Spontaneous reunion

(What's with all these people from my past coming back into my life these days? Should I be paying attention to signs?)

And this wasn't even Facebook-related.

I got a call today that an old friend of mine was going to be in town for one night. He's traveling with Mike Watt and the Missingmen, oddly enough, and they're doing this crazy cross-country tour where they pretty much play every night. Tonight they were here, at the Doug Fir, just over the Burnside Bridge. Tomorrow night they'll be in Vancouver BC. It's kind of nuts.

It's a Monday. You people should all know by now that I am not the kind of person who comes home from work, waits around a couple of hours for a phone call, then throws on Levis and drives across a bridge at 7:45pm just to reconnect. I'm good with a phone call, really, especially when I have strict rules about bed-times and routines.

But this is different.

It's always different with him.

I don't know what it is about a guy I've known since I was ten years old, dated when I was 19, and haven't seen or heard from consistently in 25 years, but whose birthday I always remember, and whose old phone number I haven't forgotten, and who comes to mind whenever I hear anything by Husker Du or X (which is surprisingly a lot). He's not the kind of guy that keeps me awake at night, the memories aren't so earth-shattering that I would pine for him. There's no pining at all. Weeks, months might go by without him even coming to mind. But if I know he's around, well, I just go see him.

Because I have to. I don't know what I believe about past lives, but I do strongly believe in the connections we make in our current lives. I know that for whatever reason I am inexplicably and forever drawn to this guy. Not in any kind of sexual way, I mean, not anymore I guess, it's not that kind of an attraction. Wait. Maybe it is. Or maybe it WAS and that part just became familiar, second nature, so now I don't think about it like that anymore. The end result of all of this is that he's out there, and if he's near me, I just go see him. Even on a Monday night at 7:45 and across a bridge.

I didn't stay for the show. I sat in the bar with him, and then we went backstage and to the green room while he put away his stuff, then we stepped outside for a smoke and so that he could give me a CD. I don't think I followed 85% of what he talked about (and he talks a LOT), but it almost didn't matter. I drove home feeling like whatever my showing up meant to me meant a thousand times more to him.

And it wasn't even that hard to do. I don't know how many people I would do this for (you guys are probably thinking "What's the big deal going out on a Monday?", but believe me, for me, it's pretty big), but there are a few. Lately they have been coming back (coming AND going, but that's just a pattern I have to learn to live with), and though it makes me happy, I have to wonder what it means.

So I'll go to bed (late, I might add, have you seen the time?!) and feel good and remember the good times and the times in between then and now, and know that the good ones in your life, well, they come back. Maybe it means something and maybe it doesn't. And that's okay, because right now, I just feel good.