June

Last night I randomly met a woman who, up until that point, had only been a Flickr contact. I added her on Flickr while perusing photos tagged with ‘Scolaris’ a few weeks back—she was from North Park and frequented some of the same watering holes as me. Plus, she and her friends looked pretty fun.

It was inevitable that our paths would cross, and I suppose the odds were pretty good that we’d see each other at a bar. I was at Bluefoot with Troy, Mike, Jacqui and Kalin, and she came up behind me and squeezed my elbow. Not far into our conversation, she asked where my girlfriend was, and I had to tell her that the relationship had ended amicably several months ago when she moved out of state. She seemed genuinely disappointed, and I told her the relationship was far less idyllic than portrayed in my Flickr stream. (To alleviate her disappointment, I guess.) Still, I was charmed that she seemed so invested in my life.

The fact that she asked about Kimiko meant she browsed more than a few pages back in my Flickr stream, and, in retrospect, I should have asked how the remodel of her house was going. You know, to reciprocate.

We need a word that describes this process of turning online voyeurism into friendship.