The past through today
All sorts of people I used to know have been popping up lately.
I may've mentioned that there are two people at Google who I went to middle school with, and whom I haven't had any contact with since eighth grade ('til now). And I mentioned that two people I knew from SGI started the same day I did. Turns out that other employees there include someone else I knew of at SGI (though I'm not sure I ever actually interacted with her) and someone I knew in college.
But that's not all. Twice in the last two or three weeks, I've looked up from a restaurant meal to see a woman who I think was my manager at SGI, before my Wanderjahr. I haven't said hello; I'm not totally certain it's her, and she and I never did really get along very well. (Also, she refused to confirm to the company the fact that I had put in three days of unofficial work after my time off started, which contributed to their refusing to give me my sabbatical when they laid me off three days before I was eligible. I don't hold a strong grudge against her for that any more, but I still have a bit of one. In effect, she could have gotten me a few thousand dollars from the company, at no cost to herself, simply by telling the truth, but she decided not to.)
And then last weekend, I got two phone calls out of the blue from old friends I hadn't talked with in far too long. One I've been mostly out of touch with for about five years; the other I've interacted with regularly online but haven't talked to in realtime in too many months. Both phone calls were really nice, and each lasted two or three hours.
Then that Sunday evening I ended up having dinner with friends, and one topic of conversation was some gossip about a couple of friends-of-friends of mine from college; not so surprising, except that one of those people was someone whose name I hadn't heard in years.
Anyway. I guess if I have a point, it's mostly that since I'm really bad at keeping in touch with people, I'm always pleased when people I like but have been out of touch with show up in my life again.