So I had a lunch date on Wednesday…

…. but first, let’s go back, back, back in time (cue the Wayback Machine). Way back in 2006, I started doing a few knitting swaps. This was back in the day before Ravelry, when you had group Blogger blogs and swaps and that was the only way to find other knitters. I KNOW. And dinosaurs roamed the earth.

I don’t remember which incarnation of the tea swap it was – and I’m pretty sure it was one of the tea swaps, because the Secret Pal swaps were huge and I never would have gone through the list of participants. See, what they would do is list everyone in the swap, to encourage blog sharing, and to tease you by implying that maybe you could figure out who the person sending you stuff was by reading everyone’s blogs (you knew who you were sending stuff to, but they didn’t know you, and you were getting stuff but didn’t know from whom. So there was a big reveal at the end. And holy CRAP what a reveal for some of them – Lara spoiled me rotten! I still have, and wear, that shirt ALL THE TIME. That was Lara, right? Or have I gone mad?)

ANYWAY.

So for one of them, maybe the first, I was going down the list of participants and blog names and saw one that made me raise an eye — AmpuTeeHee. And I thought, “now, there’s a person I would like to get to know, whether she’s sending me stuff or not!” (She was not; but I didn’t let that quell my blog-stalking.) My guess, without even visiting the blog yet, was that it was most likely someone missing a limb, and someone with a wicked, fuck-you-tragedy sense of humor.

I was right, and she is brilliant and touching and funny and honest and can make you laugh and cry in a single blog post. I came for the knitting, but I stayed for the outlook on life. And after a while I started commenting on her blog, and she came to check out my blog, and we’ve been tea-and-Converse-shoe-loving-internet-friends ever since.

AND WEDNESDAY WE MET IN VIRTUAL PERSON!

I hope I didn’t talk her ear off. I meant to leave my hair down, which looks better, but it was hot as blazes in my room so I put it up – and you can see from her picture that I looked pretty dorky. How did she not laugh at me through the whole thing? We met on Skype for what felt like an hour, tops, but was really more like two-and-a-half. It was like hanging out with an old friend, as if we did this all the time. That’s how natural it felt. Bonnie is Good People, y’all, and I loved getting to actually have some face-to-face time with both her and her adorable puppies (I want a dog just like Riley!).

I love living in the future, where someone from California and someone from Florida can meet over something as old school as knitting, but have a friendship built on architecture of the future. I would, I think, rather have Skype than a jet-pack. Especially if it means more breakfast/lunch dates!