Cinematic Titanic’s return to Illinois was particularly special for me.
Two years ago, the Titans came to Chicago to perform at the Lakeshore Theater -- an event that sparked a Cinematic Titanic Forum Family Reunion of sorts. What started as a show where I expected to see perhaps two of my fellow forum members, quickly turned into a full-blown forum family meet up. And it was incredible. For someone who was on the periphery most of her life, it meant a great deal to be accepted by such a wonderful, loving, caring group of people. But to meet them in person?! That was an opportunity I never thought I would have.
That weekend marked an incredible high for me. All of us who participated reflected on that meet up in one way or another after the fact, and that meet up has led to many more meet ups, none of which I was fortunate enough to be able to attend.
Until this past weekend.
Not only was I able to meet up with tweeps, Facebook friends and fellow MSTies (namely BeautifulMind, watchout4snakes, devtony, Ron McAdams, mummifiedstalin, and angellio), but I was also able to attend a live CT show with my boyfriend, Matthew. The fact that I was able to share this experience with him meant a lot to me. As silly as it may sound, MST3K is responsible for us finding each other. On a whim, Matthew found and decided to friend me on Facebook after seeing that I was a fan of the show. I decided to accept his friend request (also on a whim) and the rest is history.
So it was very important for me to not only be able to see the show with him, but also to have him meet my friends in person. They have all played an enormous part in my life, especially in helping me come out of my shell and become the person that I am now, so it was important to me that they meet each other. It was also important for me to have Matthew meet the man responsible for making sure I got a forum account in the first place, RAD aka Ron DeGroot, the wonderful hubby of Mary Jo.
I couldn’t have asked for a more fun or incredible experience.
It was Sir RAD who dubbed me the Official Little Sister of the forum, and ever since, he (along with sooo many others) has looked out for me. I was thrilled to see him, and as soon as I introduced Matthew, RAD immediately turned into my big brother, inquiring about how long we’d been together, how we met, everything. He was excited to see us happy, and commented on how far I’d come -- that it was difficult for him now to think of me being so unhappy prior to finding the forum, my forum family and Matthew. He said he could tell I was in good hands.
There were many, many hugs exchanged, and of course two fantastically bad movies, and chance to chat with the Titans (did I mention that Trace recognized me? Because Trace recognized me...and commented about how I’d changed my hair). There was also a frenzied sprint across the highway, and many interesting cab drivers that Matthew and I met along the way. But the fact that I got to share all of that with Matthew, my tweeps and Sir RAD remains the most memorable part of it all.
