Like a Virgin

I was oddly punctual considering I refused to valet my truck on a Sunday afternoon and chose instead to park along a side street and take a short walk. It's my favorite district of the city: I live on the outskirts of it and would love to combine incomes one day to actually live in the midst of it. I was lucky when I moved in town and didn't know anything about the city's different districts and ended up in the one where I fit in the most. It was easy to choose where to meet Lil Bit for my very first blogger meeting.

I walked into the restaurant and was immediately eyed by an older gentleman. I nodded at him and took a seat. "Can I have a beer menu please?"

"Are you looking for me?" swayed the older gentlemen.

"Why? Are you where all the beer went?"

The female bartender doubled over laughing. Outside a convertible pulled up to the crosswalk. In the back were two large dogs. The older gentleman saw them and began to bark from his stool inside the restaurant. The bartender picked up the phone to call him a cab. Drunk on a Sunday afternoon: I love it.

In walks Lil Bit and I instantly recognize her. She proves that there is such a thing as a hot blogger with her slim body that's easily half a foot shorter than mine and we hug and make our way to the patio, because it's January and it's the south and Al Gore's global warming allows us to eat outside on a winter afternoon.

Lil Bit doesn't take long to order her own beer while I'm wondering how long I should wait to get a refill on mine. We finally get to have a conversation that I've been wanting to have for years now -- we talked about blogging. Us bloggers think differently: bad things don't happen to bloggers, blog posts happen. Each post is a story that we're constantly writing in our heads and it was so great to finally talk about this to someone who not only understands, but lives the life as well. We laugh and get the scoop and elaboration on posts we've each written.

"So what happened to David? I'm dying to know."

"You know, everyone kept saying to not take his shoot down seriously, but my gut felt differently. We flirt via IM and MySpace, but it hasn't gone and further than that." And then I reenacted his denial because sometimes voice doesn't carry over very well in the written word.

"Well sometimes you just have to trust your gut."

"I know. I feel okay over it though. So tell me about your recent drama!"

The conversation flowed from blogging to bloggers (hehe!) to other things we had in common. The food was good, the beer was excellent, the weather was perfection, but Lil Bit made the afternoon. She's proof that there are perfectly normal people on the internet. Her personality that comes through her blog is real and genuine and is exactly what she showed me when we were in front of each other.

As an added bonus, she can verify that I have all my fingers and all my toes (okay, I think she took my word on the toes part, that would have borderlined on weird) and says I have a great smile and laugh, validating that I'm a perfectly normal person too.

Read her version here. She explains in a little more detail why there is a salad on top of her pizza. Meeting another blogger was such a good experience that we talked about meeting up off blog and in the real world again. Too bad geography keeps me from meeting nearly everyone (AT takes second place with a three hour drive), but there is a trip to London planned for May of 2008, so all y'all Brits watch out!