I am so excited and nervous about what is ahead. I am about to take the most outrageous journey of my life. For anyone who knows me, this is quite a statement...don't worry, I haven't become a Scientologist, and I have still managed to avoid the persuasions of the Southern California UFO cults, (at least so far). I am about to take a trip across the country to individually meet each of the 240 or so "friends" I have on Facebook and on MySpace. It is overwhelming to think about, but oh so exciting and fabulous.
This is a very interesting time in my life. By interesting, I mean interesting and challenging. By challenging, I mean really sucky a lot of the time. It has been said that the most stressful things in life are the death of a spouse (or a divorce), a job change, and a move. I would imagine this was said by someone who got divorce, lost their job, and moved a bunch of times....like hmmm, me in the past year and a half. Losing all of those things in such a short period of time has forced me to do a lot of looking, questioning, re-examining, experimenting and reinventing and growing. I have heard that some people are able to grow by leaps and bounds without feeling alone... I haven't met any of these people. That is like running a marathon from beginning to end while balancing a spoon on your nose. It is possible, but it takes a level of finesse that I have not mastered, and I have not managed to keep company with anyone who has accomplished such things. The price of moving ahead in life is that you can't choose who will come with you. I missed a lot of people that I couldn't hold on to in the midst of all the change. I thought I was just losing my spouse in the divorce, but the list of friend casualties and feelings of being disconnected kept growing. Ironically, during these times, I would log on to Facebook or Myspace and see I had 200 something "friends". The "friends" ranged from childhood playmates, to people I see every day, to people I honestly do not remember ever meeting. There they were... all conveniently placed in alphabetical order on my social networking site of choice. These friends come complete with a profile photo, status updates, and often... pictures of their pets.
Somehow, I have found the audacity to want more. So... I have decided to meet these virtual friends face to face. I know this project will sound a bit bizarre to a lot of my friends. It sounded pretty bizarre to me too, but the longer I sat with the idea, the more excited and compelled I felt to do it. I would imagine some virtual friends might even de-friend me for being some kind of virtual loon. For those friends... I have to say, it gets weirder...I am bringing my cat. Somehow, George and I will find away to get over it. To those of you who share in my excitement... I have to say, thank you, and I sincerely hope George and I meet you in our travels.
This journey will officially begin with my High School reunion on June 27th. That gives me the next 7 days to drive from San Diego, pick up my cat in Atlanta, and drive to New York for my reunion. I have a lot of planning to do, a lot of driving to do, and a lot of deep breathes to take before my start date. Wish us luck! If you are a friend on Facebook, you'll be hearing from me soon. If you have any interest in meeting up with me, please drop me a message with your city so I can plan my trip. In the meantime, I will blog away.
