I'm pleased to report that my latest post and consequently first post in a good minute is a heartwarming story of reunited loved ones and long-lost friends. This actually happened to your's-truly, here recently.
"I Finally Found Her!"
Let's Go Back, let's go back. Back, to June 25, 1984, the morning of, we find your favorite bloggite and ruggedly handsome host in a room at Middleburg Heights Memorial Hospital and i just happen to be minutes old. Exactly two minutes prior to the single happiest moment in history my dear friend Lauren Renee was brought into the world in the 2 or 3 hundredth happiest moment in world after the first woodstock, me losing my virginity, the advent of the Volkswagen GTI VR6, and the glorious day Smells Like Teen Spirit was released into the eager hands and ears of the world.
But enough of that.
During the time our parents, Barb, Todd, Roger, and Gail, respectively were awaiting the births of their children they became friends. After the glorious days the families would enjoy each other's company on weekends and other times. Subsequently Lauren Renee and I were raised side-by-side for the first couple of years before the Marine Corps would take my father from Recruiting Station Cleveland to Quantico, Virginia. We have the embarrassing photos of us in the bathtub together, holding hands, being crazy little bastards together. Great times.
Fast forward to 1989, the last time that Lauren Renee and I would see each other for the next 16-ish years. I still have a photo of us at her folks house holding hands and making faces at the camera as if nothing else mattered except hammin' it up for which ever of our parents were
takig the picture.
After that the Marine Corps spun my life into a dervish of moving every three years and my family having or adopting more kids. As the oldest of 10 they were busy peeps. In the time we were apart I spent 9 of those years in Japan in three different places at 3 years a pop. I graduated High School, worked at Food Lion, did some independent contracting for Lowes, and exactly 3years and 7 months ago I joined the Marine Corps just like my father.
During that span Lauren Renee stayed in the Cleveland area went to school, worked, graduated and started college, which she will graduate afer this semester with three degrees in Psychology, Anthropology, and Communications. I'm pretty proud of her. She is smart as all get out. She's also wicked cute.
When I was about 10 I started looking for her fervently. I looked everywhere; online searches, phone books, email searches, everything I could think of. Problem was I couldn't remember her last name. Neither could my folks. I mean it had been years since our families even contacted each other. So, I was completely in the dark.
Enter MYSPACE, a tool that has revolutionized the way we communicate, network, play, "hook-up" all sorts of things. I'm such a Myspacer that I'm thinking of either naming my first kid, Myspace or my first dog. Right now it's a toss-up. It'll probably end up being whichever comes first.
Hold-on I'm out of coffee.....Ok...I'm Back.
So, armed with the knowledge that her name is Lauren and she didn't have any reason to leave Cleveland, I entered the all inclusive, Myspace person search. I entered Lauren and thanks to the United States Postal Service website I found a Cleveland zipcode that I was able to search within 10 miles of. I found literally thousands of 'Laurens' within 10 miles of Cleveland. I had nothing but time so I set out. I read profile after profile sending messages....here's the generic message that I sent to half a dozen random "Laurens, living within 10 miles of Cleveland"
Are you sitting down? I was born on June 25th 1984 in a hospital in Middleburg Heights and the funny thing is that there was a girl named Lauren born two minutes before me in the same room...our mothers became friends and she lived in Cleveland and we lived in Strongsville...I don't know her last name but I know that her dad's name was Roger and I've been looking for her for the past 10years...My father was a Marine and we moved away when I was about one and we never saw each other again...If you are the Lauren I'm looking for then I'm done looking and I'd like to talk to you...if you aren't then I'm still looking...thanks for your time....
I only heard back from my Lauren and she was it. So my search was over.
PART DEUX
We started talking on the phone, we didn't talk too many times but the times we did it was for hours at a time. We clicked instantly and we filled each other in on the past 10 years, as if we had been apart for a weekend or a summer. We agreed to meet and she came down with her sister who I'd never met before and her friend. She stayed for five days and it was the greatest bunch of days I've had in a long while. We weren't apart for more than a couple hours the whole time and we found that we were still just a tight 15 years later as we were as naked 2 year-olds eating popcicles in the bathtub of my parents' tiny apartment.
There really isn't a moral or anything to this story it's just a great story that I'll probably write a book about, someday.
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