azurelunatic | If there's an emergency, does your family have a plan?

I see these billboards around town, stark white billboards with that message on them. And I think about it. See, I don't live with my family. I don't even live in the same state as my family. They're obviously aimed at people who live with other people, children at school, parents at work, and other extended family who could get ripped apart if disaster struck and the family was scattered.

I live by myself.
I'm the only one of my family that I know of in the state.
Most of the people who know me also know where to find me online.

Most of the people I know and care about wax and wane from my life, depending on how busy we both are and how close we're feeling at the moment. At long last this has ceased to bother me. It's part of life. I miss people, and I welcome them back with joy, and I keep the connections live -- but there are few, precious few, people who I would track to the ends of the earth lest they disappear from me.

Shawn was one of them, once.

Darkside is, now.

Before it becomes an issue, I need to talk to him. We do need a plan for if ever we get separated. If I don't call -- I want him to call me, make sure I'm OK. If I don't answer the phone, I want him to come see that I'm all right. I don't think he's ever lived alone, so I don't think he thinks about these things. I may have my IM chiming off the wall and my e-mail flooded with comments, but I don't have the phone ringing off the hook or the local friends banging the door down.

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Most of the people I know and care about wax and wane from my life, depending on how busy we both are and how close we're feeling at the moment. At long last this has ceased to bother me. It's part of life. I miss people, and I welcome them back with joy, and I keep the connections live -- but there are few, precious few, people who I would track to the ends of the earth lest they disappear from me.

Did you just look into my mind? Or should I put this down to the fact that we think alike about friends?

I was a lot more hysterical about the prospect of losing friends before the internet came along.

I understand what you're saying - I was in a similar position shortly after I first moved to Minneapolis. I did have the advantage that I got actively involved in the local SF group - they met every other Saturday, if I didn't show up for that, someone would have noticed. Admittedly, that might have been much too late, but it was something. I was also doing a fair amount of other socializing with individual members of the group - it was probably the case that someone was expecting to see me somewhere between three and seven days apart on the average. At the time, I was unemployed and living in a little two-room apartment - it was a bad time for my psychologically. It was that time that led me to realize that I really need to not be living alone - when I first moved into my house, I got a dog fairly quickly, which satisfied the minimum 'not alone' requirements. It's amazing how much caring for a dog does to provide structure. It also helped that I was never simultaneously unemployed and living alone after I bought the house.

Work would raise hell, and my writers group would raise hell. LJ would also raise hell if it went more than 48 hours without me updating, I think.

I'm feeling more secure in the living alone bit now that I'm socializing with LJ Support on a regular basis, and should I drop off the face of the internet, I know that people with the access to find out my physical address are within easy reach of some of my friendslist. And LJ Support's Abuse team has the LJ-authority to call 911 with that kind of information. As long as my cellphone's charged, in reach and I can dial it, I can call 911 myself if need be, or post to LJ.

Now that I think about it, Monday is actually the only day when someone isn't expecting to see me.

I guess I want him, specifically, to know that if I don't contact him weekly, that there's a problem. He'll know if work calls him, because he's my first listed emergency contact. But if there is ever an emergency that scatters people from Phoenix without a chance to exchange destinations, I want to make sure that he knows that I'll move Heaven and Earth to find him again...

Oh, really? {grin} That's such a surprise!

I don't think LJ would raise hell - we would, however, express vast quantities of concern, and start pushing for 'what happened to her?' Yeah, we'd do whatever it took to find out if there was anything wrong - but raising hell isn't quite the descriptive phrase I'd think applies. Invade hell, that's a little better!

"Invade Hell" works.

I had probably better append my emergency first post to include a few things...

I would agree that I would be getting an LJ if you didn't post for 48 hours because there would be soemthing worng. Sorry I don't live close enough to check on you in case of emergency but I can't live in a place that is that hot in the summer. :)

If ever you suspect something is wrong (with me or anyone on LJ), file an Abuse request. The Abuse team is trained to deal with some of the situations that may arise in general when you have a site like this, like what happens when someone posts a suicide note to LJ, or has a phone post interrupted with violence. Abuse can generally look up someone's address from any credit card payments, or go see someone's emergency information post if they have one, and call 911.

If there's an emergency, does your family have a plan?

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