I'll toast to that! Long live unexpected friends! :-)

I had a similar experience, starting off with theonering.com (theonering.net is a fine site, but it wasn't my home). I drove from Vancouver (where I was studying) down to Seattle to watch the premiere of the FOTR trailer (yes, the trailer) with some of them. Much relief at the lack of psychopathy :-).

And I think it's so awesome that we just barely made contact at D*C but now I keenly follow your LJ and am so pleased with your presence on my friends list! Looking forward to meeting up with in person next year!