Pseudotherapy

One of the best things about being a blogger is the people you get to know. Like all of you, I’ve made many online friends over the years. Last year, I decided to step out from behind my monitor and try to meet some of my online friends face to face. In the past 16 months I’ve met Hilly, Karl, Neil, Dave2, Kathleen, Catherine, Liz, Amandarin, Carrie, Peggy, Vahid, Winter, Motley, Jester, UMB and Jerry, and I’ve still got a wish list of bloggers I hope to meet someday.

Ajooja and me. Him TALL.

Saturday night I got to cross a name off that list. Ajooja and his wife were in San Diego on a business trip/vacation, so we got together for dinner at Nick’s At The Pier in my most favorite beach town of all, Ocean Beach. Our original plan was to meet at South Beach Bar & Grille for the best fish tacos in the world, but we got an inside tip that they might be just a tad busy on a Saturday night, so we shifted locales around the corner. Nick’s was a much smarter choice anyway, since it’s about a billion times quieter than SBB&G. When you’re meeting someone for the first time, it always helps to be able to actually hear what they’re saying, don’t you think? An added benefit was that Nick’s was not having a busy night, so we were seated at a window table right away.

Ajooja and his lovely wife

Ajooja guards his privacy pretty zealously, so I won’t use real names or any other revealing information here. Both he and his wife — who is indeed every bit as gorgeous as he describes — are warm and friendly, and there was an instant comfort level that comes from already knowing someone via their blog. Still, the friendship rises to another level when you sit across a table from someone and actually share a conversation. When you can hear their voice, watch their expressions, see how they interact with their mate, they naturally become more real to you. The friendship no longer requires the prefix of “online.” Plus, you get to find out just how different the person is from how they come across in their blog.

That was one of the topics of conversation at dinner, and Ajooja was in agreement that it can sometimes be a bit of a shock when you’ve had one concept in mind and are suddenly finding out how far off you were! I don’t know if he was experiencing that with me or not, but I certainly was with him! To be honest, I was so paranoid about meeting Ajooja that I almost backed out. My crush on him is no secret, and I think it’s probably been pretty obvious that crush largely stemmed from my thinking how much he reminded me of my first love. Speaking with him on the phone had intensified that impression. I even commented to Bret how unnerving it was to hear Randy’s voice coming from someone else. Bret was quite curious to see if he had the same opinion.

And then we met the Ajoojas. In person, he sounds nothing like Randy, which makes me wonder how hard my imagination was at work during our phone conversations! In person, he resembles Randy only in being a big, good-looking guy. Personality-wise, about the only similarity is both guys love San Diego passionately. While Randy is quiet and deeply shy, Ajooja is gregarious and outgoing, obviously comfortable meeting new people and experiencing new things, a true lover of life with all its adventures. He clearly picked exactly the right woman, too, as their mutual adoration is evident and delightful. Listening to them talk about their longings to be in San Diego made me smile. I know that feeling so well. Both are also kindly gracious — Bret tends to get quite rambling when the beer hits him (as some of you know first-hand), and they humored him good-naturedly. [Note to Karl: Bret only said "Stone" one time!!!]

I learned recently that Ajooja first began reading me when I was writing The Write Coast during my purgatorious ten months in Georgia. He was pretty surprised when he realized I am the author of both blogs. Sigh. Someday I hope to regain the level of excellence I achieved on TWC, but lordy, it’s hard to be a blogger when I’m working full-time.

Good dinner, good times and new friends IRL. Thanks, Ajooja and T****. We’re looking forward to next year!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 8:34 am and is filed under Blogging, Friends and Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.