I’d like you to meet…

I have a tendancy to get very absorbed in whatever I’m doing. I can carry on a conversation with you while I’m working, insert all the right ‘uh, huhs,’ ‘reallys?’ and ‘no, ways!’ in all the right places and still not have any idea what we talked about. I can totally ignore you and you’ll never know it.

I can become so enrapt in a book that I can almost believe that the characters are real and find myself on the verge of telling my family and friends about what happened to this character or that character as if they were live people.

My imagination rivals that of a four year old. I have fabulous talks with myself all the time. When I take my dogs for a walk, or on my morning and evening commutes, I often find myself carrying on these elaborate conversations – both sides, out loud - and once aware of what I’m doing, hope that no one actually heard me.

That is why this bloggy thing has me so confused. I have ‘met’ so many wonderful people. People I know are real  – I’ve seen the photos, e-mailed back and forth, have even heard a few of your voices. But, when I try to tell ‘the others,’ those uninitiated to the blogosphere about what is happening in your lives that has touched me, or made me laugh until some liquid shoots out my nose, I have no words.

Who exactly are you? How do I introduce you?

I think of you as my friends. I talk with you as I would an in-person friend, but the looks I get when I mention something that I read in a particular post, or exchanges we have had, are this side of ‘poor dear, she has lost her ever-loving-mind, she thinks these things are real people.’ It’s if they (these in-the-flesh friends) think I have fallen into a bad Sims game and can’t get up.

They treat me like I am talking about an imaginary friend, or actors on a television show. The response is almost – pity – a polite nod, a nervous ‘is-it-catching’ smile.

I have found a community of moms and dads who understand and have gone through the same trials I have with a son with a myriad of problems in and out of school, I have ‘held the hand’ of a friend going through a personal crisis, and have cried when someone I have come to know is hurting, or experiencing great joy and graced us with a glimpse of that happiness.

I want my husband to understand that when I get on the computer at night and read other blog posts, or leave messages for these new found friends, it’s just as important to me as when I talk with other friends at work or on the phone. I think my daughter gets it, because she has left her own comments here and there, letting me know that this is just another way for us to reach out to each other.

What is the appropriate taxonomy – blog pal, Internet associate, maybe computer colleague? If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just go with “Friend.”