It’s a funny thing about these internet relationships. You meet a friend online (so to speak), you bond quickly over things like 80s hair, good writing, big rings, and a passion for supporting other moms. So you start a business together that combines all of those things (although not so much the 80s hair) and from that day forward you spend pretty much every single day talking and chatting and IM’ing and twittering and connecting in every way.

Except in person.

(Oh, that.)

“Has it really been since BlogHer last July that we last saw each other?” Kristen asked.

Yeah, I guess it has.

I hadn’t even met the beautiful baby yet.

Whatchoo talkin ’bout Willis?

So when I flew down to Atlanta as a birthday surprise, thanks to her handsome pilot of a husband and a freelance job that unbooked me last minute, it was a necessary reminder of how important it is for friends to connect in person. To just shut off the damn computer, get off Twitter, and have a margarita or two in abject defiance of swine flu at a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo.

One down…

It didn’t take too long to realize I need to do it more. We all need to do it more, I imagine. And not just at conferences or blogger events or sponsored press junkets where we talk shop. We need to connect when there’s no one else around.

You know, a girlfriend day. Like we used to do. Before we had kids.

(Remember that?)

Because when you do, there’s this magical point at which you stop catching up and start just being. You’re done with the mental list of topics to go over and gossip to share and you can just bather about your marriage, something funny that happened in college, or your favorite wine. You can share the in-law stories you’d never reveal on your blog, confide your five-year plan, and trade real live hugs which kick the living shit out of (((this kind))).

You can fill in the blanks of your life.

Or maybe you don’t talk at all.

Maybe you just stretch out in the living room together in silence and watch your kids becoming friends too.

The 10,000 calorie photo.

Make it happen mamas. Days like this nourish your soul.

And happy happy birthday Kristen.