The following are posts from Los Angeles Craigslist under "Missed Connections":
Blonde on the 405
I am the guy with the shaved head, we have shown up next to each other where the 5 and the 405 meet a couple of times now.
me: pink razor scooter, blood stained jeans.
i remember you, but i'm sorry to have to tell you that i won't be able to meet up with you. you have to now that i'm completely in love with that blonde girl you saw me with and that shes the only person i want to share any [uninterrupted] time with. the sad truth about all this is that you saw me during what [quite possibly] is the best 2 days of my life to date, and i owe that to no one but that beautiful, leggy, modelesque, asian women. i hope you understand.
Our eyes Locked.....at Ralphs
There was instant chemistry when our eyes met, then you glanced my wedding band, and you kept walking down the aisle. But what if........
Gold's gym brunette.
You have freckles. I want to marry you. You know who I am.
You wear your heart on your wrist...
...imprinted forever in ink. Very cute asian girl at the hipster coffee spot yesterday (monday). I was sitting with my dog, talking with my friend, checking you out as you read from your book. A slight smile exchanged while ordering should have led to more, and I'm hoping to get that second chance. My odds will improve if you go there often...or if you happen to read these posts.
You left me
just when I needed you most.....
neighbor with the tatts
you so want me. i will let you in on a little secret...i want you too. big time.
Starbucks
Last fall I worked at the SF Valley Starbucks. You told me your name was N__, and that you were a music producer. You always ordered two venti soy lattes and when I finally worked up the nerve to ask you if that second latte was for your girlfriend you gave me a very vague answer. For quite unrelated reasons I quit working there shortly thereafter. It's been nearly a year since then, but I still remember you.I thought you were super cute, and nice. If you remember me, you know what to do.
What do we do if we make a connection with a stranger in Los Angeles, and that moment is over before we can exchange information? We can keep revisiting that spot and hope to see the love of our life or we can go online to Craigslist and post our Missed Connection, in hopes that that special someone will see it and contact us. It's a long shot, but Los Angeles is a city of gamblers, who have traveled here in hopes of making their mark in the world. Here in Los Angeles, Fame and Fortune share the same podium as Love, and we aren't going to let a city of 4 million people tell us the odds are against us. So we send up our love letter not in a bottle but through the internet, shooting through miles of cable like a ball bearing in a pinball machine.
You could say that the internet is our digital street pole, layers upon layers of Missing, Found, For Sale, messages from the diaspora. Where are you my love? Buy my sofa. Is this your dog? We gather round that sign post to find what is important to us, what will make us whole. We live in a city of dropped calls and missed opportunities, we have become the city that tries over and over until we make that singular connection, because we strive to have something, someone to call our own in a city of flotsam and jetsam.
Stephan Britt has alerted me to a group of illustrators that are illustrating "Missed Connections" and will be publishing a book. You can see some of the amazing artwork here on Flickr.
Image: © Ophelia Chong
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I love the idea of the net being our digital street pole....
Awesome! I was totally thinking of posting something similar on my blog...those missed connection listings are classic. And yeah, I've posted one. Totally hot guy in Old Town Pasadena. Why didn't I just say something? We'd probably be married now, I'm sure of it. Well, at least until the repubs overturn it.
Anyway, cool post, O!
That just happened to me last night during the 20th hour coffee break of my Chinese class. Our eyes met. I normally look away with fear to make a connection. Intimate closeness is against the rules of LA. This time I held my gaze while my brain screamed inside my head. We passed each other and feared overwhelmed me. I dared not turn back and look as I did not want to turn into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife. It happened as we walked by the gloomy vending machines. HELLO THERE! Are you reading this?
Hank, gorgeous, why did you look at me so funny on the streetcar? I know you think I like Skinny, but I don't at all....he's so tiresome. Grace was over last night and told me about Gus. He admitted to her he was 54 years old and has agreed to quit wearing the pullover sweater with the big letter B on the front. Well, I'll see you in the vestibule at five. Be my sweet dollbaby 'til then.
I'm blowing you a kiss,
Goofums
"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down".
Thanks for getting this story down! Love it!
