Ex

In Match, my solitary post was about an ex-girlfriend who suddenly reappeared in my life and announced she was a former prostitute-slash-heroin addict.

Crazy.

I have several ex-girlfriends listed as 'friends' on Facebook and on occasion, I find myself immersed in conversation with them. And, yeah, that's even crazier.

Last June, I met up with one whom I hadn't seen since we were teenagers. Her Mom never believed I'd turn up, so there were pictures taken... proof. I found out at the party that this girl had broken up with her steady boyfriend to go out with me. We went out once and it wasn't much fun....

Another ex in my friends list has married and divorced numerous times and started up a conversation we pretty much started at our high school reunion back in 2001. She's moved halfway across the country and back since then, and dumped 2 husbands along the way. And suddenly she's talking to me again and asking for relationship advice. And, as quickly as the conversation started, it ended. I have no idea what happened, but if she switches on and off as easily as this, I'm not surprised she's gone through so many marriages.

That was mean.

But as crazy as those two are, I have one ex-girlfriend on my friends list who really tops them all. She & I knew each other for years before we started a relationship. It was my first year of college and our first night together started out as a friendly game of Super Mario Brothers on my Super Nintendo.

A first night of passion by the light of King Koopa's castle.

She's now a madam at a bordello house and has some pictures online that have turned many a head when my friends have seen them. They're also more than a little jealous when I say "been there!"

There are numerous other exes on my friends list, but these are the ones that really stand out. All this tells me is that the women in my life.... throughout my life... have a certain twist to them that just makes life more interesting.

And always leaves me guessing.

Status

If Facebook is good for nothing else (and with the number of times I've had to repeatedly login and tell it to "remember me" this week, it pretty much is good for nothing else), it's reading what people... friends... are up to.

Maybe this will become a quasi-theme this year. Checking over friends' status and jotting down the more interesting ones...

• Michelle is excited about skating on the longest outdoor rink in the world.
• Diana ate the other M.
• Jessica has her soya sauce and destiny is fulfilled.
• Kylie is related to someone from Star Trek. Good enough reason to dabble in the Chardonnays. [I agree]
• Pat is a supercop with a jetpack and a devil-may-care attitude.

Geez, out of 188 friends that wasn't much. Oh well.

The One With Vocabulary

I swear I'm working on the Arfica post. I've written about 6 hours' worth of stuff, which most college classmates could tell you is impressive for me. I used to submit essays that I wrote in a couple hours. No, not all the marks were good, but damn I could write em up quick!!

Work is frustrating. I'm on my new team and hear snippets of rumors everyday about more layoffs, staff shuffles, and such. 90% of the people in my area are now gone. My friends have stuck around but have all moved to a different project and I don't share the same break schedule as them. I see them in the mornings by the Starbucks and that's about it.

I'm sad, lonely, and a little paranoid.

One of my bosses was around this week "discussing" future plans with several o the guys on the team. While I should've (I think) moved into my area of specialty on this team, they wanted me to branch out a bit. The problem is, now there's only one person with the same skillset as me and he's swamped with work. He's been given a ton of responsibility, as have others on the team that are of equal 'stature' to me. I've got nothing.

I mentioned a couple job prospects that turned into nothing. Dead air. Not happy about it. I also caught wind of another opportunity that pays nearly 3 times the money and is a whopping 2-minute commute. I can handle that. The person for me to contact pulled a Costanza-like move on me and after giving me the details, took off for a 3-week project in Africa. Africa! She pawned off the job prospect to her assistant, who then received 2 emails from me. When I finally saw her in person, she told me I needed to contact someone else. Why she couldn't reply in an email with that, but waited to see me in person 3 days later.... So, off to the next person. 2 more emails and no response. The 3-week project in Africa is almost done, so I'm hoping (beyond hope, I know) that there's still some chance there at the end of next week. Ugh.

Good fortune may be smiling on me anyway as I'm also expecting to hear good news about a $5000 offer to design a new website. Can I do it? Probably! Does 5-grand motivate me to do it? You bet!!

If only that paid all the bills...

The only big highlight over the past few days is the arrival of my new friend, 'My First Love', on Facebook. She's still got that look in her eyes that drives me crazy.

Oh, and the thing with the vocabulary? I've been writing everyday on the train. I'm impressing myself and one day I might share... just not on here. :)

The One About the Sweet Sixteens

So, the July reunion ended up having a "pre-reunion" this week as one of the people, an ex-girlfriend of mine (well, we dated once) had her birthday this weekend. So, a bunch of us got together and started the reunion early.

Seriously, if the creator of Facebook suddenly jumps up and says, "Hey, it was all a sociological experiment to see if people could socialize over the internet and then expand into meeting in-person," then I'm glad they made the attempt. But, to the "preunion"...

I made a couple of discoveries along the way:

1. It's been 16 years... since I'd dated the birthday girl. And she was celebrating her 32nd birthday this time around. I realized the last time I'd gotten her a birthday card was for her 16th, so it was appropriate to see her for her 32nd --and that I can't wait to celebrate her 48th.
   
2. I'm not a mean drunk, I'm an honest drunk. While it was interesting and somewhat exciting to get together with people I hadn't seen in over a decade, I discovered that a few too many drinks can make this guy a little too honest.... Hence, telling one guy I thought he was gay (he was hitting every bell on my gaydar!). Telling one girl she'd definitely gotten bigger since I last saw her. And, of course, the doozy. Meeting this one guy who had dated the birthday girl for over 2 years, only to be dumped for me.... who went out with her for about 6 hours. Yeah, I told him. I've never seen someone's face go that way before.
3. Alcohol + antihistamines = whoopsie! I've been hit with allergies over the past week+, but it never occurred to me to NOT take some allergy pills before going out and having a few drinkies. Around the 6th drink, I noticed a funny buzzing in my ear. Someone said it must be a sparkly blue fairy, but I could only recall a green pixie. Which made me think of this:
   
4. Sometimes you can't go back again --even if you would. 16 years since I've last seen her. Smoking is a definite turn-off and we don't have much in common.... I'd still do her. ;)
   

My understanding that although only 30 people have replied on Facebook for the July reunion, right now there's approximately 100 people planning on attending.

I just have to remind myself to lay off the drugs beforehand.

The One With A Lot of FACE Time

Within minutes of one another I got invites to Facebook.com from about half a dozen people. A certain someone reading this post sent me one (I'm sure) and she's done it with other internet fad-du-jour sites in the past.

Not mad at her, but I noticed with a couple of the sites, they just keep spammin' ya until you sign up. So, sign up I did.

I have 18 friends on Facebook, some dating back to the late 80s who suddenly appeared on there and got in touch with me. I've got a friend in my old college roomie, a girl who I knew in a youth group in the early 90s (she remembers me better than I remember her), and one of my current supervisors.

Weird.

But it's also somewhat addicting and I check in every couple of hours to see how I'm doing.

And I kinda wish the girl would let me see her pictures... she looks much better now than she did back then!!

What else is weird? I've totally lost my typing skills whenever I type on my home computer. I forget words in sentences. I've lost me mind!!