An Amazing Day

What a strange and amazing day I've just had.  I got on the computer this morning breakfast in hand as per my usual daily routine.  Fifteen hours later I'm still glued to the screen.  My eyes are tired and my butt is numb.  I did get up briefly to eat dinner and sit on the deck at dusk but here I am 2am and I'm still on line.  What prompted this flurry of activity?  Serendipity.

I started chatting with my Mom via Facebook instant messaging.  A wonderful little invention that reminds me of the early days of networked computers.  Yes, I was a geek back then too.   Anyway, she told me that my bestest friend from high school was a member of a Facebook group called "If you grew up on Cape Cod you remember when..."  I was ecstatic!!  I have been looking for her for over five years now.  I even went to my high school reunion hoping she would be there.  She wasn't.  I kept searching for her on line but she changed her name just enough that I didn't find her.

So I have a nice long chat with my Mom and then I friend my bestest high school buddy.  She couldn't believe I found her.  We chatted for about an hour.  Turns out she has become a chronic chick herself.  She has a chronic pain condition called RSD which is a type of funky nerve pain syndrome.  Different bits hurt and go numb each day.  Ick!  She has had such a hard life.  We sign off and I return to the group where I found her on FB.

I spend the next four hours on this sight.  It is like a super magnet for anyone that grew up on the Cape.  People are posting about stores, bars, teachers, beaches, hang out spots, the Mall, TV shows, you name it.  The group grew by hundreds of people just today.  It is totally addictive.

Then at 9pm my friend showed up again and we spent another hour chatting away catching up on 15 years of news.  Neither of us can believe the weird twist of fate that brought us together again.  It is strange.  We seem to bump into each other every ten years or so and somehow always loose track of each other again in between.  This last hiatus was due to a computer crash that wiped out my address book and I lost her contact info.  Sucks.  But we've found each other again.  And in a weird way can relate to each other like no one else can cuz of the chronic illness.  Strange.

After an hour she logged off and I ended up back on the Cape Cod page again.  And there I stayed for three more hours.  OMG is that page addictive.  Others were finding it hard to leave as well.  I've never seen so many people writing to a FB page at the same time before.  The page kept jumping cuz of all of the update traffic.  When I finally tore myself away it was up to 1400 members already and it was only a couple of days old.  Tens of people were constantly on it posting to different threads.  It made it hard for my poor CFS brain to follow the discussions going on.  I kept having to refresh the page to try to keep up.  Truly amazing!

I feel so happy, invigorated and happy.  It is great reminiscing and finding my bestest friend.  What a treat!