If you are a regular reader of my blog, you are probably familiar with the name BeachMama. Anna (BeachMama’s real name) has been a regular commenter since the very beginning of my blog, and I’ve mentioned her in a post or two (the non-cake, Annalie’s apron). I’ve known her online for over three years, first as a fellow commenter at Brenda’s blog and later through reading her blog and her reading mine. Now I know her in real life, too, because she and her kids came to my house earlier this week!

I was originally supposed to meet Anna last weekend. We were all going to meet up at Brenda’s and go to the beach and Balboa Island. As a bonus, Annalie and I were going to get to see Erin for a few hours, and maybe some other friends as well, since they were in Pasadena for a wedding. It was going to be a fun day.

Then on Sunday, I woke up with a sore throat and a fever. I felt awful. I could barely get out of bed. I was so bummed! It’s not every day a blog friend comes all the way from Ottawa, Canada, to hang out at the beach with us. And Erin was going back home to Oregon that afternoon, so we’d miss seeing her too. But it couldn’t be helped.

All day Sunday, while Brenda and Anna and their kids had a fantastic day at the beach and sightseeing, I was sleeping on the couch while Annalie watched TV or played in the living room. My hope was that if I spent the day doing NOTHING, I would quickly get well. The only times I got up were when Annalie requested food. She was so good for me all day, bless her heart. She was still getting over her cold, and we’d been busy recently, so the day of rest was probably kind of a welcome relief to her.

My strategy worked. By Sunday night I was able to sit up and think about rejoining the human race. Monday I felt well enough to get up, get dressed, and do some chores. I took it easy most of the day, because I knew that Brenda and Anna were coming to visit on Tuesday

We asked Annalie to take a photo of the moms, and she cut off our heads to get Bug in the shot.

The Tuesday visit had always been part of the plans. That’s the ONLY reason I wasn’t cursing the heavens when I woke up sick on Sunday. In fact, if Sunday had been the only day I would’ve been able to see Anna, I probably would have popped some Motrin and powered through the drive up to Orange County to at least say hello from ten feet away so I didn’t infect anyone. Then I probably would have crashed hard and been miserably sick for the rest of the week because I hadn’t listened to my body and stayed home in the first place. But it would have been worth it. You know why?

Photo taken by Annalie, age 5y 4m

Because Anna is totally awesome, that’s why. She’s sweet and thoughtful, and really hilarious and smart and—I now know—fun to hang out with. Best of all, when I met her and gave her a hug, I was hugging an old friend. I know, I go on and on about this every time I get closer to my goal of meeting the internet one person at a time. But when you’ve exchanged hundreds of emails and comments with someone, when you’ve read their stories and watched their kids grow up via photos, when you’ve traded Christmas cards and care pacakges, you are already real-life friends. Meeting those people in person has always been, for me, just the icing on the cake.

When my guests arrived on Tuesday morning, they caught me a little bit off-guard. I had decided that I absolutely HAD to steam-mop my kitchen floor, that the mysterious sticky stains were just too gross to live with another minute. That happens to me sometimes. I have a pretty high tolerance for dirt, which is rather unfortunate because it means I can ignore dust on my piano and water spots on my bathroom mirrors for weeks and weeks at a time. Then one day, ka-BLAM! It’ll just hit me that a certain area of my house is disgusting and I can’t focus on anything else till it’s clean. Which is why, even though I knew my guests were only minutes away, I was still in my pajamas and putting the kitchen back to rights when Anna, J and Apple (her kids’ blog nicknames), and Bug walked up to the sliding-glass door in the kitchen.

I opened the door to let everyone in, said something like, “Hi! Welcome! Wowyougotherefast! IgottagoshowerBrenda’sinchargehelpyourselftoanything,” and raced upstairs. Not my best moment, but I would not have done it if Brenda didn’t know my house as well as her own. I took a lightning-fast shower, dressed even more quickly, and went back downstairs where I apologized to Anna for running off and gave her a hug. She laughed and said I could have at least hugged her hello! I assured her that since I had not showered for two days, she really should be glad I had showered first.

Then we went to In-N-Out for lunch, since Anna had never been there before, where we talked and laughed and talked. We went to Balboa Park, where we wandered around the Botanical Building and checked out the free Timken Museum of Art, while we chased kids and talked some more. When we were all hot and sweaty, we headed back to our house where the kids swam and played while Brenda and Anna and I—you guessed it—talked about anything and everything.

I think it was while I was making the lasagna we had for dinner that it struck me that it seemed as though Anna had been at my house, sitting at my kitchen table, a dozen times before. That’s how comfortable and easy it felt. That made me very happy. As did the Butternut Squash Lasagna I made.

The visit ended with the traditional breakfast on Snail Mountain. There was a yoga class going on near the stage, though, and it was HOT and sunny so we didn’t dawdle. We let the kids climb and run for a few minutes, then headed home. Brenda and Anna packed up the car, and we hugged and said our farewells.

Anna, thank you so much for coming all the way to California to hang out with us! Meeting you was just as fantastic as I knew it would be. I look forward to our next get-together—in Ottawa, so I can get my BeaverTails fix, or when you’re on your beach vacation maybe—you can count on it!