imaginary friends

I do have real friends, I do - not just imaginary virtual bloggy friends who have never heard of me!

Tuesday night it was wonderful to get to see some folks who live far away (like aaaall the way in Chapel Hill), and really far away (like Germany). I know Chapel Hill is only 35 miles from here, but that disgusting highway in between makes it feel like traveling into another dimension. It's exhausting! Now Germany - sheesh, I can't even imagine how tiring it would be to drive all the way over there.

But that's no excuse for not making time for friends who live in another dimension. I'm sorry, universe! (ooh, do I feel a resolution coming on?!)

Anyhow, Badass April was home from Germany for the holidays, and the Chapel Hill Stitch-n-Bitchers had organized a special edition knit-nite just for her. She wasn't knitting anything, but no penalties were levied for the infraction. I managed to do a couple of rows on HWWLLB's vest, but most of the evening was spent catching up with old pals and gorging myself on the addictively delicious cheese that our host, Mike, had provided. I think I ate about half a pound of that extra-sharp cheddar. Here are some tiny little pictures of the people who hadn't put away their knitting and gone home by the time I remembered I had the camera with me:


none of these people are imaginary.

The more I think about it, maybe the online imaginary friend thing isn't so abnormal - at least, not for me. As a kid I had an imaginary friend named Bubba who lived behind the refridgerator. One day I must have decided that he had a pet puppy, and started sticking little bowls from my doll house back there (full of imaginary Puppy Chow, I guess). I had to use the broom handle to push them back far enough.

When my mom asked me what I was doing, I told her I was feeding Bubba's puppy. "Who's Bubba?" she wanted to know. I remember that question kind of astounded me - how could she not know who Bubba was? He was my best friend! Bubba was a way better friend than that little junior crackhead Steven next door who beat the pulp out of me every time we played together. Bubba was nice. He was going to be president one day.

In case you were wondering about my real-not-imaginary friends at home, when we returned from the other dimension Tuesday night, Jackie and Simon touched noses, and there was no hissing, swatting or running away. Just a pleasant sniff and then back to the usual pretending-the-other-one-isn't-there. Very healthy. Simon has discovered the joy of sleeping under a blanket. This way, he can get hair on both sides. He looks so sweet and peaceful when he's sleeping. He's dreaming about biting his friends on their toes.