I met my first blogger in 2004 when I took the train to meet Tim. It was such a big deal back then. I wrote:

The butterflies are gathering in my tummy. Will I recognize Tim? When we see each other, will it feel like we've known each other for years instead of five minutes on the phone and seven months of peering into each other's lives from the blog window?

There was nothing to be nervous about in the end, and we've gotten along swimmingly all four times that we've gotten together.

Used to be, I had this mental divide between my Real Life and my Imaginary Life. I thought that meeting a blog friend was different from meeting a regular old friend. Over the past five years, I have gotten to meet so many of you and you've all become such a part of my life that I don't make that mental distinction anymore. Imaginary friends are just my friends, and I have way more of you than of people in my Real Life.

Now you guys are just normal to me. So normal that you're barely blogworthy, heh. I didn't even write about my weekend visiting CaliValleyGirl, or how we went to meet Allison, or how funny it seemed when someone was shocked that CVG and I had met (gasp) on the internet.

I didn't blog about going to SpouseBUZZ Live last November and meeting DeltaSierra (who at the time didn't have a photo of herself on her site and looked WAY younger than I expected), or Sig (who was exactly what I expected), or Leofwende (who was super nice), or seeing Barb again (who is always a joy to see).

And I didn't blog about meeting R1 either, but I should have. Truth is I've been too embarrassed to apologize to him for how goofy our meeting went down. We were both flustered because a girl had just shared some (ahem) personal TMI with the group. I was happy to see him, because he's been reading my site and emailing me for the entire time I've been writing, and in my excitement and flusteredness I hugged him, which is completely out of character and immediately seemed like the weird thing to do. And he was a bit out-of-sorts, being a man in a sea of milwives, so we didn't get to meet each other until optimal conditions. And I hate that, and have felt guilty about it for months. I also never thanked him for the great gift that he brought me.

I ought to have blogged about all these things, but I don't...because they are my Real Life now. They're just normal.

They're just my friends.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:44 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 I first 'met' you shortly before you started blogging. It's been almost six years since then, and we still haven't met, though I want to change that. You were in Germany that first year, so meeting you would have been nearly impossible. Now that we're on the same continent and not that far away from each other, it's very plausible. And I'm not nervous at all. I guess I would be if we didn't have a long history. And as you know, long long-distance relationships are a specialty of mine! PS: I remember that first Tim meeting. I'd have felt the same way if I were in your shoes. You only knew him for seven months at the time. The more you get to know people, the less meaningful the divide becomes. Depth over distance. The furthest people can be the nearest ... and vice versa!

Posted by: Amritas at February 26, 2009 11:48 AM (+nV09)

2 Since I met my husband online, I haven't really thought about the difference between "online friends" and "IRL friends", even those I've never met, or only met once. I only think about it when I start to say to an IRL friend, "Oh, I know someone who's been there/done that" and then for some reason feel like I should explain that said friend is actually a friend who I've never met in person. It's kind of funny, actually.

Posted by: Leofwende at February 26, 2009 12:17 PM (28CBm)

3 The only weird thing must be the oddball people who read your blog but don't comment. They might shoot a random email once every few years. But that's it. (Which is why I don't blog. Perhaps I should. I'm just not that exciting. And sooooo busy, darn it.) But my fingers are still crossed for a good ultrasound, for what it's worth.

Posted by: Eowyn at February 26, 2009 12:56 PM (XuHz+)

4 I have met some of my favorite people on the internet. The only sadness about it is that they're usually too far away for a casual visit.

Posted by: Deltasierra at February 26, 2009 02:15 PM (fPHZv)

5 I know what you mean - there was a time when I just didn't talk about my blog friends to non-bloggers. Now you all just happen to be a bunch of friends that I don't see as often. Not *nearly* as often as I like, but the difference is that we can communicate without the face-to-face part pretty well, too :-)

Posted by: Barb at March 03, 2009 08:31 PM (p+dnl)

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Real life superseded blogging life today and will continue to do so for a few days as I make my way to visit CaliValleyGirl. I will try to throw up a link or two if I can, but I will be out of the loop for a bit.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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