Slow, but steady -- jcarolek

Tonight I was a little late getting to my dinner engagement, where I was to meet tj, a lovely young woman I met here on the blogs, and had the opportunity to meet tonight in person. She was, as she had promised she would be, patiently waiting. I had to run back to the car as soon as I touched base with her, because I wanted to get my camera....to capture a new/old friend in real life. We had about half an hour to get acquainted outside of the restaurant as we waited for our number to be called, indicating our table was ready.

I was thrilled to meet tj. She wanted to know if I was surprised by how well she spoke, and I answered truthfully. Nope, not surprised at all. I found her to be exactly
as she represents herself here on the blogs -- an exuberant, self assured, young woman, who not only speaks very well, and clearly, but who reads my lips almost flawlessly....and that's no easy task! How many times did I notice I tend to shove my glasses back up my nose, interrupting the line of vision between her eyes and my lips? And how about my incessant wiping of my mouth when I eat? Each of these created a bigger challenge for the lip reader. But patient she was, and we conversed as easily as we would have, had both of us been blessed with perfect hearing. She just made communication easy!

Having never eaten at Chilli's before, I took her recommendation for a tasty meal, and was well rewarded. I finished most of my plateful, which is rather unusual for me. Two cups of hot tea and two hours of lovely conversation later, I asked the waiter to snap a photo of the two of us, and he kindly obliged.

tj left the parking lot as I was snapping pictures of an impressive Florida sky. And, after I took so many shots my camera informed me my "batteries are exhausted," I climbed back into my sporty red rental and made my way back to the hotel, an hour or so away. The traffic was much slower going home than it had been coming, but I was in no rush. I enjoyed listening to the radio and reflecting on another successful meeting with another lovely blogger. I've been very lucky in the past year, meeting in person three delightful women who I first encountered here on the eBay blogs.

So, here we are...I'm a little slow getting here and there, but I'm steady and WILL eventually get make it!