She really is fabulous.

First, an update on my niece.  The hospital released her around 6:00 last night so she is at home now.  I just sent her a text a little while ago to check on her and see how she was feeling.  She responded  and said she is feeling amazing!  She got out of the house for a little while today, got her hair washed, and has been sitting up a lot.  She is one blessed young lady.

My posts about this weekend are coming to y'all in an order that is anything but the order stuff happened in.  Yesterday I told you about part of Friday and Saturday.  Now I'm gonna tell you about different parts of Friday and Saturday.  Just try to keep up, okay?

Do most of y'all know who One Fabulous Mama is?  If not, check out her blog.  Here she is on my porch and my friends hanging out listening to her share her story:

One Fabulous Mama and her friend, Mandy, arrived at 6:00.  She brought me a beautiful floral arrangement, some lotions and goodies, and a coffee mug:

I wish every single one of you could meet her.  This was the second time I've met her and she just keeps getting more wonderful.  She is one of the most colorful yet down to earth, warm, welcoming, inspirational people I have ever met in my life.  After about 30 seconds, you don't see her hair color (currently purple but sometimes it's pink or blue or blonde) or her tattoos.  You see her soul.  You see her spirit.  You see her self-confidence.  You see her heart.

In fact, a bit into the party, some of us were sitting out on my front porch with her chatting and one of my friends looked at me and said, "You know how I am.  Can I ask OFM a question or will I embarrass you?"  I told OFM I had no idea what my friend might possibly ask but to feel free to say she didn't want to answer if she didn't want to.  My friend asked her to tell her story of how she went from a mom wearing plaid dresses and short "mom" hair to the lady with purple hair and covered in tattoos.  So she did.  We all sat there and listened in silence and a bit of awe.  (In a nutshell, the purple hair and tattoos are who she really is on the inside and she finally decided to stop living her life to make everyone else happy and she stopped hating herself.  And she now looks at herself in the mirror and says, "You are absolutely adorable!"  And she is freaking adorable, y'all.  And her husband and kids think so too.)  My friend then said to her, "One of the main reasons I came tonight is because I see the stuff you write online.  I see your Facebook posts.  I see the photos you post.  And I wanted to meet you in person so I could see if you're just full of bullshit.  You are not.  You are completely who you are online.  I am so happy I met you.  You are refreshing and absolutely amazing."  My friend also wrote a very nice post about OFM on her own Facebook about how much she enjoyed meeting her.

I had an opportunity to chat with her for a little while one-on-one.  She asked me one simple question that caused me to share with her some kind of bad stuff I went through a long time ago.  She cried while I was talking with her. She told me she felt honored that people share their stories with her.  She had suggested that we go to the Clermont Lounge after the party was over but as she and I were talking she said, "I know I suggested the Clermont, but to be honest I would much rather stay here at your house and just talk with you some more."  But then 4 people walked in the room and our magical connection was interrupted.  It did feel a little bit magical, y'all.  I know that might sound dorky, but she just makes you feel good about yourself by being around her.  Her soul shines.

When she first arrived at my house, she walked in the door and said, "You are my people.  I want to be friends with you on Facebook on my personal page."  She turned the corner into my kitchen and she gasped and clutched her hands to her chest.  She had spotted a tiny piece of artwork I have from an artist I collect and follow online.  It wasn't a piece that jumps out at people.  It was on a shelf with some other stuff around it and it's only 8x8 inches in size.  I showed her a couple of other pieces I have from the same artist.  She stood there with her hands on her heart and said, "I met that artist one time.  I can't believe you know of her and collect her work.  I was at the monastery out in Conyers doing some meditation and she was there.  I had never heard of her before but for some reason she felt drawn to come over and speak to me.  She shared some stuff that she was going through and we talked for a very long time.  It was one of the most amazing moments I've ever had.  She told me she was an artist and we really connected.  And now here I am and you collect her work.  I don't know what she was doing at the monastery.  In fact, I don't even know where she lives."

I responded to her, "I can't believe she was at the monastery all the way out here in Conyers. She lives in Portland, Oregon."

Those two were meant to meet.

When I used to teach painting classes at the studio, our stuff was a certain "style" of art and I very much enjoyed painting those pieces and working there and teaching.  But when it's just me, piddling around in my home studio, my "style" is much more similar to this particular artist OFM had met at the monastery.  After everyone had left Friday night, OFM asked if she could see my home studio.  She, Amanda, Mandy and I went upstairs and OFM and Mandy started going through every single painting in my studio.....which is probably in the neighborhood of a couple of hundred paintings or more.  I told them not to feel like they had to look at everything and she said she wanted to.  She got to one of my personal pieces (as opposed to the teaching ones) and she said how much she loved it so I told her I wanted her to have it.  I ended up giving her 5 paintings and Mandy a couple.  OFM asked me which style was more me.  I told her it was the ones I do when I'm just painting for me and not the ones I painted when I used to teach.  She looked at me and said, "I knew that."

OFM and Mandy spent the night at my house that night.  I KNOW!  How lucky am I??

We were planning to go to breakfast the next morning, however, we didn't all go to bed until after 2:00 a.m. and by the time they woke up and packed they didn't have time because she wanted to take Mandy to IKEA and they were heading to a thrift store and then she had another sex toy party scheduled for that evening.  So I helped the two of them load up suitcases, sex toys, lube, stockings, wine, books, etc. (OFM has written a book and has her own wine label) into her mini-van, hugged them both and wished them well.  She had pulled her car back behind my house where the garage is and Amanda's car was also back there and before we knew it, OFM was good and stuck trying to get turned around because my driveway is next to impossible to back out of.

So there I was cornered between her van, my deck, the post for my new gate, and a thing hanging on the side of my deck that my garden hose hangs on.  I mean I was sucking in my gut and had both feet turned out to the sides so she wouldn't run over my toes I was so plastered against my deck.  And there she was wedged between the gutter on the corner of my house and the old crappy gate door on the opposite side.  She couldn't back up.  She couldn't pull forward.  Until she decided to just pull forward and scrape the hell out of the side of her van and dent my gutter a bit.  I was way more worried about her van than a dent in my gutter.  Oh, y'all.  I felt just awful about it.  I told her to tell her husband that someone did it while she was inside IKEA because I'm all about encouraging people to tell their husband giant lies. 

And then OFM and Mandy were gone just like that.  It was a whirlwind evening/morning but I adore that woman. 

I hope you all get a chance to meet her at some point.  Karen in VB was so sad she couldn't come down this weekend.  If I ever have her at my house again I'll be sure to let you know, Karen.