I went out last night. Shocked? I am.
It was a simple happy hour at a fake Irish pub nearby to see off my old boss from my old company (not one of the douches). He is moving back to Austin, buying a house, etc. We all were nostalgic about the old days–back in Austin. Me, Cloudy, and my old boss all lived there back before Austin was “cool,” and we spent a lot of the evening talking about how it used to be.
Also present at the shindig was an old coworker of mine, Jo. He is having gf issues, so me and Cloudy were trying to tell him to go out, have fun, enjoy his life, you’re still young–that whole bit.
Perhaps it was the characteristically warm summer night. Or maybe it was me being out with friends. Or could it have been the reminiscing about times in the not-so-distant past. Maybe its everything–NG moving in, finding out Giselle is pregnant, growing up, growing old.
For whatever the reason, a small window opened up, dangling a memory just out of reach. We were in mid-conversation. I stopped abruptly, trying to grasp on to whatever was there. I could remember a name…then a face…then the time we spent together…but fuck, how did we meet.
My brain struggled to pull the entire experience forward, dusting off something that hadn’t been accessed for 5 years, but it couldn’t. I forgot it about it soon after, but the glimmer of that memory, seen through a little mini window of my brain made me feel sparkly and happy. And then sad. Happy-sad as i call it.
Otherwise known as good old nostalgia.
5 years later, and I still remember Chip (he’s at the very very bottom of that writeup).
And I still remember our one date.
But everything else I barely recalled until I frantically tried to find more in my LJ. Until last night, it was just another dead neuron ending waiting to be re-sparked.
Interestingly enough, a friend and I have been having multiple conversations regarding a guy that she is broken up with. The recurring question is always, “do you think he will ever think of me when this is all over?” My answer is, and has always been, a resounding yes. People, good or bad, never leave you once they make their imprint.
