5 Perfect Strangers

I met 5 other strangers/bloggers/soul sisters in Dallas this weekend.

And I now need to ask the question, "When it comes to traveling, are you an Over-Planner, a Just Right Planner, or...ahem, a Wait-for-the-last-possible-second-should-have-been-out-the-door-already-Planner?"

I am an Over Planner of Life, which turns me into a Wait-for-the-last-second-possible...the third choice.

I know I must get packed. By packed I do not mean just clothes either. I mean outfits. (You know what I mean girls.) And Secret Sistah gifts, and Glad to Meetcha gifts, and Glad to Have Met Ya gifts, and all the paraphernalia that would go along with a Meet Perfect Strangers/Sleep in Same Hotel Suite with said Strangers/Share Life Stories with again said Strangers/Spend 41ish Glorious Hours with said Perfect Soul Sisters, I mean Perfect Strangers kinda weekend. And there was a whole lot of paraphernalia and planning ahead that went along with this kinda weekend too. It's just that I Over Plan the rest of my life so that planning ahead thing and being organized was a little outta my league.

A few Slight Mis-Judgements:

* Going to an 8:40 pm movie the night before with not a stitch packed.

* Writing a very important business (12ish page) application after the movie and packing. (In my defense, I had sat with laptop in well, my lap, night after night for a week trying to pry something out of my brain. Nothing like a little deadline to get the typing fingers flying, eh? I am not so sure Saucy Sashi would agree, but she is also one of those pain in the bu...I mean extremely talented people who can just sit down and Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am write something poetic!)

* Search for purse in ransacked house on two hours of sleep. Not find purse and leave for weekend anyway. (Had wallet what else could I possibly need on a weekend out of state with Perfect Strangers?)

* Drive to meet first Perfect Stranger way too hyped-up on excitement of No-Kids-No-Domestic-Responsibilities-NO-Sleep b/c your foot might be a little heavy on the accelerator...before you've even cleared the city limits.

* Forget to have new jeans hemmed before end of week for trip because you may or may not have been busy pickin' up a hawg on the day "trip errands" were scheduled.

* Hem jeans by hand, in the car, on way to weekend with first Perfect Stranger driving with more hyped-up excitement than self.

* Have to wear thick socks and Merrells to over-priced pedicure because ped-i-cure did not sink in until the moment the socks were being peeled off so feet could be placed in warm, swirling, blue, lighted water... Thankfully, the kindness of yet another Perfect Stranger a pair of hot, pink flip-flops were located and purchased in the knick of time! Thank you Marcy!

* Visiting the Mecca of Knock-Offs and Cheap Costume Jewelry (Sam Moons) on a limited budget due to the fact I'd not limited my drinks the night before...ahem. Wow. Bars make a killin'. I wonder how Big Shooter would feel about opening a Straight Shooter Saloon?

* Not having camera for bloggy weekend. It is safely ensconced in lost purse.

Very Good Judgement Call:

* Trusting intuition and joining Bloggy Weekend with no-longer Perfect Strangers.

While sitting next to a beautiful lady in her late 50's getting my aching, deprived feet masterfully massaged and lathered so well I proposed to the sweet little girl...sorry, I lost myself. What was I saying? Oh yeah, beautiful lady. After observing the antics, joking and harrassing she asked me how long we'd been friends. I looked at my watch and said, "We met for the first time 17 hours ago." Of course she needed an explaination. But how do you logically explain to someone, "Well, see this is a group of girls who we've met on the internet, shared more deeply emotional experiences with than most of our real-life friends and we've been planning this first time meeting outta state, away from our families for a long time"? You don't. You just say, "Oh, we're on-line writers. We correspond with each other regularly and decided to finally meet in person." For some reason that sounds better and they say, "Oh, that's great," instead of getting this bug-eyed look of "OMG! It's a gaggle of on-line ax murders!"
I digress. Again.
After a brief description her response was so very heartfelt. "You know honey, I have a group of girlfriends I've been friends with for 27 years and we act just like this. The difference is, it took us 27 years to form this kind of friendship. Treasure this. Keep this a priority. Women need these kinds of friends."
Wow.
Just wow.
I told her we plan to. And I do.
Women do need each other. And I needed this weekend. And these women.

Thank you girls...until next time.

Love Note to my Big Shooter: Thank you for encouraging me to take part in this weekend. I am so very blessed to have you. Do you know why I love you the most? Cause you didn't give me the third degree about any of them. Not one question. ...and I am choosing to believe it was because you just didn't want to be overbearing or controlling. Not that you didn't care I was leaving the state, staying in a hotel you didn't know the name of, or have any numbers you could reach me at in case of emergency... thank you for the freedom Darlin'. In case you want to check them out now, after the fact, here they are.
Soliloquy @ She Just Had to Say It (an extraordinarily, unforgettable post)
Holly @ June Cleaver Nirvana (her pics are a-maze-ing)
Suzanne @ Happy Chaos (timely smiles are not their specialty)
Marcy @ The Glamorous Life (a perfect example of her playfulness)
Shawna @ Blah Blah Blog (don't kid yourself, she's the rock star in the fam)