A Wikkid good trip to New England. Part Two.

Stop Number Two on our tour of New England was to the home of Ms. Picket. I can't tell you exactly where Ms. Picket's home is because she hasn't mentioned it on her blog and I'm not going to invite my entire family to stay at her house and then start outing her on the internet.

It's the Blog Code, dude.

All week Scott kept asking me, "Are you nervous about meeting Darcy?"

Um, nope.

All week my friends kept asking me, "Do you think she's really an old man or a Craig's List Killer?"

Um, nope.

I knew what she was and who she was long before we pulled up to the door with the red carpet unfurled. She and I have been emailing each other every day for over a year. And it was a hard year. Scott's father died. Darcy's husband got laid off. Just like half of the other people we know. Our kids went through troubles. We went through troubles because of our kids.

And through all of it she and I were clicking away at each other via email for support and laughs and venting and bitching. (*see below)

So was it weird when I first met her? Finally? In real life?

Um, nope.

It was just two old friends and their families hanging out for a few days in the summer.

The only moment when I had a second of holyshitpitinmystomachcringe was when we walked across the shallow water to the beach and Darcy says over her shoulder, "Oh by the way, the gang's still here."

What the...

The gang. The Picket Posse. The three other families that Darcy spends her vacations and birthdays and holidays with. Oh hello tight-nit circle of friends. I'm Carolyn from the internet and I am not a weirdo. My kids might be but it depends on their mood. I shall now entertain you with my nervous laughter and inappropriate wit. And the occasional jazz hand. Tah dah.

Of course they were all very nice. And they didn't look at all nervous about the fact that I already knew all about them. Like an internet stalker/identity thief. Hi girls. *waving* Or at least Hi Liz, because I made her promise to read me every day. That's not weird right?

Ms. Picket (who wrote a better post about this trip than I seem to be writing) and Dana's Brain (who has some very unattractive pictures of us on her blog) and For Myself (who is apparently still reeling and hasn't written anything about the meeting yet) and I got together to discuss the intricacies and nuances of blogging drink a bunch of hootch and laugh our asses off. It was a dirty sloppy good time.

The next day we went out on the boat and Paul taught Parker how to drive. So now, yeah we love Paul. And the kids all hung out and whined and jumped in the freezing water and laughed and picked on Kipp because he's the youngest and a boy which is apparently a crime on the high seas.

This picture of all of the kids on the back of the boat was the last one I took before my camera died. Stupid camera.

If it hadn't died then I would have pictures of us ordering much needed Bloody Mary's on the way home at a dockside bar and meeting Samantha the babysitter that evening (who I already knew all about of course) and going to a yummy dinner with just the adults! and then hitting the bar to be absolutely positively sure the kids were all asleep and then loading up all five kids the next morning and roadtripping with the Picket's as though it were something we did every summer.

Which come to think of it, maybe it is.

***************

Oh and by the way, if you're curious about this year of emails, about the unlikely - or at least unconventional - friendship between Carolyn Online and Ms. Picket . . . Well, you can read all about it in THE BOOK. Um, yeah. We wrote a book. Or compiled a book. I guess "compiled" would be a more technically correct term. A year of emails (actually a tiny fraction of the emails we wrote because we um wrote a lot of emails) interspersed with blog posts.

It is unconventional and fun and voyeuristic and hopefully will be ready for you to scoop up at the Blogher Convention Bookstore. It will also be available for you online after the Blogher Convention.

If I were you I'd buy the book. Don't wait for the movie. Oh you know I'm kidding. There's no movie in the works. Yet. But if there were I wonder who they'd cast as the leads to play me and Darcy. Who would Hollywood cast to play you?