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The Fragrant Muse?

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Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, United States
I'm a Creative Soul and Happy Person. I have a passion for my Family, Aromatics, Fairy Gardens, Pugs, SoulCollage, Miniature Worlds, Visual Journals.

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Bloggers Lunch and a New Perspective

Before I began my blog in April of this year, I was pretty ignorant about what blogging was and who blogged. I wore "blogging blinders" giving me tunnel vision about the blogosphere and what happens there.

In my narrow vision, I saw bloggers as random individuals around the globe (specifically in cities; surely rural folks didn't blog) sitting in solitude bashing out words for their own amusement, mental therapy or income. And I was comfortable stepping into this role of "blogger" because I rather like my solitude and love bashing out words for all of the reasons listed above.

What I never imagined was how sending my thoughts out into cyberspace would metamorphose into being part of a community; a small society of individuals who share some commonality with me, even if it's just another blog we both enjoy. And to my surprise and delight, I've discovered that my personal community has it's own little neighborhoods; the artists, the real writers, the comics, the expats, the environmentalists, the healers, AND the real world neighbors!

It was two of these real world neighbors I had lunch with on Friday.

In the past month, Cyndy of 110Penned, the OptomistPessimist and I discovered that we three live within an hour of each other. The flurry of emails began, always ending with "we must get together for lunch". And so we did. Last Friday we met for lunch in a town pretty much in the center of our respective locations.

So what was this experience like for me?

First of all, I was nervous. The trepidations that OP wrote about in this post started to come up for me. What if they were disappointed?
What if they didn't like me or I laughed too loud or said something stupid..... Ahh yes, the gremlins were out in full force Friday morning.

Feeling like Mama Bear since I chose the restaurant and made the reservati
ons, I arrived early. Thirty minutes early to be exact. I wanted to see the table - was it in a good spot? Would there be room for laptops? Could we stay as long as we wanted without the waitress giving us the evil eye. And what about the wine and beer list??
At 12:30 I looked at my watch. Where were they? Why were we not already in full hug mode? Then OP texted sayingconstruction was holding her up, and Cyndy phoned to say she overshot the location and would be there in a few minutes. So there we sat - the gremlins and I.

I took out my current art journal and wrote the first three paragraphs of this post while waiting.

Then suddenly I looked up and there was Cyndy! We hugged like old friends (which we were, really, old pen pal friends) and the next minute OP had arrived and there were more hugs and the chatter began.

We are all so very very smart (or really committed to our food). Prior to arriving, we had each checked out the menu online and knew what we wanted to order so no valuable talk time was wasted on that. I never felt awkward or nervous or had one self-conscious moment. I did have reservations about having a glass of wine in the middle of the day, but after OP ordered her Boddington's Pub Ale, no more reservations.And we talked. We talked about family and work and the iPhone and Cyndy's Mac and everything it seems, except our blogs. The topic certainly came up and we covered it bit, but mostly we talked about ourselves. It was as if we were hungry for knowledge of our sister bloggers. We had a fascinating discussion on the origin of our respective kids names and with 8 kids among us, that took awhile.

OP let me fondle her new iPhone make a phone call with her new iPhone, and I insisted I have my own ring tone (Baba O'Reilly by The Who). Cyndy opened her Mac and gave us a brief lesson on statcounter since it drives me nuts that I don't know how to track lurkers.

We each bemoaned our respective lack of toys - Cyndy and I want an iPhone, OP and I want a Mac, OP and Cyndy want an SLR camera. But I declared that since Cyndy has theMac, OP the iPhone and I the Nikon D60, we make a complete package!

And, of course I took pictures. Not as many I as thought I would since I didn't want to lose precious getting-to-know-each-other time on snapping pics.

Here is Cyndy with her Mac taken with OP's iPhone

and here is OP taking a picture of Cyndy and I with her iPhone
Suddenly it was 2:30 and OP had to run to get her boy, I had to pick up the Bean and Cyndy had 27 kid projects to attend to.

It was over SO fast.

My "blogging blinders" have been forever ripped from my eyes. Some bloggers are just like me - normal, hardworking ladies with a real life and real dreams, family obligations, a good sense of humor, kid worries, strong opinions, hungry creativity and above all, a need to write about all of it.

17 comments:

spudballoo said...

Ah lovely!! What a fabulous write up, I've been waiting to hear how it was. Sounds like a blast...I love meeting my 'virtual' friends although I'm generally a bit nervous too. I met my best friend and 'wife' on the internet (and MrSpud of course) so I'm quite well practised in the art. Tee hee.

