said their SN was based on a nickname, so I, for one, slipped in an out of “real” vs sn for sybbie.</p>
<p>I am sorry we had to leave a little early (so did a few others). But, I rode back to the 'burbs with momof3sons (while my DH slept-- I guess we wore him out, LOL) so we got to continue to chat. To answer an earlier question, we really didn’t spend much time at all on the topic of college. More time was on the “six degrees of separation” stories (Cgarrett, you have to tell your connection!). We heard about mythmom’s book. We also took a show of hands to see who ever felt like a thread-killer and ALL hands shot up immediately!! We’ve all felt that we posted some wonderfully brilliant, erudite comment, and the thread drops off the face of the earth, with no additional comment, ever!! LOL</p>
<p>I had to leave a little early too, and sybbie and I traveled part-way home together. She so kindly shared her Metro Card with me when mine refused to cooperate and let me into the station - so thanks again sybbie. </p>
<p>Mythmom, we will have to get together sometime - we didn’t get to talk much at all yesterday, but I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out at some point since we’re both on LI. </p>
<p>Cgarrett, if I had known you were bringing your daughter, I would have tried to talk mine into coming as well. My D is a little younger (a hs soph), but they seem like they would have gotten along. That’s so sweet that she wanted to protect you from us. My D didn’t even think of that - she was just happy to get me out of the house on a Saturday afternoon, I think.</p>
<p>Thanks to again to jym and momof3sons for organizing, and to mathmom for the nametags (they were so helpful!). We’ll all have to do it again some time.</p>
<p>I think the only college talk I heard was this frantic effort by everyone to learn how many kids each attendee had and where the kids were in college, or had gone to college. Kids ages ranged from middle school through grad school/work age. Lots of chatter to jam into an hour and a half or so! And Alu, I have no idea where the Jake and Natalie came from. I volunteered to start the thread and literally had to write their names down on a scrap of paper to remember who I was supposed to talk about! 
Oh, and we all came to the conclusion that there were no ax-murderers amongst us. I didn’t tell my kids where I had gone until I got home. And then the comment was, “Oh, wonderful. Meeting random people from the internet. Just what you would like us to do.”
Binx: Please don’t feel “dissed.” I am certain there was a real reason I could not make the Julliard performance. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it immensely as I have 3 musical kids.</p>
<p>My family think it’s weird I am on CC already, I think it is exactly what they would have said too, momof3sons.</p>
<p>Finally done with the grocery shopping, the cooking, the dinner party itself, the cleaning up, and the pesky sleeping – Here I am!!</p>
<p>It was amazing to meet you all, and I’m soooooo sorry I had to dash for the 2:07 – which I made, by the way, with two minutes to spare. (jym626: Remember when I said “I really have to go?” I really had to go!!)</p>
<p>I loved meeting all of you and am definitely up for doing this again. Next time, I think a real restaurant, where we can get up and move around. Maybe one even that serves liquor. ;)</p>
<p>Well, Jake and Natalie have no idea what a great time they missed!!! I didn’t think they were Metro-North types, but they could have been getting in character for some role. That is so cool that you arranged a meeting with your anonymous internet chat friends in a New York City transit terminal and survived!!!</p>
<p>What fun to read of your meeting! Great to live vicariously and hear about it. I believed the Natalie Portman story. Hey, if I can shake hand with Barak Obama around the corner from my house, anything is possible. And I’m gullible. </p>
<p>I thought I was the thread killer. I have two personal interpretations to thread killing. One is that the statement is so off base and inconsequential that no one can figure out how to reply. My latest interpretation is that the posting is so brilliant, no reply can be formulated. Perhaps the truth is in the middle somewhere, strongly tilted toward the first.</p>