The Saga Continues...

I know.

The story of me and Todd is taking way too long to tell. In my defense, we've known each other for most of our lives, so it's difficult to encapsulate it.

If you need/want to catch up, go here. If not, we'll jump right in:

Here was the letter I wrote to Todd in March of 1997. He'd been on a mission for two years, and had written to me. But I never wrote back.

"Dear Todd,

Okay, so it's been a few years since last we communicated, but you have been a very difficult person to reach. I won't say that I have tried my best to find you, but I certainly have tried. I received a letter from you when you were in the MTC. I was very excited to hear from you and wrote an immediate reply. Unfortunately, you had put your home address on the envelope, so the letter just sate there. A few months later, I was helping out at Region II Chorus Auditions and saw your brother. He admitted that he did not know your addressoff the top of his head, but he would send it to me. I then gave him my address and went away feeling that all was well.

He never sent it.

I then saw your mother two months later at the Region II concert and asked her for it. She didn't know it either, but promised to send it to me as well.

She never sent it.

I began to regard this as a conspiracy, and so I didnt' do anything about it for a while. When I would talk to friends at BYU I would ask them if they knew how to reach you, but nobody did.

[blah blah I go on to tell him I finally found someone who had it but then I got mono and was too sick to do anything, let alone write and send a letter, and then I realized that he was home from his two year long mission. Oops.]

So, that is the story, Todd Smith. It came to a head last night when you were in my dream. So, I am writing this missive which you should have received well over two years ago and with it I send apologies for not trying harder. I think it all comes from deep seeded guilt. I've been trained my whole life to write to missionaries and I have failed miserably with you. It would be nice to talk with you again, though. I want to know how the last two years have been for you.

I hope this letter finds you well. Please don't take as long to respond to this letter as I did in responding to yours."

And then I included my email address and we started emailing. Not a lot. Very casually. Mostly sending jokes back and forth from BYU to TCNJ with a few "hey, what's up with you?" thrown in. I was seriously dating some other guy at the time...well, as serious as you can be dating someone while simultaneously having several flings. But that's another story all together.

Tomorrow I will post the dream I referred to in the letter. It's very interesting, all things considered.