final thought for the day...

So, back in the mists of time, when I was in college, I had this friend. We’ve lost touch. Since those heady days of all-nighters, booze-experiments, lecture-naps, and strenuous bouts of procrastination, I have come to realize that he was my best friend in college. Not in the modern teeny-bopper “you’re my bff” way, and not in the “joined at the hip” way, but simply because hind-sight has shown me that of all the people I spent time with, or dated, or partied with, or went downtown to do the bright-lights-big-city-thing with, he is the one who most readily “got” me.

Let me be clear: This was not a romantic thing. At all. (Indeed, after he started dating his future wife, I attended their co-hosted parties, became friends with her, and was present at their wedding...and she is perhaps the only woman who has been okay with my friendship with her S.O.) Anyway, he and I are/were such total opposites that I think the idea never would have crossed either of our minds. Yin and Yang. Spazoid (me) vs. laid-back (him). Glass half-full (me) vs. Glass half-empty (or being quickly drained). As he used to say, “we see things exactly the same, but mirror opposite” and nobody understood that but me!

We happened to have the same college major, and our student job was at the same place, so we saw each other a lot. And started hanging out regularly. I will never forget when I came down to his primary work domain, furious about something that my supervisor piled on my plate at the end of the day (I had some >ahem< temper issues >ahem< back then) and after my brief vent he said, “I think as soon as you’re done with that we need to go get a beer.” Indeed. See what I mean? He just got me.

We’d also go out to what was then called “BW3” but is now called “Buffalo Wild Wings” on a semi-regular basis with another couple-few people, usually guys (I’ve always been one of the guys), and play their electronic trivia game and challenge each other with who could take the hottest buffalo sauce. It was good fun.

I’ve lost touch with most of my friends from college. You know, life moves on, people change, it’s the circle of life and not to be cried over. But I miss Jim. A few friends have connected with me on facebook, but we don’t really communicate there. I guess there is one person I’m in pseudo-regular contact with from that era, and she was a good friend too. I’ve searched for Jim on facebook a few times, to no avail. Now this is a very tech-savvy guy, who was onto HDTV when it was still an inside-secret, so if he’s not on facebook, or is using a pseudonym on facebook, it is intentional.

I wonder how he’s doing, and what he’s up to…and if I’ve guessed correctly about his pseudonym. (haha) So I’m just throwing this verbal stroll down memory lane out into cyberspace to see what it catches. Thanks for indulging me!