Comments on Friending

I'm finally getting around to the posts that I promised myself I would write when I got more time...

Over a month ago, Ryan wrote a post about how he's been getting a lot of friend requests on Facebook and Myspace lately. One thing that he notes is that he's gotten a couple from people he didn't expect. I'll have to say that I was probably one of them. He's a couple of years older than me, we didn't really hang out in high school; in fact I completely forgot that he played bass (which is obviously a huge part of his life). The thing was, when I saw his name linked with some of my friends, I said "what the hell, from what I remember, he's a nice guy and he plays the bass to boot, I'll friend him". I ended up doing that with a couple more people and before I knew it, I had people that I never thought would be friending me sending me requests. It gives me a nice warm fuzzy to be known. =)

Now, I'm not kidding myself. Many of the "friends" aren't traditional friends by any sense. For a large percentage, it's just of way of saying "Hi, I know you. I'll look at your pictures and see what you've been up to. You can contact me if you want, but no big deal if you don't." However, it's not always like that and I enjoy the random e-mails that I get from people who do more than friend me and read my blog.

High school for me, like Ryan, was not my favorite 4 years. While I don't ever remember being shoved into a locker, I do remember various incidents of people throwing/pushing me. The more memorable ones are:
- Pushed into the pond at the Helmer Nature Center (actually happened before H.S. but I'm still counting it)
- Thrown, repeatedly, into a pool
- Thrown into the bushes
- Pushed into a garbage can

In full fairness, I have to admit that all of these incidents with the exception of the pond involved horsing around with my friends and I gave as good as I got. However, I still remember that you pushed me into the pond Katie Coakley and Monica Williams, and I will never forgive you...just you wait...bwaa ha ha ha! Oh crap, how lame is it that I actually admitted that two girls pushed me into a pond. I'm going to go hide in a locker now.

By the way, Ryan, I own a Samuel Shen carved bass as well. I don't get to play as often as I like, but I love the rich sound that it makes when I'm playing competently.