When I talk about you guys, and I do (it's all good! promise!), MathMan feigns interest enough to occasionally look up from his Calculus book although he might just be looking at my boobs. The kids, on the other hand, feel compelled to qualify the relationship. "So how do you know this person?" Sometimes the word "know" gets air quotes.
You'd think they'd be so used to me blogging that it wouldn't matter, but for some reason it does. I point out to them that even though I've never actually met this person or that person, having read them for a year, two, three even four in some cases, I probably know more about them than any of the friends I've made without the aid of a monitor and a motherboard.
It's an old debate for us, isn't it? This idea of who's a real friend. What constitutes real? For me, what makes the friendship real is that they come to matter to me. I care what happens to them.
Well, this weekend, I had the opportunity to add another of you to the column of people with whom I've actually visited. For real. I got to hang out with Fragrant Liar. I even got to meet Miss America and Destructo and FL's daughter and son in law and the newest FL grandgirl.
FL is as funny and interesting and gorgeous as I expected her to be - even more so. MathMan went with me because I'm still not allowed to cross the county line without supervision. While he watched football and goofed around with FL's baby granddaughter, Fragrant Liar and I chatted mostly about....writing! Quelle surprise.
It was so nice to talk to someone who understands the part-neurosis part-gift that is the need to write and more - the desire to be published. We talked about current projects and future ones. She's ahead of me in the process of finding an agent and getting published so it was really helpful for me to hear about how she'd done things.
This woman is going places. I'm sure of it.
This made me think that I really ought to make more of an effort to find a writers' group around here, but that would require me to put on a bra and interact with people. Ah, there's the rub.....
Writing is a solitary thing, to be sure, but it's the human connection I find most interesting. And each time I visit one of you, I find new things to think about, elements that could become part of story or the seed of an idea that might grow. So thank you for that.
And to Fragrant Liar, it was so good to meet you! I hope we can do it again sometime soon.
Have you met online friends in the real world? Was it what you expected?
