Virtually Yours

I spent a better part of the day at home piddling and talking to my prayer partner (she lives in Dallas now). I over slept and missed watching our company team play soccer, but made up for it by watching the Ivory Coast play Argentina in the World Cup (GO SOCCER!). She and I watched the game on t.v. together, I took her on my daily trip to Wallyworld, and called her back after I went to a baby shower. Once I got home, we chatted about numerous things (mostly me sharing random funny things from my childhood...i.e. how my dog wouldn't drink water in the summer unless it had ice in it [REALLY]). She got tired & we've made a date to go to Barnes & Noble tomorrow afternoon (something we used to do together on Saturday evenings before Katrina).

Recently she learned that her contract is ending at the end of the month & is looking for a job, so I signed up for this website and referred her to it. I was not-so-surprised to see that my "boyfriend" from college is already a member and reviewed his connections. I started thinking about networks and how they're evolving under the influence of the internet.

So in the midst of all this it's occurred to me...my prayer partner & I now have a virtual relationship. We do all the same stuff we would've done prior to Katrina, we just do it in different cities and communicate by phone. I've had relationships like this before, but it's becoming increasingly more common for me and others. It'll be interesting to see how friendships (and relationships in general) change now that we have a different form of staying in touch with people while living in different parts of the world. I know that there've always been ways (i.e. letters, telegraphs, telephones, pictures, etc.), but with the infusion of the internet into our lives and the decrease in prices for long distance calls, I'm thinking I'll start signing my email with, "Virtually Yours, Njeri".