Thank God for Skype

When your feeling disconnected from family and friends spread out across the country it is nice to know that relief is a high speed internet connection away. We have been talking with most of Kate's family including Heather in Korea via web cam enabled Skype. We can have dinner with Granma and Ta Ta in Indiana, or play video games with uncle Mark. I guess I see the connections through Finn's vocab since he is the one that initiates most of the chats. He knows that he can show his new truck to granma through the computer. He climbs up to the laptop and asks "Talk granma on dis" while pointing forcefully at the screen until we try the connection. He knows the little Skype tune that plays when your trying to connect and grabs his trucks like Pavlov's dog. We have chatted with Scott, Mandy, and Baby Jake in Hawaii; Meg and Mike in Minnesota; Mark and Kendra in Arizona; Tom and Kris in Indiana; and last night with our Pleasant Street friends in Indiana over cocktails. We used to get together every so often to sit around and talk over effeminate drinks, and it is one of the things I miss most about being in Portland. Last night through the magic of the internets we got the chance to renew our fruity bull sessions. We chatted for 2 hours with none of the "on the spot" awkwardness that comes from being on camera. It was really great, really really great.