The Value of "Real" Friends

Tonight Slick and I got to do dinner with real life friends today. Yes, REAL tangible people! We didn't just sit in front of the computers and talk to our friends over the headsets while gobbling dinner before the raid, we went out and socialized!!!

I'll call them RenFairCouple.

I worked with MrsRenFair at my last job. After getting to know her for a while and helping to train & monitor her, I asked her the most dangerous question a gamer asks normal people, "Do you Game?" She was shocked that I asked and even more shocked that I saw the spark of a D&D'er in her even with her work-face on. In fact, she and her husband didn't just play D&D, they also work at the local Renaissance Fair every year. From then on, she became one of my best "local" friends.

Oddly, my other best local friend is also a woman from that same job. Funny that.

Anyway, she left work soon after I did. She is also going through some health issues and I pray for her regularly. Unfortunately, we both live on the exact opposite sides -- putting us 1.5 hours apart --of Charlotte. So, we've seen very little of each other over the last year. Finally after months of not seeing her or her husband, we got together tonight.

It was great. They have the same interests as us. They like Science Fiction & Fantasy. They play video games together. They are liberals! They are also in their 30's w/out kids and trying to figure out what that means in the grand scheme of things.

Do you have any clue how hard it is to find couples our age who are gamers, without kids that are liberals around here? This is not a complaint about the south. Finding all three of those in a couple is tough anywhere. But it's been extra difficult since we've moved here. In fact, RenFairCouple are the online ones we know.

Needless to say, we talked non-stop for an hour through dinner. Then we talked non-stop for 2 more hours at a coffee shop.

Slick and I have a really great group of "online" friends. But it doesn't change the fact that they are SOOO far away. And it doesn't keep us from missing human contact with other geeks. It also doesn't help the fact that while there are a number of women in our guild, very few of our online friends are female. (This is important for Slick.)

Yes, lots of women play World of Warcraft. In fact, our Guildleader is a woman!

Three hours of good food and great stories made us realize that we absolutely have to get together more often. We're all busy for a few weeks, but we're hoping to get together in February to play Slick's new Arkham Horror game. If we can sting a few visits together, maybe we'll even try a real, old-school, pen & paper D&D game.

Glee!

Yup, never ignore the value of "real" friends.