Listen, I don't have anything clever or offbeat this time out. All I can do is show you a bunch of friends. First up: this group above, enjoying each other's company at Coffee Hour after the 10 AM Mass at St. Michael's. Many of them have known each other for years and years. They're in ECW together, or the Altar Guild, or the choir. They're friends. I didn't ask most of the people in the shot for permission to photograph them for my personal blog, so I've put it through a filter or two. The point is not who these people are specifically. The point is to show the type of friendships that arise from community - in this case a church community.
And here are some people at coffee hour who are my friends, specifically:
This is Jan. She likes science fiction and mysteries. Jasper Fforde is a fave of hers. She's had heart problems and lung problems and an injured arm over the past year or so, but she seems to be doing all right at the moment.
Here's Kevin. He was in the local Doctor Who club with me a decade ago, and now I give him a ride to church. He's intelligent and funny and very shy, has a fantastic baritone voice, and writes fiction and poetry.
Toni Sue was only baptized just short of two years ago. Now she's considering a vocation to some form of religious order - whether to be a deacon, priest, or something else, I'm not sure even she knows yet. She's a cancer survivor.
Let's leave coffee hour now, and consider other places one meets friends. Here is my new friend at work, Fran. She's another cancer survivor, a widow, and she knows more than a little about wolves. She likes Heroes and House and Doctor Who, and just today she brought me a couple of back issues of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF).
Not shown here is my best friend, one John W. Blocher, the love of my life, who says he will roust me out of bed at 4 AM if he gets up and I haven't done dishes as promised! He doesn't like me to post his photo, so here's a picture of his chair, and his other chair.
If you're reading this, you know the other major source of my friendships. It's you folks online! Over the years I've met very few of you, save for those I knew in real life first. Julie, which came first, Prodigy or the cons? I forget. The only recent photo I have of an online friend (aside from arguably John Scalzi, who can be seen in the entry below this one) is this rerun, taken a year ago when Sarah (that's Sarah with an h!) came to Arizona. We met on the H2G2 boards on Prodigy in the early 1990s, when Sarah was still in high school. My friendship with Sara (without an h) comes from the same time and venue. I hope to meet her next year. Sarah is a vegetarian, a fiction writer, a poet, a thespian, a cat lover (as is Sara), and a sometime volunteer at a wild animal shelter.That's it from me, folks! Here's the Linking List: go and meet some friends!
Karen
14 comments:
Hey Karen :)
I liked this entry. :) Internet friends are a kind of magic, how else would we all get to meet such neet people, if not for the net. I would like to think we would have crossed paths anyway. Call it fate or destiny or just plain luck! Paths crossing here or irl are equally profound.
Always, Carly
super post.. i like that photo of you and Sarah (with an H) I need to get back to RR.. my mind has been failing me lately...guess that last brain cell of mine is growing old too! lol
Wow, good question. I'm trying to recall. I remember we had the 'zines first, but we had AOL and Prodigy by the time of the first QL con. We did some of the planning for the star ceremony online, but I still ran up one heck of a phone bill! I remember meeting you (and several other fans) for the first time at the QL screening at the Hitchcock Theatre.
These are all such great photos, how awesome that they have known each other so long. Love the filters you added.
Neat entry and pictures. It's lovely to learn about these nice friends of yours. It seems my real life friends have also become Internet friends -- funny the way that has worked out.
Aren't friends great?!
Thanks for stopping by mine :)
Love the chair photos! It's great, nice bunch of friend photos!
Nice bunch! And I LOVE Jasper Fforde's novels.
Yeah friendship is great and as one said : You inherit your family but you choose your friends !
Great post! I love how you followed each photo with a quick synopsis about each friend.
Great bunch of friends, lovely post, Karen! The chair portrait is very fitting!
Marie
Lovely post. I like the chair photos too. It is amazing where you meet friends sometimes, or the opposite never imagining you would not be friends only to move on and lose contact. Cheers Kerrin
love the photos and commentary for the rr 'friends' challenge. wonderful! :)
Karen,it was lovely to learn about your friends.You are truly lucky,and I couldn't help myself laughing seeing the empty chair's picture!That's really funny:)
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