110506

Long Awaited:
Current mood: grateful

Well, I've been hyper busy at work (trials coming up) and at home (lots o' kids). I've been wanting to post about meeting Brandy!

I've known Brandy, via MySpace, for almost a year now. At all times, she seemed like someone I would love to know face-to-face. However, she lives in Kentucky and I live in WV. With my schedule and family, 4.5 hour drives are not something I can regularly make. We talked via MySpace a TON, we talked on Yahoo quite a bit too, once we even talked on the phone. I really felt like it was a small tragedy to not get to know her personally.

Two weekends ago, I got my chance!

The trip was on Sunday and I wasn'tgoing to get home until about 2 or 3 in the morning... and I had to work Monday... but to me, it was totally worth it to go anyway. I loaded up CoCo and CoCo-related items and made the long, looong trek there.

When we got there, I realized that 1. Lexington is confusing; and 2. Lexington was really trafficky because of the PPV. To add to that, it was piss-pouring the rain. I could NOT find her house. I called her number and we all decided that I would wait for her husband to show us the way. Meanwhile, I make jokes to myself about how Brandy was probably some huge 64 year old, 341 lbs., hairy molestor. In fact, at one point, a really beat up car pulled up and I thought, "There she is." Heh... it was above-described man... but NOT Brandy nor Brandy's husband.

Her husband shows up and I decide that we are pretty sure everything will be okay (I have never met someone I only knew through the internet before) because he had antique tags on his car. EASILY identifiable AND he couldn't be too awfully dangerous. Heh... I know, profiling like that'll really bite me in the butt one day. HA! We get to her house and it's really nice. I wasn't surprised, but I was relieved. For all I knew, she had a crack apartment, but only SAID she had a house. She offered me some coffee and then we all decided to go to dinner. We get travel mugs of coffee and head out. Near there, I realize a friend still has my check card AND all my cash. AWWWKWWWAAAAARD. I spend about 90 seconds trying to figure out how to break it to them I have no money and that it was indeed an accident and not predetermined. I decide I just have to tell them. They take it incredibly well... of course, that may be because they were planning on paying anyway, HA!

We get to this great place, I can't remember what it was called, and I accidently bring in my travel mug of coffee. I don't know why. Also, before I even got completely out of the car, Kel had already gotten CoCo out of the car, across the street, and under a covered porch (still raining). And CoCo didn't look like she was afraid of being slowly being skinned alive! The restaurant had a one-man band playing. He was kind of loud. And he did a tune or two... well, he got his cell phone out, put it up to the microphone and played a couple songs. I've never seen that done before, but I do come from the sticks. We ordered some of the best buffalo wings I've ever had. CoCo loved the wings too. We left the restaurant and our waitress (So, what are you ordering tonight, TIGER?) ran out to bring me Brandy's travel mug I'd forgotten. I was batting a thousand that night, let me tell YOU.

We then went to Blockbuster and rented a couple of movies to watch. The whole time, Brandy and Kel apologizing for not having something better planned. Clearly, they thought I came to see Lexington not Brandy. Brandy was so great with CoCo too. Most people ignore the kid or give polite banter and THEN ignore the kid. Not Brandy. She's exactly as she claims to be with children. Don't believe me? Well, you didn't see Viv's bedroom and playroom. Proof's in the puddin', people.

I had been worried about what would happen if it turned out we only liked each other online and NOT in person. Would it be the longest night of my life at her house or would it be the longest night of my life as I tried to find my way, walking, to the WWE show? I can honestly tell you that we never ever had an awkward or silent moment. We didn't talk like people who'd just met each other, either. We talked like great friends who hadn't seen each other in awhile (as opposed to never).

In short, Brandy is exactly who she is online, if not even warmer in person. Brandy looks exactly as she does in her pictures... she doesn't just post pictures she thinks make her look good while not looking like her at all. I could have EASILY picked her out of a crowd. She was DEFINITELY worth the 9 hour round trip and 3 hours of sleep before work the next day!