meeting up with "invisible" friends

a couple of weeks ago, i had the great fortune of meeting up with my pal insomniac and a new old friend (does that make sense?).  ms.blake was always one of my nest heroes: super stylish, wonderfully witty, extremely elusive.  she has a way of being totally open and really private at the same time.  she's one of my favorite "twirlfriends" (that's twitter girlfriends, or "twirlies" for short), and yet...i had no idea what she actually looked like in person.  heh.

she lives up in northern california, and when she told me she was coming down to the l.a. area, we made a date to meet up for brunch. although i'd joked about wearing pink and carrying a red rose, i wondered how we'd go about finding each other.  then again, i'm not exactly hard to spot, considering the fact that my profile picture on social media (and on this blog) actually IS me.  i strolled into our restaurant of choice right on time:

and found insom already inside, waiting patiently.  i'd seen her check in via foursquare and knew she'd arrived early.  we spoke to the dude at the front counter, who couldn't find the reservation but assured us it would be no problem to seat us.  insom and i giggled nervously when he asked us whose name the reservation was under, and we must've sounded really hesitant.

"do you actually know "blake"?" he asked curiously.

"uh...yes and no," i said.  bahahahaha!  i don't know what was worse, my cryptic response or a full-blown explanation of how we "knew" each other.

i spotted a fabulous pair of sunglasses on a [insert description of blake here] woman outside, and for some reason, i knew immediately that it was her.  and the awkwardness i'd worried about disappeared right away as we hugged and gushed over how excited we were to meet each other at last.

do you really care about the food?  here's my super delicious corned beef hash with poached eggs.

and then, even though it seems strange to order dessert after eating brunch, we shared this s'mores platter (note said fabulous shades just in the background):

oh, and proof that it's her:  the pretty nail polish on her fingertips.

another funny note:  it was about, oh, an hour into our GTG before the subject of real names came up.  haha!  all along, i thought her name actually was...well, what i thought it was.  i'm still so amused to learn that it's nowhere near...that.  i don't know if i can get used to it.

just before we parted ways outside, she remembered something:  she'd brought some clothes she'd taken out of her closet for 10yearstogether, who she'd met up with the night before.  muahahaha, her loss, my gain.  sorry, 10yt.

okay, maybe i'm not a raging selfish bitch after all - i'm still going to give her the stuff.  well, most of it.

on the way home, i decided to make a quick stop.  one of the girls who'd originally planned to be part of wan-derful women's expo had recently opened a retail shop specializing in party goods, gifts, and other fun stuff, and this was the first time i'd been on the west side since the grand opening. 

it's small, but there are some really cute things in there. 

it looks like there'll be some yummy stuff coming soon in this corner of the shop:

i was a little bummed to miss out on meeting her - yet another as-yet online-only friend - but i left her a note to let her know i'd stopped in.

see, i told you the internet was good for more than shopping in your pajamas and watching porn.