Congrats To A Dear Friend
The first person I ever knew with a blog was a travel writer named Jen Leo. She had just edited an award winning collection of short stories about women’s travel misadventures called Sand In My Bra
Have you ever felt an instant connection with someone?
That is the way Jen and I hit it off. We had heart felt conversations, stayed up late, won a middling amount at the craps tables, ate bar-b-que bologna (much, much better than it sounds) and sold a decent number of her books. As one aging genXer to another, we both identified with each other instantly, which is a bit weird when you think about it, as I grew up in rural Mississippi and she is Chinese-American from the West Coast.
Anyway, over the years we have kept up our friendship in the 21st century way… we read each other’s blogs, we skype each other fairly regularly, when she is in town we get together for bar-b-que and stay up late at bad diners.
Jen was my inspiration in blogging; it was always exciting to see her blog stories about where she had been published, where she was doing a book signing, what was going on in her life. It was because of her excitement and passion that I thought I might like this blogging thing and when I talked to her about wanting to do it, she was nothing but encouragement.
Perhaps you read in the paper about all the weddings happening on 7-7-07? Well, one of them was Jenn and her new husband John, who went from being the best-boyfriend-ever to being the best husband ever (or he better, anyway!). What makes the date even more appropriate is that John is a Poker playing pro and Jen writes for Poker websites and magazines. Oh, and they got married in Vegas. (Get it? Gambling, 7-7-7, Vegas…).
Over on her blog she has posted some pictures from the wedding, she is wondering how to handle the name change… all of the joys of matrimonial bliss. It could not have happened to a better person.
Jen, I wish for you and John every good thing. Congratulations, and the next time you come to town, the bar-b-que bologna is on me!
[...] and I was fascinated. (For more of the gritty details about how I met Jen and all that, I refer you to my other blog) Even so, it was a good 2 years after I met Jen that I started blogging… and I was [...]
[...] A good friend was a problogger, so I had some exposure to the field, but to be honest, I did not have high expectations. I went over to blogger, put my fingers to the keys…and fell in love. I liked the cathartic experience of getting it out there, I liked the feedback from readers, I liked the community of people I met and got to talk to. [...]