"Bridge Over Troubled Waters"
by Simon and Garfunkel
Greetings JABBers,
I’d like to wish you all a very happy anniversary. JABB turns 7
today! I can hardly believe it! Seven years coming from something that
started on a lark one evening after TBAA finished for the night... I
wrestled with a lot of different ideas about how to mark the occasion.
Top tens like “Things We’re Glad John Dye Didn’t Do During Our 7 Year
Run” (retire, attack Oprah and jump on her couch, appear on “The
Surreal Life”) or “Anniversary Wishes Andrew Wouldn’t Make” (“It’s been
7 years, go lust after the ‘Dead Like Me’ cast for a bit, will ya?”). I
also considered fake newspaper articles (“Andrew Forgets Anniversary,
Has to Buy Every Member Guilt-Jewelry”). But, ya see, of all our lil
made up dates, this one has the least to do with John or Andrew. It’s
about us as a group. So I thought may be I’d just write a brief history
of JABB with some humor sprinkled in. But it seems like I kinda tend to
do that in a variety of different ways every year. So this year I’m
forgoing all forms, all traditions, and just saying my peace. It may
not be funny but it’s the truth and I figure at least once in this
newsletter’s unknown lifespan, I should speak the truth about what it’s
meant to me and what I’ve learned here, from all of you. So here goes…
What You’ve All Meant to Me
By Jenni
There’s been hundreds of you through the years. Some I never even knew the names of. Some I knew at least 4 or 5 different names for. And some of you could even tell what mood I was in based on which of your myriad names I used. Regardless, you’ve all been a part of what has turned out to be a very important part of my life.
Some of you comforted me when my Grandpa died. Some even helped with the eulogy.
One of you sat on IM with me as I agonized over something and
emailed me photos of Andrew. And it helped. Especially the mime
ones.
Some of you have offered (and when needed followed through) on checking facts from the TBAA finale for me because it was too painful for me to watch. It may have seemed a lil thing but it meant a lot.
At least two of you comforted me when I was in a foreign country during an ill-planned, whim of a trip. And no one said “I told you so.” But ya did make me laugh even as I sat in a Holiday Inn hundreds of miles from a home I’d seldom left before.
Some of you have never even emailed me. Not in a chatty sorta way, I mean. But when I was about to give up on JABB, your subscription requests would come through. Often in threes. Then I’d know I should keep going. And I did. You inspired me probly with out even knowing.
Through the years some of you suggested I grow up. Others urged that I stop acting so old and have a little fun. And both sets were right at that particular time and situation. Thank you.
Sometimes I’d find myself getting, and this is hard to admit, bored with “Touched.” And that made me sad, after all the time I’d devoted to it. But then you’d say something about a plot or character and suddenly it’d all be in a new light and I wasn’t bored any more!
Lately, some of you have listened as I cried, laughed, sighed, giggled, and raged about “the one that got away.” Sometimes I did all those things in the space of 5 minutes and you never told me to shut up or that I was being a baby.
When I was still only a teen-ager and about had an apoplectic fit because John Dye dared to joke about sex on a TV interview you ever so calmly reminded me that he was, after all, a human. I’m sure others would have just decided I was a loony right there and waited for the Mayflower to come pick me up so I could hang out with all the other puritans. But ya didn’t. (And thank God the Mayflower never did show up cause turns out I’m not really a puritan. Well, at least I don’t think puritans generally have a soft spot for Jonathan Larson musicals. Shameless plug: “Rent” the movie coming to a theater near you, hopefully, in late 2005!! Measure your life in love, people!)
I’m not sure how much longer this group has. I never am. I didn’t think it’d last a month… year… then two… then five… But it did. So who knows how much longer it has now. But whether next year at this time I sit down at the computer to wish you all a happy 8th anniversary or not, I wanted you all to know that this group will always be a part of me. From just a few days shy of 16 to now just a few days shy of 23, it’s been an amazing ride. Whether you knew it or not, you’re being a part of JABB was important to me.
I pray for you all and thank you all.
God bless,
Jenni
