being the continuing story of the bungalow babbler in which our hero reflects on life, love, and navel lint while the rain alternates with the sun on the wings of the wind, we join our hero confessing flaws while re-introducing himself to a long lost cousin who found him on myspace... we join the conversation in mid-thought with my cousin saying:

I found you cause I knew you had a website from back in the day....somebody told me years ago and I googled it and saw a link to your myspace page...i actually love this myspace thing cause I find all my friends from Brooklyn that I grew up with.......ok in a nutshell.....me and the rest of the fam moved out to Long Island in 91...been out here since....do you remember my sister and brother .....they are both on here......there my top friends....(my number 2 and 3 friends)

There are some pics of the fam on my sisters page check hers out too (meg)...Its been soo long .....its funny that I find you cause one of my favorite pic of me when I was younger is on the pic page...you took it.......yeah we were trying to figure out the Canarsie comment page cause my cousins are on there ....(h and k)...My parents are great my grandparents are up here now visiting they are good too....I don't know what happened to you but you were one of my favorite cousins when I was younger ...I used to love when you and S came by....I remember you with the beard.....I asked everybody but no one knew...or I guess they didn't want to tell me......I still don't know....we should def. catch up there has been a lot of things that has happened over the years.....

D

and just to differentiate his babbling from mine, I said (at least part of what I said as I edited my response in order to maintain some measure of privacy for those mentioned and the family as I think most in that family would not want the exposure I give myself on the web):

I do pull unintentional disappearing acts, I suppose... I moved down to Orlando in 1990 and except for a few wayward years between 95 and 2000 where I was up, down, and turned around in Toronto and then in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area (slowly I turn) and then wandering aimlessly (hey, it was just the second third time I took a few years off and wandered aimlessly in this lifetime, cut a guy a break) as only a madman slash romantic fool (re: Don Quixote mixed with Dr. Seuss) can be, I've mostly lived here in this cartoon town since then...

I'm rambling, as usual... you can find out more about my fun and madness in my blogs... I've got a few (understating it) because as busy as life gets I always seem to find time to ramble on a few paragraphs each day... myspace is new, blogspot is droning on about everyday life, diaryland is where I free associate {babble} about anything - some say it's where I am most real and me, but heck, what do they know - and other rambling places online {and off} are repositories for the words that just continue to bubble over and out of my head no matter what I (or professionals) do...

bspot where I try to be concise, brief even, about life offline in real time
dland where I ramble on about anything and everything
myspace where I say hello to the world in my own odd way
others where I plant my seeds and hope they grow

the links are for your convenience, like you might have a few years to read or something (enjoy life first, please :)

the fact is (true confession time) I never learned how to be in a family, it seems, my loss for sure, but I treat everyone and everything as family the best I know how as I wander through life... it's the keeping in touch part that I fail miserably at, but I mean well and enjoy what I've got and don't fret over what I miss too much... I love my memories and times with your family (and Sandy too) are some of my best memories...

you mentioned the Canarsie comment page... I believe that is the one done by my long lost friend Steve Proto (he of the Gemini House, a Barbados Bed and Breakfast, last I heard)... or maybe it is this one...

if you've got time, start catching up... beneath my irreverent demeanor, I'm just a lonely guy who craves love and attention and still wonders what family is really all about and I'd really love to catch up and hear everything that has happened in your life and what really matters to you now...

no worries, I won't ask you and your production company to make me a star :P

wow, I used an emoticon other than a smiley... you must be getting to me... thanks :)

more sometime next week as time permits... my email is iffy right now, but candor at bellsouth dot net is supposed to be it if you want to go there (though it works intermittently and SPAM causes a lot of new mail to be lost)... or you could just visit, the couch is lumpy and cluttered, but we can shove the crap on the floor and fluff it up for you... it's time to be at my desk now, so I'll get dressed and drive over there since I'm leaving early to see Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins tonight... the things we do for love...

you are a great shot of adrenaline and a super huge smile in my world, in case you didn't get that already... I'm excited that you found me and hope life is fantastic for you... tell me all about it so I can enjoy the vicarious thrills :)

ric
407-325-1482

now I know that somewhere in my rambles here or there I mentioned (if only as an aside) that I was adopted by a couple that split and never really bonded with me (or I never really bonded with them, from their perspective) and I grew up as a kind of black sheep that did not conform to the cultural expectations of the family or community or neighborhood or human race, for that matter...

and you thought I was kidding...

the good news is I did exist and made a reasonably positive (or at least curious) impression on at least one member of that family (ah, the innocence of youth) and there is living proof that there is hope for that family that adopted me when I was still a whiney infant (as opposed to a whiney adult)... the younger generation is growing up and reaching out and through the miracle of the internet... even after I've been out of touch for almost a decade, curiosity rules...

I wonder who remembers going to a Bungalow Colony every summer (I wonder how many of you know what a Bungalow Colony is)...

...

. o O ( NOTES ARE THE NEW HAPPY PILL ) O o .
(just let me know you were here)