SunKneeMarie's 20k

[redhairgirl1]

Originally Posted by sctx

c'mon........give it up already

I feel like i should start throwing rice at you two walking down a long red carpet when she does

[sctx]

Originally Posted by TAPPY

Who else is a 20,000 poster boy or girl ???

just me....I'm kinda lonely..... if she don't give it up quick, I may go back and delete her last 100 party thread posts

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by sctx

just me....I'm kinda lonely..... if she don't give it up quick, I may go back and delete her last 100 party thread posts

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by redhairgirl1

I feel like i should start throwing rice at you two walking down a long red carpet when she does

Please...no rice...bird seed only....

[sctx]

Originally Posted by redhairgirl1

I feel like i should start throwing rice at you two walking down a long red carpet when she does

you never know...I may be savin myself for Katy

[redhairgirl1]

Originally Posted by sctx

you never know...I may be savin myself for Katy

Should be plenty of time to get an annulment

[TAPPY]

Originally Posted by sctx

just me....I'm kinda lonely..... if she don't give it up quick, I may go back and delete her last 100 party thread posts

So who else is closing in on the 20,000 post club ?
(That sounds kinky) !!!

[sctx]

Originally Posted by TAPPY

So who else is closing in on the 20,000 post club ?
(That sounds kinky) !!!

Katy should be there in like 3 or 4 months..........might take neraK another year or so

[cuffedlinks]

Originally Posted by TAPPY

So who else is closing in on the 20,000 post club ?
(That sounds kinky) !!!

...roni?

[redhairgirl1]

Originally Posted by sctx

Katy should be there in like 3 or 4 months..........might take neraK another year or so

I dunno...Katy has slowed down quite a bit, ya may be stuck with me if these late night peeps keep up the way they do

[sctx]

Originally Posted by redhairgirl1

I dunno...Katy has slowed down quite a bit, ya may be stuck with me if these late night peeps keep up the way they do

cool.... I dig red heads....... Lil G just turned red last week

[SunKneeMarie]

Okay. I’m really back. And I think I fixed the glitch that kept throwing me off. I think.

Thank You Roni for starting this nice thread…however embarrassing it might be. And to commemorate this embarrassing occasion, I’d like to make my 20,000th post a doozy--and do a short retrospective of my life on the forum as the forum has related to me through Playa and other adventures. I’ve condensed it as much as possible, but 3 years + 4 months and 20,000 posts… well, there was some living done here and there… even if people do keep making the comment that I need to “get a life.” (and there you have it, Scott... I'm givin' it up already... aincha kinda sorry now!!)

So everyone just sit back and enjoy the show… I’m sure you’ll see some familiar faces!!

June 2004 it all started. Mike and I had talked to a travel agent (no, not Shammy… back then we would have been saying, “Shammy? What the hell is a Shammy?”) and he recommended Playa del Carmen and one of the Iberostar all inclusives. So I did some research on the area and stumbled on Playa Info just by searching in a search engine (a search… whodathunkit). I read some stuff on the forum, posted some questions, made some comments and a month later, July 2004, we took our first trip to Playa. That trip was just Mike, Ryan and me.

We loved the All Inclusive, I’m not ashamed to admit it. Loved the pools:


Loved the water:


Loved our Tulum and Beyond Tour:


And guess who our tour guide was, bucket hat and all:


So James was officially the first peep we ever met. At the time I had about 65 posts and had spent so much time during that first month reading and lurking, and posting those 65 times that I figured he’d know who I was from the forum. BIG reality check. NOT A CLUE WHO I WAS.


We came home and I posted my first trip report with the pictures in the multi media section (remember that??). Life went on. I posted more. Lurked some more. Posted more. Got a little more comfortable. Posted some more. And more. I had read trip reports and human interest stories and spent time on the off-topic, rambly threads and then I read about all of the craziness that had gone on in Peepfest 2005… so I decided to be really brave and signed us up for PEEPFEST 2006.

Of course we had to go to Playa in summer 2005 first. Just one week after Hurricane Emily had torn though the area. A week after I sat around the computer, waiting for updates from all of the Playa locals… updates to let us know they were all okay, and to let us know what it’s like to hunker down through a hurricane. Trying to understand this very real connection I felt to those people “down there.” So the last week of July we ventured back to Playa, hoping that maybe our tourist $$’s would help the area in some way, however small.

This time we took my brother and his kids and stayed at Xaman Ha condos. Close to town. We went on the FatCat, where I met Jez and horked in a bucket… no correlation, I’m sure :



We rode the ferry over to Cozymel:


I went to my first ever PeepMeet… and met some very cool peeps. Penny, Jim and SarahB… SandraJayne and Tbirdman who have disappeared from the boards since that meeting (what did I DO??). And of course SusieQ to whom I muled a bunch of stuff, and a hungover Heather who was just there to bicycle over a cell phone to me and then skedaddle…presumably to hork at home in peace.


