"What are FIFs?"

I get that question a lot because of the amount of times I mention them on my blog.

These are FIFs:

Well, those are some of them. That was taken in March at my baby shower.

FIFs= Freaky Internet Friends.

You asked, I shall tell you.

Back in June of 2007, right after Dustin and I got engaged, I stumbled across a wedding website called The Knot. If you've ever planned a wedding, or have even been IN a wedding, you know about The Knot. It's a wealth of useless information. Ok, some of it is useful but really, it's adding to our society's sick love affair with the wedding industry....which I AM NOT complaining about since it is my full intention to capitalize on that industry as well someday.

Anyway, off topic.

I stumbled across the "Community" boards on The Knot site (read: a chat room of sorts). I started posting in the Destination Wedding forum. There, I met women like me, planning a wedding from afar.

It was like crack cocaine, this forum. I seriously became addicted to reading these women's "bios", which are pages that we would construct telling all about our "very special day"; what kind of "look" we were going for, what our flowers would look like, what our engagement story was...it was all very self indulgent but I'm telling you, addicting, and I did score some great ideas from these women.

After a couple months of posting on that board and "getting to know" some of those girls, I got a little bored in that forum. Every post became "ZOMG, I LOVE YOUR DRESS", or, "Squeeeeee!!!, Your engagement pictures are so beautiful". You can only read that shit so much before it gets on your nerves. Not to say I didn't meet some wonderful women on that board, I definitely did (Hi, Christy :), but because there are always more women joining the group, it became monotonous.

So, I decided to check out my local board, "West Florida". Nothing worth noting there...except Nez1230, aka Natalie from Tampa.

Her and I were posting back and forth one night and it turned out that we had a lot in common: we were getting married on the same day, both went to FSU, both had the same first dance song. It was a friendship matched in wedding industry cyber-space heaven.

Natalie directed me to our "Club" board (read: which month you are getting married board).

Ahhh, 8/08.

Here is where I met the most amazing group of women.
There were about 30 of us that posted on a regular basis. And by regular, I mean all day long sometimes. Funny thing was that we barely posted about wedding related topics. We really got to know one another. Our group was really diverse but had a great balance of snarky, funny, honest, bitchy and kind. These women are some of the most supportive people in my life.

We've seen one another through engagements, weddings, honeymoons, separations, pregnancies, miscarriages, deaths, births, relocation's, lay offs, new jobs....you name it. Honest to God friendships, just from far away.

Now, about a year and half after I found 8/08, most of us still keep in touch. 24 of us, to be exact. We had to find our own venue, since The Knot basically kicked us out, but we still check in on a daily basis.

Several of us have met in person. Not all at once, but we're working on that. The biggest get together we had to date was my baby shower. There were 12 of us there, which was so much fun.

Thank you girls for being part of my support system. You all are amazing in your own way. I couldn't have survived most of the last year and a half without all of you.

There. More than you ever wanted to know about FIFs. Call it weird if you want. I know how it sounds, but I am so lucky that I became addicted to The Knot.