conversation, cappuccinos and crunchy leaves

My trip to Charleston last month marked the third time my blogging life has crossed over into my life-life. I was going to say “real life”, but that might imply that my stories aren’t real.

Let’s be clear, it doesn’t get much more real than the shiz I’ve shared on these here pages, mes amis, so my blog life IS real life. What I mean to say here is that I’ve now met three blog friends in person.

ANYWAY…now that we’ve cleared that up…

Each of these encounters has been great! No weird stuff. No awkwardness. Just genuine people whose ‘speaking’ voices sound like their writing voices, if you know what I mean.

Today my blogging life crossed even more deeply into my life-life because I went HIKING with a blog friend.

Joanne and I met once  before, for a coffee (which ended up last 3.5 hours!). Clearly we struggled to maintain a conversation.

We have been trying to get together again, but …well, life gets in the way. Finally, we agreed on a date, and I suggested we take a short hike in the Rouge Park area. To my delight, she agreed.

She arrived at my place for a quick cappuccino, and then we ventured out to the trailhead. We hiked the full length of the Mast Trail, a 200 year old logging route, and part of the Orchard Trail for a total distance of ~6 kms.

The conversation was brisk, as was our pace.

Topics ranged from body image issues, to deep-seated neuroses, to what led each of us to focus on fitness in our [ahem] more mature years. It was the perfect venue to exercise and socialize, all while fallen leaves crunched underfoot.

Unfortunately, I failed to snap a single picture. BAH! Why do I always forget to take photos when I’m hanging out with someone new? I suppose it’s because I’m staying ‘in the moment’, which is a good thing in general, but a bad thing if you want to include photos in your blog post. Which I do.

Lucky for me, I’ve previously hiked these trails and been more focused on capturing the scenery than carrying on a conversation.

These snaps were taken last fall. Let’s just pretend Joanne and I took them today.

It’s days like these that I realize how lucky I am to live in a place where Mother Nature puts on a beautiful show each fall. And I’m so thrilled to have shared such a lovely day with my new friend.

Let’s ignore the fact that my cranky-ass neighbour left a snarky note on Joanne’s windshield, complaining about her parking in front of his property, “on his grass”. To be clear, there are no sidewalks on my street, so to park on the road inevitably means ones tires will slightly encroach on grass. To be extra clear though, the grass at the final 3 ft of “his property” is city land (where a sidewalk would technically go).  To be extra, extra clear, he’s a douche.

Instead let’s look at this amazing mushroom.

That’s better.

Keep moving,

xoxo nancy