With The Push Of A Button
So I listened to this lady's voice one afternoon....she sounded normal, sane...like me(?)...I pushed the appropriate button and sent her a message. Something to the tune of how boring the men were and I was getting tired of listening to the same messages over and over and would she like to chat? We sent a few messages back and forth and eventually she gave me her phone number and I rang.
Over the next several weeks we spoke almost every day. About nothing, everything, anything. It wasn't unheard of for her to be doing the hoovering while I was watching tv or fixing dinner etc....sometimes they'd be no talking...just tv sounds alongside hoovering sounds. I was forever watching the country music channel (yes, you heard it right here people, I happen to like country music, keep your thoughts to yourselves thankyouverymuch)....she gave me as much grief about that as she did about the pair of jandals (flip flops) I had in the back of my closet. For some reason they offend her, sacrificial jandal burning was not beyond her scope, in fact she thrived on it.
It took me a lot longer to meet her in person. Each and everytime I'd try to arrange a meeting, she'd stonewall me. At first I didn't notice it, just figured she was busy that day and that unlike me, she had a life. Then I realised it didn't seem to matter when or where or how the meeting was to take place, she was always busy. Why was it that she HAD to chalk the sidewalk with graffiti THAT day? Was it really going to take THAT long to remove all the doggy doo from her backyard?? Then a thought flashed across my mind...did she not WANT to meet me? Did she not even LIKE me?? How is THAT possible?? Am I not the most likeable person on the face of the whole flippin' planet!??!!
So....one shade away from stalking, I rang her and told her I was going to meet her that day (the fact that I didn't even know her address didn't help of course, but I was determined to get it). I took the boys to a local park and they were happy playing around for hours....I rang her cellphone a few times and asked "Are you home yet?"...eventually the sun went down and the kids were wooshing across the sky on a flying fox or down the huge slide in the dark. I gave up and went home full of despair at failing my Stalking 101 class.
I did eventually manage to meet her. I rang her at home, she answered the phone and I said "Good, you're home, I'm coming around for coffee". That was it. We met, we bonded, clicked, gelled, whatever you wanna call it, we felt it and did it and have been close friends ever since. Eighteen months or so after that first meeting, she honoured me completely by asking me to be Godmother to her new baby son.
During this time I discovered the internet. Well actually Cameron helped me discover it...he downloaded ICQ, put me in a chat room and told me to say hello to everyone. I sat there watching the chat screen zapping up past me, just about going crosseyed trying to read it all. I said Hello. Several people in the room said hello back to me. Wow, how fascinating I'm thinking....as Cameron (9 at the time) is running around the lounge yelling "They're talking to you mum, they're talking to YOU!" As you can tell, he was extremely excited.
Eventually my friend couldn't stand it any longer and got herself a computer and joined in....we had fun, we met some weird and wonderful people online. It was another stage of life opening up for us. A couple of years later I rang her to have a chat and she's really quiet and barely responding to me.
Me: "Alright, what are you doing?"
Her: "I'm playing backgammon online."
Me: "Really? Cool...I use to love backgammon."
Her: "Get online then and come play with me"
Me: "Ok, how do I do that?"
12 months and one Walker later, she's ringing me to say. "Hey, let's go to Canada. We can go to Vegas first on the way, but let's get ourselves to Canada".
To travel across to the other side of the world with a woman I love, to meet up with a man I love?? Who was I to argue with that kinda logic?
Over the next several weeks we spoke almost every day. About nothing, everything, anything. It wasn't unheard of for her to be doing the hoovering while I was watching tv or fixing dinner etc....sometimes they'd be no talking...just tv sounds alongside hoovering sounds. I was forever watching the country music channel (yes, you heard it right here people, I happen to like country music, keep your thoughts to yourselves thankyouverymuch)....she gave me as much grief about that as she did about the pair of jandals (flip flops) I had in the back of my closet. For some reason they offend her, sacrificial jandal burning was not beyond her scope, in fact she thrived on it.
It took me a lot longer to meet her in person. Each and everytime I'd try to arrange a meeting, she'd stonewall me. At first I didn't notice it, just figured she was busy that day and that unlike me, she had a life. Then I realised it didn't seem to matter when or where or how the meeting was to take place, she was always busy. Why was it that she HAD to chalk the sidewalk with graffiti THAT day? Was it really going to take THAT long to remove all the doggy doo from her backyard?? Then a thought flashed across my mind...did she not WANT to meet me? Did she not even LIKE me?? How is THAT possible?? Am I not the most likeable person on the face of the whole flippin' planet!??!!
So....one shade away from stalking, I rang her and told her I was going to meet her that day (the fact that I didn't even know her address didn't help of course, but I was determined to get it). I took the boys to a local park and they were happy playing around for hours....I rang her cellphone a few times and asked "Are you home yet?"...eventually the sun went down and the kids were wooshing across the sky on a flying fox or down the huge slide in the dark. I gave up and went home full of despair at failing my Stalking 101 class.
I did eventually manage to meet her. I rang her at home, she answered the phone and I said "Good, you're home, I'm coming around for coffee". That was it. We met, we bonded, clicked, gelled, whatever you wanna call it, we felt it and did it and have been close friends ever since. Eighteen months or so after that first meeting, she honoured me completely by asking me to be Godmother to her new baby son.
During this time I discovered the internet. Well actually Cameron helped me discover it...he downloaded ICQ, put me in a chat room and told me to say hello to everyone. I sat there watching the chat screen zapping up past me, just about going crosseyed trying to read it all. I said Hello. Several people in the room said hello back to me. Wow, how fascinating I'm thinking....as Cameron (9 at the time) is running around the lounge yelling "They're talking to you mum, they're talking to YOU!" As you can tell, he was extremely excited.
Eventually my friend couldn't stand it any longer and got herself a computer and joined in....we had fun, we met some weird and wonderful people online. It was another stage of life opening up for us. A couple of years later I rang her to have a chat and she's really quiet and barely responding to me.
Me: "Alright, what are you doing?"
Her: "I'm playing backgammon online."
Me: "Really? Cool...I use to love backgammon."
Her: "Get online then and come play with me"
Me: "Ok, how do I do that?"
12 months and one Walker later, she's ringing me to say. "Hey, let's go to Canada. We can go to Vegas first on the way, but let's get ourselves to Canada".
To travel across to the other side of the world with a woman I love, to meet up with a man I love?? Who was I to argue with that kinda logic?
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