My (Facebook) Friend Story

Everybody loves a good love story.
But this is a good friend story.  And it is all because of Facebook.




Facebook was so annoying to me when it was all my kids seemed to want to do.  I could NOT understand why it was so fascinating that it needed to be looked at multiple times a day.

Then, I got my own account.  Do you see a trend here?  Remember pinterest?

Mostly I wanted to keep in touch with my grown up kids who live far enough away that the only way I knew what was happening with them was by checking their profiles.  Ahem.  Call your mother.

But it turned into a wonderful way to keep in touch and get back in touch with people that I really truly care about.  Suddenly, family members that I saw once or twice a year could "communicate" their lives to me in pictures and words, not to mention chatting.  A little hi or how is it going on chat was easy.  These were people I love but someone I might never call on the phone because I didn't want to "bother" them.

Not to mention high school friends that you haven't seen or really talked to for decades.

Then I started seeing a name that looked familiar but someone I had never met popping up on some of my friends' comments.

A little background:

   When I was in high school my closest cousin and I went to different schools that were only about 15 miles away.  She was involved in drama and her school's musicals and my school didn't do any of either.  I loved attending her concerts and plays and musicals.  I guess I kind of lived vicariously through her in that department.  I made so many great friends through Nancy and I loved spending time with her and all the "cool" people she was connected with at her school.

So.  One day I just sent a message to the girl with the name that looked familiar and struck up a conversation with her.  We had a lot in common.  Our daughters are the same age and both have cerebral palsy, although with different outcomes.  We knew many of the same people from high school. She even had been good friends with a friend of mine whose two brothers had married two of my cousins.  How's that for 6 degrees.

And so, a friendship was born.  

Then we would talk on the phone or send each other books to read or cards for each other's birthdays.

I would mention my friend, Lisa, and always qualify that we were friends who had never met.  Odd?  Maybe.  Unheard of?  No.

This past spring our family went to visit our youngest son in North Carolina.  While looking at the maps and making plans we came to realize that the city where Lisa lives was only 2 hours from where we would be staying.  We made plans to meet for lunch about an hour away from each of us in the middle.

The day came and I must admit I was nervous.  What if she thought I was some kind of weirdo when we met? It sort of felt like a blind date, only it was a friendship date.

We met and it was so great to spend time with a friend and finally MEET her in person.  She had picked out a fun, hidden away little restaurant and the food was great.  After lunch we hung around and talked for a while and then we had to go back to our lives.  It was so fun to solidify our connection by actually meeting.

After we got down the road a bit I realized that we had made a terrible mistake.



WE FORGOT TO TAKE  A PICTURE AND PROVE THAT WE HAD ACTUALLY BEEN IN THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME!

Oh, well, I'm sure we will meet again somewhere along the way.

Do you have any fun friend stories?