Meeting Up

It’s Tuesday, I am reading my email of comments made on the blog. There she it. She has commented and now I have an email address. My fingers reach out to send an email, but quickly I pull them back as thoughts begin to crowd my mind.

Would she want to meet me? Would I be a disappointment to her? I am in awe of her writing talent. What does she really think of my slices? Many more questions and writing insecurities cause me to stop any action . . . this week. I will face this dilemma again next week.

I am in California and I know that Write Kim Write of the Learning Tour Writing Stop blog lives somewhere around the area where I am staying. We could meet face-to-face. The idea intrigues me, but yet I hesitate.

Each day I walk around the neighborhood and wonder if she is near. Could I be walking by her home? Yes, I know the probabilities are nearly impossible, but stranger things have happened to me.

Tuesday of week two arrives, what will I do when I am faced with that email address again? There it is. Kim has commented on my slice. I think, what if I go home and she sees that I was here and writes you should have told me, we could have met. I want to meet her, but does she? If I don’t ask, I will never know. During the evening I make the decision to contact her. I create the email with the subject line: Message from Elsie since my email has a different name attached to it. I click send as my heart races. Will she respond or trash it (thinking it is some kind of spam). I don’t have long to wait. My iPad dings there is a message. Yes, it is from Kim and she wants to meet up! Several emails fly back and forth finding a time to meet. It’s getting late and she has to teach tomorrow, so we will finalize the plans later.

Wednesday I have a new email with details of a pl.ace and time. We plan to meet in Corona for lunch. Kim confesses she is a bit nervous about meeting me. I laugh when I read that because she doesn’t know the half of my case of nerves. It seems like a long time until Friday.

My husband decides to drive me to the meet because he can take our son out for lunch (as luck has it , he works in Corona). We arrive a little early, but soon a car pulls up and it is Kim! There is no time to be nervous or wonder what to say. Within five seconds I am so comfortable with her that it feels like we have known each other  forever.

What a fun afternoon we had talking, eating (shall I mention an apple cobbler a la mode?), and more talking. I don’t think there was a lull of five seconds at any point. Hours slipped away as we learned more about each other’s life. We ended up at Barnes and Noble in the children’s book section (are you surprised?). I had to share a few of my favorite new titles, plus we were looking to find the new Pete the Cat book. It was not on the shelf with the other Pete books, so we turned away disappointed. However, that did not stop Kim. She asked a worker and Pete was discoveverd in a new location. Kim picked up two books to buy. One for her and one for me!

“Whenever you read this, you will remember the day we spent together,” Kim tells me when I protest that she doesn’t need to buy this. Truer words were never spoken. I just think about that book and my face breaks out in a smile remembering a special person.

Sadly it was time to head for home. I can’t believe the day has gone by so fast. I only wish she lived closer so we could meet up more. It was the BEST day ever!

So here’s the lesson, if you have the chance to meet a fellow slicer, DO IT!

That’s me on the left and Kim on the right. Guess where we are.