Wednesday, August 12, 2009

High school honeys

So, I was going to write an entry about that guy in that picture above, and wouldn’t you know it? iTunes decides to play Sting’s “Fields of Gold”.  Kind of fitting because back in the day, he was a HUGE Sting/Police fan.

I’ve been thinking about him a lot since Saturday night.

(No. Not THAT way. Those days are over. Ancient history.)

I’d be a little weirded out by that, but it happens every few years. The last time it happened, he had made me a mix tape.  It was, and will probably remain, the BEST. MIX. TAPE. EVAR. There’s just something about it. I don’t know if it’s the songs, the song order, or what, but it just *fits* my musical tastes… and that’s with bands I’ve never even heard of! At some point, I did comment somewhere about how freaky it is that he still knows me that well. I still pull it out and listen to it every few months. One day, I’ll digitize it and rip it to a CD. Would make my life *so* much easier!

I frame my life in terms of before my mother died / after my mother died / college / ohio / after my father died - he has been there, in my life, for each of those phases. Maybe not up front and center, but there are very few people I’m still in contact with who can say they were in that odd purgatory with me between my mother’s death and college. I already mentioned how excited I was to see him and what it meant to me to be able to thank him in person for that letter he sent me. But there’s more to it than that.

There’s always more.

I’m proud of him. So very proud of him. His path through life had a few more detours than it maybe should have, but he’s finally got a college degree, knows what he wants to be when he grows up and has a girlfriend who seems to be very good for him. (I hope we get to meet at some point… Maybe the four of us will take in a hockey game - or several - after all!)

He was my first real love - outside of Soulmate Boy - and I guess all the smooshy people are right. You never do forget that first love.

I don’t have the best track record with keeping people in my life after we “break up”, but I’m fortunate that he keeps turning up. It sounds weird, I’m sure, but his presence in my life is soothing. It’s one of the reasons I go back to his mix every few months. He knew me back then and he knows me now. We didn’t talk much about how much the bipolar & subsequent cocktail has changed me, but I am curious to see if I’ve changed at all in his eyes. He hasn’t changed at all. He’s still dorky, musically inclined, and did I say dorky? Oh.  I did. Well, he is dorky - but it’s a cute, endearing dorky.

Ever since instrument came into my life, so have a bunch of people - both old and new - who have enriched my life. (And yes, a certain bulldozer deserves ALL the credit for introducing me to Instrument, but if they don’t know how much I appreciate that, then they deserved the Spank Heard Around The World. *ahem*) I love being back in touch with all these people and knowing they’re here makes my life so much better.

Night out getting crazy stupid with friends (and a pony)? $5 cover.

Reunion with high school sweetheart? Priceless.