Blogging Friends

I tend to do things in a big way with a loud and obnoxious style. As I recently wrote to a friend in an email, “I’m sort of like a hot pink, heathen bull crashing around a library”. I am sure that if there was any doubt to this statement the group of woman that I spent several hours snorting and yammering at on Friday night will put any doubts to rest.

See?! It’s happening. The dreaded “Social Anxiety Afterward” phase. You know, the period where you meet people that you don’t know (Or don’t know REALLY well) and then for hours and/or days you pick apart every hostess “Error” you may or may not have committed or every stupid look, sentence, snort, and nervous donkey laugh that you emitted throughout the evening.

Sigh.

Still! It was FUN!

On the way down to Salt Lake I stopped off at Target to buy a “Thank You” gift certificate for Jessica for the tons of time and help that she’s put into my webpage. I had my trusty IPOD, “Tide” with me and had one bud in my ear and one out so that I could hear the clerk.

“Are you listening to music right now.”

“Yah, I sure am.”

“Really? What are you listening to?”

“Um…er…uh…(BLUSH)”The third movement of the Organ Symphony by Saint Saens.” (It’s not really so impressive when you say “The tune that they made into the song the farmer sings to the pig in the movie, “Babe”)

“Wow. Not your usual fare. Probably why you’re shopping at Target and I’m ringing you up, huh?”

“Um. I’m A JANITOR.”

“Really? Wow. Well, that gives me hope then!”

“Great. Glad to have been of service.”

I was the first at the restaurant. Of course, I was also a total dork that kept taking photos of myself and the hostesses to pass the time. Lame-o-matic right here, people. Soon enough Jessica, her disgustingly cute and young looking sister(She is twenty EIGHT! Not fair.)Amanda, Heather and Sara arrived. Heather was just as cute in person as I thought she would be and she looked adorable with her short haircut and newly braces-free teeth! I didn’t really know Sara that well (She doesn’t have a blog. Yet.) but I enjoyed all the emails we exchanged preparing for the evening.

There was a tiny moment of silent “EEEK!” awkwardness, but luckily, since the reservation was in my name, I got to escape and get our table settled. Really, though we were all pretty chatty and happy from the beginning. It.was.awesome. I asked our waitress to take a photo. She was kinda cranky and so I only had her take one, so it isn’t the best quality ever, but here we all are. Actually, except for the fact that I ended up looking like a freaking serving wench at Octoberfest, we all look fairly good.

There is one really great thing about meeting with people who blog. They all understand the importance of posing for photos and making sure that they are done correctly. Jessica is the posing Queen. I swear she doesn’t know how to take a bad photograph.

I loved talking and getting to know these ladies. I found out cool things like Sara has a masters degree in piano performance from ASU. You would have to be a music major to fully realize how FREAKING impressive that is!!! Everyone managed to hold their own conversation-wise during the evening despite the fact that I don’t know how to shut the hell up and am an attention freak. Did I mention that this limelight hogging only intensifies when I’m nervous?!

I think that we ended up talking about everything under the sun, from blogging to “Being Popular” to why SAP’s (Socially Anxious People) tend to A: Publish embarrassing details of their lives on the internet (Like having your concrete guy catch you having “Enthusiastic” morning sex with your husband or Jessica getting naked in front of the FedEx guy. ) and B: Why on EARTH those same Socially Anxious People deliberately act dorkish and/or constantly call attention to themselves in public. (Answer? Because obviously, we know that people are going to think we are bizarre weirdos that are freakish in nature at some point so why not have control over WHAT weirdness they see and WHEN they see it? DUH!).

There were times that I am pretty sure Sara and Amanda’s eyes totally glazed over with Blogger-info-overload, but in the end they survived with only minimal cerebral damage.

After we left the restaurant we SHOPPED.

Jessica really embraced the whole experience, don’t you think?

I did feel a tad silly shopping in a store called “Forever 21″ but hey, the clothing was cheap and cute, so why the freak do I care. Well, I still do care a little. I have told all of my friends that if I am ever one of “Those” mothers…you know…the mother’s who try to be teenagers along with their daughters? Yah, THOSE mothers…to just slap me upside the head. I don’t want to be a fuddy duddy, but I don’t want to look pathetic either!

We…um…had fun n’ stuff…

Memo to those who try on clothing over their shirts. You may want to not put your top on inside out, backwards and through your purse strap.If you DO, though? At least TRY TO NOTICE BEFORE WALKING ALL OVER THE STORE.

At first the shopping wasn’t really going so great. I am a rather big framed girl and a stored called “Forever 21″ just really doesn’t support “Big Framed Girls”. Quite a few of the tops I tried on ended up looking either “Tribal” or like I had just been to Mexico where I was mobbed and outfitted by mumu-selling street vendors. These two were the biggest disappointments.

Mumu#1

Mumu #2 Come to think of it,this one also reminds me of the maternity hospital gown I was given to wear after having my children.

I ended up buying two tops that I LOVE. They were cheap and they are tunics with sleeves and they are cute, so I was happy.

After we said long enthusiastic goodbyes out by the Gateway fountain (And some random guy standing there also yelled “Goodbye Cutie” to me. Cool.) I headed out to crash at the abode of my sis and sis-in-law, Linny and Nooncy. It was awesome to see them. Nooncy bought me TWO BOXES OF DING DONGS!! I heart Ding Dongs (Yes, they were an intense obsession) I haven’t had a single hostess product since December. Wow. Noon also stayed up and chatted with me, which was totally cool. I heart talking to Nancy. She rocks.

In the morning I helped a tiny bit with some yard work and then I went for an amazingly good cup of coffee with my friend, Bryan. It was so good to see him. I hadn’t really talked or hung out with him in six months, so it was wunderbar to get the chance today. Linny and Nooncy also joined us for lunch at this great little diner called “Eggs in the City” by their house. Our waitress had AMAZING tattoos. My favorites are the pin up girls on her calves and the Audrey Hepburn on her forearm. Wow. I could NEVER do that (I was traumatized by my tiny little ladybug tattoo!) but seeing something like that is just impressive. (Go to my flickr account to see the rest of them. And YES! I tried to cut and paste the code onto my website like you all explained, but when I hit publish it just stayed code! GRRRR.)

I had such a good day and night. I love meeting people I meet online. It rocks. I love seeing people I love in “Real Life” that rocks, too.

Rock on.

Dude, I totally need to get a new word before Billy Idol calls and tells me that the 80’s want their word back.

Sigh.