Further Out

As annoying as Facebook can be, and how everyone despises it, it's undebatable how useful it's been for reconnecting people. Of course many of them are people you probably lost connections with for good reason, but it's still fun to see who finds you out of the blue. So far January has been a banner month for blasts from the past.

A friend from fourth grade messaged a few weeks ago and I had no idea who he was. He was very specific though, talking about our times spent playing Nintendo together and him remembering George's fondness for Curious George. It took a bit to jog my memory -- and truthfully I'm still fuzzy on exactly who he is -- but I think I do remember him. Or maybe I guessed wrong, since he hasn't answered me back.

All those names that stick in your head, from childhood to college, and some of them you just completely forget, even the ones that were important to you at one time. They say that eyewitness accounts are unreliable; studies prove this is true, over and over. Never trust your memories, as I've now convinced myself that I knew his name all along.

Then grabbing lunch at the Roberto's by the beach, I was roughly certain that the guy in front of me was my best friend from middle school. People don't believe me when I say that I had no friends then, but I really didn't have many. It was just one friend, Justin, who was such an instrumental part of my growing up.

He turned me onto music, movies, trampolines, all things geek, white people families, video games, crushes on girls, all sorts of stuff. If you had to trace back my younger obsessions with role playing games, Yanni, and musicals, it would all go back to Justin. He was one of those effortlessly natural smart kids, and outperformed me academically with virtually no signs of studying. It was mind boggling to see that, especially because all my other (Asian) friends were hammered with homework and restrictions all the time.

I've done Google searches for Justin, turning up old forum messages but nothing else. It's weird when the Internet and Facebook fail like this. You wonder if the person is like, alive. Well, that afternoon, he was possibly standing right in front of me and the only thought I had going through my head was if he would recognize me. I had on sunglasses, and never took them off, unsure if I wanted to say hello. I did lean over and try to see his credit card signature, but that didn't quite pan out. Now I think it was stupid, to not try to see if that was him. Maybe I was just surprised that he was in San Diego, as I imagined that he'd be somewhere far far away. Maybe I just didn't want that reconnection, even for ten minutes.

No, I should have said something.

Two days ago, another long lost friend popped up courtesy of the Zuck. This one I would have never found because she's since married and changed her last name. I was delighted that this sort of thing was so commonplace it wasn't even worth mentioning to anyone. (Nothing is more boring than hearing other people's "omg it's been so long" reunion stories.) Ten years ago we would vaulted for joy in the cosmic coincidence of re-finding each other, now it's like "Oh there you are, let's friend each other and we can look at pictures!" So not a big deal, even when it is a big deal.

Shit, now I'm cruising and looking up people from elementary school. I better stop. There are better things I should be doing.