The infamous meeting

Of all the people I met during my two weeks in New York, one meeting stands out above the rest.

Why? Because I finally got to meet a long-time friend and colleague face to face.

And I was not the only one looking forward to this encounter - I had co-workers who were rather excited to witness the infamous meeting.

Meetings like this are strange. You feel like you know the person so well from countless phone conversations and e-mail chains, but when you're looking the person in the eye while speaking to them for the first time, it's almost surreal.

Let's go back to that night, shall we?

Tuesday of the event week was the longest day in history. My day started at 4 a.m. with filming for a media tour and ended with a dinner for 40 that we arranged that ended at 10:30 p.m. Don't get me wrong, much fun was had, but I looked at my superiors at the end of the dinner and said, "if there's not liquor in my hand in 10 minutes I'm not going to be a pleasant person."

Luckily, there was!

We walked across the street to a rooftop bar where we met up with our friends who had flown into town that day.

And then we met.

It wasn't what people expected, I'm sure. A hello and a hug and the drinking began. Grey Goose and Red Bulls were consumed by the gallon - I was a very happy girl!

The party continued well into the night, getting me to bed about 24 hours after I had woken up the previous day. Needless to say, that made for quite the long Wednesday.

Drinking continued on Thursday night and goodbyes were said on Friday. And now, we're back to phone conversations and e-mail chains.

The connectivity of this society is great for instances like this - but it also makes you realize what you're missing out on when you finally meet your virtual friends face to face.

Sometimes reality can be a bitch, but I have no doubt that we'll get to do it again, sooner rather than later.

Has anyone else had the chance to meet long-time friends/co-workers/bloggers in person? What was your experience like?

Cheers!

-A