You Meet the Nicest People on Etsy

Please ignore my double chin. It's hard to take a photo and look fabulous at the same time. :oP

Over a year ago, I joined an Etsy street team called Fabulous Artistic Moms or FAM for short. As a getting to know you game, we were asked to submit photos of ourselves our senior year of high school and a recent picture of us. The game was to match up the old photo with the new photo and guess who it was. More than once, people kept confusing my photos with Marisa's and they had a hard time telling us apart. We started calling each other our twin.

Soon thereafter, I posted a forum thread about not loving the whole stay-at-home-mom bit and wondering if I was alone. Marisa responded that she felt the same way and a friendship was born.

Marisa lives in Texas so hanging out was out of the question but we did talk on the phone almost every day for the last year. And we easily had hour long conversations if not longer. It was fabulous. Like talking to myself but not in a crazy kind of way.

Then last month, Marisa was able to make a solo trip out here to visit and we had a blast! I was worried that meeting in person might be kind of awkward (I'd hate to be considered better on the phone) but it was as if we'd known each other for years and hanging out was just second nature.

We packed a lot 'o fun into those few days. We went to Seaside Beach, Portland's Saturday Market, Darcelle's Drag Show, Helvetia Tavern and a bit of shopping. And since she's the skinny twin (for now) I told her she had to model my new tees while she was here. "Will model for food" I told her.

We had so much fun and hopefully, Marisa and her family will be moving out this way next year. They were interested in Portland before she and I ever met, but after coming here, she's sold and now she and her family have some fabulous friends just waiting. :o)

Marisa and I with the "lovely" Darcelle