Old Friends

Meeting for the first time.

Years and years ago on the old AOHell, there was a homeschooling chat room.

I 'met' a ton of people there. We all watched each other's kids growing up. Laughed a lot about life, shared secrets, built each other up (Yes, you CAN do this, homeschooling works, your kids will be fine, you will be able to teach them and survive the experience) and got to know each other pretty well.

Then, AOHell killed all their communities, which was what set them apart from the other online experiences... and people left. No more chat room.

But some of us stayed in touch. And so far I have actually met four of those people in person.

Today I met my old friend Libi from Utah.

Lyssa and I took the Max train down to Portland's Saturday Market and met Libi there. It was really nice to see her and hang out awhile. I bought her lunch (she's a cheap date, just had a slice of pizza and I didn't even have to buy her a drink...) and we wandered through the booths together.

I actually bought something entirely unnecessary for myself, a little ceramic dish hand stamped with a hydrangea leaf and glazed with a lovely green and blue.
I'm looking at it right now, it has my necklace in it.

And Lyssa took some photos to commemorate the occasion.
Here I am with my friend.





I am sorry to say that the experience wasn't 100% wonderful, though. A man walking toward us gave Libi a hard look, then he smacked into her shoulder, hard.

And groped her butt.

No, this wasn't some bizarre Portland mating ritual, he just wanted cash.

Asshole.

He didn't GET any cash.
Or credit cards.
Although it's entirely possible he did get a charge (haha... I am so punny) out of grabbing her butt.
Didn't think to ask him.
In fact, until I read her blog, I didn't even know he'd tried to grab, although I noticed the crash, of course.
Grr.

We listened to live music from Soul Provider while we ate our lunch.
They weren't bad, but they were awfully loud.
Conversation was difficult.

I was glad to meet my old friend.
She leaves to go home tomorrow, and I have informed her that she MUST go through Corbett, up to Crown Point and to Multnomah Falls. Those are things you just can't miss if you ever come visit.

But keep your money buried deep in your backpack or somewhere besides your pockets.