Once upon a time, at a theater near us, we three (me and Jim and Duane) went to see the blogger preview of Serenity. I had zero desire to see that movie, but rarely say “no” to a free movie. As we stood outside, I eyeballed the various other bloggers who were awaiting entrance to the theater. Two people stood out: a tall guy wearing a Nuke the Moon shirt, and a shorter blonde girl with glasses who looked out of his league. I think she was wearing a Chomps shirt, but my memory could be wrong. The rest of the bloggers really fit my mental picture of sci-fi nerds, and I was appalled to be among their number; never did I ever think I would rank among such geeky geeks.

Inside the theater, there were several rows roped off for the bloggers who had RSVP’d. Fate dictated that I would sit beside SarahK who was seated beside Frank J. I had never heard of these people before, even though I had once or twice been to IMAO. (Jim had frequently been to IMAO, so he eventually realized who we were seated beside… but like on the drive home.)

After the movie, we three waited for the crowd to disperse before we left our row. During that time, I started small talking to the blonde beside me. We all talked about our blogs and exchanged web addresses and went on our merry way.

The next day, Jim and I had a huge surge in hits to our site thanks to Frank J. I began reading SarahK’s blog (all her blogchives) at work and the more I realized we had in common, the more I sent her stupid-long emails (generally after 3p, when I hit my slump in ability to get work done). She and I befriended each other via email and reading each other’s blogs.

For no apparent reason, and never thinking they’d accept, I invited the J.’s to our Halloween gathering. I obtained their PO Box and even went so far as to mail them one of our formal invites.

I was a bit nervous about having the J.’s over for two reasons. First, if our party sucked or if they decided they hated me, they have huge readership and could blog about how much I suck. Second, I didn’t really know them (other than what I had read) and was worried about having strangers over. Armed strangers, no doubt, based on all their gun blogging. They came, everyone else left, and F&S asked if they could sleep for a few hours rather than try driving an hour home at 2am. Of course I said “yes”.

It should be noted when they first arrived, I stopped them at the door and asked how many fire arms they were bringing into my home. Only one. But Frank J. came dressed as a ninja with a samuri sword strapped to his back.

After Frank and Sarah claimed the couch and chair (honest, you could live in that chair), I went into my room and laid awake worrying about the armed strangers in my family room. They were armed with a gun and a sword, and I was allowing them to stay in our home, with Ma completely unaware of (1) how little I knew our overnight guests (2) how armed our guests were, and with my husband out of town. Sometimes you trust your gut and live to tell about it!

The next morning, after Ma had gone to work, the J.’s finally acknowledged they were awake (I hardly slept for all the worrying I was doing about them being here), I ran out to get hot cups of caffeine, leaving those armed strangers alone in our home! I was appalled at my actions, but, again, I felt okay about them.

Eventually they left. And the friendship has grown slowly (it’s hard when we live an hour away from each other).

But that’s the story of how the Pereira’s stalked befriended the J.’s.

(Ha ha! I just noticed the titles of the two SarahK posts I linked to are So Sleepy and Really Tired. I guess being in our presence wipes her out! Ha ha!)

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