An Old Video Shows Up in a New Video

January 19, 2023

A strange thing happened to me this morning. I was slowly waking up, browsing Instagram absent-mindedly… when I saw this video from nicolestorydent.

It’s pretty quick, so see if you can spot it. I almost missed it, the first time it flashed by. And then I watched it again, in disbelief.

At the end of the clip? That would be from a video me and Liz popping 50 balloons in 30 seconds. From 14 years ago!

So a little bit of context seems in order, here.

I like balloons. It was a thing from the very early days of my blog, and after I met Liz… she incorporated balloons into a lot of birthday surprises for me.

The balloons from the video are from 2008, when Liz surprised me by filling our apartment with balloons. We kept them around a long while (a full week, actually) before we finally decided to pop them all en masse.

Fast forward to today. Again, I have to emphasize that it’s a fourteen year time span between that video and the video I saw today. Crazy!

And to top it off, what are the odds? It seems such chance, that I’d be watching random Instagram videos only to find me and Liz featured in someone else’s video (with no tags of any kind).

Those kinds of odds make me think of other incredulous moments of serendipity. Like researching other people named Felix Jung for a 20×2 talk, and finding a photographer named Felix Jung who posted my poem “Photography” on his Facebook page (presumably after he was also searching for “Felix Jung” online).

That sounds a little confusing. you should watch this video for an explanation.

I’m also reminded of meeting Ian and Susan in Scotland (Aberlour), sitting at the table next to us. Liz and I were out celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary, and Ian and Susan were also celebrating their 12th anniversary! Same day, same year.

The odds were pretty staggering. And that’s the feeling I had this morning, watching this random clip from nicolestorydent.

Of late, the Internet feels like a place where people go to get super shouty. And angry. And shout about being angry.

I remember the web from the early 2000’s, and there was such a constant sense of magic and randomness and serendipity. I caught a bit of that this morning, and it made me smile.

Small world. Small Internet.