It was really very good to see Jessica last night. I went to pick her up from her parents' house, which meant that I got to go inside and talk to her mom- my former scout leader and onetime homeroom teacher- as well as taking a bit of a drive through the neightborhood where I spent the first 14 years of my life. It was weird to be grown up and there, at least in part because we moved out before I had my drivers license, and so I'd never really had the experience of driving that particular confusing pattern of skinny streets.
We talked for a time in their living room, basically summarizing what life had been like since college. Then Jessica and I considered and rejected all food options nearby, and headed off to Columbia to eat at Carabbas. Good stuff. My soup was especially tasty. After dinner, we went to my house, where Erica joined us. There was so much catching up to do, and I know that we didn't cover nearly all of it. But we made a good start, and hopefully we'll be better now with email and telephone and, of course, actual physical visits. It's a shame to consider someone your friend for more than two decades and yet not take the effort to keep in touch.
The boy came over for a little while last night also, and so has now met another of the people that I've known longest. I think Jessica approved of him.
I was really glad to see how comfortable she and I both seem to be with life at the moment. We like where we are living and the ways we fill our time and the people around us. Occasionally it is important to have to talk about things like that and in the process realize how good it is to grow up. It may not beat being 8 years old and running around in the backyard, but it sure as hell is an improvement over 16.
