b-moooore!!!

deee.ceeee! – like a football team playi b-moooore!!! – i didn't know her from a

b-moooore!!!

me and cyreeta in her boutique, baltimore bliss

i didn't know her from adam.

and i say her, because for the second time on the drive over from d.c., when sistah asked me how the owner of bliss baltimore came to hosting my book reading and signing that friday evening, i couldn't remember her name or who introduced us.

all i knew was that although we had never spoken over the phone, we had been chatting back and forth for weeks on facebook. and out of all of my book tour stop locations, by far, she was the only one promoting me the most online.

that, though, wasn't good enough for my pragmatic lawyer sistah. but there was nothing she could do about it, because we were already parked in the back of the building and walking up to bliss baltimore carrying a box of books.

through the picture window, she saw us just as we saw her. stylishly dressed in jean leggings, a short-sleeved white fitted blouse, pearls and high-heeled tan boots, she swooped over the door and excitedly swung it open.

"monice. cyreeta."

"cyreeta!"

like old friends, we embraced each other, happily. big hearted, she even hugged sistah — who we later discovered were sorority sisters, but i digress… immediately, i asked what me and sistah both wanted to know.

"cyreeta, my sistah was asking me… and for the life of me i couldn't answer…how do we know each other again?"

cyreeta grinned, the memory of her momma just asking her the same thing over the phone ringing in her ears.

"i have a friend syreeta — she spells it 'sy' — she knew a friend of yours…"

"tracy?"

"yes. tracy reached out to me, told me what you wanted to do and i…"

sistah, outdone, jumped in.

"…you agreed to let a strange woman you didn't know from l.a. hold a book reading and signing in your boutique."

cyreeta smiled broadly.

"yes. "

sistah, laughing, shook her head.

"that damn facebook!"

note: i just had to lead my baltimore post with this strangers-and-sister-entrepreneurs-becoming-friends-event, because (1) it was extraordinary and (2) cyreeta and her mom's down-home, giving spirits set the stage for every woman who entered her doors for my signing/reading.

before the night was over, we were sipping wine, calling each other by our zodiac signs and laughing waaay too much. more than a reading and discussion of my book, it was sistership — like we were sitting in a girlfriends' livingroom kicking it.

big shout out to 1023, phenomenal journalist and my sister oct. 23rd baby, jacqueline brooks, and the other ladies of the sister circle –bella mamacita, ladybug branch, mary francine curbeam, toya jewels adams, marsha cowen, lauren nicole and danita sanderlin.