Chicago Sisterhood: Lunch, Tea, & Cupcakes (Photos)

Again, I cannot stress enough to you the importance of social networking. Twitter has given me the opportunity to come across people who I may have not met otherwise in person. During my visit to Chicago, I have met up with many friends who I met through the social network. If you have been a reader of my blog, then you know this has been a recurring theme as I travel and visit different places—I am always able to meet up with people in my Twitter timeline, and I absolutely love it.

On Sunday, I met up with my good friend Curvatude and Diva Living with AIDS activist, Rae Lewis Thornton. If you are unfamiliar with Rae, she first graced the cover of Essence magazine in 1994 and has been living with AIDS since 1994. She is an Emmy award winning woman who is a motivational speaker and AIDS educator, who worked on several political campaigns previously for devoting her life’s work to the disease. Rae also has a very popular blog called Diva Living with AIDS and has a prominent Twitter account. I tweeted that I was in Chicago and she invited me to meet for cupcakes and tea (we also added lunch) and Curvatude, who I adore, was able to join us.

I can tell you that Rae’s personality is just like how she is online—what you see is what you get. Her no holds barred approach to living with AIDS and how it is affecting her life is commendable. She shared a lot of with us about how her disease impedes her health and her lifestyle BUT what’s rare about Rae is she doesn’t play victim—she is devoted to help others avoid the AIDS sentence by telling her story and teaching others about safe sex.

My friend Curvatude is also simply amazing. She is a fashion/lifestyle blogger and keeps it real—I think that is what I like about her the most. Her personality is one of a kind and she is oh so fabulous.

What can I say? It was 4 hours of sisterhood, sharing, teaching, laughing, and bonding. I promise you we were so loud at times that I thought we were going to get kicked out of Starbucks, where we sat and at our More Cupcakes while sipping tea and telling stories. It was more than amazing—it was the power of connecting on a social level to the sisterhood level, and let me tell you, I had a fabulous time.

Here are a few pictures of our 4 hour outing that culminated in a bond that I hope will never be broken. The power of sisterhood along with cupcakes is a great way to cement a friendship, I’d say!

“Sisters are doing it for themselves,” Rae L. Thornton, me, Curvatude