Find old friends

Clayton, my evil ex, looked me up. It has been long enough that I can call him an old friend. He’s still…I was going to say weird, but let’s go with…an individual. He taught me some things about myself, valuable things. He did give me some opportunities. I’m trying to say that it wasn’t all bad.

Now that three faces from the past have returned, I guess I should mark this as done. Three being a good number and all. Maggie, Aaron, that doesn’t mean I’m forgetting you. Just making room to live in the present.

Steven Jackson, one of the kids that Chris and Ray and I palled around with. Not a huge surprise that he’s still living in the same small town, has a couple of kids but isn’t married, and can’t spell for shit. I recognized his picture instantly. He looks like a poor man’s Rocky Balboa. I tried to converse with him a little on myspace, but I couldn’t get more than monosyllabic responses out of him. I could imagine him sweating and chewing his lip as he searched for the right key on the keyboard. I swear I’m not saying these things unkindly. It’s just the truth. The fact that he’s kind of dim has nothing to do with his value to me as a person. He was kind to me when we were kids. There’s a real short list of people I can say that about.

The Ray I mentioned before? Today was the first time I’ve actually spent time with him since we were children, and we had an absolute freakin’ BLAST! It was like nothing had changed. We have more in common than I would’ve thought possible. We went to see Surf’s Up (which was a treasure), we ate churros, we fed ducks, we walked around, I showed him my geeky folder full of my favorite magazine ads, he played with my annoying, whiny dog. It was marvelous. Life is funny.

Not Maggie or Aaron, but a good find, nevertheless. Ray, one of the neighbor kids that I hung around with in 3rd-5th grade. We used to play Monopoly for hours after school and cheat our little brains out, making up new rules as we went. :) His little brother once threw a large red slushy drink at me. I can’t remember why. I had to borrow one of Ray’s shirts, which had Frankenstein or Dracula or someone on it.

Now, you see, friends? Myspace isn’t completely evil, as that’s where I ran into good ol’ Raymond.

Using Google I found out that one of my friends from elementary school had died. She had two kids. Her name was Anne Marie.

Maggie Morgan and Aaron McDaniel. If you find them will you send them my way? The pic is Maggie. I don’t have one of Aaron. :(