I have just met another Oisin

Ladies and Gentlemen . . . I have finally met another Oisín. It has taken 28 years and 55 days, which means that I should meet another Oisín when I’m 56.

So how is this usurper? He’s my second cousin all the way from Ireland, and his family are currently travelling around Australia. He’s 18 months old and has a 4 year old brother called Liam. And since I’ve met his folks over my many years there is no doubt that he is named after me. And why not? I was a model and angelic youth, afterall :) No, seriously, stop laughing . . . I WAS angelic. Of course, Lucifer was an angel once, and look how that worked out for him.

This little Oisín is not the first Oisín I’ve communicated with. I first tried the Oisín at oisin@hotmail.com. A few of my friends also tried that, and the last I heard was that the guy deleted his account because everyone who was trying to email any Oisín that they knew emailed him instead. I imagine that must be quite the constant niggle after a while.

And there is also another Oisín with my last name, which I may have mentioned before. That little critter is 4, in Ireland, and his dad sent me an email because of the similarity. So my response, naturally, was: grrrrrrrrrr. I was unique for 24 years, and now I’m as lame and common as all of the other plebs of the world. And what’s worse is that he will probably outlive me by 50 years.

And if you’re wondering why I’m now using an accented ‘i’ in the name it’s because it really should be there, and I do put it in when I hand-write my name (except for my email address). I don’t when I type, just for ease, and also because there are no (written) accents in English. But this calls for a special celebration. In fact, it is so super-special, that my brother and his girlfriend are planning on coming over and making dinner for everyone, just to see two Oisíns in the same room.

So there, my day and world has been significantly altered. I can no longer say that I’ve never met another Oisín. Although . . . I may still win points since he’s related to me. Maybe I should bequeath my fortune of a laptop, stereo and dvd player to him in the likely event that I die before him. And then I’ll go find Lucifer, slap him in the face and say: “see? THAT’s how you get away with it!” Of course slapping the Devil in the face and taunting him may not be the best approach to eternity. And that may bother me if I wasn’t an atheist.