Last night, I had the pleasure of meeting up with C from Leap and the Net Will Appear and it was not only so much fun, I came away from our laugh-filled, boy-talk/gossip, blogging insights, daily life chatter feeling inspired and having learned quite a few things from her – and about her – that I didn’t know before.

What did I learn?

She’s got great style, she’s funny, she’s beautiful (inside and out!) and she’s got a really grounded outlook on life. I dig it. I’m finding more and more I think this is indeed a great by-product of divorce-done-right. Just sayin.

She has a short list of must-have’s and dealbreakers for relationships that she absolutely sticks to, and I respect that so much. Of course, her dealbreakers include some that take into account her children, but speaking from experience, I know how hard it is sometimes to stick to the more tricky ones if the guy has all the right qualities, except that one big sticking point one. To drive decisions based on reality and decisions rather than emotion and feelings. Huge one for me to learn from.

She’s doing things now that she never thought she would be doing when she was married. Sound familiar? Yeah, same here. I’m just a different, more confident, more “me” person than I ever was before, and I can totally see that in her as well (even though I didn’t know her previously).

It is possible to have a civil relationship with your ex. It is a breathe of fresh air when two people can communicate and agree on things that are for the best of their children. I have a couple of friends that have gotten to that point in their post-divorce evolved relationships and I just applaud it to no end.

She’s inspired me to dig deep and write some pretty intense posts I am planning on my childhood and the story of my dad – then to now. I’ve been hesitant to, and a few of them may be password protected, but I do plan to chronicle it all. Maybe later this week, or maybe I’ll write them when I’m in Maine next week for ya’ll (and mostly for me, of course. I think it will be very cathartic).

She makes a mean “CD of awesomeness.” I’ve listened to it twice already – it reeks of awesome. Thank you, C, and seriously, let’s do this more often. I think we’d have a blast ;-)

And to my bloggy friends I have yet to meet – but would love to (Sarah, T,LilDevilMama, Snark, Nicki, Divorced Guy, NYSoonerGirl, INRIS x 2, since I met you but let’s again! and Shannon x2 – okay, I met you but I miss you and want to see you again asap! and the list goes on and on…) – let’s make it happen, mmk?