Or, "It's Been Another Funny Couple Of Weeks"
I know the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne are more for New Year than Christmas but bear with me here...
Not long after I started another blogging project, I decided I wanted to put it onto Facebook, not least for the potential advertising possibilities. That didn't pan out, but it did leave me with a Facebook account... Something which I'd previously avoided because I tend to like the idea that my social network - such as it is - is in the real world.
Naturally, when I left my last permanent job, I had friend requests from the few people who (a) found me on Facebook and (b) could be bothered, as well as my sister. Sometime later, a former friend and colleague from many years ago got back in touch - a bit of a surprise considering we didn't exactly part on good terms.
More recently, naturally, I've 'friended' my girlfriend and a few members of her family and social circle, but my friends list has remained minuscule compared to just about anyone else in my friends list, and I'm OK with that.
As a sidenote, I've recently been watching odd episodes of Catfish: The Series (by which I mean occasional episodes. They're all odd), and one of the litmus tests the presenters use for determining whether or not a profile is genuine is their friend count. "Everyone," they reckon "has more than a hundred friends if they're real."
Well, OK, that... or maybe they are more concerned about real life than the random updates people regurgitate onto their timelines? Hell, I had less than 20 friends, and I've blocked updates from most of them for reasons of DRAMA!
But back to the point.
Earlier this week, two odd things happened, and the first relates to Facebook and old acquaintances.
I had a friend request from someone I haven't seen in about 20 years. Someone I knew back in high school, and never really expected to keep in touch with. Not really a friend as I'd define it, but certainly someone from the social circle I hovered around during my A-Level years.
Naturally, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to accept this friend request. There's kind of a reason I didn't put much effort into keeping in touch with folks from those days... Mostly because I was a bit of a dick and just didn't see the point, but also because there was this nagging feeling (later confirmed by a third party or twelve) that these people weren't true friends. Granted, everyone acts like a dick in high school, that's one of the worst things about high school, but what with the put-downs and territorial pissings, there were many compelling reasons for not keeping in touch, even before the whole 'trying to find a job', then 'working my arse off for nearly 20 years' thing kicked off.
Still, I ended up accepting, despite two conflicting nagging feelings: one, that this will open the floodgates, and just about everyone from that era will suddenly bombard me with friend requests, and I'll probably have to accept all of them and then never look at Facebook ever again because it's become a nightmare of déjà vu and ancient DRAMA!, the other - coming as a direct response to the first - that none of the others will bother sending a friend request, and I won't bother sending any friend request to any of them because none of us can be bothered. I mean... why would we? It's been twenty bloody years.
Of course, accepting that one friend request did lead me into a little investigative schadenfreude. Seeing how this one former school chum has aged led me to look up others and, by and large, the years have not been kind. Perhaps I'm being vain here but I don't have half the wrinkles most of my contemporaries have. Some others have aged remarkably well and look better than I might have expected, but they're very much in the minority. Many of them seem to be married with kids while, until relatively recently, I've only had disastrously brief relationships. Most of them seem to be gainfully employed, and quite a few are no longer in London, let alone near their old stomping grounds (the one who friended me is now in Scotland).
The other odd thing that happened is that I got an email from a publishing company, inquiring about my availability for temporary cover in the New Year. It seems they received my CV a few years ago, though they didn't get in touch with me at that time, and can't remember who supplied my CV.
The timing is uncanny, since my lack of gainful employment over the last few months has had me thinking (again) that my best bet might be to leave the Publishing world behind and pursue something else (writing would be nice... if only I could get started... or somehow getting involved in the whole Retro Gaming thing and getting back into pixel art... if only I could avoid getting lazy and apathetic about it).
After a quick chat with the person who emailed me, it turns out that the job is pretty much what I was doing in my last long-term placement, plus a few extra responsibilities... and that they're also looking to recruit someone on a permanent basis, as I'll be providing cover because someone has moved on. Not sure how much they're paying yet, but I've asked to be interviewed for the job.
I'm now going through final preparations to head off tomorrow morning to my girlfriend's family home for the Christmas holiday. I've been there twice before, but it's a little more daunting to know that I'll be there for about a week, and specifically over the Christmas week. I'm going through all the usual worries about whether or not I've packed everything I need, but I'm confident I have all the necessities... all that remains is to sort out what extra stuff to include in my backpack...
Just for laughs, I developed a cold last week and, as I've probably mentioned, this has eventually led to the usual acid reflux problem. The last couple of times this happened, I was able to procure the necessary medicine over-the-counter but it's since been withdrawn from the market. I was quite lucky, though, in that I was able to make an appointment with my GP this morning, and now have the necessary stuff on prescription. I also have to pop back later with a 'sample'. While I was tested for ulcers (or the bacteria that cause them) on a previous occasion, the testing system has changed, and the GP I saw today wanted to look into this issue more deeply because it's a recurring problem. Of course, the results for the test are due back (a) while I'm away and (b) while the surgery is most likely closed for Christmas... but a few extra days won't do any harm, I'm sure... and it'd be great to get to the bottom of this recurring problem.
