What Happens on the Road.......

Oh yeah. There's a story from this hard-working week on the road. An amazing story. A semi-shocking story. But, I'm not telling. You'll just have to leave this one with me.

Actually, there's two stories. And the second one I can tell you.

I had the very distinct pleasure of meeting a lovely young lady in the city that I worked in all week. I mentioned her before, a few posts ago. A reader of this blog, a blogger herself.

I had never actually met a reader before in "real life". Sometimes this blogger experience can seem so virtual, so one way and dramatized that it's hard to keep perspective that we are all real people out there just living our lives. That I'm more than just the "Semi-Celibate Man" and so are each of you more than your online personas. I wanted to meet someone and make it more real.

So, once I realized that I was going to have business in her city, I emailed her and asked her to dinner. A risk, for both of us. What made it work well was some email conversations to clarify expectations. Expectations were a nice meal and some pleasant conversation. Conversation, to be sure, with some context that she had seen all of the pictures here on SCE! But a G-rated meeting as our agreed expectation.

And we lived up to that.

She took a risk and picked me up at a location downtown and took me to a historic restaurant with a lot of tradition and charm. I enjoyed a lively three hour meal with my new friend - a pretty young lady with a sweet southern charm and grace. I talked too much about me and the blog, I'm sure. Nervousness. She shared some of her interesting life as well.

After that first margarita I told her that first story about.....never mind.

I enjoyed (and was feeling) that second margarita. Absolutely. But, much more, I enjoyed her company. She took a big risk to meet me, and I'm glad she did. She eased the loneliness of one of the endless nights on the road a great deal. Thank you, my dear new friend.

And then she dropped me off at my hotel where I promptly fell asleep. No pictures from that night, I'm afraid, of any kind.

As for the other story, it stays on the road. Forget I mentioned it.