almost

Oh we were so close. Thisclose. In a flurry of emails yesterday I finally managed to firm up plans to meet the fabulous Karen of Virtually There in the flesh. Those people who know me well, know that this was a big deal for me, for a lot of reasons -- 1. I've been calling Karen a friend for a good long time now and yet have never actually laid eyes on her in person. 2. And this could be the very biggest one.... I was going to be meeting her on my own.

It's no secret that Michael is my social security blanket. I am horrible at small talk if I don't know you. I am so shy that I know it comes across as stuck up and/or bitchy. It's not something I like of myself, but here we are. That being said, if you take a moment to get to know me, I like to think I'm a pretty kick ass friend to have.

So I extended the invitation to Karen and then, surprisingly, didn't have a panic attack. There was no hyperventilating, no moment of -- oh my God what have I done? I was actually very excited about our date. Her and I. Her girls and mine. And lunch.

I was even very low key about it with Mike, casually mentioning it over kitchen chores in a conversation that I immediately emailed to Karen.....

[email]
Funny story Mike was loading the dishwasher just a little bit ago and I was
getting dinner ready. I said to him... so Karen's coming over tomorrow.

Karen, who?

Karen from Ottawa.

His response to that... yeah right. [/end email]

When I explained to him that I was serious he stopped what he was doing to stare at me for a moment..... you know, he said, you sound pretty proud of yourself.

And I was. No doubt, between blogging, email, twitter and facebook Karen knows lots about me already (and I her). She could definitely hold her own with my jammie movie night girls. (which by the way Karen, if you want to hit up a jammie movie night before you head back home, you are more than welcome). All the awkward getting to know you stuff has long since been taken care of. The only part I was truly panicking over was the menu. I mean Karen is no slouch in the kitchen and I did not want to disappoint. I think I changed my mind about what to make a dozen times.

Alas it was all for naught. Poor Emily was not feeling the greatest this morning and as tempting as it was to say eff it and go ahead anyway.... Abby was the lone grown up amongst us, wisely suggesting it would be best to wait until Emily felt better. Good news is we're already working on rescheduling it. Here's hoping we manage to align our schedules soon.