So I was rifling through a drawer the other day

and I found the most interesting thing.

Actually I had pulled open the drawer so I could put my feet up on it while I was on the computer but that's neither here nor there.

I had been using the drawer as a footrest for ages but never really looked at what was inside. Turns out it's filled with a bunch of audio tapes. We hadn't used a tape deck in forever so they'd been mouldering in the drawer for ages. Among other tapes I saw some old Sade, old mix tapes that friends made, psychic readings, Jock Jams Vol. I... hey up, what's this? Two tapes, really nondescript. One says "outgoing message", the other says "incoming messages". Neat. My old answering machine tapes.
I put in my outgoing message tape in an old deck I found in the garage. A loud wailing boomed from the speaker. It was a baby crying. Loudly. Then my voice "As you can see I'm really busy right now but if you leave a message...." all the while as the baby (which when I count back must be Elliott which dates the tape back to 1996 judging from his wailing voice) was beside himself having an apoplectic fit. My present self registers two things: 1) how adorable; and 2) how long did I let him freak out before I got the perfect take? Heh.

So I then popped in the incoming tape. Memories rushed back as voices I hadn't heard in years sounded so familiar. Candace, Josée, Kristine, Wendy, Birgit... where are these women now? Why hadn't I kept in touch? And it wasn't like we weren't close because most of them left messages that began "Hi, it's me..." no names needed.

Some people I was clueless about. Who was John? He was leaving a message for me to remember that I'm meeting him at 1:30. And why was I calling the Children's Village so much? Those people left messages every couple of days.

Then there were some old friends. Andrew (Scott's good friend and Henry's godfather) called a lot. So did Paula (Audrey's godmother) . Those two are still in our lives. Scott called a bunch of times and it gave me a warm feeling to hear his past self say "I love you" in the same way his present self does. Awwww....

So that was my fun for the day. If you have an old answering machine tape you should play it if you can. It's a great memory but I won't mention all the time you'll spend searching for old friends out on Facebook.

kxx