I love Facebook. It’s brought me into contact with people all over the world. I’ve reconnected with friends from high school and I’ve made become better friends with some folks from high school (one has a hysterical blog – you should read it http://michilocke.blogspot.com (just another shameless plug for Michelle)). I’ve even spoken too some of the gang over the phone. I’ve been invited to visit a number of my on-line friends – in New Jersey, Idaho, Biloxi & even Australia. And eventually I will get to meet all these fun folks face to face.
My one girlfriend lives… not too far way, but just far away that I can’t just pop up after work. Plus it’s up 202 and that would just suck. She introduced me to Bob B. Bob B. is a chemist and a civil war re-enactor (Pa 6th – http://www.6pahome.com). Bob promptly added me to his e-mail list and I have been wonderfully amused ever since. Bob is great. Mare is great for introducing me – and for lotsa other reasons too.
One day last year, after laughing at each other through e-mail, we decided to get together after work and have dinner. Me, Bob B., Bob U., Mare, and Anthony had dinner in King of Prussia because it was central to where most of us lived and worked. Granted I knew Mare and Mare & Anthony knew most of us, the Bob’s & I had never met. We had a great time and it was wonderful putting real faces with voices. Our 2 hour dinner went by really quickly and we decided we should do it again – soon.
I play on-line games and one of my friends and I decided, while his girlfriend was in town, the 4 of us should meet for lunch. The ONLY problem with that is he is 2 hours (ish) south of me. So we decided we should met 1/2 way in Baltimore. It was so much fun. Law, Mynx, David & I got along great. It went by way too fast. Again 3 hours seem like 30 minutes. Of course David & I got totally lost in Baltimore on the way home – but thank God for the iPhone maps. It was a fun, fun day and we had Dairy Queen to make it that much sweeter.
After talking with Ant, Mare & Bob through e-mail for a couple of days we decided it was time for another group get together. We decided to do lunch this time. The date was picked, but where to eat. Since King of Prussia is central to where we all live, we decided to go back there. It only took 3 dozen e-mail and a coin toss to decide on Chili’s. This time Bob U. couldn’t come. But my David was able to join in the fun. So we all met at Chili’s at 1 pm. After a good lunch with free chips and queso (check out my photos) we figured it was about 4 pm and we might want to get going. This new server came up and asked if we were staying for dinner. It was actually 6 pm! We had talked for 5 hours. We outlasted the table next to us – 3 times – and even outlasted out server. WOW!!! Time flies when you have good friends to talk to. So after another almost hour – I really think all of our clocks were wrong – we vacated the table and went home – still stuffed. Chili’s was remarkable tolerant of our sitting there for that long.
So to all my FB friend who have invited me for lunch, a weekend or even longer. I’ll be there – eventually. And for anyone who is considering getting a group of FB friends together for a meal. GO! DO IT! and enjoy!