Preface: I’ve been sick for a few days but I’ve regained enough strength to bang out this cool happenstance. It will definitely counter the rougher news coming my way for the next quarter.
All those Web 2.0 applications are pretty lousy in my opinion. Maybe if I were 10-15 years younger, single and had more time to waste on such “social networking,” they’d probably be great. A co-worker of mine summed up Facebook & MySpace pretty well, “they’re just spam gathering 2.0” due to all the intrusive information they collect; I guess AOL 2.0 was already taken. Hard to believe one was actually useful in having me re-engage with not just one person but two from Beulah High School (where I graduated from in North Dakota).
Originally, I was just updating my token Facebook profile because a friend bugged me to. Heck, I didn’t even remember having one of those stupid things. Then I saw some notice saying I had been “poked,” by Cindy. My immediate questions were “what the hell does poked mean?” and “how many jealous spouses go nuts over this?” It had been 11 years since we had communicated and I always knew it was fault why it ended (no, I won’t explain, it’s not an interesting story).
Initially, I wasn’t going to “poke” back since I didn’t care for the connotation. I decided to see if this Facebook jazz could contact her more directly, maybe she had forgiven me. It was only a “poke,” not a “stabbing” motion which is usually reserved for ex-girlfriends; a role Cindy never had. Surprisingly, I did get a response and I have been forgiven, phew! I received a synopsis of her life, whereabouts and 18-month old son. I’m a little puzzled as to what a Redneck suburb of St. Paul would be like after listening to hours of Garrison Keillor stories. We’re still in the explanation stages of what has happened in 11 years; she said my web site doesn’t cover enough. It is only two-and-a-half in its current incarnation with the goal of trying to be current.
The other funny story regarding Cindy was recent too. During our annual Meeting Anniversary dinner last month, Somara and I were talking about Match.com (what put us together). The conversation then led to when Cindy and her roommate Kami came to Austin over MLK weekend in 1997. Sonia and I went to pick up the Minneapolis-based duo from the airport, got them settled at my apartment and then off to dinner. Like all out-of-town guests, they wanted to see San Antonio for the Alamo and the Riverwalk; I guess Austin’s two million bats, statue of SRV and the UT clock tower aren’t as impressive. I think they had a pleasant time beyond the “warm” weather. Sonia was still in yenta mode then, trying to follow through on a quest to have me married off in five years. So after Cindy and Kami left, Sonia said to “marry Cindy!” This led to me being incapacitated with laughter for a bit but I wanted to hear Sonia’s rational yet futile explanation. It went along the lines of how I would light up around Cindy, common background, etc., pretty much the usual I had heard from others based upon observations in 1993; only Phil’s ex-wife Jill seemed to know better. Somara wanted to write Sonia a thank you note for trying despite being unsuccessful.
I said there were two though. The other person was the Danish exchange student Christian. I always felt bummed for him. He came all the way from Denmark to spend a year in the States and got placed in Beulah, North Dakota! When Europeans see America, they probably think of what our media shows: LA, New York, Chicago, Dallas and much nicer places. When an American gets sent abroad to Europe, even if it’s the backwoods part of a country, the cool stuff isn’t very far away by train. We were five-six hours from Winnipeg or eight to Minneapolis. Bismarck was closer but a poor surrogate for a metropolis. Christian made the best of it. He lived with a childless couple who were nice to him. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have earned a solid A in Pre-Calculus. I brought him back some gourmet tea from Winnipeg as a thank-you gift, I recall he found our tea, bread and beer rather lacking. Christian was a big Dire Straits fan too yet it’s not on his profile, I’ll have to ask him about that.
Not a bad string of coincidences in my life recently. Now if the one person I’m seriously trying to hunt down would reply, I’d be pretty thrilled before I turn 40 this Summer.