One of the magical things about meeting fellow bloggers in real life is putting their faces to their names. Another is putting their faces to your faces, because nothing beats an IRL hug (as opposed to an ALL CAPS one surrounded with multiple parenthesis).
And so it was recently that I had the fabulous honor of meeting up with some awesome blog buddies:
Jayne of injaynesworld, Nicky of We Work for Cheese, yours truly and Linda of The Good, The Bad, The Worse. Photo by Max.
Nicky flew all the way from Canada to visit Linda and her husband, Alex, in Alameda, Ca. And Jayne and I drove from our respective hometowns to meet them. And thanks to Linda’s and Alex’s gracious hospitality, we had ourselves a slumber party - wheee!
Canada! That’s like, a whole ‘nother country!
And not just regular Canada, like somewhere near the west coast, but Montreal. You know, the one in Quebec. Where they speak French and stuff. So I got to hear Nicky speak French with her little man, Max. Max, who at four years old, took the above picture of the four of us.
Max, who not only speaks French, but also plays chess.
See? Max takes better pictures than I because he doesn’t give people red eyes.
After wine and cheese and steak and slumber, we trekked over the next day to the Park Street Art & Wine Faire, where Max criticized the Pinot Noir selections.
OK, that’s not true, but he did placate his mother who HAD to go on the carnival rides and wanted Max to ride with her so she wouldn’t look silly.
Pictures don’t lie. Nicky is displaying ecstatic joy, while Max is showing, at best, sufficient amusement. Who, I ask you, likes this ride better and probably begged the other person to participate?
Somewhere along the festival route was a women’s clothing store that puts Nordstrom’s male accommodations to shame. Alex, the man of the group, may have had more fun than we did.
The Men’s Department at some women’s clothing store in Alameda, where they provide a couch, serve beer and play ESPN.
Somewhere else along the route, we stopped for lunch at Speisekammer, a German restaurant, where Nicky and I split a bratwurst sandwich and our server sported a jeweled tooth.
Am I that old? Is this a thing now?
She’d had it for five years so far, so if you’re considering tooth bling, and the only thing that’s stopping you is its lasting power, or accidentally swallowing it, have no fear, you heard it here!
Nicky and I stayed up late one night talking into the wee hours and I felt like I really got to know her. But maybe I didn’t. Because the next day, we walked to, from, and all around the Art and Wine Faire. So here’s the thing: they say you don’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. But Nicky walked multiple miles that day in what I never could.
Nicky’s zombie shoes
I know!
P.S. Nicky and Linda wrote their own posts about this trip, so if you want to hear it from their side, go visit them. Especially if you want to see the naked guy. Here is Nicky’s naked guy, and here is Linda’s naked guy.
