Maggie Rants [and Raves]

A Warm Reception

by Maggie Franklin | May 25, 2010 | Bookmark +

Maggie and Rhonda

It has a purple sign, but it’s not The Purple Pinkie.

You may recall I've been "on vacation" as it were, spending a full week in the ridiculously green state of Pennsylvania. In fact, the entire state appears to be so completely covered in the color green, I wonder if I even dare to set eyes on Tennessee — seeing as how Davy Crockett says it's "the greenest state in the land of the free." Wow! Really? Greener than PA?

At any rate, we chose to fly into Pittsburg and then drive the approximately four hours through central PA to our eventual destination of Bradford — where there is nothing resembling Mexican food, BTW, but I did get to see fireflies. But I couldn't very well Tweet it seeing as how most of the town is a cellular black hole.

On our way back to the Pittsburg airport, our Google Maps directions took us — conveniently enough — right through Ford City, home of The Purple Pinkie Salon! So the BF and I decided to drop in unannounced and see if Rhonda (the owner and an old BeautyTech buddy) would recognize me.

Well, it would really help if I had the Internet on my phone! Once we started looking, it occurred to me that I no longer have her info in my phone. (There was a tragic data-transfer incident involving my SIM card and my new phone and instead of "transferring" my contacts, I "cleared" them instead. Oops.) We found the high school and the park that appear in one of Rhonda's YouTube videos, but not the actual salon. I found a business with a purple sign, but it was not The Purple Pinkie.

Eventually we found a local mailman (postal carrier, for those bent on being PC, but he was a man, so I think it's cool to call him the mailman) and, sure enough, he knew where the salon was. You gotta love those tiny Pennsylvania towns!

A few minutes later we found ourselves back on the main street that we would have stayed on if we hadn't decided to stop for a visit at all (**irony**) and there it was!

I wasn't sure Rhonda would recognize me in person. We've only actually been in the same room together once, and that was back in 2001. I hadn't told her I might stop by, so it's not like she'd be expecting me.

So I walked in and stood there, realizing that I didn't really know what I was going to say, and feeling a tad awkward. I mean, what if she wasn't there? What if she was really busy and didn't really have time for a visitor? What if she's just nice to me online and didn't really want to see me in person? Well, Rhonda walked out, stopped, looked at me funny....I could tell I looked familiar to her and she was trying to figure out how she knew me, so I stayed quiet and let her think about it. Then the lightbulb went on and her exact words were, "OH MY ****ING GOD! MAGGIE FRANKLIN!" In a good way. Whew.

My timing was perfect. I caught her just before she left for the post office, even though it meant Lammers' tips didn't get mailed that day. (Sorry Lynn!) But it meant we had a chance to visit, and it was great to receive such a hearty welcome! (Here’s Rhonda’s blog on the visit.)

Plus, Rhonda hooked me up with some swell swag from The Purple Pinkie! And since I didn't bring my Palm Pilot to PA, that little pad and pen set really came in handy! I should have stopped by on my way to Bradford instead of my way back.

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