So, in a kind of spontaneous decision, I decided to drive on down to North Carolina from Virginia to meet a fellow FanIq'er who has become a good friend of mine.  We know him here as: Hskrdave.  I'll spare you the turn by turn description of the drive itself, but I will admit I missed a highway turnoff and had to be re-directed by Dave (who VERY kindly did NOT pick on me AT ALL!) and I actually met him in a parking lot.  [Which (any woman will tell you) is the best place for a first time meeting just in case the guy you met online is really a psychopath and all.  HOWEVER- I think the psychopoaths are "onto" this particular survival technique and they will wait as long as it takes to hack you to bits and store your body parts in their freezer]  I got to the meeting spot (a Circuit City) before him and had to peeeeee.  When I came back out, Dave was parked next to my car and we waved.  Here I will admit that as I was driving I was struck by a bout of nerves: "what if we have nothing to say to each other?!"  I texted him my fear that we only get along while talking with a keyboard and his response was "We will just text back and forth".  We hugged each other (I had to surpress the urge to pummel, pwn, hip check, high stick, etc) and jumped in his car to seek food and then head to the baseball stadium.  Dave was nice enough to find a Zaxby's chicken place for me, which they don't have in VA (!!!!) and he had never been to.  [I think maybe the chicken was almost a higher priority to me than meeting Dave or the baseball.  kidding.  kinda.]   When we finally found Zaxby's (I heard a choir of angels in my head when I spotted the place) it occurred to me that I had just ridden in the vehicle that sports the famous and iconic Hskrdave license plate so I paid homage to it and even touched it.  No, I really did.  Dinner was uneventful [I'm sure we must have exchanged words, but I'm not kidding when I tell you how much those STUPID chicken tenders mean to me.  David (my b/f) was surprised I didn't get any to take home with me.  I should have brought a cooler. Dang!!  next time]  The baseball game itself was pretty good.  We went to see the Carolina Mudcats play the Birmingham Barons (Dave told me they are the team Michael Jordan played for back in the day).  The first 4 innings were scoreless and I THINK hitless (yes, this means boring), but we were saved by a 20 minute rain delay and then (as I predicted) the hits began.  Dave wound up engaging in conversation with a guy in our row from Michigan and they talked of the great Ohio/Michigan rivalry and of Dave's avid Husker-dom.  I was happy to enjoy the weather and the conversation of a 5 year old little girl and her grandparents behind us as they explained the game to her.  Every now and again it would strike me as surreal that A) I was sitting at a baseball stadium and b) i was sitting NEXT to hskrdave.  Weird.  Cool.  Dave was greatly irritated by a safety net that rose up about 15 feet in front of us and was close enough to touch.  Apparently some fan made a mint suing the ballpark from being hit by a ball (this is heresay, made up completely by me and may not be in ANY way true, but......c'mon) and now the rest of us watch the game with NO chance of catching a foul ball.  It was annoying and made it hard to keep track of the ball.  The Mudcats won 4-2 and we headed back out to the car.  The seats were wet because of the rain storm (Dave likes to go topless), but it wasn't too bad.  We wound our way through country roads, kinda aimlessly, listening to music.  I needn't have worried about our getting along.  We were like old friends- talking easily and comfortably, laughing and telling stories and allowing silences to happen.  Not once did we resort to sending each other a text message.  I got to see Ziggy's the bar/restaurant where Dave works a few nights a week.  Then we made our way back to Circuit City and said our "see ya laters."  All in all I drove 7 hours to spend 5.5 hours with a friend.  And I will do it again.  (Next time I'm going to sneak in a few more "live" fan-actions!  )