Today, we had a mini-Bloggers Connect of sorts.  After 3 months on Active Rain, I had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with some wonderful Realtors who were complete strangers to me prior to July 2007, but were already good friends before we ever met in person.

Once you leave the designation of newbie behind, pass through the tween stage of blogging, and become an oldie (and believe me this can happen faster than you think), you start to notice the same people commenting on your blogs and then you find yourself commenting on their blogs.  Before you know it you establish connections, subscribe to each other and conciliate true friendships.

The idea to get together was first hatched when Patricia Kennedy and I saw each other turning up in the same corners of Active Rain way back in July and she was the first to tag me with a Meme (see Who?? MeME! for my post; and MyMy! MeMe'd! Yikes! for Patricia's). 

Pat's a well-connected veteran D.C. agent who recently published a book entitled "The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate" which she nicely autographed for me today!

It took a while going back and forth until we could finally find a date when we were both free.

Once we agreed upon a day and time, we decided to invite some other local bloggers that we both respected from their writings and comments.  Margaret Woda from Crofton, MD and Cindy Jones from Northern Virginia both accepted the invitation and were available. 

Lucky for me!  I was going to lunch with three very lovely ladies and I was the only guy.

I told my wife not to be jealous.  Lest she confuse Active Rain with Match.com...

Margaret kindly offered to drive all the way down from Crofton to meet us in Arlington, VA in the Clarendon area to go to lunch at Harry's Tap Room.  (She did have an ulterior motive -- wanting to shop at Crate & Barrel at Clarendon Commons). 

To learn more about the Arlington real estate market and specifically some luxury condos in the Clarendon area, read my award-winning fictitious letter to Paris Hilton urging her to move there.  

Lunch was great.  The gazpacho, crab cake, and sorbet desert were excellent.  But more exciting than the food was getting to spend a couple of hours with some very experienced, successful, and friendly Realtors (not to mention being the only guy among three beautiful women!)

Patricia really broke the ice -- smashed it in fact, by telling us about an off-color advertisement some years ago by a pair of D.C. Realtors with an interesting last name.  For the rest of lunch, we discussed this interesting phenomenon of real estate blogging, ideas about Active Rain, some of our personal real estate stories, and some general getting-to-know you conversation.

I felt privileged that these lovely ladies took the time out of their busy schedules today to spend their lunch with me and am truly impressed with each of them -- their business, their character, and their friendship.