MEETING MARTHA … another blogger relationship

We, in the blogging world, know how much fun it is to actually meet the friends that we’ve met on the computer. My recent visit and lunch date with Martha was one of those times.

I had planned my usual trip North to see my daughter and her husband in NY State. I take Rt. 81 North through Virginia and it bypasses where Martha works, so it proved to be the perfect opportunity to meet her for lunch. She is an award-winning roving reporter for the public radio station WMRA in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Martha’s website is called “Bouncing Off The Bottom” and is of special interest to a lot of us in recovery. Her book, “How to Stop Screwing Up” is her take on the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous...but it’s written to include anyone who wants to change their life.

How often have I heard our AA members state that they wished their spouse (friend, family member, etc.) could benefit from our program. As the back cover of her book states: “You don’t have to be addicted to booze or drugs to work the Twelve Steps: you simply have to want to stop whatever behavior is slowly stealing the pleasure from your life”. Amen to that. It is a wonderful book.

Now to our lunch date. Martha met me at a designated place and we proceeded to a wonderful restaurant in the heart of Harrisonburg...a place I would never have found on my own. But the delicious food was just a small part of the hour or so that we spent together.

Martha is not only beautiful, but she exudes a love of life and an enthusiasm for every aspect of what’s happening in our world. We practically stumbled over our words as we jumped from topic to topic. It was so much fun to finally put a face to my blogging friend.

Martha is a bundle of energy and, besides her full time job as a reporter (which often entails traveling), she is working on her second book. We talked at length about that and of the revisions that she wanted to present to her publisher. I felt honored to be in on the “ground floor” and will be interested to see the final product.

Our lunch date was too short but it was the highlight of my trip North. It was just another example of how the blogging world opens doors to friendships that would be impossible without the computer.