I ran in to a friend yesterday.....

Wait (you may be asking)...is that SHOSH????? Seriously? YES! Yesterday I spent a great day in lovely Toledo, Ohio chatting it up, live and in person, with my BBF, Shosh! How cool is that? She is in Michigan this week for the holiday, and we decided to try to squeeze in an opportunity to meet, and since Toledo is almost exactly half way between Cleveland and Detroit, we each took a mini-road trip to meet up at Manhattan's Restaurant in Toledo.

I am here to tell all you Shosh fans, she is the Real Deal! What you read, is what you get! As we greeted each other with big hugs and like dear old friends, I knew immediately there would be no 'surprises' with Shosh. Well, I take that back, there was ONE 'surprise' for me...which actually came the evening BEFORE. For anyone (like me) that has been saying 'Shosh' (like rhymes with 'nosh'), it is actually 'Shosh' with a LONG 'o'.... I got a big kick out of this upon hearing a voicemail from her Friday evening...who knew?

Anyway, first may I say that Shosh looks fantastic - fit, strong, confident, glowing. :-) But even more importantly, her fantastic-ness shines from the inside, which I already knew of course from reading her blog, but meeting her in person just validated what I already knew about her.

We had a great time talking talking talking, and before we knew it, it was already after 4PM! (we met at about 12:30) As I was driving home, I was reflecting on our visit, and it ocurred to me that special people come into our lives in sometimes unusual ways. This is going to sound all supernatural and 'out there' - but, I was struck by this thought only on my way home after meeting Shosh. (cue sci-fi sound effects....)

Shosh arrived at Manhattan's first. I have to say, I truly kind of blindly picked this place online...I know nothing about Toledo (other than Tony Packo's, and who eats hot dogs?) But it looked great from the website, AND since it is a NYC inspired restaurant, I thought 'how cool for Shosh!' Sort of 'home away from home' and all that...

So Shosh sent me a text after she arrived and said, 'we will be the only ones here'. And my first thought was...UGH what is this place really like? As it turns out, the place was very charming, and Shosh and I were truly the only customers...ALL DAY. I'm not kidding. Oh wait...I take that back - the only other customers were two lovely old women, perhaps sisters, or at least very old friends. I could tell this from the apparent comfortable rapport between them. Of all the empty tables in the restaurant, and we decided to sit in the booth behind them...they finished their meal and departed, and Shosh and I remained for the afternoon - the only customers. All Day.

Reflecting on this on the way home I thought a couple of things...how symbolic that the only other customers in the place were these two older women, with an obvious life long connection, and how strange that it almost feels like Manhattans was opened just for us yesterday, specifically for us to meet. I know that sounds like I watch too many serendipitous movies ha ha...but the simple fact is that I know that I have found a life long friend in Shosh. I know that someday when we are 60, 70 years old, we will be sitting together at a restaurant somewhere, old friends, catching up.

So it was a great day, great fun...Shosh rocks, a real class act all the way! I am thrilled I got the chance to meet her, and I am really looking forward to seeing her, and her MOM at races, and perhaps getting to visit in NYC!