Whine & Cheese: The Return

Today is the day! As I write, Todd is somewhere over the Atlantic and in a couple of hours will be landing on U.S. soil and returns home later tonight. Thankfully, he's not flying American Airlines or else I think he would have truly went ballistic, though I imagine it can't be fun flying at all domestically given that situation.

Needless to say, it's been a very long two weeks. I want to thank my friends, near and far, for all the kind words and in general, just putting up with me. I tend to go a little bonkers on these longer trips... but this time around, all the messages, emails, posts have truly kept me sane (well kinda). And I am thankful for this blog as an outlet as well. Yesterday, I mentioned to Jen that one quote that resonated with me this week was from my current read (I am behind in book posts big time!), The Diary of Young Girl, where Anne Frank wrote "Paper is more patient than people"... and while my "people" have been quite patient, I am glad to have this outlet to write however much, however long I need to.

Continuing on this philosophical babble/rant, one thing I intended on writing about earlier this week was a fun little blogger gathering I went to last weekend. I was a little hesitant, I didn't really know anyone I was meeting or even their blogs... it was a degree of separation between my friend Scott and the visiting Bossy... and yet another degree of separation between everyone else attending... but given the lack of human interaction on the homefront, that little Liza Minelli angel that sits on many a gay guy's shoulder was whispering "What good is sitting alone in your room?"... so I figured, what the heck (but stop calling me chum, please!).

It ended up being quite a wonderful night. I am continually amazed how quickly people click in real-life based solely on previously cyber-only (at at least non-face-to-face) interaction... and heck, for the most part, I didn't even have that much with the rest of the group, which just happened to be 5 other women ... all that could easily play "Grace" to myself, Scott, and Buckaroo's "Will." (Bossy's base is pretty much women and the gays... though that's pretty much my base).

It was kinda fun meeting up with some new people and sharing our stories. I think everyone had a moment that was greeted with an "oh, wow" from the rest of the group... whether it was where we grew up, our relationships, or even how we started blogging. Good stuff.

One common thread was that when most of us started blogging we never thought it would blossom into something beyond a personal pet project... and now here we were, most of us having already made some new real-life friends out of it... and a bunch more that we certainly hope to meet down the road.

Endnote: You should really read about Bossy's Excellent Road trip... Scott wrote about it, there was an article here... it is a true testament to all I was saying above with Bossy meeting "260 bloggers across 207 cities in 43 states" (yep, she's pretty much a blogging rock star!)... traveling cross-country (and back!) at 25 blogger gatherings... you can read her continuing adventures at her blog (i am bossy) and here's a direct link to the Scottsdale meet-up.