out of the wood work

There must be a full moon -- or something else really cosmic going on this last week. Several exes have resurfaced into my current reality. A couple intentionally, and one completely unaware and unintentional.

I kind of like the whole "coming out of the wood work" analogy. Makes me think of termites. Gnawing. Eating. Consuming. Destroying.

So first was the "Austrian." He was never significant in my life, but someone I had a brief fling with following my break up with M. A former colleague in a prior life, I haven't been in contact with the Austrian for almost four years. So you can imagine my surprise when an instant message pops up to say hello. I wasn't able to chat for long, so I still really have no idea what possessed him to contact me. Very strange...

Then there was the unintended voicemail on my cell phone from J. (Read June 18 post "To all the men I've loved before..." for background.) Although J and I broke up in December, I'd hear from him occasionally, though it's been quite a while. This time was a little jarring. I saw the missed call and listened to the voicemail, only to hear the sound of wind and waves as the ski boat went flying across the lake. The muffled sound of J's voice along with a female companion as they enjoyed an evening out on the water. The message went on for several minutes, and realizing that J would never even notice that he had misdialed me, I stopped listening to the inadvertent message.

Funny thing is that this is not the first time he has accidentally dialed me. When J broke off our relationship in December and I had arrived to my family's house for the holidays, I turned on my cell phone to listen to a new message. Another mistaken voicemail from J. He was on the other line talking to his friend about me and the break up. At that point I was so sick to my stomach, I deleted it before I heard the whole thing. I hope one of these days he finally unprograms my number from his phone so I don't have to worry about eavesdropping on things that are better left unheard.

And then this morning M sent me an IM from Afghanistan. (He's also mentioned in the June 18 post "To all the men I've loved before...".) He's married now with a little boy and working a civilian job for the military. Of course making tons of money (of which I'll never see for all the money that he owed me during our relationship)...But that's another story. I never contact him, but I can pretty much bank on hearing from him every six months or so. And this morning was that day. As soon as I sat down at work, up pops the instant messenger. It was a brief, very superficial conversation. Who knows why he still holds on to needing to talk to me. I'm just glad that he doesn't have the same impact on me that he did many years ago. I can safely say that I have moved beyond all the bad feelings that erupted from that relationship.

If things really do happen in 3's, I hope that means I am done with surprise visits from termites past.