Recently, I found an old friend on MySpace- my best friend for a few years in one of the elementary schools that I attended.
Our exchange went something like this:

"Hey girl! It's Shari 'X' from waaaayyyy back in elementary school, remember me? I was searching names from my childhood and found you! :) How are you?"

response: "Hey! OMG Yes, I remember you! How are you?"

me: "Hey! :) I'm doing fine. How are you? We have a lot of catching up to do! eeeek we are 37 now. EEEk!!! :) The last time I remember seeing you was at Showbiz Pizza when we were teens. :) During when I was going through my "punk" & rebellious phase. LOL
I was just telling Rickey (my significant other) that you and I were best friends from 3rd grade through 6th. I kept moving away-back and forth in 5th and 6th grades, though.
I was a teenage mom- got pregnant at 16. He is 20 years old now. So strange to have a child that old. I see you also have an older daughter? I'm going to check out your page more. :) Did you recently have another baby? I also have a 13 year old son named Dylan. Jason is my oldest. I was with their dad from age 16 until age 30 and I've pretty much been with Rickey from 30 til now.
I'm glad I found you. :)"

her: "Yeah Ariel..is 17 I guess we both know what we were doing in our teen years....This is her latest picture.
I got pregnant and had a stillborn daughter(Patience)last April...in my 21wk of pregnancy.... and now currently just shy of 28wks pregnant with my first boy...Im not with the father(looooong story)....
I'm over in xxxxxx.. Are you still in xxxxxx? I get over there now and then to visit family...I was actually there about a week ago baby shopping with my preggo friend Heather..and swung by the big xxxx to see my grandma and dad...Heather used to live there too.. sooo of course we had to go by our childhood houses and old stomping grounds...We didn't know each other then, but found out we knew a lot of the same people... Small world... Always so bittersweet to go back on memory road...
Wish I knew then what I know now..haha.
You don't have a lot of stuff on your myspace page, you must not have been on here long.
It's so nice to talk to you....

Looking forward to hearing from you.."


me: " Your daughter is beautiful. :)
I'm sorry for your loss. :(
Do they foresee any difficulties this time? When is he due? Congratulations and I hope everything goes well. Re: the father-I understand about long stories. I have some myself. :) Such is life.

I really just haven't spent time decorating my myspace page, even though I'm on it everyday. At first I sort of just wanted to keep it simple. Could you see both of the picture slides? On one of them we recently went to Jekyll island (labor Day weekend) and it poured rain the whole time and the most fun we had was playing in a flooded parking lot. I also have a blog and I mainly do updating stuff with that.

I live in XXXX. I haven't been to ___ in years. I have an Aunt who lives there, but we're not in touch often. I went back to ____ (near there) over a year ago to revisit my old stomping grounds (I was born there and lived there before I met you in 'X' and lived there again from 7th grade through HS so I really consider it my hometown.)
and I got so depressed because so much of it has gone to crap. Really run down. Like you said...going back is just bittersweet. So much of the best parts of my life were from back then, but you can't ever really go there again...

I think I'm done with the having babies part. I think about it occasionally and then I feel glad that Dylan is growing up and...you know."

no response.

On myspace, if you have one, then you probably know that you can look in your sent items folder and see if someone read your message. After a few days had passed with no response, I checked and saw that she had read it. To me, etiquette dictates that when someone e-mails you, you should reply within a decent time frame. Over a week went by, and I sent her another message:

me: "Hey there. I never got a reply from you on the last message I sent. I was wondering what your due date is. Have you picked out a name? (of course, you have :))

I was thinking back to X Elementary and how cool and unique the playground was. I also remember having so many fun times at your house; spending the night, and once going to a b-day party you had. Your mom had us do some silly games. I remember another time going to church with you on some bus and being pissed off 'cause I forgot to bring
a dress and had to borrow something of yours to wear. :) the things we remember... haha."

no response. I checked and she did read it.

I start wondering what her problem was. Did I say something that somehow offended her? Was communicating with me boring...was I just passé to her? Should I send another message? Should I just forget it? Am I overreacting, getting pissed, feeling rejected for no reason? I started thinking even if I let it go, I should just delete her as a friend on myspace since she obviously didn't regard me as one. Certainly many years had passed and we could easily have nothing in common now, but simple and friendly chat was harmless and I couldn't understand her lack of interest...we had just barely started.
I went back and forth and the more I thought about it, the more I thought about it... lol
Oh yeah, also, you can tell when one of your friends is online...it flashes " ____
is online" and I had noticed frequently
that she was.

Several more days passed and I wanted to just put closure to this, so I finally sent her a goodbye message:

"______, Obviously, you aren't wanting to renew our friendship.
On MySpace, of course you can always tell if someone has read your "sent" messages... and you've read both of my messages, but didn't respond, even after I politely pointed out that you never answered the previous message. I'm confused and offended and I won't bother you anymore. I was just looking forward to reconnecting. Maybe you are going through stuff in your life and e-mailing me isn't on your list of priorities...and that's fine, but it's rude and offensive.
I'm a positive person, and I don't like leaving things on a negative note-- actually it isn't negative. I wish you the best, Shari"

and I deleted her.

so there.

Then soon comes a response:

"Hey girlie... Don't mean to offend you... I jump on and off,,,, sitting in this chair makes my back hurt and butt numb....and my daughter is on alot more (since she's back in school) so I usually only have opportunity to glance through mail and get off... I wanted to be able to sit down and write more but time is getting away from me with this pregnancy at the moment and I have so much to do to get ready..and only me to do it... So Ive been really focused on that.... I usually sit down here and check mail while Im eating........ But all is well here-had my 29wk doc appt today and everythings looking good. I go every two weeks now... Whoa Its getting close.... Im so huge already and compact so Im really starting to get achy sitting in one position for long.... I promise Ill catch up soon.... Here's my number... that would prob be better, but even then don't be offened if I don't return call right away....Imjust so moody right now....that I have to be in a good mood to talk... Im too old to be pregnant... haha
Talk to you soon.."


gulp

me: "uggghhhh. :( I jumped to conclusions. I forgot about how engrossing pregnancy and even life can be... OMG I deleted you as a friend last night because I thought--well, you know--and now I'm giggling and embarrassed and am adding you again lol. I'll be in touch soon and won't take anything personal. You know how us females are...ultra sensitive.
I'm glad you're doing well and oooohhh I feel for ya suffering- ugh.
:) glad we're still friends."

So, why did I share this? Um, because, well, sort of just to show something vulnerable about me.