"Can you stop at the store on your way home and get me some Anbesol.
I want maximum strength Anbesol... No. I want Zombie strength Anbesol. Zombiesol."
-My Husband

October 30, 2007 - Coming soon to a news broadcast near you... maybe...

If you live in the greater Boston area, pretty soon you'll get to see my fat face and baggy eyes on TV on Fox 25 news. Yesterday I did an interview for a story they're doing on grownups who use Facebook and other social engineering sites. Adam at Universal Hub put the word out a little while ago, and I answered the call. Because I may not be TV pretty, but I'm such the attention whore, don'tcha know it.

Heh.

After talking back and forth with the segment producer over the last week, and getting proper permissions from the company to make sure I didn't violate any sort of non-competes, conflict of interest, or other media thingies, she and I figured it would be best if she came up to a cafe near where I work. (By the way -- mad props to the Atomic Cafe for graciously allowing us use their space. Andrew and Heather rule beyond all imagination). We agreed I'd bring a laptop, and do some B-roll shots of me surfing around my profile and stuff, and I'd answer a bunch of questions and chat about the topic at hand.

Yesterday afternoon, I went to borrow the laptop and was informed that it went on a business trip to Chicago with one of my co-workers.

Oops.

Without a laptop, it would be kind of hard to do B-roll. I was sitting at the cafe, wondering what to do, when an exceptionally handsome young man walked into the cafe... with a laptop bag.

Oh dear. Do I have the nerve, gumption, or balls even to ask this complete stranger if I could borrow his laptop? I think you know the answer.

He sat behind me and I turned around and said "May I ask you an unorthodox question?" And I immediately stopped in my tracks.

I knew this guy.

And he recognized me.

"I know you..." he said, looking at me with "where do I know this fat cow from?" eyes...

I said his name, and he smiled, and said mine from before 1991.

We went to college together briefly, back in the day. His dad was one of my top two favorite professors, a man I adored dearly and miss horribly to this day... a man who actually introduced me to a little freshman boy named Douglas in 1986, when he was a freshman and I a junior. To this day I owe him a debt of thanks for allowing the spikey haired Calvin and Hobbes lookin' kid to burst in and interrupt our discussion. But I digress.

This handsome young no-longer-a-stranger guy and I chatted for a minute, rifling quickly through his dad's stroke 10 years ago (the last time I spoke with Professor Dad of His) and what I'm up to. We talked about Keri and Shakespeare and my daughter doing her program and trip to England in the spring. We were about to get into what he was up to, as he sat there with a coffee and paperback collection of 2007s Best American Poetry (how very him, as I recall) and then the TV camerawoman and segment producer came in.

I blurted out quickly what my unorthodox question was, the one I was about to ask him as I turned around... before we realized who we were to one another.

He smiled this award-winning, show-stopping smile of his, and graciously handed me his laptop... and cordless mouse.

How bizarre is that. Someone I haven't seen since 1990 just happens to walk into the cafe, happens to HAVE a laptop in hand, at that very second, and like a Paladin, swoop in and save the maiden in distress.

We shot the B-roll, I gave him back the laptop... and I started answering the questions for the interview on why I am a nearly 41 year old woman and I'm using things like Facebook.

Then, the suddenly-dropped-back-into-my-plane-of-existence guy packed up and left, before we could finish talking, before I could ask him about HIM, what he was up to ... what he does... and I was kind of stunned. I wanted to jump up and yell "Wait wait wait! What's your email! What's your phone number!" But having the camera in my face and being in mid question answering, I didn't do it.

I wish I had. Nothing on Google turns anything up on him, and now I have no clue.

The interview on the whole went well, and when I wasn't babbling incoherently or talking out of the left side of my ass, I felt that I made some good points. They'll probably pull 30 seconds worth of what I blathered about, out of the nearly half hour that I spewed ridiculousness, and that will be my brief dance with TV news fame.

When we finished the interview and the camerawoman was packing up, I spoke for a while longer with the segment producer about other aspects of the web and socialization... things like Flickr, this journal, early adopters of technology, fear of technology....

I pointed her to Professor CM at the college where I used to work, and told her that I couldn't think of anyone on the planet smarter or more qualified to discuss Information Technology, Society and Culture in reference to social engineering. Even at Harvard. He truly is the master. So I hope she can get in touch with him and get his spin on things.

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After the interview, I went back to the office after knowing I'd have the place to myself and I got another hour or so worth of work done... and sat there with the lights out and the glow of the 20 or so plasma monitors on the wall, realizing how dark it now gets at 6:30pm.

My head swimming with thoughts and memories, triggered by this very brief encounter with someone from back in the day, someone I have not given much thought to in nearly 17 years. I thought about who is my neighbor, who is my friend... how facebook has helped me reconnect with a couple of people from way back, and even wayer-back, in the day... and how there are a few people out in the world that I think of often, wonder how they're doing, and have no thread or trace of them to follow.

One of the aspects of the interview that I mentioned was that my daughter's middle school class has a facebook group. And in 10 years, if Jess is looking for someone she very well could go there and find them. But on my honor, I cannot find a few people from middle or high school anywhere on this planet, no matter how much I've wanted to or tried (through non-pay routes. I'm not paying to hunt someone down).

I like the fortuitous stumbling-upons that I've done through the web in the past few years. And I truly loved the randomness of what happened yesterday when my old friend walked into the cafe.

Which brought me to starting thinking about his dad... the professor who introduced me to my husband, who integrated faith, learning and pop culture like no other professor I had ever met. The guy who wore socks and Bierkenstocks, long before they were co-opted as mandatory footwear in the moonbat army.

Going to the college website, I found him listed on the English department webpage, with email. Relieved to see him still there, I dropped him a heartfelt little email and told him I truly hoped to hear back from him.

I miss him. I miss a lot of people sometimes, but truly... I miss this man.

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And that, my friends, was my adventure yesterday.

I'm not sure when the segment will air, but I'll be sure to let you know... so you can point and laugh accordingly.