Entries this day: amanda_miss_houston dude

amanda miss houston

26 January 1999

Oh my goodness.

Though I was sicker than a proverbial dog, I lay in bed and visualized her winning. Over and over I visualized Amanda winning Miss Houston 1999.

I had called her at 3 and told her "you can do it."

I had called her at 6 and left a message, "you can do it."

The pageant started at 7pm, and I cried since I couldn't be there. :'(

I visualized her winning until I fell asleep.

I got a call at 10:30pm. "Hello?"

It was Amanda. "You're not going to believe it."

"You won."

"Totally."

"I love you."

"I love you, too. But I gotta go take pictures and stuff."

"Congratulations."

And I went back to sleep. Wow. Amanda is Miss Houston 1999. permalink

dude

26 January 1999

How I met Dude

Back in like November, I created an ad to be placed on the back of Kroger register receipt tapes at two Krogers near my house. I'll scan an image of it soon.

I got this letter

Subject:  Cool Company
   Date:  Fri, 08 Jan 1999 01:17:03 -0600
   From:  Dude Spellings 
     To:  thunderrabbitATcheerfulDOTcom



Rad (Rob) - My name is Dude Spellings, and I couldn't help but notice
your advertisement on the back of my Kroger's reciept with your cartoon
character saying my name.  Anyway, I am between jobs right now and into
designing webpages.  If you have a need for an extra web designer, I
would love to help ya'll out.  If you want to see an example of one of
my pages. check out my site at:
http://freeweb.pdq.net/dude1
I also have some really cool photos of my hike last summer from Lake
Tahoe to Mt. Whitney.  My website is not all that advanced and I don't
claim to be an expert, but I would really like a good reason to lern
more web-designing skills.  At the very least, it would be nice to make
a new friend.

Let me know if you are interested.  I am going to Austin this weekend
and will be back monday.  You can either respond by e-mail or phone.  My
number is 713.___.____.

Peace,
Dude

And then this letter:

Subject:  It's me again
   Date:  Fri, 08 Jan 1999 01:40:28 -0600
   From:  Dude Spellings 
     To:  thunderrabbitATcheerfulDOTcom



Rob - I just finished looking at the rest of your website and have
decided that I would like to meet you regardless of is you need another
web-designer.  We have many things in common and I would like to make
more friends here in Houston.

A bit about myself:
- I am also around 10,000 days old.
- I have made a personal promise to myself that the next permanent job
that I take will not require me to wear any shoes aside from sandals.
- I love working with youth and am very spiritual (religion is to teach
people how to die.  Spirituality is to teach people how to live).
- One of my favorite books is The Road Less Traveled, which I believe to
be devinely inspired.  Another is The Prophet, by Kalil Gibran
- I love camping/hiking/biking and anything outdoors.
- I am married to a great, loving, and supportive wife who is also an
M.D.

I hope to hear from you.

peace,
Dude

"Totally cool," I'm thinking, and sent this reply:
(this story does have a point)

     Subject:  Dude!!
        Date:  Fri, 08 Jan 1999 02:09:56 -0600
        From:  Rob Nugen 
Organization:  MR Laboratories
          To:  dude1@pdq.net
 

Dude!

Is your name really Dude?

My friend Marcel and I call each other Dude all the time.  Sometimes we
have entire conversations using only tonal variations of this word.

Speaking of Marcel, I forwarded to him your email messages (and this
one) because this connection is just to awesome for me to not tell him!

I super greatly appreciate that you enjoyed my ad and my website!

Now if someone would actually want a website, we could do some work! 
;-)  

Seriously, that ad is almost the only advertising I've done for MR Labs;
I couldn't afford any more and I have actually shifted focus a tad; I am
now selling FlashNet accounts to anyone who needs internet access.
Happily enough, I'm finding that I can sell internet accounts more
easily than websites, so hey - whatever works.

enough about business...

Dude Spellings wrote:

> A bit about myself:
> - I am also around 10,000 days old.
> - I have made a personal promise to myself that the next permanent job
> that I take will not require me to wear any shoes aside from sandals.
> - I love working with youth and am very spiritual (religion is to teach
> people how to die.  Spirituality is to teach people how to live).
> - One of my favorite books is The Road Less Traveled, which I believe to
> be devinely inspired.  Another is The Prophet, by Kalil Gibran
> - I love camping/hiking/biking and anything outdoors.
> - I am married to a great, loving, and supportive wife who is also an
> M.D.

Wow!!!  And you're up late at night doing email just like me!  I hear
you will be out of town this weekend; that is convenient; I will too. I
look forward to meeting you probably next week!

I would write more but I have to leave in about 4.4 hours to catch a
plane to Atlanta.  Have a great weekend in Austin!

        With Love
        - Rob

That weekend, I went to Atlanta.

The following Monday, having had no further contact with Dude, I went to a class called Project Heart. I opened the door for a guy who came in right after me.

It was Dude.

"!!??!!??!!??!!" went my brain. The first coherent thought that came to mind was, "I guess we were meant to meet."

We have hung out and worked a lot on MR Laboratories since then; I am really glad to have Dude as a friend. permalink