Friday, June 18, 2010

Where Time Stands Still

So last night I met one of my old fraternity brothers for a drink. Ok - two drinks. Sheesh - Judgey McJudgersons.

I had not seen Lester for two plus decades, but back in the day, he was quite the man. He was fun and funny and had this Tourette's like mouth - but not in a dirty way, just in a no self-censor mode....about anything. He was also cute in a non-traditional way.

In theory we had nothing in common, but some of that that was due to part of my life I wasn't willing to reveal back then. Too many guys in our house had been found "out" and they were ostracized. I was not at that place where I could just walk away.

In theory, currently we have nothing in common. He is a staunch Republican - and I am not. He is a divorced parent of two - and well, I am not.

That all being said, I still like Les. He's still got a great sense of humour.

The plan was to meet him at his uncle's restaurant and he was running a few minutes late. It was then I had this thought: it's been 25 years or so, how will we know each other? He might recognize me since I have some pics on Facebook, but he only has an avatar of Stewie Griffin.

Ruckiry (not Jon's boss), I got there first and was taking with his uncle. It was he who said, "oh here comes Lester". Thank g-d he said it because never in a kerjillion years would I have recognized him.

Gone were his dark curly Italian locks, only to be replaced by very little amounts of wiry white hair. Added was about 150 pounds to his frame. The dark glasses he never took off did not help.

Do not get me wrong, I know I am not the same person physically. I'm about 58 pounds heavier than my 130 lb frame back then. I certainly have lost my hair as well. The joke is, I didn't like myself much back then - physically or otherwise. But I'm pretty ok with where I am now.

I guess it is just one of those things where you think time stands still in certain ways, but man oh man, does it keep marching forward. We're not the same people - none of us. It's not such a bad thing - you just have to change your perception and state of mind.

His daughter got a big chuckle out of the fact that one her father's fraternity (don't call it a 'frat' - you don't call your country a 'cunt') brothers can grow a beard, yet he can't. There was my win. Not that I needed one.

We still had fun. And it was only two drinks.


Song by: Mary Chapin Carpenter

3 comments:

tornwordo said...

130 pounds? That's true, Karen Carpenter was popular back then : )

Cubby said...

The part about not being able to grow a beard made me cry. Then I started looking for a straight razor.

Blobby said...

Please! I was a big fat tub compared to Ms. Carpenter. However, if Mama Cass shared half her sandwich w/her, maybe they'd both still be alive!

True, I was 130, but I was also 6'2". I was icky thin.