Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Year of the Internet Friend!

I get emails all the time saying, "this is National Friendship Week..."; so often, in fact, that I wonder when -- or if -- National Friendship Week really is! And, of course, there's always these peppy sentimental things to do, messages to say, to repeat, to pass on, and often ruined -- in my opinion -- by one of those guilt messages that says, "if I don't get this back, I'll take the hint." Well we'll pass on my opinion of that particular practice for the time being, but it's nice to be thought about during Friendship Week... in a mass email... that went to people the originator probably doesn't even remember they put ON their jokelist to begin with (I'm smiling, by the way).

It's quite a different story, however, when you an email from a friend who says "hey, I'm going to be at the airport on Wednesday between 9:30 and noon and it would be grrrrrreat if we could meet up.... so we can finally meet each other in person!" Such was the case this week with my friend LInda from "up north" who came through. We've tried unsuccessfully for years to meet at one time or another but life circumstances on both our parts just kept getting in the way, but this time... it worked. Kewwwwwllllllll !

You've heard me speak of the woman I've been friends with for years and whose family sent my son care packages in Iraq and I couldn't remember how long we'd known each other. Well last week, she told me.... "because you were the first person to send me an email on my new computer and I got it in 1993... so 14 years!" Met via email, mother of a friend of a friend of my brother... ended up corresponding accidentally because of a darned jokelist (probably something I received during National Friendship Week in 1993...) and here we finally met 14 years later... and it was cool. So now I'm making it a point to go visit her and her whole family in June. I think we're making it a state holiday and giving everyone a day off. I'll get back to you on that one.

BUT... as in last post, maybe this IS the Year of the Internet Friend! Two down and... hmmm.. how many to go? Gotta see if I can get to St. Louis to see Dan and...California to see Sue and....heck, there's Steph in Chattanooga and Roger in Dallas and... heck! why don't I just make out a goal's list. Ya think? Hmmmmm. I'll let ya know how it goes.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin