One major reason why I’ve been offline, not updating the Picayune, has been my ongoing sadness over losing a nice set of friends to Europe. Well, Jeremy says they won’t be there forever but given that the American electorate (one of the most undemocratic systems in the world, I mean, the Republicans have only won a majority ONCE in the three last victories they were handed) has given the White House to an infantile narcissist…if I had a chance to flee, I’d never come back. This nation has a historical hatred of expertise, education and intelligence (my cousin Ron is living proof) since we allowed the first White Trash colonists from Scottish Ireland into the colonies; they’ve been a historical problem in our country from the day the Quakers let them in. Fact. The New England, New York and Southern colonies refused to take these pugnacious, short-sighted assholes. They’ve also been responsible for many internal conflicts and rural poverty too.
Anyway. I was pretty depressed over missing out on seeing Ben and Penny grow up on a more frequent basis. At least, if I visit, I’m confident they’ll be solid translators should I wander into the more Dutch-speaking parts of the tiny nation.
Jeremy has been my friend for 16 years, a pretty long time given my gypsy background. We accidentally met one day in 2000 via a call evaluation. Back then, the system was a dice roll. When I picked a call through the queue, the system would link you to the next call about to be answered. Ergo, Jeremy was probably in his rights to ask, “who the hell are you?” as I was in rotation and in the building across the parking lot. If I recall correctly, he did pretty well. Afterwards our paths crossed again when I was trying to set up a D&D group through work. I’ve been a presence in his life ever since, even when he moved to Houston for a couple years to be one of the first retails works at the Galleria. Imagine how stoked I was when he and his ex-wife returned to Austin.
I think this will be another test of the Internet proving its hype about making the world smaller, last year it failed at bringing America together. Jeremy still manages the hosting of this site so it may to a point. Kristin is pretty cool too. I did thank her in person for rescuing Jeremy.
Jeremy is the first person I’ve ever designated as being someone I wish were my little brother. In TV tropes, he would be the more daring, courageous one to my stodgy, risk-averse while detail-obsessed persona.
I think we’ll be in touch through more than just FaceBook (my least favorite method). There’s much to exchange and I will be bugging him and Kristin for kid pictures. Plus I owe them puppet shows.
Safe journeys Derrs. I’m going to miss you very much.