…blogtober day 5 :: the blessings of internet friends…

How good is the internet? No matter what you’re into or where you are, there’s bound to be someone out there who’s into the same things, and thanks to the internet, we can meet that person. We can chat with them, share photos with them, encourage them, even start a podcast with them. Every now and then, you even get to catch up with them.

This morning, the children and I tucked our umbrellas in our bags, and wandered down the mall ready for day two of drama workshops. Children safely delivered, I dashed back up the mall, jumped in the car, programmed the GPS…and promptly found myself in the depths of Sydney traffic. What should have been a half hour trip across town ended up taking fifty minutes. The rain that threatened on our walk to class, started falling on the way. There was, though, a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow – a pretty little yarn shop and a good friend to help enable me into new goodies.

This friend has been part of my craft circle since before the Facebook group days, and we finally got to meet in person a couple of years ago as I did a racing trip through Sydney. It was so lovely to catch up with her again today, to chat craft projects and share life updates and contemplate all the goodies that Skein Sisters held. It was only the second time we’d met in person, but thanks to the internet, it was like we went on yarn hunts all the time.

From there, it was back into the rain, and off to IKEA to check out options for craft storage in the new house. A couple of solid contenders secured (along with forks, dish mats, a wall mounted book shelf for Mr16, some craft paper for the three littles, oh, and don’t forget the Christmas wrapping paper on the way out), I was back into the rain chasing another rainbow.

This time, it was another dear quilty friend, one I’d met a couple of times more, as a former quilt camper in the early days. She’d even stayed at my house on one of her treks north to break up the journey. But it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen each other, and it was so lovely to hit up The Remnant Warehouse with her this afternoon. We caught up on each others lives, drooled over all the pretties, and managed to come away with a good selection of fabrics each – her a funky print for bike shorts, me some swimwear fabric, as well as a lovely teal spandex for leggings. I was thinking out loud as I was trying to decide, and she convinced me my thoughts were heading in the right direction and I absolutely totally should get it. If I had already made purple leggings, she argued, I needed green to go with them. Can’t beat that logic!

From there, it was time to brave the traffic once more, and one missed turn off led to me finding myself in the harbour tunnel, anxiously watching the time to be sure of arriving in time for pick up. I made it with five minutes to spare, and after swinging by Coles for an emergency ration resupply, we took ourselves off on a little adventure. Playing hunter gather, we snuck up a side street. Through an under pass. Down an escalator. And there, there we found our third pot of gold for the day. Donuts.

As busy as it was, it was such a delightful day, hanging out with awesome people. There’s been a lot of ink spilled in pursuit of degrading friendships of the internet variety, and how they aren’t real friendships. The hugs I received today say otherwise. They were real. The conversations were real, and they weren’t just small talk of people who aren’t really friends. They were the conversations of people who know each other, who know their families and their hobbies. It was a complete joy to spend time with these two wonderful ladies, neither of whom I would have known without the internet.

Goodness only knows when I will spend time in their company again. We don’t come down this way much, and there isn’t exactly much reason for them to make the 7hr journey my way. But we have instagram and messenger and blogs. And when I get home, and get sewing, or get blocking, I will be reminded of them, and be able to say “look! Here’s a thing I made with what I bought when we hung out”.

Seems like a pretty real friendship to me.