old friends and new

Meant to write about this yesterday. It’s been a somewhat fertile period recently for connecting with old friends and acquaintances and making new ones.
Sheldon and Lisa, the friends with whom I’d lived for about four years back in the early 90s, have been transferred from Anchorage, where they’ve been the past three years after six years in Belgium before that, to the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, about 2-1/2 hours from here. I got email from Sheldon yesterday telling me that they’d be attending a Magic tournament in Baltimore on Saturday, May 3, and would like to see me and stay over with me the previous night and possibly come back and stay that night as well before returning home on Sunday.
So I called last night and talked to Lisa for about an hour; it was so nice to hear her voice and to be back in touch with them again. I’ve been thinking about them a lot just in the past month, as various things have brought them to mind: Craig’s been wanting to plan a trip to Virginia Beach, which is near where they’re living now; the trainer on my staff and I just recently discovered that we both are gamers, and she’s a huge Magic fan; even my restarting my journal last month was spurred by an email from someone I met ten years ago through Sheldon and Lisa; Jay, my ex and our fourth roommate back then, came down to help me out with Alex; etc. I’ve been nostalgic about those days, as I think those were the happiest of my adult life.
Sheldon was entertaining visitors–their new neighbors–when I called, so I didn’t get to talk to him, but we’ve been exchanging emails, and will hash out the details of getting together weekend after next. I’m so looking forward to it.
Shortly after I got off the phone with Lisa, Matt–one of my newest friends, and my current online crush–made a surprise call, and we talked for at least an hour, and then ended up online in Yahoo, where we explored the voice chat and shared doodling environments. Yesterday was my best day, emotionally, in a while: work went very well, I accomplished a lot, and my communication with old and new friends (also including Roger, via Yahoo) was supportive and engaging.