And my second PeepMeet occurred during the same trip… met Michael Holmes and his family and Tyramania!


My brother and the kids all had fun… who wouldn’t with the Mariachi’s everywhere? My brother loves the mariachis (I believe he takes up the slack for a lot of mariachi haters on the board)…And he loves to dance:





After that Playa trip, we came home to recover. Cuz I never really felt better after that whole FatCat horking experience. Turns out it wasn’t Jez… it was a teeny bebe growing in this old body (environmentally friendly or not, there she was). Many of the forum members had already guessed what my “predicament” was by the time I made the official announcement. We were so excited… BUT it meant we had to remove our names from PeepFest 2006, as that was when the baby was due. Ah, well… it was a fair trade.

The forum peeps were so supportive during my whole pregnancy. I posted pics of sonograms and the decorated nursery. I posted a TON of general nothingness during my last few months because I had such bad backpain that sitting in my chair typing was preferable to most other activities. For anyone wanting to jack up their post count, I highly recommend a late in life pregnancy.


At the end of the pregnancy, there was a virtual online shower for me that was so sweet and so funny. Later I told peeps our Final Four name choices and they cast their votes. Not that it really mattered, as we were 99% sure she’d be named Riley Grace. There was even a poll to guess the baby’s birth date. When she was born, Mike posted a note to let everyone know, being as I was otherwise occupied. And then the Riley G picture brigade began.

When she was born:


When she took a bath…when she slept…when she smiled…
(bunny ears courtesy of Becky/FireinMn):


When we took her to her first PeepMeet in Dallas where I met local peeps for the first time--Charity, Shirlee, Bill, Mikey, Donna, Kelly, Cosmo and Renee…



and some nice peeps who traveled here from Maryland, Michael and Monica.



Of course having Miss G meant we had to skip Playa that year, and visited a South Texas beach instead for her first beach experience:



and then I posted pics of her when she was crawling and when she was sitting up and when she was standing…and you all gamely said you enjoyed seeing the pics


So I posted about her first Halloween and Christmas


and finally about her 1st birthday, where I started a thread wishing her a Happy 1st Birthday and so many peeps posted nice notes with some exceptionally sweet things to say about Riley G, her mama and her family. I printed that thread off to put in her scrapbook.


I even talked about how she cried at her party because Uncle Pat was there:


When I posted about Michael’s special prom that same weekend, you guys read my thread and many of you shared my tears:


And you were there to listen when I fretted about Ashley’s wedding and all the planning and frustration and laughter and tears and wardrobe changes that went into that--many of you offering great suggestions and advice:




There were mini peepmeets in Dallas that the locals had every so often. I didn’t make it to many, but I did make it to visit a special Canadian foreign dignitary:


As a reward for surviving the blessed nuptials, we took ourselves back to Playa this past summer in August 2007. We stayed at an All Inclusive and ate in town a few times, because we learned from the forum how to find the best of both worlds and reconcile the tension between AI and non-AI…there can be a balance… there can be peace… amen…alleluia.


And on that trip we attended a big peepmeet where I met so many peeps that I had “talked to” over the years on the forum. Alicia, Thor, Kathy, Mark, Tonya, Harold, Nancy, Ed, Christian, Rick, Michael, Anna, Anita, Cathy, Bob, John, Trudi, Ian, Connie, Steve, Judy, Stan and Janet and revisited with Heather and Susie and Charity.


Most recently we flew to North Carolina for a different kind of peepmeet that was so stinkin’ swell that it should become at least an annual event. And I can say I was there when it all began…. (of course my mother STILL doesn’t know that’s why she was babysitting the boys… how sad am I to not have told her?? )



Soooo... there's my journey in a nutshell. I’ve gotten to know some exceptional peeps on the forum (heck, I’ve gotten to USE the word "peeps" because of the forum) both by meeting them “in real life” and by just getting to know them in the online exchange. Peeps from many, many different states (altered, of inebriation, whatevah) as well as different countries.

The forum has broadened my scope in seeing the varying differences in so many people, yet it has strengthened my core belief that underneath it all, we are all fundamentally generous, humorous, humane and caring. I hope to meet many more of you and finally catch those elusive peeps who keep purposefully avoiding me (cough-Nerak-cough-Roni-cough)

So thanks to all of you for being a special part of my life over the last 3+ years. I’ve taken a lot away from the forum--advice, inspiration… recipes… and it’s nice to know that I’ve added a little something to some of your lives as well. Even if it was just a barrage of baby pictures and some naughty humor…..

And just to make it official: HOLY CRAP, I can’t believe I have 20,000 posts.

[Cosmo]

Hey kids, back from the lake. I am in S.C., not N.C... Hey SKM...congrats!!!

[redhairgirl1]

Let the rice start flying

[sctx]

Originally Posted by SunKneeMarie

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hay!!!!!!!!!...........where am I??????