Central Perk this is not….

Funny thing. The other day I received one of those “A family member from Nigeria has left you millions” e-mails. I chuckled to myself, deleted it and posted on Facebook how lucky I was that this family member remembered me and left me millions of dollars. This is the point where you know who your real friends are and how well they know you.

- My real friends started right in on how I should also send my social security number and that it sounds like such a great deal that they would like to get in on it also. These are the people who know that: a – I’m not that stupid. b – I enjoy a good laugh about these things.

- The second group of friends commented that they weren’t sure if I was kidding, but if I got some money they would like some too…but be careful.

- The last group of friends told me I should call the cops, DON’T DO IT – IT’S A SCAM!! I really need to be careful and that this type of stuff never works out.

I really should take anyone from that last group and just remove them from the friends list. They obviously don’t know enough about me to be my actual friend. I am touched that they cared enough to respond and warn me, but I’m also worried that they think of me as their dumb friend from Florida. I’ll probably keep them around because it’s very traumatic to get dropped as a friend on Facebook. I don’t want any of them crying to me and begging me to let them back in “the circle”. For my friends that read this blog…that was sarcasm.

Central Perk

We have learned so many lessons during this trip and hopefully some of them stick. We have grand plans and changes we are planning to make and I’ll let you know how we do. One of the lessons I’ve learned is to reach out to people you have lost contact with. I didn’t just figure this out after visiting Eirik, but it dawned on me the success we have had recently finding long lost friends. I added it up the other day and collectively we had to make up about 60 years of lost time with the people we did find. Loluca from Spain who we found has a wonderful family in Madrid and great memories of our father Bob. Lisa from Africa who reminds us that no matter what struggles we might have it doesn’t even compare to some that she has seen. Eirik from Norway who is just one of those great guys that you meet and really should not pass on the opportunity to hang out with. Looks like Wilma wins again. She has been giving me the business for years about keeping in touch with old friends. I can’t promise to collect all my old friends, visit them, get pictures of their kids…but I will try harder and be an advocate for getting together. Here are some of our friends.