It's All @NeilDiamond's Fault

This has come a long way.

My son Mario came home just now and we talked about this thing here, and he said, "Actually it started way earlier, you know. It started when we bought those tickets for the Neil Diamond Concert last year here in Hamburg. After that, you started the theater group at school because the concert inspired you to it, and after that you followed Neil to Twitter. And there you met first Val and Sunny, and then all the others. So really, it's all Neil's fault, once again."

Well, it's a bit convoluted, but nice anyway.

So now Mario has gone out to get me a map of the States.

"And," he said, "You need a webcam."

So the map is going on the wall today, and then I'll pin tiny green needles into the places I'm going to visit to see my friends.

Just today two new destinations were added. Denise asked me to see her in Sonoma, Cal., and Jim Blue has invited me to Cleveland, Ohio.

Pea sent me a photograph of a mimosa tree last night which you can see down here.

My husband promised me it will happen.

Twitter is a wonder box full of wonderful people. I think I've found the best.

Are you in on the Mimosa journey?

Sometimes, all it needs is the right moment and the right drink and the right people.

Makes me wonder how many great ideas develop late at night in some kind of bar after a couple of cocktails, and then someone plucks a napkin out of a puddle on the counter and wham! -something new is born.

We are going to travel.

We are going to drive through the USA in cars. Well no, I'll be driven through the USA in cars.

This is how the Mimosas are going to meet, and I just love the idea. Don't know who had it in the first place, but we're going to see each other, and explore the country.

Just like the wagons who explored the West a couple of centuries ago, and I love this idea so much I could weep over it.

My first stop will be Washington DC, I guess, unless someone from NYC still speaks up.

I've never been to DC, but I know two friends there, Val and Leslie.

Val is a Neil Diamond friend, has been for quite a while, and Leslie is a twitter friend, but she feels as close as a sister.

Then, Kentucky. Angie is waiting on her porch with the Knob Creek.

Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Nevada, California, Minnesota, Illinois.

Epic.

It just HAS to happen.