I met Suzie on Twitter. April 17th 2009 to be exact. I will honestly say I was first attracted to her photo and positive tweets. When I look back at our first tweets to each other, they were just very positive and somehow magnetic towards each other. A couple of crafty women, raising kids without school.
One month later, I said on Twitter that my husband was going to California to attend a reception for an exhibition of his paintings at a gallery a short drive from Suzie's home. Suzie said she was going to go to his show and meet him in person! Well, I was just thrilled!
When I think of it now, Twitter has always been Suzie to me. I joined a mere month before finding her there and ever since then we have connected at least once a day there.
Fast forward two more years, my husband and Suzie have now hung out in person on several occasions, always sparked by one of his annual shows in California. Somehow I have become closer to someone I have never met through the stories my husband retells of their adventures.
Suzie and I have spent the last 2 and a half years getting to really know each other through casual conversations on Twitter. We take to email on a semi-regular basis when something ignites our interest. Sometimes 140 characters is not enough. We start a small conversation, and if it gets juicy, we take it to email. Often with Twitter, I feel I need to just skim the surface of a topic. I don't want to get too personal, or let out more information then I want to.
We have been writing epic emails late at night to each other about various topics and I aways come away with a new perspective and wisdom gained.
We talk deeply about our journey raising kids without school, our parenting philosophies (peaceful partnership with our kids), our marriages, our friendships, body image and our childhoods.
I wrote this in an email to Suzie about a year into our friendship; "I have never experienced such unconditional friendship from someone I haven't met in 'real life' before." Our relationship continues to evolve and we still wish we could sit across from each other and talk face to face. I wonder what it would be like to meet her, for the first time, with the feeling that we are already so connected?
When I think of it now, Twitter has always been Suzie to me. I joined a mere month before finding her there and ever since then we have connected at least once a day there.
Fast forward two more years, my husband and Suzie have now hung out in person on several occasions, always sparked by one of his annual shows in California. Somehow I have become closer to someone I have never met through the stories my husband retells of their adventures.
Suzie and I have spent the last 2 and a half years getting to really know each other through casual conversations on Twitter. We take to email on a semi-regular basis when something ignites our interest. Sometimes 140 characters is not enough. We start a small conversation, and if it gets juicy, we take it to email. Often with Twitter, I feel I need to just skim the surface of a topic. I don't want to get too personal, or let out more information then I want to.
We have been writing epic emails late at night to each other about various topics and I aways come away with a new perspective and wisdom gained.
We talk deeply about our journey raising kids without school, our parenting philosophies (peaceful partnership with our kids), our marriages, our friendships, body image and our childhoods.
I wrote this in an email to Suzie about a year into our friendship; "I have never experienced such unconditional friendship from someone I haven't met in 'real life' before." Our relationship continues to evolve and we still wish we could sit across from each other and talk face to face. I wonder what it would be like to meet her, for the first time, with the feeling that we are already so connected?
Saskafornia is our connection. Saskatchewan (me), California (Suzie). I hope you check in now and then, to see what Suzie and I are discussing from our unique perspectives.
Sam in Saskatchewan
• • • • •
I could write exactly what Sam has, but in reverse. I think my twitter account dates from early April 2009, so Sam must have been one of the first people I interacted with. I remember loving her blog, which was full of both her own beautiful art and the art projects she did with her (then) small children. Oddly, though, one that I remember best was the jello post, because my grandmother made something very similar and I had not seen such a dessert in years.
But as Sam says, early on it seemed like we just spoke the same language. Every now and then a particular voice cuts through all the noise on twitter, and Sam's always rang clear to me somehow. From the first email we exchanged, she felt familiar, like a friend I had always had but just hadn't met.
After two years of emailing, snail mailing, and even the occasional video greeting, we began thinking about putting some of our conversations into a joint blog. We talked about what it might be about, how we might format it, who it might be aimed at...and then we thought, screw it—let's just start.
Here we are, just starting.
Suzie in California
After two years of emailing, snail mailing, and even the occasional video greeting, we began thinking about putting some of our conversations into a joint blog. We talked about what it might be about, how we might format it, who it might be aimed at...and then we thought, screw it—let's just start.
Here we are, just starting.
Suzie in California
omg "saskafornia"
ReplyDelete! That's awesome! ; )
I'm so glad the postcard was so loved! ; )
~Monika