It's always nice to hear from old friends.

It's always nice to SEE old friends.

Today I could both of those VERY unexpectedly on my new HTC 4G phone when D.G. called me up on Skype and we had a video chat on my phone.

It was like a conversation straight out of The Jetsons.  We were talking (well, I was...) on some electronic device the size of a Triscuit.  I could walk around the room with him in my hand as we briefly caught up, shared intentions to get a beer together very soon, and...well...let him tell me how much he admired me in graduate school (he was an undergrad then), and has admired me ever since with all the stories he's heard of what I've been up to in the last few years.

Funny.

I've had all these people who keep coming up to me in the last few months telling me how much they admire me, or are jealous of me...and all I ever usually think is how far behind I feel in my life...like I haven't caught up to another runner in an ultra-marathon that I've been running since 2006.  To tell the truth, I've always felt like I've been running that ultra-marathon...so...since...1980?  Maybe I just don't know how good I've got it, or how much potential I have to make something happen...?

I always feel and think like what I'm doing is not enough.  Not enough for what?  Who knows...

D.G. seems to still think I'm the bee's knees.  M.K. from Taffety also emailed me today to tell me he and the company are considering doing Oxygen...and wants to know what I'm doing during the next couple of months. I've been waiting for that email/correspondence of some kind for months.  Now...  I don't know what to do about that. Direct it?  Act in it?  What...?

D.G. believes in me.  M.K. believes in my proposition.  My students, as I found out before winter break, seem to believe in me.  Maybe I can start to believe in myself...  Maybe.

In other news, got out of "that house" today.  Pat and Chairman Diem helped me move out of there today.  Pat had the quote of the day as we were lugging out the last of my stuff from there:

"Bye, bye, Crazy House!  Smelled like Cup O'Noodles and weed all the time."

Well...yes.  It also did my head in to live there for the last month or so...especially since "the confession."  I never felt safe, and am now living with P. and A. in their basement apartment.  That works for the time being.  I was able to organize that move quickly...and it was done in a day...all because of my new Jetsons-like phone.

The future is amazing.

Maybe Mr. Spacely will call me soon to offer me a job with Spacely Sprockets.