Smiles and Hugs

I started reading Marshall Ramsey's blog several months ago. At first I just read all the postings. Then I decided I had a thing or two to say. After joining in, people actually welcomed me to the blog. Wow, what a friendly group.

So, I stayed with it. I'd read the profiles and try to imagine who the bloggers were. Then, after a while, I started to blog too. My blogs are not as extemporaneous as others and often not as well written. I find that, at my age, I spend more time talking about the past than the present. Maybe that's normal. I hope so anyway.

But who are these people participating in Marshall's Blog? They are an interesting group to say the least. They are professionals, mothers, singles, marrieds, young, old, and, most of all, somehow bonded by the blog itself. It's almost like an extended family or an additional group of friends.

It became obvious that several of the bloggers knew each other. It made me want to get to know some too.

When the Run From the Sun was scheduled, I knew from reading the blog it would present an opportunity to meet several of the regular local bloggers. So the Prom Queen and I stopped by while returning from a trip to see the grands. I had a chance to meet Clucky, Stacey, Supermom, Legaleagle, Msudeere, Watercolor and Grammergirl.

I had been reading Watercolor's blog with regularity and knew that we shared the same religion. I only had a chance to speak to her at the run and told the Prom Queen that I'd like for us to have an opportunity to meet her and get to know her better. So we planned on lunch one day. It was a delightful occasion and we were both impressed with her and hope to see her at some church related events in the future.

Then this week an opportunity came to meet Coop at the ball park. That was interesting too. She's a nice person, lives in the Raymond area and works with a great group of people.

With Mmrsh in town due to her mother's illness, I thought it would be neat to meet her also. We tried to get her to come to a Girl Scout pancake breakfast, but communications broke down. So I contacted BenoftheJack and asked him if he would like to get together for lunch in Brandon and invited Mmrsh to join with us. Again due to poor communications, she was unable to join us.

But I did get to meet BenoftheJack and found that he works about a mile and a half from where I live. We had a quick lunch but shared information and I left feeling as if I know who he is. Later that day, I doubled back by the eatery where Ben and I met and saw a George County tag on a red BMW in the parking lot. So I know Mmrsh was there eating. She had earlier said that's where she would be. I took a couple of minutes to introduce myself to her, ask about her mother, give her my business card and ease on out to work. And while I would have liked to spend more time talking with her, I at least appreciated the opportunity to put a name with a face.

So that makes a total of ten MRBA members I have had the opportunity to meet. They're all great folks to know. I hope that someday in the near future, we will be able to have some sort of blogger get together for those who can come where we can spend a little more time getting acquainted.

You've got to admit that the MRBA members are a great group who like to have fun, eat well, and share our life experiences along with our views and thoughts on most any subject.

My thanks to Marshall for getting this started and keeping us going. He's the spoke that holds the wheel together. In the meantime, I look forward to reading the individual blogs and getting to know the participants better.

And my thanks to all the MRBA bloggers who accepted me right away and made me feel special. Smiles and hugs to all of you.