Among the people I met last week during the Feasibility Study Road Show was Clancy Ratliff (she of Culture Cat). We didn't have a lot of time to hang out, but we did make a point of talking and taking pictures in between scheduled events at the department and at the reception last Friday. Over and over again during this process of investigating programs, I've been surprised at how nice and how human people have seemed. Clancy was no exception. She's answered a ton of my questions about the department and the Cities over the past month, and came and found us with her camera at the party. It's lovely to feel so welcome.

I had the definite sensation of worlds colliding, though. I know other bloggers in my daily life - Mister Boyfriend is one, and my friend Michelle was until she recently closed up shop. Still, I've never met someone whose blog I had been reading long before meeting them. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George's friends start hanging out with his fiancee and he protests, "You're killing independent George!" (Only my experience wasn't nearly so unpleasant.) It's very odd to have the physical selves and the constructed, blogger selves collide. I was aware of meeting an actual someone who previously been only virtual to me -- but I was also equally aware of someone meeting two different parts of myself, the physical self and the blogger self. Both are true representations of me, but also entirely separate. Or perhaps the beer was just making me think too much that night.