february 10

happiness is an option Sitting, waiting here. I didn't think it would take this long to find out from the co-op board if I'm in or not (and let's face it, it wasn't exactly a rigorous interview; three young-to-older middle aged women in a stuffy basement on folding chairs telling me more things than asking me. I expected at least eight or nine Fraiser Crane clones, even though Joe Realtor (okay, that's not his last name, but that is his first name) had assured me that wasn't the case. I was prepped good, though -- Nadine and Matt put me through the list of questions I should ask, and The Board didn't seem to know all the answers, like how many shares there were total in the building. Not sure if that's bad or good, exactly. The thing is, I'm almost positive there won't be a problem with getting in, but I can't take any action until I know for sure, like, say, moving to close or hiring a mover (closing a mover?) or changing the address with anyone I know.  But on a slightly different topic, what's funny is how some things just time out in weird ways. I moved to the apartment I'm currently in five years ago, during the big 96 March Nor'easter which slammed Boston (where I was) and pretty much dumped on New York. That weekend was the weekend I moved; hardest thing I think I ever did, until I had to buy this new place. Anyway, I sent out postcards to everyone in my address book, business and personal, about the new address. One bounced: Darron Montgomery. Darron was this wiseass I was pretty friendly with throughout high school; never dated, just good friends, one of those people who makes you laugh so hard your sides ache. From Texas originally; I got a kick out of hearing him say "pin" when he meant "pen," for example. We hadn't kept in great contact since high school graduation, but he never left my address book, and we'd catch up once every year or so. He was going on to accountancy school and was in Arizona. Well, damned if that postcard didn't bounce back, and when I called his old number it was just out of service -- not forwarding, nothin'. And the thing with Darron was his first name was really Robert (as I recall) and for a while in high school he'd used another last name. So searching for four possible names, and all of their combinations, was difficult to impossible, even as the internet technology improved. So while doing my most recent website update (where I've had this "alert" asking anyone who knows him to contact me flashing for five years, I did another web check.  The *only* place "Darron Montgomery" came up was on Lyon Credit's web site, where a quote of his was praising the bank. It narrowed me down to where the man works -- an Arizona-based web company, of all places! So I've spent the last week calling and getting just his voice mail (his accent is way toned down, and he's got this mature sounding voice now, but it's him, I'm sure of it) -- I don't want to leave a message, 'cause "Hey, remember me from five years ago when my mail bounced?" feels odd. I hope there wasn't some reason for him moving and leaving no forwarding address! I'm fairly sure there isn't; the frustrating thing was a few months after my move and the postcard bounce, I got a postcard from him from Houston, TX ... but no info on his moving. More to come. The point of mentioning that right there was that here I am, about to move again, and here, I've found him. It's a good sign, I think. And finally, though definitely not as an afterthought. Valerie and Anand had their baby! Little Cameron, meet the web. Web, Cameron:  Yup, it's a baby!