I found a long-lost friend the new-fashioned way today — he turned up on Google. At least I think he's still a friend. I haven't seen — or had any communication with — Gene since 1992, the summer after I graduated college, the summer he returned home from travels in China and Tibet. Sarah's parents are friends with his parents and the last tidbits we heard were that he had gone to Paris to visit a girlfriend, and maybe do graduate studies. Then his parents moved to a different state and we didn't hear much of anything any more. Whatever may have happened then, he's clearly in Paris now, working at a wine bar.

What I can't understand is why he went from being someone I considered a close friend to someone I used to know. Is it really that hard to write? Drop a postcard from time to time? Respond to a Christmas card? I may have wandered from city to city this past decade, but my father's (my old) mailing address has never changed.

Why do old friendships fade? Maybe one month without writing turns to a few, then a year, then it becomes too awkward to re-establish contact. Or is the person happy to let time sever a tie they no longer wanted to maintain? It's hard for me to understand, because I've always been one of the contact maintainers, the card senders. I've never let a friendship lapse.

Or so I think. Are there people on the other end of faded friendships who think I'm the one to blame? Do I convince myself that the ties remain as long as I think about that person from time to time? Is friendship just a state of mind?

I was always one of those people who complained bitterly when Christmas decorations made their appearance in the stores even as the Halloween trappings were coming down. Now I'm glad for a drawn-out holiday season. With just over a month to go, I feel like I'm already behind. I need all the Christmas time I can get!

I have become one of Those People. I've been in denial about it the last 2 1/2 years, but it finally hit home today; I saw an ad for holiday-themed windsocks and thought, "Those are cute."

When did this happen? Was it the day we left an apartment in the city for a house in the suburb? When I traded in my Civic hatchback for a station wagon ... er ... "crossover utility vehicle"? Was thrilled when a Target opened in Wheaton? Joined a gardening club? Maybe it was when I stopped giving a rat's ass what other people think.

I haven't succumbed completely. I still wear non-sensible shoes. I watch more indie films than mainstream blockbusters. I refuse to buy mom jeans.

But I am one of Those People, dammit. And I'm going to get those windsocks.

I can't believe we've been sentenced to four more years of this. How many more American soldiers and Iraqis will die because Bush was re-elected?

I'm moving to Coastopia.