Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot…
It’s New Year’s Eve, the day of closing chapters and fresh new beginnings, the day of regrets from the closing year and bright new hopes for the one yet to come. For me it’s a day to take stock of the worst of myself, to find the things I must improve. That’s another post, though, for another year perhaps; as the song goes, it’s a time to remember old friends, especially the ones we haven’t seen for a while and hope we’ll meet again.
I’m listing a few today; to each of these people, it’s been at least a year since we’ve spoken; to each of these people, I’d like to speak with you again.
This post is one part message-in-a bottle, one part game. I’m listing four names here, four people I haven’t been able to reach in at least a year. I invite you to add as few or as many of your own memories to the list as you’d like. If I’m very lucky, some people may reconnect here.
If any of you are reading, You Are Not Forgotten. If any of you are reading, I’d like to speak with you again.
Alisha Found!: Five and a half years ago I was in high school (Class of 2002) and Alisha was a casual friend, an artsy girl from the Pacific Northwest who baffled me and always had interesting stories to tell. She helped me with some of my first steps out of the awkward, science-and-numbers shell I had as a kid, but when we graduated I lost touch with her. The phone number she wrote in my yearbook serves as a fax line to a real-estate company now. Probably she wouldn’t recognize me today (from that far back I don’t think I would recognize myself), but I think she would approve. She’s made it very difficult for the high school to find her. I knew there was a reason I liked her.
Melody: Melody was a student at the California Culinary Academy when I met her, back in September 2003. She wore a fairy shirt and a hemp necklace, and she carried a case of cooking knives beside her. I don’t remember how we started talking, but I do remember her as a very intelligent, very well-adjusted girl, one of the most pleasantly memorable people I’ve ever met on the BART and probably my happiest memory connected to the Folsom Street Fair (where I was headed when I met her). She’s doing well for herself, I’m sure, but once or twice a year I wonder how exactly her story goes.
“Banwynn Oakshadow”: I’m not sure actually if the link goes to the right person. The Banwynn I spoke to was a writer when I spoke to him last; we talked for hours on the phone and planned to meet at cafe sometime in Berkeley, but life intervened and he moved away. It’s been years, though, and hobbies fade away sometimes.
RienCat - Erin’s a generally wonderful but highly unforgiving person, simultaneously savage and refined, cold-hearted and as comforting as a warm blanket on a cold day. She generally despises the political left, but we seem to get along just fine. It’s really hard to explain how she makes all these things balance and work out as well as she does, but the effect is staggering. I have a love-hate relationship with talking to her about my writing, mostly because half the time I talk to her, I wind up throwing out huge chunks of text and writing them anew. The problem is, like most frustrating things about her, it’s worth it. I miss her a little more every time I think about her.
