The Glittering Mirage

We all have our responsibilities in life . . . home, family, work, and bills.  We get up every morning and go to work, come home and take care of household matters, pay bills and tend to children.  The whole routine can get to be a long blur of boredom after a while.  The ubiquitous and glittering mirage in the distance beckons, and sometimes its pull is seductively overpowering!

An Enchanted Evening Under the Stars

Oh yeah, give me that sleek, sexy car along with musk scented evenings with wine, candles and a sultry lover to tend to my every need!  The mirage dominates my brain and I can't seem to vanquish it.  Loved ones continue to inquire about that dreamy look in my eye and where my mind is at.  If they only knew . . .  I want and need passion so badly, but is it worth the steep price I'd have to pay to get it?

After much thought, I've come to the realization that there is a way around all of this, and that is in my dreams.  I can go anywhere and do whatever I want to in my dreams!

I can't help but think that Gary Wright must have had the same sentiment as me when he wrote this song:

I will dream on!

Out of the Blue

Back in the latter part of September, I received a message out of the blue on Facebook from a man who served with me at Camp Parks RFTA in Dublin, CA back in the earlier years of the Millennium.  The unit that we served in was a joint service one with Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines working side by side.  He was Army and I was Air Force.

I always thought that he was handsome, but he was very quiet and we never spoke much back then.  We spoke briefly about retirement one time right before I left in 2004.  That's the one and only time that we ever spoke, other than saying "Hi" in the hall. 

So back to the present, this man said that he looked me up on Facebook and found my profile, then he sent me a message.  What I found intriguing is why he was trying to find me after 8 years.  He told me that he had been deployed to Afghanistan and I get the impression that it was more than once.  I can't even imagine how bad that must have been for him!  I do know that he has a young child and that must have been torture to leave him!  I'll have to ask him more about that some time.

Here is a picture of him over in Afghanistan with a little Afghan girl:

It is flattering to have somebody who I barely knew contact me out of the blue 8 years after I last saw them.  I guess that I must have made a lasting impression on him, somehow!

I've talked with him via Facebook message for over a month now and he seems to be a very nice man.  He's been very respectful and has said nothing untoward.  I think that I'd like to keep in contact with him as friends.

It's amazing how much Facebook opens up the world to us! 

10/29/2012 Update

I've been talking back and forth with this guy and he seemed very nice.  So, I get up this morning and find that he sent me a message at 6:00 AM saying that his mom is really sick and to please wire $2K into some woman's account first thing this morning and that he'll pay me back.  What stinks even worse is that the bank account he provided is at a credit union in my home town in Pennsylvania!  My home town is truly a podunk one where the bars look like garages, so this really scared me badly!

I barely knew this guy in California and all of a sudden after 8 years he's contacting me.  Okay, this can happen these days with Facebook and all, but asking me out of the blue to wire $2K to some chick's account?  Where is this guy's family?  I strongly suspect that he's a con artist and promptly told him so.  After I told him this, I unfriended and blocked him on Facebook.

This really scares the hell out of me!  I would never ask somebody that I barely knew to wire money to an account, especially that much money!  Even if his mother really is sick, I truly question the character of somebody who would put a new friend on the spot to wire money.

I feel very sad that something that seemed so nice has turned into something this bad!  My distrust for people has increased substantially because of this incident.  Goodbye J-Lo!  I hope not to hear from you ever again!  Go try to con somebody else!



 

A Breath of Fresh Air

I reached out and did something especially bold last week and it paid off!  I've got several posts here in my Blog in which I lament the loss of a connection that I had with somebody in the past.  I knew this person on a casual basis for a few years at work, but always wished that we could have been closer friends.  Unfortunately,  they moved away last year and this never happened.  I've thought about them often since they left and hoped that we could connect again.

Well one night last week after a couple of glasses of wine, I decided to take the plunge and send a message to ask if they wanted to be in touch online. Once I did this, I decided that I was just going to let things ride and see what happened . . . without stressing about it.  In retrospect, I've observed that this is quite a departure from how I've done things in the past.  I didn't realize how much I've changed over the last year, but I'm happy about it!  I'm finally starting to overcome being hurt in the past and learn how to reach out to people again.

So, I went about my business and the next day I received a very nice reply to my message!  This person messaged me back to say that they're interested in staying in touch!  This means so much to me that it feels like a breath of fresh air has come back into my life . . . and a much needed one at that!   I can compare the feeling that I have to the first days of Spring, when little buds appear on the trees and everything is starting to come back alive after a long and cold Winter.

During the time that they were here, I actually looked forward to getting up in the morning and going to work, just so I could see and talk with them.  Although I've always been intrinsically motivated to look and perform my best, I made a special effort to do even more whenever they were around.  They gave me a reason to surpass my goals.  Some people out there might think that this is dorky, but I don't care!  It takes a very special person to motivate me in this manner, and I've met very few like them!

This person asked me about some of the friendships that I have online and how they came to be. What I couldn't quite tell them at the time is that all of this happened due to a quest for knowledge to learn more about them.  I hope that I can tell them this one day.

So, I don't know what will end up happening out of all of this.  Hopefully we will develop a good and lasting connection.  But as with most things, only time will tell . . .

October 17, 2012 Update

Well, we've messaged back and forth a few times, but they've been out of touch for about a week now.  I hope that this doesn't continue.  What's a link without comms?