Hola readers!

I'm sitting here a little bit still in a state of shock. I think I need these photos to prove it actually did happen.
Yesterday at 2:20 PM (approximate) I met my friend and penpal of ten+ years. Kara and her husband met me at my job after work. When she texted me that she was outside in the parking lot I practically ran to clock out. When I saw her through the window I screamed (inwardly) as I walked (as coolly as humanly possible) for the door saying under my breath, "oh my word, oh my word."
Kara is one of the most beautiful souls and she is exactly like her letters. I had never heard her voice. While texting and e-mailing occasionally, she was always my penpal.
We've written each other countless letters, keeping in contact through High School, into adulthood...and her moving to my home state which was both incredible and surreal.
When she hugged me it was like hugging a friend I had met before...even though we'd never had. She is a bubbly spirit, full of wisdom and grace and fun. I have known her for so long yet haven't actually got to see her up close and real...it's such a weird, bizarre, epic thing.
I loved her through her words and I loved her even more in person. She was always like the older sister I never had and in High School I always wanted to seek her advice. I remember thinking she was the coolest soul out there. I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.
We met through an online website from CEF when I was eleven and I remember wanting to be her friend. I wanted to get to know this girl.
She's always been the one with fun stationary and who always decorates her letters with stickers ...and we just so happen to share the same name.
We've written letters since 2012. I remember knowing hardly anything about her except a mutual love for reading and writing. And then we both watched Sherlock and started reading Harry Potter...and we grew up watching similar shows like Little House. We met Tuesday both wearing converse and having the same camera. I found out that we both love to talk, use our left hand, share a mutual love for adoption, dislike cooking (though I'm getting better, I promise!), and she gave me advice on dying my hair (apparently I have poor dye choices).
I never dreamed we'd meet.
I never dreamed we've live in the same state (even for just a time).
I never dreamed she would show up at my workplace one day and give me a hug and then we'd go eat Chinese and play mini golf.
She was always that far away friend I wanted to meet and never dreamed we would.
But we did.
And that is about the best feeling in the world.
Online friends didn't use to exist. Thirty years ago this wouldn't have happened. In the last two months I have met/gotten together with three friends I met originally in cyber space.
I met another Kara.
I met the Kara who has encouraged me in my writing journey, in my mental health journey, and in life in general. When I saw her through the window I about died. This stuff doesn't just happen. You don't just meet one of your good friends for the first time. She doesn't just move to your state.
But it did happen.
It's real.
And it's too good not to blog about it today.

On a not so random note, Kara's also a blogger and recently got up her blog Broken Strings and Slumbering Chords here and don't feel any pressure but you should really check it out! ;)