You know, this is almost precisely the one thing Amy wouldn’t want me to do, but I’m going to do it anyway. She wrote an introspective piece about the growing popularity of domesticat. As someone who is happy to consider Amy a friend–who knows her voice on the phone, who watches movies at her house, who helps rip out old gardens in exchange for moving assistance–I’m not surprised.
Amy and I got to know each other because of Heather’s dad having a flare-up of diverticulitis. Heather was to drive her mom to Nashville to fly out to California to take care of Dad, but something had to be done with Susan’s car. Amy’s help was asked for, but Amy was stuck at work and unable to get away to help. Heather then thought of me, knowing that TBE had flex time and that, frankly, I didn’t care how late I had to stay at work at night if it meant I got to help a friend out that day.

So off I drove, over to pick up Heather in her car, drive to meet her mom, and then drive Susan’s car to Heather’s apartment, retrieve my truck, and come back to work. As I remember, I missed a rather unimportant meeting at UAH that I was trying to get out of, so that was cool. When we got to the rendezvous point, Heather introduced me to her mom, who I think I’d met once before. Susan, upon hearing the name “Jeff”, thought that I was Amy’s husband. I laughed uproariously at that–you see, I, too, had been quietly reading domesticat, and I’d seen photos of Jeff. We don’t look much alike. =)

When I got back to my office, I searched for Amy on ICQ to let her know that, indeed, Heather had gotten there. I knew Amy used ICQ–Heather had told me as much–but that was about it. I found her, and we struck up a conversation around that. It quite morphed into something else, and though we’ve bristled upon each other’s rough edges at times [more mine than hers], I’d say we’re more than acquaintances.

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The hubbub that is IJSM is somewhat frustrating to me at times. I’ve been wanting to write something a bit deeper of late, but haven’t had the focus or energy to do so. Oddly enough, telling the story of how Amy and I got to know each other the first time is quite an interesting tidbit for IJSM. I, too, have seen an increase in readership, and I think a lot of it is from being a mirror for Greymatter. Actually, I know that a lot of it is, because I read referrer logs. But, like Amy, I’ve also noticed that I get “repeat business”, which is somewhat, well, freaky. I mean, I think I’m interesting, funny, and insightful, but dang, you do, too? Either that, or you get as bored at work as I do.

You know, you can feel free to comment on here. I’ve turned commenting back on, purely because I want to know if anything I say here has any effect. Yes, the folks that do tend to reply to stuff on IJSM are personal friends–Jeffie being Amy’s husband, Todder my roommate, and boredelf the fiancee of one of my best friends from high school. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve struck up an acquaintance that I consider a burgeoning friendship with a man I only know from his photos, Weblog, and emails. That man has great depth, and is worth knowing. That man should know who he is when he reads this, and yes, I do want to hear from him. =)

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Whew. Thanks, Amy, for prompting me to think about something for longer than five minutes this morning. Through the blasting sinus headace + migraine I have today, I need that.