It's happened again.

[velvetpage]

A little less than a year ago, Piet and I compared notes and realized that someone on his livejournal friends list was a former boyfriend of mine (in a loose usage of the word "boyfriend," at least.) Well, it's happened again.

Considering I never dated anyone seriously before Piet, it's really strange to keep running into guys in this manner.

This one is even less of a real boyfriend than linkmedia ever was. Rodney and I did, in fact, go on a real date once. This is not true of Sammy. zatara2000 went to elementary school with me in Peterborough. If I recall correctly, his was the suit that I wore during the scenes at Mr. Brown's house when I portrayed Oliver. That was twenty-three years ago. My sister was a rather large bump in my mother's belly when I brought down the house in that play.

I moved away from Peterborough the summer I turned eleven. In the years after that, I went back to visit periodically with a girl who ended up being one of my bridesmaids, though we've fallen out of contact in the last few years. On one or two occasions, she invited zatara2000 to come to the movies as my date.

Let's see if it happens again, shall we?

Sam? It's Erin. How're you doing?

Comments

[zatara2000.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord!

What a wonderful and amazing coincidence and suprise! I remember you so fondly! Yes, I recently hooked up on your husbands friend page as I am a fairly big fan of his on-line show.

I haven't seen you since I was a teenager and I must tell you, being a teenager wasn't a great time for me. I remember the last time I saw you and it was so sad. I was in a bad place. I think we barely spoke. Oh dear. Myself and the mutual friend of ours that you've lost touch with fell out years ago.

Well life is good on my end and I have turned into a very happy and well rounded person (in my opinon anyways). I am usually very hesitant about reconnecting with people from my past as I don't feel very fondly about where I came from and choose to always look ahead towards where I'm going (it's a lot brighter in that direction) but I would love to talk with you and catch up and see where we've both come from and maybe have a few laughs. Please contact me through my web-site (www.popcultureaddict.com). Also, I've added you to my friends list. You should do the same.

The main thing I am curious about is how you figured out it was me?

Oh boy. This is so exciting. You've made my whole weekend!

PS - Wisely, I don't go by Sammy anymore. It's what people called me as a kid. It's like nails on a chalkboard to me now. Just FYI. :P

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Piet read a recent post of yours where you used your real name, and recognized it from an anecdote I used to tell (I think it was about the night we saw Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on a double date.) So he looked up a picture of you on your website and asked me if I knew that person. When he prompted, "From Peterborough?" I twigged to it.

I was lucky enough that I got parents who refused to allow nicknames of that sort, and chose names designed to minimize them, but even so I can appreciate that you'd prefer the more grown-up version. :)

As for my life at the moment - I'm a French teacher, currently on a mat leave with my second little girl, and living in Hamilton, happily married to Piet and with a wide circle of friends - indeed, the best social life of any parents of small children I've ever known. My kids are smart gamer geeks in the making (among Elizabeth's early words were dungeon, dragon, and dice, in three separate contexts.)

It's a small world, isn't it?

[zatara2000.livejournal.com]

It's such a small world that it's blowing my mind.

Me. Wow. Lemme see. I have a well paying job that I hate, never talk about and never ever write about and refuse to talk about but I spend about another 40 hours a week writing pop culture based articles. I run a web-site which I hope you've looked at. I'm not married - engaged once but didn't work out. Lived with a woman once - didn't work out. Currently in an odd relationship type thing that probably isn't going to work out. Oh well. I keep trying. I interview famous people. Working on a TV pilot. No kids, although I'd like some, but two god daughters I spoil like crazy. I also have a pair of cats which I treat like kids, but when you live alone like I do that tends to happen because thats all you have to come home too. Had my first published work in the National Post last week. I guess the ultimate goal is to become a full time columnist or freelance writer or something, become a major celebrity (I want to be Ben Muloroney's arch nemisis. I think it's so possible because he's a douche bag with no original opinons and I'm not a pretty boy with way to many opinons) and wake up one morning to Michelle Trachtenberg. A man can dream....

