I'm talking on the phone as I drive down the highway. M is at her home, typing away on the computer as we chat. I can hear the keys clicking away wildly. She chuckles.

M: It's funny that you said that, E just IM'ed me the same phrase, about something different.
V: E? Like E, E?
M: Yes, that E.
V: Tell her I said hi!
M: (Laughing) I am doing so right now.
V: Tell her I wanted to know if she wants to get coffee tomorrow.
M: She does.
V: Excellent!
M: She wants to know where.
V: Pooh Corner.
M: Wha-
V: Hey, J's calling me! Leave a message, J!
M: J? Yay!
V: He left a message. I'll have to call him back.
M: Tell him I said hi!
V: I will!

I live in Vermont. E lives in Vermont. M, the messenger, lives in Massachusetts.

I love friends as technologically-dependent as I.

***
(NOTE: To understand the following, I recommend you view Howie Day's "She Says" video, if you haven't already. Available here.)

To: Howie Day
From: V
Re: "When she says she wants some other video..."

I watched as the wind blew back the jet black hair above your brooding face. You jump into the waves as the setting sun blazes yellow and orange in the background, and you emerge from the surf, water dripping from your backlit frame. A young woman, impossibly beautiful, waits for you on shore, perhaps living, perhaps a ghost.

(Get it? GHOST? Do you get it, Howie? It kills me, kills me. Oh, wait. Kills me? HA! I can't stop the punny! OK, back to the storyline.)

You stare into her eyes. It's a dark, smoldering gaze laced with lust, with pain, with disbelief and with uncertainty.

Oh, the passion and the angst, drawn together into one stormy package. Squeal, squeal, sigh, sigh.

So. I'm sorry, Howie. Was I supposed to take that compilation of cliches and questionable acting seriously?

And, more importantly, did you???

(ANOTHER NOTE: Let it be stated, outside the framework of my teasing, that I did appreciate two aspects of the "She Says" video. Any shots that featured HD performing on the highway overpass completely worked. Loved them. Well done. And the grin on HD's face as he turned to jump off the roof/pier/whatever that was into the water - I remember that grin. It's the prankster grin. Hadn't seen it for awhile. Good call to bring it back again. Made me smile. When I wasn't busy smirking.

Hey. I just expected something...else. I've listened to that song as it grew from live to the Blue EP to Australia to SATWN to the various radio remixes...and I said for far too long that I'd just have to marry the man who plays and sings that song for me. I thought he'd just do something a little less...done before...for a song that's been his signature for more than a half decade. Note to musicians: you don't need ornate concept videos when a simple song works so well. Work with the song. Don't try to overpower it. You'll lose.)