Had the distinction of meeting up with two other online journalists this morning at a local restaurant. It's always great to meet up with folks who share your same passion with this online world and to be able to talk about it freely without people raising their eyebrows. People who aren't in this online journaling thing will never understand, so to be able to talk it with people who understand and who know what I'm talking about is especially nice. It's rare that I do drag my ogre self out into daylight to meet people but I thought it would be fun to finally meet them especially since one is from Calgary and the other is someone who I've been wanting to meet for a long long time now. Sometimes staying on one side of this monitor too long causes you to lose track that there are actually real people on the other end reading. Virtuality ceases to become reality until true interaction occurs. I usually am rather nervous when meeting up with people because I don't know what they are like in real life and vice versa. Why I'm nervous, I suppose stems from my fear that they expect too much out of me and that they all have this blown out of proportion concept of me. When in reality, I'm just a plain ole regular chick who spends way too much time on her website (like the rest of the OJs I'm sure). But I had no problems with these two OJs since I felt right at ease from the get go. In fact, I think I talked too too much. [Sorry 'bout that girls.] The 2+ hours we spent chatting went by much too fast and I wished we had more time to talk but there will always be a next time. I do appreciate the both of them though for making time out of their schedules to get together. :)

I knew I was in for a long long day when I realized that I only had 5 minutes after the breakfast meeting to get to the next appointment at my friend's house. My friend S is getting married and she asked if I would join her and a few of her friends to go wedding dress shopping with. Of course I jumped at the chance since in my current group of friends, there has been a drought of excitement lately. No one is getting married, no one is having kids, no one is getting a sex change, etc etc. After meeting up at S's house, we went to Maggiano's down in Costa Mesa for a quick bite. And I mean quick because we packed up more than half of the food to go since we were late for an appointment at Monamie. I highly recommend the food at Maggiano's - it's similar to Buca di Beppo but with more things on the menu to choose from. The portions are huge and it's just overall tasty, or maybe that's because I was hungry. I really wanted to eat more but it was time to go. Damn.

We then headed to Monamie - a place I went to last September with my other friend if you recall. I always thought their service was a bit too frou frou for my tastes but then again, they are I believe, the most well stocked bridal salon in LA. And from the look of the Saturday crowds that was there, it showed. Luckily for us, the person who was helping us was friendly but still, the whole atmosphere there was snobbish. But I suppose what better place to try on your dresses from than a place that has every style available?

Unfortunately, no photos were allowed but I was really happy that the dress that I choose was the one that everyone liked, including the bride to be. I guess there's always something to be said about a girl in a gown, especially if that girl is your friend. You really realize how nice it is to have friendships that have lasted through time to share with them in this special occasion. Don't worry, I'm not getting sappy here - I'm just realizing I'm getting old. :P

It's always nice seeing old friends - in particular S and J - and although we had dinner plans afterwards together in Old Town Pasadena, I had to bow out due an oncoming attack of vertigo. I was down for the rest of the evening and just spent it in my jammies. I think this is what I really despise about my health problem, it really cuts into one's life and schedule without any warning. It's not like I can plan for it to occur or work my life around it. It just wants to come whenever and I just have to be patient and let it pass with time. Especially when there are important events of if you're traveling, you end up missing out on so much of life and your precious time because your body just ain't cooperating.

I'm out.