I figured that I'd never hear of you again after Tara and I had a nasty falling out when we were still teenagers. Still some harsh feelings about that after all these years (I'm not the best at letting go). You recognized my picture? Do I still look the same? I'm probably a bit fatter, a bit balder and I know I didn't have the crazy mutton chops. As I stated before, I am not very fond of where I came from as much as I look forward to what is ahead. I was such an anxietal and angry teenager. Then, one morning, just before my thirtieth birthday, I woke up and realized nothing was wrong. It was such a wonderful feeling and a fresh new way to look at life. Now, everyday, I embrace the postive and push away everything that can even potentially bring me down because thats the secret of living a successful life. I never look back at the bridges I've burned (and dear god I burn them) but look at the sunrise ahead. I think that anybody that knew me as a teenager (which is very far and inbetween in my life) would be suprised to hear that is my philosophy, and that I have a positive outlook on things.

I remember that night we saw Robin Hood, and I don't remember it well. I can't remember why but I think it was a disaster. I actually remember pretty much nothing about that night except Tara was really under my skin...but I don't remember exactly why (god it could have been such a huge number of reasons). I also think we barely spoke, but, once again, I don't remember why (I'm guessing I was either shy or trying to hard to be intense or pretentious - cause thats the stuff I did back then. I was such a wanker) I've blocked out huge chunks of my teenage years to the point of selective amnesia. Please enlighten me. What is this anticdote of yours.

I love the fact your a gamer. I've, personally, never did it or understand it but I love the fact you do that. I wouldn't have expected it - but it's brilliant. I also noticed that you put "furries" in your interest list that I find totally delightful and amusing. I'm a comic book geek - but then I always was. I have quite a few friends in the comic industry and have a tattoo of the Black Canary on my leg.

I remember you used to be quite the writer. I hope you still do that.

As I said, if your interested please contact me again. I'd love to at least stay in contact through lj. If your interested in corresponding I'm game. I'd love to hear all about the missing decades.

I'm so glad your life is so brilliant. It's great to hear about good things happening to good people. :D

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Actually, the bulk of the anecdote was about something that happened after he movie, between me and Tara, so I'm not going to share it any further. We were - what, fourteen? No one likes who they were at that age. It seems to me that was a bad visit all around. It was the first time I realized that distance had allowed a friendship to continue that otherwise would have fizzled. And, for the record, Tara and I are still friends - we just both have such busy lives that actually getting together hasn't happened in a few years.

Piet introduced me to gaming after we were married. Furries are on the list because one of the gaming companies he writes for publishes furry games, so we play them fairly often, and I've written a couple of novels set in that world. The first will hopefully be published this year; the second needs a pretty major rewrite and the addition of some thirty thousand words worth of political intrigue. That's not easy when you've created the setting out of (nearly) whole cloth.

[zatara2000.livejournal.com]

Well, considering that the anticdote has nothing directly to do with me and seems quite personal, fair enough because it's probably none of my business. However, I must admit that part of me is quite envious that you still have been able to hold on to friendships, no matter how much time has lasped, from such a long time ago. Not something I ever did and soemthing I always envy. If you ever talk to Tara I hope you will tell her that we were in touch and I turned out alright...that is if you figure I have because, once again, thats a matter of opinon of course.

You write novels? Has any of them been published? Where could I get my hands on these novels? I'd love to read your work...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Only two, and the first has been accepted for publication by Sanguine Inc, Piet's publishing house. It will probably be published through Sofawolf, which (in case it wasn't obvious) specializes in anthropomorphic fiction, which is what this is. It's called Dreamcarver, and it's based on a roleplaying campaign.

The second book is kinda sorta a prequel, except that I invented the world - or rather, the sea - since that part of the Ironclaw world hadn't been well detailed, and I didn't like the details I had so I made up my own. :) The characters are dolphins. It's got a lot of good stuff in it, but it needs some work - I didn't realize until I had written 80K words that the trajectory of the plot was all wrong, and some major confrontations weren't going to happen unless I went back to the middle and changed it. So a big rewrite is necessary. I'm hoping to start peddling it in the fall, since I'll hopefully get some time in the summer to work on it.