Well, folks, today is an anniversary for me. No, I'm not married. Two years ago today, on March 13, 2000, I had a "stupid" question about some award miles being deducted twice from my father's account. I joined a bulletin board for frequent flyer information to ask this one question (here it is), and 2 years and 1150 posts later. I'm still here. I think that's pretty darn cool.

I've learned a lot since I joined. I've earned over a hundred thousand miles that I can directly attribute to this board. Flyertalk has changed a lot since I joined: new people, new boards, new formats, new ideass. But, one thing, for the most part has remained the same. The friendships I have made from this board. Two years ago I never would have dreamed of travelling to San Diego, Seattle, New York, Dallas, or Baltimore to meet folks from the internet, with nicknames like "kokonutz", "B747-437B", "ClueByFour", etc. And I certainly never would have dreamed that I'd host 30 of these people for a weekend in Philadelphia.

I remember one afternoon I had just discovered the live chat feature of flyertalk, and I was just kind of lurking, and I mentioned how I wanted to attend an event in California, but there was no way I could afford the arfare and hotel. Out of the blue, this stranger messages me and asks for my home address, he said he would send me some discount certificates, so hopefully I could make it. I didn't know this guy from Adam, but I trusted him anyway, and sure enough the certificates arrived. A few months later, I had the opportunity to meet this person in Baltimore (the first Flyertalker I'd ever met) and thank him personally. He knows who he is (and I'm sure a lot of you can guess who it is), but he was the first person to befriend me on the boards.

One more anecdote...I once read a post from a flyertalker who went to school in Ithica, and was planning some travel. My best friend from high school went to Cornell, and I decided to email this poster, on a whim to see if he knew my friend. As I clicked on his profile, the email address seemed hauntingly familiar. Then, i realised that this stranger was my friend's freshman roommate, and current apartmentmate. In fact, I had slept on his floor when I went to visit my friend. Small world, eh?

So, before I get all misty-eyed, I just like to say thank you to all my friends on Flyertalk (even those who I have not yet met). Thank you to each and every one of you for adopting me into your community, and for being there when I needed you. Thank you for being my friends for the past two years, and I hope that Flyertalk lives forever.