My Blind Date With A Blogger

There has been a lot of talk lately about whether you can be true friends with fellow bloggers.

A few weeks ago, one of my regular readers let me know they were coming to Calgary, where I live part-time and am slowly, slowly, slowly trying to live full-time.

This blogger didn't actually come out and say, "Can we meet?" But it was obvious there was that implied suggestion. So, of course, as someone who never looks more than three hours into the future, I was the one to throw out, "Let's meet!"

I mean, it would be so many weeks before this blogger actually came to Calgary, and, surely, I'd either forget about it, or they would.

After you've been to 3259 cocktail parties, where people air-kiss you and say, "We should get together!" you really start to believe that no one ever actually gets together. Because no one ever gets together!

But that didn't happen this time. "I'm coming to Calgary next week," went the e-mail I received last week. "Are we still on?"
So, of course, I wrote back, "Of course we're still on." (Apparently, this blogger doesn't travel in the same cocktail party circuit as I do where "We should get together," means "See you at the next cocktail party.")

The day before we were to meet, I told The Fiance I was meeting a blogger for lunch the next day. He was all like, "Are you friggen crazy?"

So I was like, "Um, duh. Yeah I'm crazy. But what does that have to do with me meeting a blogger for lunch?"

I'm quite naive about people. I really do believe the best in people and that everyone is nice. I'm always shocked when people are mean to, or about, me. "Why are people so mean?" I'll ask the fiance, when, oh I don't know, someone sends me evil (but often hilarious) e-mails.

"Because in the real world," he always tells me. "People are not nice. If you put yourself out there, people will be mean."

And I'm like, "But where do people find the time? When I have even two minutes of free time, I'd never spend it sending evil e-mails to strangers."

And then The Fiance will say, "And that's why you are who you are," which I take to mean that when I have free time, I'll use it to work and make $1500 doing a freelance assignment (Check out this month's Chatelaine - it's actually a pretty good mag), while other's spend their time writing about me, or sending me evil (but hilarious) e-mails, instead of focusing on their own careers.

But that's just me. Maybe there are people out there who prefer sending evil e-mails to strangers than making money.

But I'm getting off topic. The fiance thought I was "friggen crazy" to meet a blogger who I knew nothing about.

"That's not true!" I said. "I know this person has two dogs, a cat, is 23 years-old and married." (I read this on her profile.)

"How do you know it's not a crazy stalker man who is pretending to be a female blogger only to lure you to meet them?" he asked. "How do you know they are who they say they are? You better have your cell phone on THE ENTIRE lunch."

His freak-out gave me pause. It was true. How much really do we ever know about bloggers? We see their profiles, the movies they like, and the books they read. But it would be very easy to lie.

But, because I'm naive, I take blogger's profiles to be true. If you say your favorite movie is The Princess Bride, well, I'll believe your favorite movie is The Princess Bride.

But The Fiance freaked me out. I really did know nothing about this blogger. In fact, I didn't even know what she looked like (The photo of them was from when they were a kid.) I only knew that this blogger went by the moniker "How Did I Wind Up Here?" I wasn't even sure of this bloggers name.

But the day arrived. I kept my phone on. I walked into the very public restaurant I suggested at the very public hour of 12:30 p.m. I had pepper spray in my purse. Ok, that's not true. But, suddenly, the fact that this blogger could be very boring and that I'd waste 2 hours of my time, was the least of my worries.

Here's what happened: I met this blogger, who was female (phew!) and I had an amazing time. It was super fun. She was super nice, very interesting, and very funny. In fact, it turned out to be one of those lunches where the waiter came back to ask, three times, "So are you ready to order yet?" when we hadn't even looked at the menu. That's how fun the lunch was.

Meanwhile, my cell phone kept ringing and ringing to the point it was embarassing (The fiance making sure I was still alive) I turned it off because I was enjoying myself so much. I felt like I had met a new friend, who seemed like an old friend. And, the best part of meeting this blogger was that it restored my faith in human nature.

Because, sometimes, a blogger is just a blogger.