Wine always help. General life rule. You heard it hear first...

Kisses x

Fidgeting Gidget said...

That is SO much fun. And as I've said and tweeted a million times, I'm so so jealous.

NJ Pigno said...

I started blogging almost a year ago and am just now realizing what a wonderful, intelligent, inspiring and talented community I am part of. How wonderful that you got to meet two of your real world neighbors.

P.S. I want an iphone too.

Optimistic Pessimist said...

It really was soooo much fun!!! I can't wait to do it again.

I just realized it's past noon and I still haven't written about it yet. Guess I better get typing!

Amanda said...

How fun for the 3 of you! Meeting up is the best!

Holly said...

What a wonderful thing to be able to meet like that! I'll hope I have the same opportunity. The iPhone? Yeah, it's good.

But, I need to thank you. I was surprised and honored when I clicked that link and my blog came up as the example for that category.

Really, Liz, that absolutely makes my day. You've taught me so much when I come here!

Sarah said...

Sounds like such great fun and the sorta-pic of OP makes me re-think my internal picture of her.

Makes me feel so lonely on the west coast as I have not yet met anyone who lives anywhere near me.

Liz Fulcher, The Fragrant Muse said...

Spudkins: One does seem to get a better selection of friends and spouses when choosing from, say, planet earth.

Gidget: Can it be there are no bloggers in Ontario? I'll bet if you lurk around, you'll find some!

Nanodance: Well said. I love my new community and all it's little neighborhoods because everyone is all those things and more.

OP: Do you mind that I've shortened your name to OP. If you were OIP you'd be Original Italian Pizza. Look forward to reading your take on the day.

Amanda: This was just the beginning. I hope to meet more blogging buds in the future!

Holly: You are in PA too so our lunch is next!

VEG: OP didn't look at all like how I imagined her. I expected a big muscled runner girl. Instead she looks like a ballet dancer.

julochka said...

it was a mini blog camp! yay! sounds like it was so much fun!!! so glad you shared it. :-)

now go get that iPhone, will you? all the cool kids have one. ;-)

Optimistic Pessimist said...

Liz - I've been called many things...so I'll happily take OP or even OIP. I do love their pizza. And me a ballet dance, aw shucks..I'm blushing and laughing. If you were to see me dance you would so take that back! Have you ever seen Elaine on Seinfeld dance???

VEG - what was your internal picture of me like???

Darcy said...

o how fun! i'm on a mission to find san diego bloggers now :-)

Michelle said...

Hi!

I am new to the blogging world and I have to say that I am amazed at all the love and the kindred spirits that i have found. I feel blessed!

FAQ said...

Oh that is so lovely, so fun, I love blogging. I have made the coolest friends through blogging and I have not met any of them yet....it inspires me. I think life is so short and blogging gets us to our would be connections/friends quicker.....AWESOME.

Just Jules said...

oh man! why do all the cool bloggers not live here? (except Sandra and there is Vicki...) but my state is big and living in the same state doesn't mean you are close!

geeezzzz

maybe cuz it is all kinds of crazy weather here?

Janet said...

what fun, what fun, what fun! I haven't met any blogging buddies either. but i haven't really tried. (I'm really kinda shy.) Let me just add that to my list of things to do right now!

Giggles said...

Isn't it wonderful!!! Don't you feel sorry for the non bloggers and what they're missing? I do! Non of my non virtual friends get it!! I have formed strong bonds with a few blogger friends. And met many others!! I find bloggers often share things online they'd never share in person. You attract like minded people! It's fun! Great post, glad you changed your mind...we are ever growing on here too!

Hugs Giggles

Cyndy said...

Liz,

What can I say? We were both right to trust our intuition. Thank you for taking the chance. I don't feel like I have a new friend with you ~ I feel like I finally find a lost one!

I just stole the picture you posted of me. I am going to use it for my 110th post. It is perfect. Thanks! (It is good form to thank someone when you just stole something from them?)

Even though my special oils are now safely at home, I can still smell them when I open my work backpack. Nice. Must consult on how to use properly...

And, I am sure that you will agree when I say to Julochka, this was not a miniBC, but a preBC. We are just warming up, waiting for our fairyblogmother to visit!

Until then, hope we have many more preBCs and post BCs. Now that all the pretense is gone, we can have more fun, fun, fun!

xoxo,

Cyndy