So I know we aren’t exactly 80-year-old long-lost identical twins separated at birth, but as far as I’m concerned the title seems fitting.

Let me catch any of you up who may be at sea with this.  Ruby would be me, and Lulu would be my friend, fellow blogger (she writes As the Pendulum Swings), and the creative spark that began, a.k.a the co-founder of, A Canvas Of The Minds.  I may have gotten the technical part implemented, but without her, Canvas would not exist in anyone’s mind.

Lulu lives in Pittsburgh.  That’s not a secret, that’s public domain information.  ;)  I am from and happen to be visiting that same city right now.  Also public domain.  So of course it made perfect sense that we should finally meet up while I was in town, right?

Well, yes and no.  Yes, it does make sense, but me and my “paranoid personality” (as one dear friend puts it) – meeting someone I know strictly from the internet is like a huge leap for me.  To understate things greatly.  But I felt like I knew Lulu, I trusted her. . . um, mostly (no offense!), I was incredibly curious, mostly it just seemed right.

So we made a date for lunch, and next thing I knew I was waiting outside of a little Italian restaurant in a neighborhood that was convenient for the both of us.  Up she walked, and there she was!  Sweet as could be, and one of those people you are instantly comfortable with.  Comfortable in the sort of way that you don’t even notice how comfortable you are until some time later when you realize you started your conversation somewhere in the middle, and not with introductions and pleasantries.

We really didn’t even talk much about Canvas, I think I brought up one or two things I wanted to mention on my end, and then of course later we had the “Well are we or aren’t we?” conversation about whether we should tell all of you lovelies about our up-till-now clandestine meeting.

She showed me some pictures of her son, who is so super-cute, and. . .  Well this is more difficult to write than I had imagined, because we just talked, like girlfriends do, about all manner of things.  And, well, as I’m not in the habit of disclosing conversations I have with my girlfriends via my blog (or, y’know, at all. . .).

I can tell you these things:  She gave me a sweet little white petunia she picked from a pot next to a bench we sat on because I admired it.  I fell on my butt coming out of the restaurant because – well I could lie and say I caught my heel in the pavement, but in reality I just lost my balance and fell over (and no, I hadn’t had anything to drink).  So she got to see me as I truly am, I suppose: the woman in the pretty dress and heels who spends a great deal of her time on her ass.  ;)

I feel like the couple of hours we got to spend together were not nearly enough, I could have talked with her all afternoon and well into the evening.  But she has a job and I have family.  I did walk around and take some pictures before returning to my room (I didn’t take any of Lulu, and even if I had I wouldn’t be posting them here – you all know me better).  I got some late-blooming flowers and beautiful trees.  I also took some pictures of a very sweet older gentleman and his grandson, and some of the grandson with his dad, which I promised I would mail back to them.  The grandfather saw me with the camera and asked if I would take the photos, I only wish now that I had gotten one of all three of them together!

The things you think of after the fact.  Oh well.

In any case, it was a lovely afternoon with the lovely Ms. Lulu Sunshine, and I am really happy that I let go of my paranoia and met her.  To a lifelong, wonderful friendship!

Moral of the story:  Talk to strangers.  Just make sure you pick the right ones.  ;D

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