Meeting Grace

You may have noticed that there is a new link from my blog this morning. Law With Grace has been a longtime read of mine ever since Daisy started blogging. I remember clicking onto Grace's blog for the first time, and I found her entries to be warm, hysterical, and poignant all at the same time (a real trick). My favorite Grace post can be found here. In reading the post, I found myself reminiscing about a sofa, an ex-girlfriend, and the very issues and emotions that Grace described in her post that day. I thought to myself: (1) the quality of my posts is EXTREMELY low compared to this and (2) Grace is gifted.

Now, Grace is well known in our circle of blogging friends. She was one of the first to start the cathartic process of blogging, and Daisy, Namby, the Wayward Esquire, Anonymous Hottie, and Eddie had all met and reveled in the wonderfulness that is Grace.

Until last night, I had never met her.

The funny thing is that I was surrounded by people who insisted that my memory was faulty, that Grace and I had had NUMEROUS conversations and "remember that time when Artful and Grace...?" Umm, no, because Artful had never MET Grace. It seemed that we just kept missing each other. She would go to some functions where the rest were gathered, and I would be at others. Somehow, along the way, our paths never crossed.

Grace took it upon herself to organize a post-work happy hour gathering for all of us. With the exception of AH, we were all in town and amenable to getting together for some post-work fun. I must admit to being kind of nervous. You see, all of the other bloggers and I were friends, as they were with Grace, but this was one of those "will my friends get along when they meet each other?" kind of moments. I have always felt that bringing friends together is a lot more loaded with minefields than bringing a significant other to meet your friends. While significant others come and go, friends are for life. What happens if she can't stand me? What does that do to my friendships with the others? Would we all be able to still get along?

So there I was, walking into the tavern at just after 5 PM yesterday. I looked around and immediately spotted (and heard) the Wayward Esquire. Across from him was Eddie and at the other end of the table was Daisy. Daisy was deep in conversation with a tall, gorgeous blonde dressed in a business suit. In all fairness to Daisy, let me also disclose that Daisy is also a gorgeous blonde, so it crossed my mind that such women really DO hang out in groups. Then, I began to get nervous. Could that be Grace? Holy crap is she hot! I made idle conversation with Eddie and the Wayward Esquire until the gorgeous blonde (the one that I did not know) noticed my presence at the table.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded to know.

"Uhh...who the hell are YOU?" I asked, tentatively, in return (I know, smooth, right?).

"I asked you first." she replied, a challenge still in her eye.

"I asked you second." I replied meekly, averting my eyes.

Eddie, who, by this time, had rightfully grown tired of this back and forth, said " she has you there."

She stared at me and I stared at her. Defeated, I broke into a smile and extended my hand and said: "It is so nice to finally meet you!"

Grace took mercy on me and broke into a dazzling smile (one of those that can melt hearts): "It is nice to meet you too. Wait, you get a hug."

With that, Grace walked around the table and I received a heartfelt, warm embrace and a kiss on my cheek. Instantaneously, Grace and I were good friends. I found myself telling her things that few of the others knew about me, and Grace smiled, laughed, and listened. I told her of how her posted story of the IKEA picture affected me, and she accepted my compliments modestly. When Namby arrived, the party finally felt complete. As Namby tossed peanuts into the beer mugs surrounding us and he, Eddie, and the Wayward Esquire belted out Monty Python tunes, our party was one of laughter and conversation. Any passersby would have assumed that the six of us were lifelong friends rather than just people who met through law school and through law school friends, much less THAT NIGHT. The friendships among all of the bloggers survived the first meeting of me and Grace, and I look forward to many more evenings of fun.

So, what are my impressions of Grace? Intelligent, witty, gorgeous, vivacious, intense, warm, funny, irrepressible, and...dare I say it...yes, I must...AMAZING. All of you should be so lucky to know someone like her.