Big day. I met Meg in person for the first time, after having an AIM friendship for over a year. And over the course of the afternoon and evening she proceeded to completely impress the crap out of me.

Hearing someone so articulate, who never says "uh", who has good ideas spilling out of her ears, and seems poised to do important meaningful work and do it well makes me feel like a big nerdy fud.

I could go on for some time about the extent to which an evening's listening to Meg has fostered respect for her, but that would only further my fuddy-duddiness. Anyway, suffice to say that she said a lot of stuff that made me think and inspired me - and that is so valuable.

Cameron gave Meg a tour of the Media Lab while I tagged along, and they talked for a long time about weblogs and their work. Between the tour of the lab facilities and the descriptions of the work that goes on, I think we sold her on wanting to come here for grad school.

Then I gave Meg a general tour of the MIT campus, including the rocket team office [no laughing, she's actually interested in it, it wasn't just me being a dork]. We met up with her friend Cory and the three of us had dinner at a Caribbean place in Central Square.

Cory, it turns out, is also brilliant and great to talk to. I wanted to contribute something cool to the evening so I took them over to the ambulance garage where everyone was setting up for tonight's big party, hoping to give them a demo of Frostbyte's LED towers. Unfortunately they weren't ready to go yet so we headed over to Cory's hotel for drinks and more chatting.

It was at this point that I learned, among other things, the extent to which Meg cooks amazing food and that my friend Jason, her boyfriend and, as it turns out, a total idiot, doesn't eat any of it. Kottke, what are you thinking? She cooks what sounds like amazing food and slaves over it for hours, and then you microwave up some Stouffer's?? ;)

Anyway, Cory was asleep on his feet so he went to bed and Meg and I headed back to the party to see the lights which were now in operation. She stayed for about 2 minutes and then headed home herself, also exhausted. The party was way over-crowded by about midnight and I was too tired to really enjoy it, though it was good to see Courtney again for the first time in months.