I present you with a tale of mystery and cosmic balance:

The other night, or so, I was talking to Jason about greatness. Jason remarked that greatness requires a degree of specialization, or effort in one particular thing. That specialization comes at the expense of being lesser in other categories. He said he didn’t want the sacrifice. Or, I’ll paraphrase his more poetic terms: Life is like a buffet. If you pig out on sushi, you might miss the steak.

He believes in balance. (By the way, I’m more the opposite, which I’ll discuss in some later entry.) Yin and yang. Something has to give to make way for something else, or something like that.

Later in the evening, I’m talking online to Jenny (who, according to Stevie, is supposedly my “soul mate”). Amidst conversation of airports and airplanes, and the popcorn lady (you know, the one who answers when you dial popcorn), she says that her friend Kayla requests that I go to her livejournal to vote for something. So, I say okay. Jenny mentions that I may know Kayla. The other day, Kayla was looking at her buddy list and asked who my screen name belonged to. It had gotten on her buddy list, and she didn’t know who it was. The name sounded slightly familiar, but I didn’t know the person. A friend of a friend, perhaps?

We moved on in conversation… Suddenly, I remembered an incident a few years back. A person had IMed me out of the blue, asking who I was because the name was on her buddy list and she didn’t know how it got there. We had tried figuring out how we could’ve known each other, but to no avail.

After IMing Kayla, I deduced that it was most likely her. And, it was suggested that Stevie had put my screen name on her buddy list. It was a friend of a friend, I suppose, then. One mystery in my life, solved.

I was feeling good at that point, solving a mystery and all. Was tonight my lucky night? Could I solve another mystery?

I tried this entry on Jenny. Of course, no such luck, despite her claims to the contrary.

As I’m re-reading that old entry, an IM window pops up on my screen. This is pretty late at night, past midnight, who could be IMing me? The text is black on white. Times New Roman. Very default.

I know some people who use default text, but this screen name was unfamiliar. “This is ryan,” he says.

“Ryan… last name?” I query.

He says nevermind and goodbye.

Who the hell is this guy and how does he have the gall to do this?

I go on a tiny tirade about how he has bad timing. I just solved this mystery, and now, he IMs me, and I don’t know who he is.

I ask if he knows me — my name is Shawn.

He says “ya,” but I’m not sure if he was referring to my tiny tirade or the name thing. Whatever the case, he leaves. And I’m left with this mystery. Who was he?

Then, I’m reminded of another conversation I had with someone. Jason. Cosmic balance. One mystery solved, only to be instantly replaced with another.

EDIT: I hate to add something to this because the ending is so great, but if anybody knows who “bigdoza510” is, you would solve my mystery.