*cough*cough *hack*hack*

Oh, dear.

I know you are waiting to hear all the details of the weekend and I want to tell you, I really do.

But I'm still sick. I'm at the stage where I sound worse than I am, although when I'm coughing it sounds like Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge" and I half expect to see the tell-tale red blooms on my hankie while James Broadbent tells me I'm dying.

I have found some red medicine that seems to help quite nicely without making me loopy, which is something I'm very much opposed to -.being made loopy, that is. And I got a very good rest last night. If I can just take it easy today and maybe tomorrow, I'll be right as rain.

I am a little sad, I can tell you that. We had a great time with JP and I don't particularly want to take him to the airport today. I think he should live here. All weekend it rather felt like he did, and not just because he was sleeping in our house. I mean that he liked Seattle and he liked our friends and it felt like he belongs here.

I introduced him with much fanfare, making a huge point of him being the JP for those who read our blogs and also of the fact that he'd come all the way from Omaha to celebrate my birthday. People were suitably impressed.

Later JP asked me why I wasn't fussing about the fact that Payson came all the way from Texas for the same purpose. Of course I loved that Payson traveled up here for my birthday. But he's a jet setter. He travels all the time, for work and leisure.

JP, on the other hand is famous for not travelling. But he did for me. He got on a plane and left the comfort of his home to sleep in my child's purple room with the Zac Efron posters and endured all the late night/early morning bathroom noises (because one of her walls contains all the plumbing- it can be a little like sleeping next to a waterfall). He did all this with good and decidedly unbitter humor because he likes me. He really likes me. And he even says that he'll do it again.

Point is, it's a really big deal that he came out here. Really big. And I'm honored. But now I'm sad because it was so nice to have him here and I don't want him to go even though I know that we'll talk on the phone practically every day once he gets back to Omaha, just like we always do.

Here's the thing I've learned about meeting blog buddies. It doesn't fundamentally change the friendship you began in the ethers. Usually, it just confirms it. But once someone becomes "real" then you can miss them when they aren't around. I'm so going to miss my Poodle.

I promise to tell you all about the party as soon as it doesn't hurt to breathe or the red medicine kicks in, whichever comes first.