Good Friends

What a fun day!

It started with a nice drive to Wabash to meet my friend Karen Swygart from Decatur for lunch.  It is an hour's drive for each of us.  Our first meeting a couple of years ago was at Culvers, then we met at Harvey Hinklemeyer's, then today at Mi Pueblo.  We had a nice booth in the back/side room, and the servers were gracious enough to just let us talk after we finished our lunch specials of Arroz con Pollo.



Karen and I are 'internet friends.'  Kathy had encouraged me to post in the forums in Dotti's Weight Loss Zone online as she and I were traveling through the Weight Watchers journey.  Because I was nervous at the time about sharing too much personal information, I used Gretchen Malene as my name (my childhood imaginary friend), but everything else was accurate.   I rarely used the names of family members, calling them the usual for the forum, DH for Gary, DD#1 for Megan, and DD#2 for Hilary. DSIL, DSisIL, DBroIL, DMIL, DFIL, and others are used frequently.  When Karen suggested meeting in person, I had to share my real name and the reason I had not been using it.  As time went on a few others have been told of my deception, and no one has declined my friendship thus far. Whew!

Anyway, today we had lunch from 11:30 until 3:00.  I had to leave so that I could go to the Logansport campus and meet with Leo; Karen needed to help her mother-in-law replace the glass plates and other figurines on the shelves in the living room after the new windows had been installed, so she needed to return home as well.  Otherwise, who knows how long we would have stayed there, just talking.

Our next meeting will be something in December.  She had suggested that we meet at the Ft. Wayne mall sometime, and I thought lunch at Cheddars, then going to the mall to talk and enjoy the ambiance of the holiday decorations would be a good idea.  So we are checking our calendars and trying to find a date for that.

It was a good lunch.  She is a good friend.  Thank goodness for retirement and the time to meet friends for lunch dates.