Coming out to a friend

Well, there you have it...a photo of me with the wee princess. Do I look anything like you imagined I would? (Of course, I'm sporting 25 remaining pregnancy pounds, as well as the unkempt new mom hairdo of "throw it up in a clip" along with a raggedy t-shirt...but well, I'm me only tired, happy, tired, in love, and--oh yeah--tired.)

Like you probably do, I have images in my mind of what each of you looks like in real life. You may or may not match the images I've conjured up but it's kind of fun and interesting to finally see one of your online friends either in real life or a picture and see how on or off your image of them is.

See, that's the thing...like Pazel wrote in a wonderful post recently...I consider you friends. True, we've never met in real life--but that doesn't mean that your friendship doesn't mean as much to me as if we did know one another in person. We've shared so much, been through good, bad, and ugly together, and--perhaps most importantly--cheered one another on when we couldn't find the spirit to cheer ourselves on. On more than one occasion, you've reminded me what's important (or what's not), or not to be so hard on myself, or a myriad of other things that I'm grateful for. Your wisdom has helped me through so much and I'm honored to call you friend.

I get so jealous when I read on other blogs how someone got to meet a fellow blogger in real life. Don't you sometimes wish we could have some sort of 'convention' to all get to finally meet one another in person? (Or maybe that's a bad idea...cliques and whatnot.) Regardless, please know that this south Floridian has a special place in her heart for you...and that if you're ever in my neck of the woods, I'd love to meet you in person, friend.