Canadutch
I got in touch with a few old friends from UO that I haven’t spoken to in absolute ages. One of the guys I know from my very first days in Ultima Online and the other came along later but was one of my guild members and a pretty good friend. So often I would look at my ICQ and see these old names but didn’t bother to say hello. Tonight I did, and we’ve been chatting since. It’s so great catching up with old friends, it sure does make me nostalgic. When I think back to the old days in UO with all my gaming buddies. That’s when gaming was fun..So the theme of today’s blog is sort of “Internet friend appreciation”. It’s funny, because when I started making this website I was going to make a “Friends” section but when I thought about it, I didn’t know who to put on there. My high school friends? Sure, we still chat and email but some of them I haven’t seen in almost 8-9 years. Friends from PEI? Well, I didn’t really live there all that long and while I consider people from there friends and I do keep in touch with some, it’s not really “current friends”. Then I thought about my friends in Toronto, same thing. I don’t really have any really close friends in in the Netherlands. There’s people I know, that I’ll hang out with and visit.. but anyone who I think I’d devote an entire page of this website to? No.. I don’t know any of them that well.
So that left me with my internet friends. I have more than enough of those but wouldn’t I seem kind of lame to have all these people I’ve never even met on my “Friends” page? It was almost easier to just omit the whole thing than face the idea that I’ve moved around so much over the years that I haven’t really formed any solid friendships. Even those I would have considered solid along the way have dwindled to a “Hey, how are ya?!” every few months.
There was a guy I would speak with daily online who had a totally different view of friendship than I did. He firmly believed that it’s impossible to have friendships online. Was he right? In one way I think, naw he can’t be! Look at my friend Andrea, she’s as much a friend to me as any woman I’ve ever known in real life. She knows more about me than most people in the world. How could I not call her a friend simply because we’ve never met face to face?
Then I think of people like Pothead Jon, who I thought I had these really great friendships with. I trusted them, confided in them and believed there was a really solid friendship and then I found out how dreadfully wrong I was. That they were never really a friend at all?
So which is it?
Anyway, I’m getting off track. This whole thing is taking on an entirely different theme than I initially planned on. Today I was sitting on the phone with a Canadian woman I know here in Rotterdam when my doorbell rang. There was a package for me!! Oh my god, I love packages!
It was a Roots bag full of Canadian stuff. A keychain thing that hangs around my neck (Great for when I’m biking!!!), a Canadian Olympic pin, a Canadian cap and a t-shirt with Canada on it. Now, anyone who knows me worth a damn would know how thrilled I was when I opened this package! I love things from Canada and this just completely made my day! I was so excited I just had to take pics to show her. Thank you, Gail!!!
Gail’s not the only one who has brightened my day over the past month. I got a nice postcard from Karl while he was in Florida on business (God I wish I had business that sent me there! Disney here I come!!) and Noelani sent me TWELVE boxes of KD (If you don’t know what KD means, SHAME ON YOU! It means Kraft Dinner, you know.. Mac & Cheese?). That’s enough to last me months and months! Are these awesome people or what? Thinking of me over here and sending me postcards and little care packages? *Happy Sigh*
How can anyone ever doubt the value of online friendships when you meet people like this? :)
