Webencounters I: Carlos Arner

My latest visit to Bulgaria made me realize that I tend to meet people under pretty unusual circumstances. What's more, many of these strange encounters have initially taken place on the internet. So, I've decided, to tell some of these stories. It's not that I expect them to change your life. I just thought that they might make you reconsider some of your own webencounters. And, perhaps, something good would come out of that.

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A lot of things happened my junior year in college. I came back from an insane summer in Bulgaria, mostly shaken by people who are still in my life but also from the amount of rum-and-coke I managed to consume under the watchful eye of my little sister. I came back happy and sad, hopeful and nostalgic, young yet somewhat older. That year I picked up a camera for the first time and thought that maybe one day I would be able to go back home and take all the pictures I snapped in my mind but never had a chance to develop. That year I felt out of place in weird-ass Tennessee. I felt I couldn't talk to anyone. My roommate kept blaming me for being too loud while putting on makeup in the bathroom. And my grades suffered because all I wanted to do was drink coffee and read Neruda on the porch.

At a time like that, I found an early version of this site. It was by a guy who called himself Carlos Arner, who couldn't possibly be Bulgarian even though his website claimed he lived in Sofia. He told stories and drew pictures and my little lonely heart went bang-bang-bang every time I opened a new browser window. I guess, you could say that it was 'love-from-first-site'. What followed is about as predictable as it gets these days. I emailed my hellos, he emailed back. He couldn't sleep and I had nothing better to do. So we talked and talked and talked. He made me laugh when nobody else could. And he helped me see that I had a life because I would go through my days thinking of stories to tell him.

Distance and circumstances have made it impossible for us to be the friends we know we could be. In the past four or five years, we've seen each other three or four times. Since the first time we talked, I finished college, learned a little bit of html, lived in New York City, Toronto, Sofia and oh! so glamorous Central Pennsylvania. I worked, travelled and learned to swim. In the past four or five years, Carlos has changed jobs, taken pictures, told stories, had the most beautiful daughter, and listened to the Sex Pistols more than anyone I know.

We met up for drinks this past week.

More than four years later, he could still make me laugh when nobody else could.