Well, that was unexpected. I just got an email from a friend from several
jobs ago, whom I hadn't heard from in a couple of years. Aerospace is such a small
community, though, that it was inevitable I'd run into him again. Several times
I've even run into people who had worked for my first employer back in Houston,
with whom I've had mutual acquaintances.
Or maybe it's just me. I do
seem to keep running into people. Once, while hiking ten miles out on a trail in
the middle of Big Bend National Park (one of the more remote parts of Texas), I
was greeted by an acquaintance from the nature center where I volunteered in
Houston, 900 miles away. Even more oddly, once at a rock-climbing class at
Enchanted Rock, in the hill country of Texas, I ran into someone I'd worked with
at my college's Dining Service, in Philadelphia. (It was the matching Penn
sweatshirts he and his wife wore that first caught my eye.)
So
today's email wasn't totally unexpected, but still caught me by surprise. We
hadn't been in touch for a couple of years, but back when we worked together, I'd
gotten to know this guy almost too well. He was going through a rough patch in his
life and needed someone to vent to. I think, also, it may be a common thing for
people whose lives are happily boring to look elsewhere for drama. Some people
watch soap operas, some read romances. I find real lives are usually much more
interesting and less predictable, which is probably one reason I read online
diaries. Or maybe it's my otherwise negligible nurturing
instincts.
Anyway, he's now got a new wife and a job at a good
company with an impressive title, so hopefully his life is now happier and more
boring as well. As for me, getting back in touch with old friends is exciting
enough.
No, wait: even more exciting is that I have only 54000 meters
on the erg challenge and I leave for Antarctica in a week and a half!