Spiral binders unite!

Dear Michael,

You are one of my fellow morning counter folks. That wonderful hour of the day when no one says much of substance, other than to express the days possible length, or the preceding nights escapades. Usually if conversation were to be had it was done facing into one’s coffee, slowly tapping a cigarette in the ashtray (as was the custom at the time).

I remember you as an affable person, quick with a smile and in general you seldom said anything that didn’t need saying. I know this sounds like a tepid description, but to me it’s a often over looked virtue. In the café you more often than not needed hip waders to wallow your way though the miles of bullshit being spun out by anyone with an audience. But you would only add something if it was fitting, funny, or insightful.

I think we may have discussed work a little, maybe had a few chats on the failings of society, but by and large we could happily sit next to one another and just smoke and drink, knowing that atleast one of the chairs next to you wasn’t occupied by some gibberish-spouting-18 year old- fuck wit.

I hope I will still get to see you from time to time at the café when I drop in. If not for conversation, then atleast the cultivated nod of recognition that makes a pretty solid friendship in my book.

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt

A man Duh!

Dear Amanda,

You definitely fall in to the category of Kzoo folks that I have zero excuses for not knowing better. It really is inexcusable. You are friends with a bunch of my friends, you frequent (or frequented) the same places as I do (have). Not to mention the various interests/habits/proclivities that I am sure we share. Yup, I am just that much of social paranoid, that even someone who is more or less being slammed into my face repeatedly still manages to elude any kind of substantial contact from me.

Although, all hope is not entirely lost. You appear to be still in Kalamazoo, you have not joined a cult, started breeding, gotten married, or started reading a lot of bukowski, so there is a fairly good chance our will paths cross again, and if for no other reason than I made this post, we will be able to talk. One of the lessons I am slowly learning about this little project is that it kind of gives me some social encouragement to be a better (or atleast louder) person in public.

You always struck me as a pragmatist, and obviously the kind of person of which mess around, one would not. Given that my actual interactions with you have hovered on the periphery of cafes and bars, who am I to say what you are like. I can say that you have never peeved me in the slightest, or even so much has thrown a glance my way that didn’t seem friendly. So again, no excuses for my lack of interaction. I guess I am just a shit, and need to quit.

I will see you around town for sure, and I will make an effort, red faced and all that, to make your acquaintance or further it.

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt

Helpacomputer...

Dear Kristi,

Man what a weird place to be, writing about you. I never really got the chance to know you. I think we ended up fbfriends because your computer was broke and I tried to fix it. I remember thinking that after I fixed it that I should make a more concerted effort to talk to you when you were around. But I got to thinking about it, and I started worrying (as I often do) that if I was to start talking to you after “helping” you with something that it would be awkward, like I was using your need of assistance as a gateway to talking to you.

I know it probably seems kind of a stupid way of thinking but it’s how my brain works for the most part. From what I recall being around you, you were always very calm, cool, and collected. I would say level-headed but I am unsure, despite hearing it often, what that term really means. In any case you were always nice to me, and conversational upon meeting. You seemed like the kind of person that would take very little of my shit, but allow me some latitude if it was funny. I look for this kind of thing often, but very seldom find it. Most people are one side or the other.

Now that you are in a different state, this may very well be then end of contact between us. That is kind of sad but given what I have heard of Colorado, I am sure you have tons of cool kids to chat to, so it certainly won’t be hard to not notice J

I don’t think you and I ever spoke on FB so my absence there prolly will be minimal. But in anycase…

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt

Mr. Smith I presume...

Dear Adam,

Man it seems like you have been gone forever. I can’t actually recall the last time I spoke to you, but I can assume it was at the café, at the bar, with Colonel Mustard, and the candlestick. In anycase, I remember meeting you way back when working the overnight at the café. We had some kind of conversation about Bjork and how you just moved here and what not. You had poofy yellow hair if I remember correctly.

You were always the optimist when you were here, quick with a smile and usually politely argumentative. It was always nice to know all I had to do was bring up an ethics based conversation and the game was afoot. Knowing me, most of the time is was some grandiose blanket statement about the nature of humanity, and you would retort in the negative citing exceptions, then I would backtrack a little with a statement like “clearly there are exceptions” and then towards the end “what the hell do I know anyways.”.

I have seen you get frustrated a few times, but as always you managed to rein it in and maintain composure. To be honest I half expected at some point that your head would explode from the effort. The café is always a hot-bed of idiocy, and on good days I got to be King Tard leader of the shit-spreaders. You however always took the side of patience and consideration. That one should understand the nature of the conversation being had, and not respond unless that response was sound and well considered. Frustrating as that may be, to one as bombastic as I, it was always nice to have a Hobbes to my Calvin in these matters.

All in all I still count you as a friend despite the lack of interaction. You were an irritant some days, as I am certain was I, but some of the best friendships are forged in such ways. I have had next to no contact with you through fb, but that is unsurprising. I assume your unfriending will go unnoticed for a few days, but feel free to send me your email just incase so that we may occasionally compare note should we happen to be in the same area for some reason.

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt