Coffee And Kate

Deb: The best part about doing a blog is undoubtedly the connections we make. Of course we do the blog to express ourselves, but it’s the connection with the people who follow our blog that gives it its life. Otherwise we are simply talking in a vacuum. So what happens when it goes one step farther and we find ourselves connecting on another level? We already experienced it in our Skype with Shalaka and yesterday we had Coffee and Kate! Live, and in person! Kate was technically, the very first follower of The Middle Ages and as she generously said yesterday, “I immediately followed you to encourage you. If people don’t get followed, they don’t keep it up.”  And why would they? Hell, I’ve been blogging from the age of ten. It was called a diary.

Kate has her own wonderful blog which is wonderful and personal and full of charm. Kate already felt like a friend these last two years. Just a friend we’d never met. But face to face is good for a friendship right? So we set out to meet and it was lovely, lovely.  I had no trepidation at all about meeting Kate. I knew it would be easy and it was. There was no fanfare, no awkward pauses. And you really know that someone is a true friend when within five minutes of meeting them, you are talking about vaginas. And the second way you know someone is a friend is when it just feels awful to say goodbye.

Come back soon Kate!

Barbara: Yes, Kate (aka Stubblejumpin’ Gal, etc etc) is a Saskatchewan native (a beautiful Canadian prairie province) and it turned out that she had business in town. She suggested we meet for coffee and luckily our schedules allowed us to do that! It was like a lovely breath of fresh air to meet this wonderful person in real life. I know people are very often not what you expect when you only know them from their online “personas”, but—and maybe it’s because Kate is a Prairie gal—I went to coffee expecting her to be exactly as she seemed on our blog and her own. I did entertain the possibility that she might not be, but that was more a vague question about my own perceptions and expectations. I wonder if any of you have had similar experiences of meeting people you’d only known from social media and what it was like when you saw them in real life? Because there was Kate, as if we’d been meeting for coffee every week for several years! And, like Deb said, there we were talking about our most private lives like we’d just been waiting for this chance. It’s another amazing example of the world in its most intimate smallness. Thanks, Kate!

Kate: Yesterday was the first time I've met "internet friends" in person, so I did wonder whether it was possible that we would have nothing to say to each other, awkward moments, or even be just plain disappointed if each other was not as expected.

But our meeting, from my very first glimpse of a smiling Deb in front of the bagel shoppe, felt so completely warm and natural, as if I was seeing long-lost friends. There was instant recognition and affection and I enjoyed every moment of our chat. It was all so easy! and of course was over too soon.

You are both lovely, lovely people and I feel absolutely blessed.

x's and o's,

Kate