My Lunch with Fellow Hubber, Carol7777

A week ago today, I was privileged…in more ways than one. I had the opportunity to meet one of my fellow “hubbers” in person... in real life... in the flesh! I have been writing on hub pages for 6 months now and I have made some amazing friends. We all have our “regulars”, our go-to people. You know who I am talking about. The ones who magically appear as soon as you publish a hub. the ones who rally around with supportive comments and often share your hubs. The same people whose hubs you hop on to when their name appears in your email. Carol7777 has been one of those for me. We “met” several months ago on one of our hubs and began to follow each others stories. Right from the beginning, we discovered that we only live a couple of hours driving distance from one another. That’s pretty huge when you consider that hub page authors can (and do) live anywhere in the world. We also discovered that we have some similar interests. We talked about doing some collaborative writing projects and Carol generously offered to drive out to my neck of the woods to meet. The day, time and place were decided upon.

On the way, I began to get a little nervous. Would I recognize her? Would she be the same woman I perceived her to be? Would I like her? Would she like me? As I approached the meet up, I saw a woman looking around. She wasn’t exactly the way I pictured Carol to look but she was enough like her picture to make me walk towards her. She turned, spotted me and as we greeted one another, she said, “It’s kind of like a blind date!” My sentiments exactly!

I begin and end most days with hub pages. I get up in the morning, check my email, answer any comments and read new hubs. Then I write hubs. When I read hubs, I not only see an actual picture but I also get a mental picture of the author. When I read comments on my own and the author’s hubs, I get an even stronger mental picture of that person. We so often perceive people differently when we are not able to communicate in person. Our image and the reality are not always the same and it can be hard to reconcile reality with fantasy. This meet was faintly reminiscent of when I was online dating! I would see a picture, read a profile, exchange emails and essentially have an image in my mind of who this person was. So often, I was wrong and of course, mostly dissapointed. Communicating online, can give us a shield to block who we really are, it can remove the barriers and give us a voice or it can give us freedom to invent a different persona. On hubpages, there is always plenty of bantering mixed with admiration and heartfelt emotion. Since most of write about the things that are most important to us, there are often impassioned hubs and comments. There are also the bland and ordinary ones. Some writers will only give you a peek at their inner sanctum and others open their doors wide. We can easily find many kindred spirits here on hub pages and today I had the opportunity to meet one face-to-face!

We met in a mall and sat down in the food court to chat… and chat… and chat. Carol was not what I expected in one way and everything that I thought she’d be in another way. She is beautiful, lively and fun! She has great stories to share and I was fascinated to hear some of them! She has lived all over the map including a couple of years in France where she taught herself French! Carol has also had some modicum of fame both in the form of a successful book (kind of all of our fantasies here, huh?) and as a local celebrity. She was the only lady to catch the eye of Glen Campbell (back when people knew who he was!) and provided gift baskets for two of our U.S. presidents. How cool is that?!

An hour quickly turned into two and the conversation had no lull. There was so much to be said and so little time. We talked and shared (even managed some lunch) for more than 2 hours before Carol had to head back home. What a pleasant and interesting 2 hours that was! As I stated above, Carol was not entirely who I expected. She was better! It is my hope to head in her direction for our next meet. And, here's to our first collaborative hub. If you haven't come from there, please read Carol's hub, Lunch with a Fellow Hubber