Friendships via FB in real life

 I had this idea a few months ago but it really didn't hit home until yesterday. I received a phone call at 8am from my mom's high school friend. I didn't really know who she was at first until she continued. Let me tell you, a groggy wake up call where someone says this is so and so from your past, I called to let you know ________ passed away, is not a good wake up call. She proceeded to tell me about how her nephew passed away. This was important. She considered me a friend of the family not only because of my ties to my mother, but also because of the ties to her nephew, who was my ex. Specifically, the ex before my husband. Also the same ex I had this long forever in and out of each other's lives at random times friendship. We met when we were kids. We were playing Hide n Seek and we sat alone together in the dark behind some boxes and were so proud of ourselves because 45 minutes went by and nobody found us. He was keeping time on his indigo watch. We had a conversation about how I wished he was a girl, he asked why and I was too shy to tell him because my mom was going to be pissed off that I, at 9, was sitting alone in a dark laundry room, behind boxes, with a boy I didn't know. He talked about his family and how they wanted a girl too but everyone (wtih one exception) had boys. Later, we went to summer camp together where he always wore the same White Sox jersey. I think aside from liking baseball, he was representing his last name. It was a nice summer. That same year I moved from the neighborhood and that was it. At around 12 I was living in Bridgeport and met a girl on my block. She was 1 year older than me and aside from the fact that we lived on the same block, we had virtually nothing in common. I had a crush on her brother and since that was off limits she wanted to introduce me to her friend. She went on about him and I said ok. It was sometime during the year when she pulled out her fancy 90's laser background school pictures and said look and tell me what you think. All of the kids looked normal, kind of losery like every set of 7th or 8th grade pictures would. The one thing I did notice was the names were all blank. For some reason, right there smack dab in the middle was one cute boy in her class. I don't know if I subconsciously recognized him but she exclaimed "that's him! The guy I was telling you about". We laughed and it was a fleeting moment until the big day. I don't know who called who but somehow I was on the phone with this young man. I knew his name and he mentioned he had a cousin and it just clicked. I asked him some background questions, specifically about his cousins, (random I know but I knew what I was trying to get to) and he explained that he only had 1 girl cousin. I laughed, told him who I was and he had a vague idea. We had our first date at the library. We were 12. We held hands, it was cold and we pretend dated for 2 weeks. I was going out of town for Thanksgiving and even though I did like him I was doing my own thing and like with all young people, just lost interest, told him I would call when I got back and never did. That was how 12 year olds dated. At 14 I found out he had a long term girlfriend (because an entire 8th grade year was long term) and I professed my love to him! He remained with his girlfriend and that summer we learned that we could lose friendships to other peoples girlfriends. Eventually they broke up and we were all friends again. We had a super awesome summer and then we both moved in separate directions and that was it. At 21 I was a saved Christian girl who came back from Texas to Chicago with my friend (the one who introduced me to him) and we went for drinks and I was back at square one with him. I was happy and we had lots of stupid fun as I backslid because I was truly in love with him. Some time passed and we were doing our thing and it eventually fell apart. The last time I spoke with him he was asking me if I wanted to come over and watch Nacho Libre on New Years Eve. Mind you I was sitting next to this hot guy that I knew I was going to marry even though we were just sitting next to each other. I politely declined and that was it.      I've always had this cool friendship with him but we hadn't spoke in about 7 years. I kept in contact with his younger brother on FB. I spoke with him via inbox messaging and said we would get together soon. And now, after about 7 years of not seeing him, the first time I will see him will be at his brother's memorial. It's horrible but this is kind of what life is sometimes. We mean to do something, and we don't make the time. I've seen people mourn loved ones simply because they never had the time to visit or other things were priority. It happens. We are human and thus my experiment is taking form. I've never dealt with death and it's a very painful and final thing. I don't want to do this ever again. I want to be in contact with everyone. So, I am proposing that I will actually call and speak with all 200+ people on my friends list. Why be friends on a computer but not in real life? I've had some great opportunities to meet back up with people because of social media and find that we have a lot more in common than not. So, every day I will call someone from my list. I will write about who they are in detail and what I've learned and if people decline to be part of the blog it's totally cool. If they decline to speak with me because they just don't want to then it's a great way to clean out my "Friends" list. I'm exhausted. I hope I can keep up. Thank God for unlimited plans. And most importantly Led Zeppelin and your roof top on the Fourth of July in 1999 will always be my fondest memory of you.