My girlfriend's calling me a diabetic angel, and not to brag, but I kind of feel like one. I experienced some kind of intervention yesterday, or at least something bigger than me, that connected me with a stranger.
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I guess technically, I joined the diabetes online community back in October, 2005 when I joined dLife, and I became active in the overall DOC some time in 2008 -- but it wasn't until this year that I, and others, had the opportunity to "eyeball" the folk we'd been e-mailing, blogging to, commenting blog posts from, tweeting, and otherwise conversing with on various diabetes-related forums and social networks. 2009 is also the year dLife launched the dLife Community, and the year I started blogging here at Blogabetes.

Some of my year's highlights include:

March (READ MORE)

I'll admit I've never seen Buckaroo Banzai; however, the catch phrase "Wherever you go, there you are" has become as much a part of our popular culture as "Beam me up, Scotty" or "Time to make the donuts!" Yet, with about one in eleven US residents having -- or being at risk for developing -- diabetes, it's no wonder that almost every time we turn around, we meet (or learn about) somebody else "with the D".

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The initial phrases of the Girl Scout song reminding us of how precious friendship is are as true today as they were over forty years ago, when I first learned the short round. And so it was into Manhattan Sunday morning to meet with a dozen or so members of the Diabetes Online Community and "Type 3" friends for brunch at Marseille. The gaggle of us varied in how we embrace digital communications technology to first learn about each other and virtually "meet" -- most of us blog, either independently (e.g., The Butter Compartment, Lemonade Life) or as part of a major diabetes portal (e.g.,, dLife, Diabetes Daily), or within a diabetes-oriented social network (e.g., TuDiabetes); many of us Tweet; a few are just community members who occasionally read blogs or get involved one way or the other. (READ MORE)

One more Sunday up bright and early, missing most of the final day of the Tour de France to join the shop ride over at our usual Virginia Beach retailer. I arrived on site with enough time to give a Team Type 1 water bottle and set of team cards a good home with Matt-with-two-"t's", the type 1 rider who wore his 2011 Tour de Cure fundraising jersey last Sunday. It's always good to find swag a good home... and then there was also the surprised-and-very-happy look on Matt's face when I delivered the goods. Then again, several of the regulars thought we were heading home Sunday, rather than today -- so the surprise may have been as much that of me showing up, ready to ride, than anything else.

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Thursday evening was the awards dinner for two of the three New Jersey Tours de Cure (the third will take place in two weeks). Since The Other Half couldn't get off work, I had to go solo. I'm not completely uncomfortable going out without an escort, but I am rather shy about reaching out to meet other people.
I need a hook -- a segue -- something to break the ice. I knew that there would be some folk I'd met before -- Taran (the Skylands Tour's coordinator) and a couple of the committee folk and riders. I also expected them to not have a lot of free/mingling time, or to be with other folk. The sit-down-dinner nature of this event in a way forced me to meet new people.

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