Can you consider someone you know only from her blog a friend? I was going to say that a friend of mine was coming to visit this weekend but I don't know if we're friends. How does this stuff work over the Internet anyway? Thanks to our respective blogs, we've seen each other's pictures and read each other's personal thoughts. We've traded e-mails. I know more about her in some respects than I know about people that I, er, know.
Ya know?
She did not arrange this trip solely to see me. She had a business trip that would bring her as close to me as Orlando. The 80 or so miles from there? Yeah, that was for me. Any further and I would have warned her that it wasn't worth the trip. But 80 miles? I'm worth that.
But how does she know that? Meeting someone you know only from the Internet is a giant leap of faith. Even if you've seen pictures and read someone's most intimate thoughts, especially when the person has a terrific gift for expressing her feelings, it's not the same as sitting across from someone at a dinner table.
No one has bad breath on his blog.
No one stutters or stammers or has trouble finding the right word at the right moment. Despite more than 15 years working in television news, I am much wittier in print than in person. By amazing coincidence, my difficulty making conversation with a woman is proportional to how pretty she is. Funny how that works, huh?
Not that this was supposed to be a hook up. Pleasant as she is to look at, at least from her pictures and you know how that can turn out, I wanted to talk to her. Some of the stories she tells on her blog are so heartbreaking, you want to reach across the country (where she lives) and give her a big hug, kiss her on the forehead and tell her everything will be OK. Many of them are quirky and funny and even as they describe someone teetering on the edge of disaster. I really looked forward to meeting the person behind them.
I'll have to keep looking. She wrote today to say she was sick and had cancelled her trip. I wrote back that she was welcome as soon as she was well, perhaps taking my own leap but I somehow don't think it's too big a risk.
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This is John McQuiston's blog, where you can subject yourself to his musings, his music, his photographs and even some of his professional work. John does not always write about himself in the third person.
- John
- Reporter, Writer, Video Biographer, Essayist, Photographer, Musician, Observer. On air, On-line, Whatever it takes to tell the story. These are some of mine. See more @ JohnMcQuiston.com
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4 comments:
There is a process when you meet someone in person after having established a "relationship" online. You have come to know this peron without the help of your other senses: sight, smell, touch....
So, when you actually are in front of this person, you will have expectations; even if you think you don't, you do. Then there is the part where you repeatedly ask yourself what the hell you think you're doing as you head to the point of rendez vous.
I've had 2 face to face meetings with men I have connected with online. It took 24 hours for our souls to find one another after our first meeting. Both times, on the plane over, I kept asking myself what was I doing? What if he didn't show up at the airport? Am I crazy?
It actually turned out to be a lot of fun.
You flew somewhere to meet someone you knew only from the Internet? That's incredible! I don't suspect I'd ever do that.
The closest I came was when I drove to Orlando to meet someone who had visited my web site and stayed in contact with me.
Perhaps that's why I think it would be worth it for someone to drive 80 miles to see me. ;-]
Not only did I FLY, I left the country, both times. The first time to Ontario the second to Europe.
He lived in Bath England. He met me at Gatwick and we did a 12-day tour through France. It was incredible.
I have been thinking about it over the last few days and have decided to blog it....thanks to your posting.
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