Reconnecting

I got an e-mail this morning from a friend I haven't talked to in years. Probably 10 or 11 years, actually.

I find the difference between what you talk about with someone you see every day and what you talk about with someone you talk to every couple of years decade interesting.

People you see every day know the big things, so you talk about the little things. You know, things like:

• I finally found Kraft Dinner at the grocery store. For some reason, it was in the ethnic food aisle, or
• Guess who's in the boxing class after mine?, or
  
• I recently realized that when I shower at the gym, I put my shoes on before my shirt. That's weird, isn't it?

On the other hand, when you haven't seen someone in years, you say things like:

• Oh yeah, I got laid off from the rapidly shrinking telecom company in 2007 or
• Are you still into skiing? I bet you're hoping for a lot of snow this year, or
• What got you interested in widget collecting?

When you don't talk with someone often, there's pressure to make the conversation count - after all, you don't want to have an hour long conversation with someone you haven't seen in five years and come out of it only knowing that they got new cell phone.

This blog is the same kind of thing. When I post once or twice a week, it's hard to think of what to write about. When I post every day, that's not a problem.

It seems that every year I have to learn that the best way to do something is simply to start doing it. This is yet another example.