What a great lunch it was! The Grumpy Old Dude (writer of Archon’s Den) and his wife stopped off in Tonawanda, NY as planned and had lunch with my mother-in-law and me at The Olympic Restaurant. The Olympic is a family-type diner with nice large booths, just perfect for meeting total strangers for the first time.
Not one of my “what if” scenarios came into play.
♦ They had no trouble whatsoever getting across the Canada-US border. In fact, they called me 45 minutes sooner than I had anticipated. I called my mother-in-law to let her know I was on my way to pick her up, and was greeted with an intake of breath followed by “Well, OK, but I’m just getting dressed.” As I drove the two blocks to her place, all I could imagine was her stumbling around frantically throwing clothes on, and I felt bad about that.
♦ My mother-in-law had no problems getting into my SUV.
♦ Mr. & Mrs. Grumpy Old Dude (hereinafter, G.O.D.) are not grumpy at all – in fact, they are the type of people whom, 5 minutes after meeting them, you feel like you’ve known forever. I had told them they could identify me by the teddy bear on the table, and they showed up waving a stuffed lamb toy – would grumpy people do that? I think not.
♦ I may be socially inept, but I felt extremely comfortable sharing a table with Mr. & Mr. G.O.D. We chatted, and we laughed. At one point, I realized that I had forgotten to actually eat my sandwich!
The restaurant management obviously wanted the table during the busy lunch period, so although we easily could have sat and chatted the entire afternoon, we finally had to leave.
Since I had the afternoon off, I volunteered to lead them to their motel, which was about 20 minutes away. Sure, they could have found it taking the 190 to the 290 to the 90, but I was able to guide them on the more scenic route consisting of lots of stores, plazas and businesses.
Of course, traffic was slow and we hit EVERY SINGLE RED LIGHT. At one point, my mother-in-law wondered if we were really making a good impression. Gee, I’ve driven that route numerous times and never had to stop at so many lights – WHY TODAY?
Be that as it may, we eventually got them to their motel. Stupid me, I couldn’t see the big “Lobby” sign right in front and drove all around the buildings looking for the office. G.O.D. had already parked and watched me as I came around the corner AGAIN. He had the courtesy not to laugh (at least not out loud).
All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
My very first blogger meet-and-greet. Guess I’m not a blogging virgin any more.
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I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
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Images by: Cordelia’s Mom, and David Lofink, respectively
So glad to hear it went well, CM. But with G.O.D., how could it not? 😆
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Absolutely.
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Awesome that you got to meet another blogger CM – and one from another nation – Whew! We Canadians aren’t as scary as we sound, are we? ha! That was too funny about the stuffed bear and lamb. That’s a really neat way to identify yourself when you’ve never met. Great post.
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And someday when I meet you, I will bring the very same teddy bear.
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Just read these posts ~ happy to hear that you-guys all had a good lunch, even after all those ‘nerves’!
I met up with another blogger near Pittsburgh while I was on vacation – also had a great time! It’s so easy to ‘go to’ the worst-case horror stories in our heads, isn’t it? And so unnecessary!
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You’re right. Most of us bloggers are just ordinary people – I don’t know why we get so nervous about meeting each other.
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Might come under the heading of “social anxiety”?
Sort of like the nerves that come with “meeting a celebrity” (of any flavor) – somebody we’ve built up “to be admired, and impressed if at all possible”?
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Probably. Although in my case, I’m socially inept so I get nervous whenever I have to meet anyone new for the first time. Except for my job – I’ve learned to handle that without butterflies.
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Congrats on your successful first blogger meet-and-greet! I myself have never done that, except for hanging out with my friend who also blogs, but I knew her before she began blogging. 🙂 I’d consider doing this myself one day, albeit keeping in mind to meet at a public place like you did — good call, to be safe!
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It was very exciting, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
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