New Friends
japra | Jul 07, 2008 | Comments 12
Some of you many know Bee from her blog Bee Drunken. What you may not know is she and I are from the same town in Texas and, drilling down just a bit further, from the same neighborhood. However, despite all that, we did not know each other back home. She stumbled onto my blog from Homesick Texan’s earlier this year, and we’ve been pen pals ever since.
So, when Bee invited me and my family to a Fourth of July celebration at her home, located in a beautiful, hilly part of England, we were pleased to accept. She also invited one of her real-life friends, another Internet acquaintance of mine, Multitude.
I know some of you have met your “online friends” before. Isn’t it the strangest? You exchange emails and read each other’s blogs for months and months. And then, you decide to meet.
Lucky for me, Bee is as lovely, warm, smart and witty as she is on her blog. Her family is charming. AND she’s a superb cook! She made fried chicken, homemade biscuits, and a delicious salad, but it was her peach cobbler that made me so homesick I nearly burst into tears at the table. Multitude and her crew were equally delightful and welcoming. I also met two of Bee’s English neighbors. Oh, and I met the famous chickens, Ralph and Lauren.
I’m still a little amazed that Bee, Audrey and I met–in Bee’s home no less. It’s certainly not something that I would encourage people to do without establishing some kind of relationship before hand. But sometimes the chemistry can be right, even if you’ve only spoken online. Have you met any of your online friends? How did it turn out?
And while we’re on the topic of the kindness of strangers, thanks for all of your positive feedback on our Lord of the Rings review from Friday. Roxi was so thrilled by your very kind words. LotR producer Kevin Wallace left us a nice comment, too. I don’t think he’ll ever realize how much that meant to Roxi. As an aspiring West End/Broadway star, my 13 year old was over the moon! So thanks, you guys.
What I cooked this weekend: A very convincing Braised BBQ Pulled Beef Sandwich (made with a tiny 3 lb brisket–can y’all imagine?!), Brownies (double batch, which I took to Bee’s), pizza in my pizza maker oven, and Sausage and Tomato Tagliatelle.
What else? After a trip to an electronics store for a proper cable, Mr. DJ hooked up our condenser mike…
…and now Roxi can do a little recording.
And finally, Trudy sends her thanks to her online friend Edward and his mom Pamela From The House of Edward for the very beautiful Arte y Pico award! Trudy is a little shy about picking her five favorite blogs, so she sends out her love to all our Internet friends listed on our links list. Won’t you take a moment and check out new a link or two today?
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About the Author: JaPRA is an expat Texan living in Holland with her husband (Mr. DJ), their 15-year old daughter (Roxi), and their dog Trudy.
Ray Wylie Hubbard left a comment on my blog recently and I’m still not over it. :)
I’m so glad for you that it went well! What a relief! Were you ever nervous that you’d be great friends online and then have it be awkward silence when you met? I’ve never met any online friends, but then again, none of them are from my area.
That’s so cool that your daughter can record now. She’s very multi-talented!
Laurie–And doesn’t it just make you a bigger fan when someone does something kind like that? I mean, he didn’t have to comment, right? What a nice guy.
Alyson–No, I wasn’t really nervous that we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. I guess I just thought that we had enough to say to each other in email and in our blog comments that awkward silence wasn’t going to be an issue.
As I type, Roxi is recording “For Good” from the musical Wicked. Tomorrow one of her best UK friends is coming over for a sleepover and they’ll record some songs togther.
It was such a PLEASURE to meet you, Mr. DJ and Roxi in person. I honestly didn’t have even a minute’s concern about meeting you . . . in some ways, I think that reading someone’s writing gives you a better sense of the real person.
Not that English people aren’t warm, but it was great to get a big Texan hug!
Roxi is such an original, clever person . . . I think she is destined for great things.
I’m looking forward to more English adventures with you . . . and already dreading your eventual return to our hometown.
I am so sorry to miss Bee’s party as I would have loved to meet you and Audrey too. My parents were visiting from NYC. I’m glad to hear the party was such a success but not surprised at all.
When Bee and I had lunch at The Trout, it was the first time either of us had ever met anyone from blogging in person. She is wonderful.
Bee made a good point above about getting to know people through a blog. It can be less superficial than meeting someone at a party, but I still think person to person is more fulfilling.
Blogs do work well for long distance relationships. We can all stay in touch easily. You are so lucky to have more time in England. Enjoy it!
Dearest Bee–I will never be able to drink a Pimm’s without thinking of you :-) I look forward to more outings as well.
Sarah–You were missed! But it sounds as though you are savoring every last minute of your time here.
Its great fun to meet people from online. So far I have yet to met any that aren’t as good as or better than they are online.
Wow Laurie, how did I miss that?
Susan–Making new friends is marvelous however we meet :-)
Darn. I just went to re-read what I wrote on this post and realised that it didn’t go through. I’m so distracted with my legions of children running like wild pagans through my house.
It was so so lovely to meet you at Bee’s and put faces to names. I really felt a connection between us three from our blogging relationship. Even though Bee and I have a school in common, we don’t cross social paths very much so it was really great. Please keep in mind that I always roll out the barrel (I’m from Baltimore and there is a big Polish population there!) for Thanksgiving and you and your family are invited.
Audrey–It was so lovely to meet you and your family as well. I think the most interesting thing about meeting blogging friends is there really isn’t a whole lot of “getting to know you” time, is there? We kind of plunged right in and it just felt right :-)
Thanks for the invite to Thanksgiving! Not sure what our plans will be. Last year we were going to go to Cornwall for the long weekend, but Roxi was deep into rehersals for her show at school and she was exhausted.
My husband has some Polish family on his father’s side, by the way. He really wants to see Warsaw. Have you been?
I once had an internet friend who became a designer for a company I owned. Our e-mails became very long phone conversations. This went on for about 8 months. Then I finally met her in person. Her voice was so familiar, but we had pictured each other so differently from what we actually looked like that we had trouble talking face to face. We tried back to back, behind menus, etc until the faces became familiar too. It was hilarious.
Ginny–Oh my gosh, that sounds so funny. I bet just doing all those crazy things really loosened things up :-) Meeting a blogging friend is a bit like going on a blind date, isn’t it? Only you know so much about that person already and if you’ve agreed to meet, it’s assumed you already like each other–at least on the “printed page”.