I will admit to laughing at some of the posts I've seen (both on Craigslist and in the papers) but when I stop being cynical and jaded I see that these are a great example of how much hope we're capable of as human beings. And how much we crave connections, despite how detached we all seem to be on a daily basis.
These posts are really very beautiful. Almost poetic.
I spend quite a lot of time studying in a coffee shop in Brentwood and have these missed moments all the time. After I briefly meet eyes and make that connection, then quickly look away, I wonder - what if we were to just speak??
it wasn't in the stars. a missed opportunity means an opening for one. thank you for commenting!
Scanning the person across the room...is he/she the one? Am I the one for them? A hello is the key to the door.
Thank you for commenting. :O)
Dear Goofums,
Yes the sweater is a bit too large, and the "B" distracting but I have to telegraph my intentions somehow, since you avoid the sound of my hello. The "B" stands for Beyond, Beyond today and onto the next.
Blowing (starts with B) a kiss back, (catch in your hand)
Hank
To love is to feel. Suffering is as sexy as love. Some of us love to suffer and to show the world our martyrdom. My pain is a work of art, please look and tell me that I am right.
Thank you for commenting mr. mayo.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep...
We crave the touch of a human hand, the sound of a voice, the scent of a warm neck. We need that communication between two people that can look into each other's eyes and just nod.
We are pack animals and we need our mate. We just have to be able to work at that relationship, and not run when the fur flies.
Thank you for commenting. :O)
One of our first stops in LA was this big record/video store. I walked into the aisle labeled "cult movies" and immediately blushed as I saw the porn titles and large-breasted women on the covers. An older guy in his 60s or 70s made the same mistake at me (we simultaneously turned into the aisle from opposite ends). We stood there frozen, looking at each other. I wish I said hi, not because I had the hots for him, but to break the silence and be able to laugh at our folly. Oh well.
I think I know N____. That's so wild. And N____, indeed makes beautiful music under the right circumstances.
That is hilarious. I have had similar experiences. You stand there like dueling cowboys waiting for the other one to draw first, then one of you blinks. Usually it's me, and I quickly scuttle out.
Thanks for commenting. :O)
I've tried posting something in the missed connections section, but I never heard back. After all, how do we know that the person we're posting to even checks Craigslist? But it's a shot in the dark; a flare thrown up to show someone where you are if they happen to be looking in your direction at the right moment.
Lovely post - it's like Tim Berners-Lee's Lonely Hearts Club - or is it Al Gore's????
Missing you toooo...
Don't stop, glad to see you're still at it, haven't heard from you long time.
It'll catch on like Google, and the Craigslist... itself!
Maybe soon the first and last word of that happen-chance glance will be... hit me up on missing-u/craigslist; or
Look for me @ MUC or myc; I guess if MUC caught on then someone could say hey muc me! ....who knew!
Lessisnone, the idea is to trippingly come off the tongue as simple and cliché-ic as “google it”
Your the bests
Cheers!
~t
Well, Al Gore would lay claim to it first. Or would McCain since he was around for the birth of the Blackberry?
Thank you for visiting and commenting. :O)
Wonderful comment, I love the "a flare thrown up", a beautiful and poignant visual.
thank you for visiting and commenting. :O)
Hello Todd, Yes I am still at it and creating. People can leave a virtual bread crumb trail back to them for lost lovers, and new ones. Thanks for visiting and commenting. :O) and all the best to you.
Ugh... I have no luck on Craigslist... like one big Spam party.... or so in Amarillo.
Hmm. If only I were a screenwriter.
Hello converter42
There is always time to write. Start with a short story. I would love to read it. Thanks for commenting and visiting,
:O)
Ophelia
I've never had a missed connection on craigslist before....what are the odds I wonder? seems like people are now catching onto the concept and getting hooked...we'll see if it lasts. AlmostConnected seems to be another good one.
Missed connections are like a message in a bottle, you set it out on the ocean and hope for the best. And it might be serendipity, because the message might be found by someone else and a relationship grows out of that.
We move so fast today that stopping and taking time to see what is around us is almost unheard of. Maybe Missed Connections is about slowing down and seeing what is in front of us.
:O) Thank you for visiting and commenting. Its appreciated.:O)
Ophelia