My dear friend Kirsten is coming all the way from Washington for a five-day trip to Florida to visit yours truly next month. Can it possibly be?! I am so, so excited, I'm pretty much doing a little dance as I type this news. You should have heard the squeal, the shout of joy that burst from my mouth when I heard the for-sure confirmation. She already made the reservation, and we were just exchanging tentative e-mails about dates this morning! And this on the heels of some light banter back and forth in recent e-mails about our need to sit across from each other for hours in a bookstore or a coffee shop and just share, share, share to our heart's content. Oh, dear girl, the beauty of this tree is just a glimpse of what you'll see while you are here.

Ahhh, Kirsten, how thrilled I am at your coming. We will sit down beside each other, across from each other, over coffee, over sushi, over Thai, and on a walk, and we will talk and talk and talk until our mouths fall off our faces, just like you said. Thank you for this gift, the bountiful gift of your presence.

And to think all this transpired because of the marvel of technology in blogland. What a gift!