Okay, so I don’t mean “god” in the usual sense. Lauren is one of the founders of my beloved 7 Days group on Flickr, and when she and Sarah set up the group they decided to award themselves the title of “gods” rather than the more prosaic and commonly used “admins.” I’m a moderator of that group, but my title is “angel.” Those titles probably give you a pretty good idea of what a fun group it is, if you have not gotten a clue from seeing some of my own self-portraits from 7 Days over the years.

Lauren lives in England, but she happened to be in the States for work training last week. And since we were visiting Dana and her family in North Carolina last weekend, it was no big deal to detour to Norfolk on the way home and meet her for dinner. Then we introduced her to frozen yogurt and toppings by the ounce, which she declared to be an idea England needs to import, pronto.

Lauren and Annalie made friends with a kitty in the window of a gallery. We walked past the closed gallery, and there was a little black-and-white cat walking around in the front windows. We crouched down to look at her, and she went crazy, rubbing up against the glass and even putting her paw on the glass where Annalie’s hand was. Too bad the gallery was closed, she really seemed to want to be petted!

Annalie showed her Color Wonder Princess Glitter coloring sheets to Lauren, and then offered to let Lauren color on them if she liked. Lauren was properly impressed with how cool they were, thus winning Annalie’s undying affection.

We even dragged Lauren to a nearby park so Annalie could burn off some energy before we started the three-hour drive home, and she graciously insisted she was happy to hang out with us till we were ready to take her home.

Basically, the meeting went exactly as I expected it to: it was fun and relaxed and full of talking and laughing as I finally sat at the same table as a friend I’d already known for three and a half years online, who just happened to live on another continent. It was lovely to meet you, Lauren, and learn all those mundane details that get overlooked online, like what you do for a living. I’m looking forward to seeing you again sometime, and wondering with happy anticipation who the next 7 Dayer I’ll meet will be.

Sorry for bombing you with posts left and right lately. Annalie and I are packing up and heading to California for two weeks to visit friends and family, and I know I’ll probably have a ton of photos and stories to blog while I’m there…or possibly, I won’t have any time to blog at all. Either way, I’m trying to catch up before we leave. One more post is coming and then it’ll be all about California for a while.