I guess that's as fair a place to start this journal as any. Just how did I arrive at a place where this seemed like a good idea? Who the hell am I, anyways?

Let's start with the who, since it sets up the how: my name is Forrest, I recently turned 33 years old, happily married to Eva Rose, with one child by the name of Liam. I'm a New Yorker, a gamer, a reader and even occasionally a writer. In recent years, though, I've first and foremost tried to be a good husband and father. And that's where the story of this journal begins...

See, a long long time ago, in a galaxy just past the bodega on the corner, I was happily married to Eva, living in the city, hanging out with our friends, just enjoying the hell out of life. Then Eva told me she was pregnant... and everything changed.

Now, before I go further, I think I'd better clarify this. I LOVE being a father, I adore my wife, and to my surprise I've handled the experience rather well. All this came as quite a surprise to my friends of years past, who have known me to remark "It's not that I hate kids, I happen to like kids - especially with barbeque sauce." But that was before I found my wife. Trust me, that made all the difference in the world, and Liam's done his part to make sure I'm happy about it even in retrospect.

Okay, back to the story. Because of the physical, time and economic stresses of being a supportive mate to a very careful mother-to-be, I had to change a lot of things. I had to find a better job, keep the family posted on every little development, etc. and so forth. Most importantly to this tale, though, I had to cut back more and more on time spent with my friends, until even friends in our apartment building weren't always sure Eva and I were still around. Basically, I became a hermit for the last two years or so.

A couple of months ago, I finally started coming back out of retirement again, rejoined the world, but slowly. Seems that during my absence, the world did not stop spinning and life for everyone else went on without me. Lots of people moved about, changed email addies, etc. and so forth. But I managed to get in touch with a few of them, and life started to resemble what it was before, only with wonder of a child to raise and care for. Things were good.

But things were also strange. I started hearing from people I'd relegated to the past tense long ago, before I'd dropped off the face of the earth in some cases. And the closer I got to my birthday, more and more I'd hear names long forgotten brought up in conversations, see email addies I hadn't received from in years, hear voices I never thought I'd hear from again. In the week before my birthday, these ghosts of the past came in almost a blitzkrieg. A friend who I hadn't heard from since he'd married (about the same time Eva gave birth to our son; it really pained me that I couldn't travel for his wedding), a friend from college I hadn't really seen since she divorced another college friend of mine, a couple I hadn't spoken civilly to in a decade, a bud from elementary school who tracked me down via the internet. I couldn't even go out to rent a video without getting spotted, this time by someone I used to LARP with back in 1993. All leading right up to the day I officially was another year older (not wiser, but older). Trust me, this sort of thing can play some serious head games with a person, especially me.

I managed to make it through my birthday, didn't end up with an impromptu preschool reunion at my front door or anything like that. But I did manage to put something together in my mind - this was an opportunity, a chance to reconcile who I am now with all the people I've been before at various stages in my life. Kinda cool, now that I think about it. So now I'm trying to keep in touch with all these people, and maybe even find time to see some of 'em. The priority is still my home life, but I might be growing enough to accomodate a little bit more. Or I'm cutting back on sleep again, I really need to be careful about that...

Anyways, one of these refugees from a reminiscence turned me on to his journal here - thanks, Rob! - and that led me to Dave and Liesl, much to their surprise. And between finding two or three people I knew already on this site, and my own semi-surreal merger of past and present personas, starting a journal just began to sound like something to do.

And that's how I came to be here typing away my lunch break at my cubicle when I should be stuffing my face somewhere else. I've got all of 5 minutes left, so I think I'll wrap this up here and go eat. Welcome to my journal - it only gets weirder from here.