Sometime in the year 2000 (insert Conan voice here) while surfing the web for something new to read, I discovered the romance book message board, RBL Romantica. Thru that website I've met people who have become lifelong friends. The last time I was in D.C. I was visiting Michelle, that was 10 years ago and she's one of the main reasons I went back, Michelle is my emotional soul mate, when she cries, I cry. Su has visited every place I've moved to and in the last 10 years (Los Angeles, Portland, Atlanta, Daytona Beach, Everett and Sararosta). Lina is a close second, I don't think she made it to Los Angeles. How can I be alone when my friends are always there for me? When I met Linda I remember thinking she was the coolest woman I've ever met, I still think that. I even flew to Europe and got to spend a fantstic month with Nes! These are just a few of the amazing women who are part of my life thru RBL. Because of the internet, even though we're separated by miles, we're still close and luckily, we all love to travel. We used to meet in Vegas once a year and then began expanding to New Orleans, Jersey Shore (Nes flew in for that!), Charleston, New York, whatever city I'm currently living in and Washington DC. Some of us see each other 2 or 3 times a year, do you know how lucky that makes me?
Now I don't visit RBL as much as I used to, but thru Karen Marie Moning (who I also met on RBL) my world has expanded even more. While I've kept my friends from RBL it's grown and the handful of gals I would meet up with (ok maybe more then a handful, I know and love a lot of women) has grown. Thru the Maniacs, I've met more women that I admire and have enriched my life and they too love to travel. I barely knew Julie but once I invited her to join me and my RBL girlfriends in Vegas she booked a ticket. I knew I was going to love this girl (and Nancy eventually was happy I invited Monica-she could never remember her name, LOL). I learn a lot from all of my friends but Sharon is who I want to be when I grow up. Sally I've only known for a couple of years but I feel like we've known each other forever. There's such a comfortableness with her. Diana is my crazy asian sister and Jenn, well I'm working on trying to bring the crazy out in her. Again, there are many many Maniacs I know and love and are blessed to be friends with. These are just the ones in this pic.
People who know me, know I don't travel alone. I travel to meet up with my girlfriends and I bring them with me wherever I go. It's not even really about the destination, I rarely sight see, I want to spend time with the girls. My favorite thing to do is to sit around and talk. We never get enough of each other in our day to day lives, people are working, have families and we live thousands of miles from each other. So I cherish the time we have together.
This isn't the best picture of us, you can tell we're tired but I love what this pic represents. We can literally sit there and talk and laugh for hours.
I'm always fired up after a visit with the girls. A visit with each other strengthens the bonds that are already there and re-invigorates me. I'm immediately thinking about the next time we can get together, sometimes we even plan this before we leave because we all value our friendship so much.
Since I've come back from D.C. I've been able to sleep again, I no longer feel stressed and joined a gym and am super motivated to get back in shape. All I needed was some time with my girlfriends, they're good for my soul.
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