Fool.com: My Foray to Fooldom (Fribble) September 29, 1998

Tuesday, September 29, 1998

My Foray to Fooldom
by Recovering Fool Jacki Stirn [email protected]

A few weeks ago, I got to work and checked my e-mail to find an unexpected message from TMF Bogey. The message was an invitation to join the Fools as their guest at their fourth anniversary party. My heart actually started pounding as I read the message! I have to admit that the skeptic in me came out so I replied, "Are you serious?" When Bogey replied in the affirmative, I started bouncing off the walls and making reservations (bounce, click, bounce, click).

It was a little strange telling family and friends about the invitation. I have a few friends who know the Fool well and they were thrilled for me. Trying to explain to other friends was a little difficult. When I told them I was going to the Fool party, I got some strange looks. I'm hoping they all went to www.fool.com and started to understand what I was saying. My daughter (16) was thrilled FOR me, or so she said before she asked to stay out late that night. My younger son (10) asked if he could go on the trip. My middle child (14) seemed the most impressed in his own quiet way. He wanted to know if I would meet (pause for reverence) THE GUYS (meaning Tom and David Gardner). When I said I probably would, he was definitely impressed. My husband, the Rocket Scientist, knew how much this invitation meant and was very happy for me.

A few days after receiving the invite, I got another e-mail asking me to speak at the dinner Saturday night about what the Fool means to me -- about 10 minutes or so. (TMF hooked me with the invitation and now I was being reeled in.) Fortunately, I was on vacation right before my Fool trip and had some time to contemplate what I might say. Since I was without Internet access, though, I experienced severe Fool withdrawal symptoms. I also had some anxiety mixed with the anticipation of the trip. I was going to meet people that I felt I knew but had never met. I also had to say something that made sense. (It was definitely a good thing that I was on vacation because work would have been impossible at that point!)

Fast forward to me walking up to Fool HQ. I have to admit that I almost fell to the sidewalk laughing because the sign outside the building read "Christian Science Reading Room." I thought it was a joke, double-checked the address and went up a few floors to Fool HQ. I don't want to disappoint anyone but it looks like a graduate student corral. The Motley Fool's assets have little to do with office furniture -- it's all in the people and they were great!

I connected with a group of "remote" Fools at the hotel. These are the Fools who work outside of Alexandria -- pretty much all over the country. They were many of the people I felt I knew from the boards. Tony (TMF2Aruba) and Jerry (TMFCheeze) looked exactly the way I had pictured them in my mind. I 'm not sure if they just caused me to conjure up pictures with their posts, but I didn't have a preconceived picture of anyone else. I met them all in the hotel bar and we talked for a bit. It was little strange that I wasn't offered a drink until Tony mentioned they weren't sure from what I might be recovering. Since I chose the screen name to be recovering from Wisdom, I thought it was funny and ordered a drink. We had a great dinner at a restaurant that would probably only qualify for Bill Gates to be living below his means, but it was a celebration for me and great fun. Back at the hotel, more Fools had arrived -- the Runkles and TMFJudy, my pen pal of the error messages. Conversation flowed into the night and I was grateful that I was still running on Mountain Time.

The next morning we were off to Williamsburg. (I have to admit that since I'm from Denver, wilting might not be too strong of a word to describe me at this point). TMFJudy and a Foolette rode with me. I call Teresa a Foolette because she was slated to start working for the Fool shortly after the party. There were a few Foolettes at the party and you have wonder if they were wondering what they were getting into! After getting to the resort we had free time before dinner (time for the golfing Fools to hit the courses). I went swimming and worried some more about speaking. I have done presentations before a medium-sized audience but my presentations have charts, graphs, and statistics and were much more straight forward than this speech. This one needed to come from the heart.

To the cocktail hour and meeting more Fools, including David Gardner. Everyone kept thanking me for coming. Were they kidding? This will stand as one of the biggest thrills of my life! Everyone I spoke with was bright, witty and creative -- it was pretty amazing. When we went in to dinner, I ended up sitting next to Tom Gardner. I have to say the Gardner genes seem chock full of charisma. As these things normally go, my dinner was placed before me and I was called up to speak. I don't remember much about what I said. Before I went up I did think it was ironic that I was chosen from my posts and here I was speaking before a group -- I might have done better posting to the screen. I only hope the audience received the message from me that I was thrilled to have TMF as a place to find informative, caring, and very funny information about personal finance and investing. I rarely find people in real life who are interested in investing no matter how I try to stir up that interest.

Breakfast in the morning and goodbyes. It was a wonderful weekend and a truly amazing group of people. I want to thank everyone at TMF for welcoming me and I want to thank TMF (particularly Bogey) for inviting me and Julie for assisting on the travel arrangements. To paraphrase a Green Day song, I did have the time of my life.

[Hey Fools, why not pen a Fribble, yourself? We welcome submissions from readers. Just click here and read the "What's a Fribble?" item, pen a short masterpiece, and send it off to TMF [email protected].]