I chatted with Des last night on AIM, and you know what? That was my first real internet chat - that wasn't me saying hello to my sister or getting annoyed by my mother - in YEARS.

It was fun!

Kind of had to get used to it again... typing a response too slowly, and hearing the familiar chime as she pipes in on another subject. Heh...

I guess about.... um, eight? years ago I got addicted to AOL chat rooms. BAD. I started out just kind of lurking, then got a little braver and started piping in with a quip or two. Well, one day something amazing happened. A girl named JThomp9696 said, "LOL wlly!!" And all of a sudden, I was funny!! That was all the encouragement I needed. I was throwing out one-liners left and right, and had everybody in the room rolling (OFLTAO, of course). And the people in the room that day were all equally as funny.

We started tracking each other down in the rooms as soon as we'd get online, and whenever I entered a room, five people would all go, "WLLY!!" JT and I were kind of the center of the group though. We'd find each other, then everyone else would kind of flock to where we were. Man it was great. JT and I were chatroom gods!

It got to the point where I was actually kind of obsessed with it. I'd come straight home from work and tie the phone line up for hours. (Which naturally put a strain on my relationship with my roommate at the time, but I didn't care.) On weekends I would spend half the day online, and the other half I would spend waiting for someone I knew to sign on.

After a while JT and I started talking on the phone. She lived in New York (and at the time I was in Memphis). She started calling quite frequently - even at work, because my roommate gave her my number - and at first it was fun. She mentioned coming to visit her, and vice versa, and I was like yeah... maybe. (I was just out of college and didn't have a lot of money.)

At some point I guess it started getting a little weird. She began sending me gifts and was calling me ALL the time. I tried to avoid her phone calls, but it wasn't very easy since she had my work number.

Starting around this time, the chatrooms didn't hold all that much appeal for me either. I went back and read some of the conversations we had had.... and I really didn't even recognize myself. we had become such a clique that we were actually rude to strangers that would venture into the room just looking to chat. That began, of course, by making fun of the total jackoffs that would come in, but it gradually turned into "If you don't immediately grab our attention or make us laugh, get the hell out!", even if the person wasn't a jackoff.

I read some of the conversations we had, and I didn't like who I'd become.

I realize this sounds a little far-fetched, but it was at one of the times in my life when I was clinically depressed, and I guess the chatrooms gave me the courage I needed to be a different person, and to have a completely different life than the one I was "living".

When I started to put all of this together, I was at least smart enough to realize that I needed to spend more time in the real world, and less time in the virtual one. I began to get online less and less, and when I did I would usually go on under a different screen name.

JT turned out to not be the most stable log on the pile, and turned me off the internet completely when she sent me money to use to go visit her. Maybe I was reading a little more into it than I should've, but it was just weird.

So yeah... to make a long story short... I fell off the chat wagon last night! It was great though... my first diaryland friend, and I got to get answers to my questions without having to wait until the next day to read them. Hee.

As long as she doesn't start sending me money, everything will be great!

feeling... wow, that seems like SUCH a long time ago
listening to... travis -- side
miss something?
goodbye my friend - 2005-04-29
out of the loop - 2005-04-09
a quest for clarity - part 1 - 2004-08-30
no plan for a sequel - 2004-08-27
slacker of the month - 2004-08-26