Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The internet is so awesome, you guys.

Oh, wow. Has it really been that long since I posted? What a jerk! And it’s not like I have nothing to write about. Hooboy and howdy do I.

Like the story about my first friend in Myrtle Beach.

Yeah, that’s right. I haven’t even been to the state and I have a friend.

How, you ask?

Well, it started a few years back. Four? Three? Not sure, but it was long enough ago that people I knew were blogging on LiveJournal. One day, I was bored, poking around on LJ when I ran across a woman whose userpic was a still from one of the best films of all time, Grey Gardens. And I’m not talking about the Drew Barrymore version (which, incidentally, I heartily endorse), I’m talking O.G. Grey Gardens.

“Here’s a blogger I could read,” I thought.

So I did. For years. Her name is Katie, and she now has several active blogs, none of which is on LiveJournal. She’s my first internet friend.

So when Katie joined Twitter, I was all over it. The thing is, Twitter sounds lame, but I actually think it’s fun. Really. It’s much less high-school-reunion-ey than Facebook. You can actually end up finding funny people and ridiculous links.

One of the followers I gained through Katie was JEKinard. Now, when I get a follower, I don’t always follow back. But JEK had some good Tweets, and she seemed more human than Spam-bot (always a big consideration on Twitter). So I followed her back. Over the last few months, she’s someone I’ve seen floating around on the internet. All I knew is that she was a budding attorney who lived in the south.

So when I announced that I was moving to Myrtle Beach, S.C., imagine my delight when JEK replied, “I work in Myrtle Beach and live just south of it. We can be pals. You won't get a twang and I'll help you find the culture.”

Naturally, I found her on Facebook and added her.

When she accepted my friend request (I realize that this story with all it’s Twitter and Facebook references is sort of boring up to this point, but if you're still reading, here’s where it gets crazy), and when she added me back, I decided to look at her info. She read good books, listened to good music, and liked good movies. Check, check and check.

Then I saw her employer.

R&R PC

What? No. Way. I sent her a note.

Subject: WAIT

Body: “Where do you work? For Bob R??”

Her reply:

Yes... I do. Should I be weirded out?”

Sputter.

I just can't believe what a small world it is! My boyfriend is R, Bob is his uncle. We've actually been trying to get a hold of Bob …”

“Dude!! I've met R's dad a couple times! …”

And on and on it goes. She knows of R, knows his family. Knows his cousins. And now JEK and I are friends and we will soon hang out, even though I’m totally the needy new friend who is constantly like, “What’s it like there? Are the bugs terrible? Will my hair be frizzy? Are you smart? Can we hang out?” She’s either patient or she’s faking it because she knows I’ll blog about it. Either way, I’ll take it because, according to Facebook, she wears cute outfits and quotes Margaret Atwood.

But seriously, y’all. The universe is tiny. Some random girl on Twitter who was cool enough to not get unfollowed (which I do with extreme prejudice ((I actually don’t know what ‘with extreme prejudice’ means, I just thought it sounded tough))) not only lives where I’m moving and is into a lot of the same stuff I like — including sharing a blogger friend whom neither of us has met — but she knows Roomie’s family. I haven’t met his family.

All’s I’m saying is, the internet is RAD, people.

5 comments:

  1. OMG I just totally had an internet crush freakout because QUEEENKATIEETT wants to be friends with meeeeee. sigh. We're totally coming to stalk you asap. Flights from MYR to NYC are CHEAP.

    El, if I may call you that, you've done our blossoming friendship justice. Thank you for not judging the many horrible facebook pictures of me. Remember that I will answer any horribly needy question you ask, as long as you pay me in cocktails. ;) Now I must go read more Margaret Atwood and plan tomorrow's outfit....

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  2. Oh, pishposh Kinard. You're cute as a button.

    And katie, please tell us Dr. Kamran wants to take us out on a faboo three-way dinner date in New York. He'd basically be the luckiest guy ever.

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  3. Ha. Bob's your uncle.

    Sorry, random nerd humor, I apologize I'll try to keep it to myself.

    Also, awesome. It takes me years to make friends in new places and you make one before you even go there. That is some sort of magic, is what that is.

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  4. Rest assured, Megs, the nerd humor was totally intentional.

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  5. Fabulously coincidental - love it.

    And twitter and Facebook, kind of spooky and weird. I don't follow too many people but one person posts so frequently that I have pages and pages to scroll through in a few hours. I think she's afraid she'll cease to exist if she doesn't send words out into the universe every ten minutes or so. She's one of those people I've never met in person but feel I have TMI already. Leave something for a face to face, would'ya? Geez.

    Would love to discover one of the many I follow with secret identities is actually my neighbor.... Very cool story.

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