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Thursday July 6, 2000 "The best way in which to silence any friend of yours you know to be a fool is to induce him to hire a hall. Nothing chills pretense like exposure." Woodrow Wilson, Remarks to the Motion Picture Board of Trade
Niagara Falls 1998
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internet magic I got a note from my friend Mags in Wynberg (near Cape Town), South Africa today. Like I do almost every day. She received a CD I sent of our buddy Rebecca's CD that I'd sent her. She was happily listening and singing along. She was consulting with some folks about whether Niagara Falls was worth a visit and decided to send today's picture. That's my dad and his six female companions on our 1998 visit. We went on the Maid of the Mist and wore the garbage bag ponchos and everything. Had a great time. Truly an Internet story. I met Mags (cap and royal blue jacket squating down) in rec.travel.europe during a brief period when we were both stopping by that Usenet list in probably about 1995. We started e-mailing. I went to visit her in 1997, but first met her sister (who then lived in Toronto...red jacket on the right) on a business trip to Toronto. In 1998, Mags came to my 50th birthday party and met Rebecca who played piano at the party for me. (We also had a dinner with Rebecca and Liz Carpenter and several other people.) She also visited Canada where my mom, my dad, SuRu and I met her for a 'road trip.' When I visited her and she visited me, we met each other's friends. That's my friend SuRu in the white jacket who is world's best driver. (She piloted the seven of us all that day in the van.) I'm peeking out of the middle and just above me and to the left is another Maggie, a friend of Mags, whom I met in SA and who was in Canada with her. Confused yet? Anyway, it's all about the Internet. It has changed the way we make and maintain friendships, no doubt about it. I hear my parents rattling around this morning. I fumble through my sleep, get up and throw on some clothes. I intend to move my car out of the way and kiss them goodbye. They are off on a ten hour drive to W. Texas, to New Mexico nearly. But by the time I get up, Dad has inched his van around my car and gone. In the evening, I call my aunt's house. Yes, they arrived. Mom tells me about the snacks Dad had all prepared for breakfast and lunch when he hustled her out of the house. At work there is a meeting conducted by HR. Amusing. I have a lunch meeting with a co-worker, a friend, too, who has a new job. Her job, like mine, defies doing. I forget to tell her my rule for such jobs: "At least do no harm." Other than collecting your salary and benefits, of course. Bien Sur. Don't get in the road and block the people contributing to the bottom line. FFP goes off to an expensive political fund raiser. We only bought one ticket. We don't really believe these politics, but are politicing ourselves by buying one ticket. The house is lonely, empty of the parents and Forrest. The dog seems to think we are going for a walk. We did, after all, take a late night walk last night. SuRu even calls. That excites her. But FFP calls and wants to meet at Four Seasons with a couple of friends from the fund raiser. So I talk SuRu into this plan. I change into cotton pants and loafers (out of jeans and hiking boots) and we go to the Seasons. I tell Rebecca that Mags likes the CD. She plays 'Straighten Up and Fly Right" in her honor. Friends come and go and we eat snacks and have drinks. I meet someone new. A woman my age who is named Irene. She is a musician. I am up too late as usual. |
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