1. Would you say that you’re good at keeping in touch with people?
Um, no. I have dozens of unreturned cards, emails and phone calls. I miss most of these people and hope they are doing well, but my lazy ass never gets around to corresponding.
2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why?
Blog, because I love to rant in the damn thing anyway, so if anyone happens to read it, I’ve inadvertently but pleasantly caught them up on my life. Second favorite is in-person, believe it or not. If I have to go out to eat or go shopping anyway, I might as well have a companion or two, so we can all catch up at once. And it saves the back-and-forth e-mailing and instant messaging. It’s nice to have human friends … some days my only contact with a living, breathing creature is playing with Maddie, usually because as of late, I’m too damn poor to leave the house. But nothin’s better than going out drinking with friends … I love having stories to tell and memories to cherish.
3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it?
I use AIM now and it’s not a bad little program. I had AOL for three years and blocked nearly everyone from accessing me. With AIM, I allow about 35 people to IM me, but luckily, there’s an “away” feature, so I can slap that on any damn time I please. I have several conversations per week, ranging from five minutes to an hour. I was seeing a guy when I first moved down here, and what we’d do is leave it on all day and have quick exchanges here and there. But he’s a boy and he’s stupid and I see him online all the time now but we don’t talk … HIS LOSS. Additionally, I just trashed Yahoo! Messenger from my system, because it was just taking up space — I always signed on under “invisible mode” — what point is there to that?
4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away?
In a galaxy far, far away, where men have mullets and women have teasing combs, in a planet called Pittsburgh. I’ve got a couple of really good friends here in the Alexandria vicinity, and two friends in Annapolis, but yeah, most are above the Mason-Dixon line.
5. Are you an “out of sight, out of mind” person, or do you believe that “distance makes the heart grow fonder”?
The latter. There are some people I miss terribly, and there are those who pop into my mind occasionally. I guess, overall, I miss people when they’re gone, because let’s face it, did I really take the time to devote myself to these people when I lived four miles away from them? Not really. But we’re mainly talking about friends here. Lovers (or whatever the hell they were) tend to fade from my mind quite nicely until I smell a familiar scent (soap, cologne, flowers, bars … lol) and then the memory rips me backward like a bear massacring a hunter who tiptoes in the vicinity of her cubs. But eventually, their faces will fade away permanently, and I will only remember the way they look in photos, if I happen to have one or two around the house. On the other hand, distance is the most powerful healer … and the biggest memory-eraser next to a bong and a jar of happy tobacco … and it helps you to forgive, and oftentimes forget, everyone’s sins.