I was thinking about how odd it is that people who were once so close to me are now no longer part of my life. There are some that I wonder where they are now:

John Sterling: I had a terrible crush on John from third through sixth grade. We (along with a red-headed kid named Bryan) were in this Smart Kids program where we got to do things like watch Beatrix Potter videos or dissect sharks. The depth of my crush was such that I actually felt guilty when I stopped crushing on him, like I'd abandoned him or something.

Rhoda Dunn: Rhoda and I were very close friends from sixth grade through college. We were "Rachel and Rhoda," and it didn't seem to matter which was which. I knew things were bad when I called her on the phone and asked if Rachel were there. Actually, I could track her down if I really wanted, since I think her mom still works at the synagogue we used to go to, but I left a couple of messages on her voice mail about 10 years ago, and she never did call me back. Last I heard, she was living with someone named David in Phildelphia.
Update: Found

Kara MacLeod: She was part of my theater and gaming crowds (although I wasn�t much into gaming, especially after my then-boyfriend left me in a Klingon detention center for an entire session.) Kara once showed me this amazing, anatomically correct sketch of a dragon�s skull that she�d drawn, pointing out where the muscles attached and why it had evolved that way.


Todd Wucetich: A guy in high school who was very intelligent and interesting and I never got up the gumption to get to really talk with him. Now that I�m more secure in myself, I�d like to catch up. He was last sighted with a shaved head in a back street of Cairo.
Update: Found

Sal Rodriguez: A very good friend in college. We worked on the First Annual UCLA Jazz Festival together. (I know: supposedly it�s not correct for the first of anything to be called �annual,� but since I think they�re now doing the 16th one, I guess the ambition was borne out.)
Update: Found

Seph Perling: He made me a T-shirt that said, �I�m not a grape; if you squeeze me, I won�t wine.� (I wore a lot of purple at the time, which earned me the nickname The Grape. I once showed up wearing all green, only to have a friend exclaim, �Oh, my God! It�s a Thompson Seedless!�)
Update: Found

Chuck Arnold: Chuck worked for XXX records back when Jane�s Addiction was the Next Big Thing. He was the first person I�d met who actually suggested we Do Lunch, but he had a good sense of humor and mocked his own occasional pretentiousness. I visited him in Boston back in �90, and we lost touch after that.

Kai McGee: We worked on ER together: I was photo double for Maura Tierney, she was a nameless nurse. We tried hooking up afterwards, then her phone number was disconnected. If anyone in the acting/writing industry in LA runs into her, let me know or give her this URL.
Update: Found

Of course, people can pass through again. I googled one friend who kind of disappeared about ten years ago and tracked him to Oregon. He emailed me a couple of months ago to say that he was headed back to LA to work for Amnesty International, so maybe we�ll get a chance to meet up one of these days. Then there was Mike Giam. I hadn�t talked with him for seven years when, on a whim, I asked a friend, Andy, who�d just started working where Mike used to work, to keep an eye out for him. Andy immediately e�d me back to say that, if he reached over really far to his right, he could smack Mike on the back of the head. Turns out that Mike had gotten married, had two little boys, moved up north for several years, and had just returned to LA again. Oh, and then there�s Bret Shefter, whom I had a crush on when I was 15 and re-met 17 years later at a live game. His conniptions at finding out who I was were very entertaining.



Here�s to good friends, wherever they may be, and may our paths meet again.

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QotD

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common -- this is my symphony.
-- William Henry Channing, clergyman, reformer (1810-1884)