I've been reduced to stalking strangers

Today I met Nat's co-worker and some of his friends. Nat was supposed to come too but she bailed at the last minute. So I had to pick Joel out of the crowd and introduce myself.

It went a little like this: When I spotted him (Nat had sent me pictures previously so I knew what he looked like), I had to do a bit of covert stalking to check he was actually the person I was looking for. Then I went up to him just as he and his friends started moving away so I had to do some not so covert stalking until I finally walked up to him and said, 'I know this is random but are you, Joel?'
The look he gave me spoke volumes: 'Yes, I'm Joel but who the hell are you and how the hell do you know my name and where's the nearest exit?'

But when I explained the situation he was all friendly. So Joel is from Memphis, Tennessee so he's got the cute Southern drawl going for him. His friend Dwight is from somewhere in America though I can't recall where. Dammit why are there so many places in America. And Judy was from Manchester. They were all really cool so we spent the afternoon doing a bit of exploring and chatting.

It was hilarious. We went into a comic book store because Judy's a crazy fan. This store was so funny. The first floor had all the most popular anime. Level 2 was a ladies only floor. We were wondering what was there so we took a gander. It turned out to be the level with all the guy on guy comics (which apparently is uber popular with the ladies over here).

The 3rd level was the over 18 floor and the used comics section. So it was the J porn section and of course a lot of the used comics where porn comics. Needless to say I didn't want to touch any of them.
One of the funniest comics we saw was one called Painal Fantasy (Final Fantasy). It was an S&M comic. Oh, and there was also one called Combat Butler. We all decided we wanted a personal Combat Butler, who'd go around saving the day and come back in time to make us a cup of tea. A lot of the guys that were shopping in the over 18 section kept getting freaked out whenever they saw me and Judy perusing. I guess they're just not used to seeing real live girls.