In The Beginning...

Life doesn't always make sense or go in straight lines.

I've been online since 1988. Not continuously, although at times it feels like it. (I *do* sleep on occasion). I first logged onto Blogspot two years ago to comment on my cousin's blog, "Bronx To Timbuktu" . It's the story of their life in Africa, and while I come back regularly to read their (and others) blogs, it wasn't until today that I decided to start my own. Not sure what took me so long - I'm usually fairly prolific when it comes to writing. In fact, one board I'm on, my posts alone account for five percent of the total traffic.....and there are thousands of members there.

Unicorns and Strangers Things comes from the early days - when I first logged on a BBS, before the Internet existed for public consumption. Back then, women online were a rarity and there were more than a few boards where I was one of only two or three females who had EVER logged on. The first time I logged onto a board, I didn't know anyone, and the sysop insisted that all new users fill out a little questionnaire with info like:

Real Name
Address
Phone #
Birth date

Nothing personal, y'know. Being a rather private person, I decided to answer the questions.....just not with MY information. So I gave him my grandmother's name......and birth date (including the year, which I believe was 1885). My phone# was 1-900-976-DEAD. I forget what address I gave him. He of course recognized that the info was bogus, and (at first) wouldn't give me access to the full board - only to email people.

So, now what? I'd never been on a BBS before. I certainly didn't know anyone. Who was I going to email? For most people, the answer probably would have been "nobody". Instead, I scanned through the list, and picked a random stranger whose handle I liked, and started messing with the guy. For the first few months (yes, months *lol*), I played guessing games with him - making him try to guess who I was, and emailing whatever odd thoughts crossed my mind. One of those posts was entitled "Unicorns & Stranger Things", and it stuck.

Of course, the answer of who I was, was impossible to guess since he truly was a random stranger.....but we eventually became friends. And it turned out he was also friends with the sysop......who then decided I was cool, and gave me access anyway. Me and my dead grandmother. Ha!

When someone asks me today where I expect to be in five years, I still have no idea how to answer that question - because I know there's no way I could have imagined TODAY from where I was five years ago, or five years before that. Five years ago, I had just bought a house in Florida. The five hurricanes, the flood, the trip to Brazil, the surgery that changed my life were nowhere on the horizon yet.

Tomorrow I take the second half of my motorcycle class and hope to pass. Next week, I think I have a date with a guy I really like. Later this year? Who knows - Beverly Hills or Brazil may be on the horizon for reconstructive surgery. I don't even know what's going to happen tomorrow, much less five years from now.

Who I am, it seems, it still impossible to guess. But this time it's you who is the random stranger, and perhaps we, too, will eventually become friends.

--BT