Sight unseen
Saturday night, the Lion and I hosted a Winter Cruise theme party. We try to host three parties per year. One in February to beat the Winter blues. A barbeque in the Summer. And a Hallowe’en costume theme party in October.
Each party, we invite the same core group of friends, and then we always try to introduce new people into the mix.
This year we invited a long lost high school friend of the Lion’s, and three people we have never met before in our lives. That’s right, for sake of argument, we were all complete strangers.
You see, we invited people we met through the blogging community. Hence, we have only ‘met’ online. And not only did they accept the invitation, they drove great lengths to get to the party. Literally!
Musecrossing (aka Christine) and her husband made the two hour trek from Montreal. Deep Friar came from waaaaaaaayyyyyy up north, also a very long drive for him. To show up to a party hosted by people they had only come to know through the written word!
What an incredible risk, eh? At best, we just might not have hit it off in person. At worst, any one of us could have been lying through our teeth about who we really are.
And yet, the Lion and I extended the invitation to strangers, and these strangers accepted.
Why? Because I believe we all share some things in common.
Trust - we trusted that each person has been revealing themselves honestly through their posts and social medai conversations. Of course, if you are a clever blogger, you can pick up on clues that the person you are interacting with is being above aboard. But, there are some mighty proficient deceivers out there. However, my first inclination is to trust. And apparently our invitees tend to as well.
A sense of adventure - the Lion and I love the thrill of meeting new people. There are so many fascinating individuals in this world, and we like to reach out and meet as many as we can. And talk about a brave thing for our invitees to do! Hop in the car and drive hours to meet up with complete strangers. Intrepid adventurers indeed.
Credit goes to the long lost high school friend as well. While not a stranger, there’s a lot of water under the bridge in twenty-three years! He and the Lion could have taken one look at each other, and discovered they no longer had anything to say. And there the poor man would have been, stuck in our house, awkwardly trying to make conversation.
Of course, this is not what happened. In fact, it was old home week, but it could have!
The Lion and I were thrilled to develop new friendships with these ’strangers’. And the core group of friends and the new group of friends melded smoothly to melt away everyone’s Winter Blues!
Cheers to all those who attended. The Lion and I are truly honoured to have had such an awesome group of people in our home.
Would you invite people into your house sight unseen? Would you accept an invitation to a party hosted by people you have never met?
Panther, that sounds like a helluva party and a great idea. I love meeting new people and the thought of getting to know some blogging friends face-to-face sounds wonderful. I think Friar and Christine were very brave to come to your house, and you and the Lion were very cool to invite them. Hope you all had a fab time.
I would definitely do something like this, but my hubby wouldn’t be so keen. I am heading down to Melbourne in the next couple of months and hope to catch up with Robin from Let’s Live Forever. I’m pretty excited about it actually. She’ll be my first blogging mate I’ve met in person.
Kelly@SHE-POWER
Heh, well, I did.
You and Lion were welcome in my home and I had a great time the day you came to hang out with me. Likewise, I was well received in your home and felt so comfortable that I probably could’ve fallen asleep on your sofa in perfect sense of security and trust.
I’ve met other people I only knew online, and yes - I felt that through our interactions (which were fairly extensive before the invitation to visit came) and reading what the person wrote, I could gain enough trust to want to meet these people in my home.
Sorry I couldn’t make it to this party, but I’m all for a summer BBQ!
(And when are you moving to WP?)
Hi Panther,
Sounds like an awesome party! And bringing the online world offline - very cool! Here’s to new friendships that continue to develop in all areas of our lives!
I took the risk of going on a blind date 19 years ago. We got engaged after 3 months of a long distance relationship (pen & paper - long before internet).
We’ve been married for 18 years now. Worked out pretty well
Hey Panther - Sounds like a great time was had by all. I would absolutely head to someone’s house for a party that I didn’t know, but my husband is much less adventurous in that regard. Its nice that you and the Lion share that adventurous spirit!
I can’t say we’ve ever invited someone to the house that we didn’t know. I am not opposed to it … we just tend to get together with our core group of friends.
I watch too many horror movies to do that!
There are so many people I’ve met through online interactions who I would love to meet in real life — so I would’ve definitely been up for such a party! But since I live quite far from most people I connect with, the parties aren’t bound to be frequent…
I think it’s wonderful that you and Lion were open and trusting enough to allow these connections to develop on another level :).
Very cool! Thank you for sharing!
Zoom was the first internet person I met in real life and that was a success. Then I agreed to meet this other internet woman from Brooklyn while we both happened to be vacationing in Paris and got invited to her friend’s place for dinner - real Parisiennes in Paris! And we had never even heard of them, never mind met them. And that was a success. So I am much braver about this sort of thing now.
Next time… next time…
The pictures of the hot tub cinched the deal for me (why, oh why, do my kids catch *every* single bug out there???)
Beltane is coming…
Glad all of you had fun, and I won’t miss the next one - third time’s the charm.
(Plus, I’ve promised you a bonfire, so maybe it’s at my house.)
