Psi

I logged into There and immediately was hit with an IM from my friend Psi.

"Remember me?" He cited the little business we had together for a short time.
"Of course!"

He had just heard There was closing and had logged in to say goodbye to it after not having been in for ages.

"I'm a college student with a double major, so I don't have much time."
"You were thirteen when I met you."
"I'm nineteen now. It feels like yesterday."
"I'm 56."
"Wow, you seem much younger. I always thought you were in your twenties."
"What majors?"
"Business and economics."

We chatted on for quite a while (he said a lot of nice things but I don't have a log) and he's going to friend me on FaceBug and check out my machinima on yootoob. He's into martial arts and WoW, and wants to go to Japan. We each remembered where the other lived, which was a triumph of something or other.

There had a lot of good things from the beginning, including bitchin' vehicle physics, avatar interactions, natural movement (which is what we should've got when SL got JJ Ventrella), voice/lip sync (which was great for the vibrant There machinima makers), ai dogs, and so on. I came in at the tail-end of the beta period. It was fun exploring, and for me, because both my parents died in 2003, a gentle distraction. My father had died less than a month before I first entered There, I think. I'm grateful I found that playful, relaxed, welcoming place as it was healing to spend time There.