Downright Neighborly!

I was treated to a bright spot in the middle of an otherwise absolutely insane day today: I finally had a chance to visit with my blogging buddy Susan! Susan and I have been meaning to get together for about a year now, but for one reason or another we've never been able to coordinate our schedules.

In most circumstances that's pretty understandable. I mean, we're all busy and it's sometimes hard to coordinate schedules and travel to meet people we've met in the blogosphere, even if they're local. But for Susan and I there's really no excuse because -- well, put it this way: if I were to call my kids for dinner or call for my pets to come inside at night, Susan could very likely hear me! It turns out she's my neighbor!

We discovered that we were neighbors quite by accident, actually. Last summer I posted a little ditty about a garage sale we'd just had, along with a photo of our driveway with all kinds of junk in it. Within a day, I got an e-mail saying, Oh my goodness, I think we might be neighbors!" And sure enough, we are!

Now if that isn't a small world story...

Susan was one of the recipients of my Pay-It-Forward post, and I absolutely wanted to deliver her gift (homemade earrings) in person, so finally today we met for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Baja Fresh -- which just happens to be very close to my office. I wish we could have had hours to visit -- and I'm sure we could have filled the time with chatter -- but unfortunately I only had an hour before I had to get back for a conference call that I'd been. But oh, what an hour it was! Susan is gracious and sweet and funny and kind -- exactly as she is on her blog. We talked about raising teens, about our pets, about our hubbies and our parents, about blogging and scrapbooking, and about living in Seattle.

Our time together ended far too soon, but no worries -- all I'd need to do is open my back door and call out "Suuuuuusaaaaaan" and we can meet again for a walk around the block!