In which I tell you some very exciting news!!

 

Wait for it.  Exciting announcements like this must be led up to gradually. 

 

*thoughtful pause*

What if I told you that since being old enough to appreciate real friendship, I've never had my own particular friend.  I mean a close friend.  The kind of friend you can discuss just about anything with and who would--I don't know--invite you to stay at her house for a week or something like that...

 

What if I told you that I've never in all my life been away from home overnight without at least one of my siblings being with me...

 

What if I told you that I've never been on a plane.  Let alone while it was flying.   Let alone by myself...

 

What if I told you that I'm not an adventurous or daring person.  That doing new things, and going new places, is not my cup of tea...

 

That in plain simple language, I'm a big old scaredy-cat.

 

What if I told you all this?  Would you believe me?  And then would you believe me still further if I were to say...

IT'S ALL HAPPENING THIS JUNE! 

This June, people.  (Which happens to be next month according to the calendar.  Who'd have thought?)

 

I'm being adventurous!  

Me. 

I've been invited to visit a very dear friend (a very dear friend!) for a solid week and a half!

And I'm going.

By myself.  

I'm flying on a plane.  

By myself.  (Well, there will be other passengers, too.  Of course.  But they don't count). 

In less than three weeks times I shall be flying through the air, to an unfamiliar place, staying for a significant length of time, and...

I'm not even scared!!  (Well, okay, maybe I'm a little scared.  Getting on that plane is, I have to admit, a bit frightening but, well...we'll worry about that more when it gets closer.)

The truth of the matter is, I'm going.  Scared or not.  And whether you believe me or whether you don't.  It's still true.  

And now that I've rambled on in a attempt to build suspense...you all must be wondering who that certain dear friend is.  Well...

Some of you may just happen to know her.  She's a blogger, too.  In fact, I met her through blogging, and she's become one of my very closest friends, and this will be the first time we've ever met in person.   And her name is...

*suspenseful pause*

*suspenseful pause continued*

(Certain ones of you are no doubt grinning to yourselves at this point because you're pretty sure you know the answer to this riddle and you're feeling mighty smart right about now.)

(As to the rest of you--who haven't a clue who I'm talking about--well, you're probably starting to feel annoyed because I'm not getting to the point quick enough and the suspense is killing you.  Actually no, you've probably already scanned down and seen the name so you're not really in suspense and you're not really dying but you're still annoyed because you're trying to be polite and read this whole thing but it's starting to sound like a pointless, run-on sentence which it may well be but I'll never admit to that and while I'm still gabbing you finally throw up your hands in surrender and jump down to the next line so you don't have to keep reading this pointless narration which really isn't important but now that I've started I can't seem to stop and...)  (A person has to run out of breath sooner or later.  'Hem.)

*drum roll*

The friend in question is...

 

NATALIE!

I'M GOING TO VISIT NATALIE, PEOPLE!!  That dear sweet girl who blogs at Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens. 

I'm not kidding.  This is really happening!! And it's less than a month away!  We've been planning this since January and it's hard to believe we're coming down to the home stretch now. 

Honestly, trying to fully convey my excitement in writing is impossible.  So I won't even try.  Suffice it to say we are both extremely excited, and we have loads of fun things planned to do together.  Not the least of which is staying up till all hours of the night talking our heads off (because emails, you know, they do well enough in a pinch, but being able to actually TALK is going to be awesome)!  Also we may or may not have a list of movies we're planning on watching which has grown to nearly a mile long.  Ha.  (Taking a hint from the pictures in this post, can you guess what one of those movies is?  ;))  It's going to be amazing!!

And well, I guess that's all I have to say for now.  WASN'T THAT EXCITING THOUGH?  (I'm so glad you think so.  ;)) 

(And now I just have to ask.  Were any of you suspicious that something like this was afoot?  Because Natalie and I have been making subtle references to our visit quite frequently in our comments to each other and are rather curious to know if we really were as "subtle" as we thought we were.  ;))

EIGHTEEN MORE DAYS!!

*goes off grinning*

P.S. *edit*  Natalie wrote  a post about this, too.  Do check it out!  (And if it doesn't make you want to dance and sing well, all I can say is, "Odd that.")