AJ and I spent a lovely afternoon with eggsaucted and the princess yesterday at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It was a beautiful day for admiring flowers or, in the case of AJ and Princess, splashing in every available fountain and darting through sprinklers.

This was for both egg and I our first venture at meeting someone from diaryland in person. I, for one, was feeling a little nervous � despite the fact that I can be rather extraverted among friends, I tend to be pretty shy about meeting new people � but we had a great time, even if much of it was spent trying to corral one kid or another. Our conversation was all over the place. We have a strange number of coincidences in our histories (the weirdest of them being that she bought her house from a friend of mine, so I�ve actually been in her house, albeit before it was hers) and between that and the diaryland data-generating machine, there was much to talk about, although, since we were also face-to-face strangers, it was sometimes hard to remember which background knowledge that you could leave unexplained. Meeting someone who knows me from here also made me a little more aware of the degree to which harriet is a persona, a sort of essentialization of the parts of me I like the best, and not me as a whole. It was really great, though, to be able to put a person behind the words I read every day, especially when it was such a nice and interesting person, and to meet the adorable Princess who, if it is possible, is even cuter in person.

AJ and the Princess, not having the benefit of piles of diary entries to prep them, took a little while to get to know each other. AJ, when confronted with an unfamiliar child, tends to respond by pretending said child doesn�t exist for a little while. But he muttered a greeting and admired her backpack, which, like his own, has her name on it, when they first met. Pretty soon they were both trying to boss each other around, AJ by just assuming Princess would follow his every move and Princess by pointing an outstretched finger very definitively at AJ to instruct him where to go. It�s funny to see two only children together, because they are both used to being in charge. The negotiations can be very entertaining. By the end of our visit, they were playing together nicely on the lawn while egg and I enjoyed a brief moment of rest. The kids didn�t hold still for very long, but we did manage to get them to hold still long enough to say �cheese� by plying them with animal crackers:

They also gave AJ a truly excellent T-shirt from egg�s place of employment. Alas, I will not share a picture of the shirt itself, as it would reveal the location of egg�s workplace, which I�m pretty sure she hasn�t mentioned by name. But suffice it to say that it is pretty much a perfect choice for AJ who asked to put it on immediately and nearly refused to take it off at bedtime. While sprinting around outside after dinner, he told me, �I think the shirt makes me go faster.�

AJ conked out in the car on the way home so quickly, that he almost looked like a victim of narcolepsy. I asked him if he was cool enough in the back seat and he agreed. Seconds later he was snoring like a freight train, worn out from all the walking and exploring (I�m sure egg was worn out too, as she not only walked, but spent a fair amount of time carrying Princess as well � I hope you got a nap too!).

Thanks for a great day! I hope we can do it again sometime soon!

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