That WAS a great party. I had fun.
And…well…I know WHERE you live now!
(MmBWAH-hah-hah-hah-HAHHH!)
Hi, Panther. I just knew your home was fun! Love the tradition of three parties a year…
Yes, I’ve gone to parties where I’ve not known the host; my husband’s circle did this a lot. In fact, our first date was a bike ride in the park, but we somehow ended up at a BBQ/pool party with about a bazillion people and the ONLY person I knew there was this man I was just getting to know. Yikes!
The first invitations I extended to strangers was when I asked international students to Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful.
Kelly@SHE - oooo, meeting Robin, that would be awesome! I have already met XUP (at a local Blogger’s Breakfast) and James Chartrand (at his place, then at ours). It’s so exciting to meet fellow writers. Eventually, the Lion and I are planning a trip Down Under. We will certainly trying to meet up with the Australian crowd!
James - awe, if you had curled up on our couch, I would have covered you up with a blankie and you could have had a nice nap. But wait! We were too busy drinking wine were we not? And now that the party is behind us, I am now officially working on the Big Move to Wordpress.
Lance - whenever the Lion and I get married, we’ll invite the entire blogging community and give everyone plenty of notice to make travel arrangements. Then we’ll have one big massive Meet & Greet! *grin*
Jacki - I’d say that did work out very well. Well done!
Kristin - because the Lion and I are fairly new to each other, we have different sets of core friends, which we blend together at these parties. And we are open to meeting yet more people. However, for day in day out socializing we stick to the same small group. That’s just human nature.
Beatrice - ROFL
Zoe - yep, you never know who you are going to really connect with. Still, you can develop great friendships and never meet.
Mark - always happy to share *smile*
Julia - nothing ventured nothing gained. And at the very worst, you just spend a couple of awkward hours with someone. But even that is an adventure and learning experience.
Brett - yep, I am looking forward to that bonfire!
Friar - yes, there is that little concern of mine *grin*
yep, i will invite people i “know” into my house. site unseen. no. 1 if i’m familiar with them through blogging. panther i’d welcome you and lion with no worries or problems. wouldn’t be afraid to leave you in my house either, unattended.
i trust like that.
of course you know i let that massage therapist in my house - i trusted my friend to know him well enough to refer him to me.
sounds like you had a “gay old time.” panther! it’s nice to meet fellow bloggers face to face.
I’d invite lots of bloggers here, but given the size of the place, I’d only be able to fit one or two in at a time…
I’ll just have to wait until the Panther-Lion wedding to meet everyone.
I did once agree to an internet friend coming and staying over for 4 weeks when I was at Uni. We got on like a house on fire and had a great time!
The only bad part was that after she left all my so-called friends then started to bitch like crazy about her. All I could say was “If only you’d said something 4 weeks ago!” But it really pissed me off how two-faced they’d all been.
Panther,
I’m completely jealous!
It sounds like a great time was had by all, and though I don’t live near a soul whom I “know” through blogging, if I did I’d be all for a meetup. There are so many folks I’d love to live close enough to have a coffee with.
Beatrice—LOL!
Alex—I’m with you. Even my parents, when they (rarely) visit my fair land, can’t figure out where they’ll fit. I’m better as the traveller than the inviter, I suppose. Now I’ve just got to figure out why I live in The Black Hole of Blogging. It’s not fair.
Regards,
Kelly
What a fab idea!
There is always rather a leap of faith with these ‘friendships’ we make online but I would like to think that there are a few people out there that I have really connected with and could spend an evening with without killing them!
What a really lovely thing for you to do.
Julie - wow, you started off with a sense of adventure on your first date! Awesome. I always make sure that when I host Easter/Thanksgiving/Christmas, that my family knows to invite any ’stray cats’ as well. Nobody should be alone during the holidays.
Natural - and being left alone, I promise we would limit our snooping to the kitchen and living areas. *grin* Ya, I actually would be nervous about inviting the massage therapist guy in. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be comfortable with a male massage therapist. Odd that, eh, for someone who for that most part is extremely comfortable with herself.
Alex - good thing you are a fellow blogger, ensuring yourself an invitation to our wedding *wicked sisterly grin*
James/Dancing Geek - it always seems to work that way, eh? AFTER someone leaves all of a sudden you find out from everyone how much they disliked them!
Kelly - well, we just have to get you here on a vacation. Come in the Summer though. Seriously! Come in the Summer.
Tara - the weirdest part of developing friendships online first is that you develop a mental picture of their looks, voice and mannerisms. I totally get it wrong every single time.
YES! I hope to figure out how we can cruise up from Rhode Island - how long do you think it will take us to find you on our brand new boat? We’re there. eventually. Remember - we only have weekends. HA!
Actually, I just invited some blogging friends from UK to visit. gulp.
CuriousC - the Lion went from here to New York City. It took him a week. From Rhodes Island? Um, first I have to figure out where Rhodes Island is. I so totally suck at geography. I’m thinking awhile though! I look forward to swapping boating stories with you!