With Love, for Casey

You may have noticed there are “baby showers” of all kinds all over the web for Casey from Moosh In Indy right now. This is my contribution. It’s made mostly of love.

Casey and I “met” quite a while ago through our blogs. I’ve always respected her mixture of talent: stories that draw you in, an impish sense of humor, plus a dash of vulnerability that makes her human.

She and I were among the original City Editors for Savvy Source, and when we met in person for the first time at BlogHer a few years ago, she yelled “SAVVY SOURCE!,” then grabbed me and made me do finger “CO” letter with her “IN” letters for a photo. It felt, to me, like her telling me we had something special between us. But then I saw how inclusive she was when she grabbed everyone else who walked by and made them do finger letters for their state too. Perfect.

In a nutshell, Casey makes me smile.

She takes my breath away with her photography. We’ve been on panels together, worked conferences together, I’ve sat over her shoulder and watched her edit away, but mostly? I just like looking at her pictures. She tells a story. With pretty.

And let’s not forget my FAVORITE Casey story. She knows exactly what is coming next.

There was this one time she had to scoot back across the country, via road trip, for a family emergency. This is the beauty of having all these online friends – you know who to call in whatever city – and Casey called me as they came through Denver.

It wasn’t a vacation, it was a “we need to get there fast, can we stay the night” trip. Of course they were welcome.

They arrived near midnight, dead to the world. Casey and her husband straggled in with their bags while I sat at my dining room table with Casey’s mop-headed daughter, who told me all her recent adventures, in a very excited and animated voice. They flopped into bed downstairs and were gone before we even woke up the next morning.

I got this text from Casey:

“I ate some of your food and P.S. I feel like I just did a modified walk of shame.”

Here’s the thing friends.

Someone you meet online can become a real friend.

Someone you can call when you need a place to stay, or a ride to the ER (trust me on this), or just a shoulder to lean on.

I hope all of us have shown Casey that we’re HER shoulder, as pregnancy is not easy for her.

And we can’t wait to hear the excited and animated stories that come from the new light Casey is bringing into the world.