Back

I'm just getting back into routine and tomorrow it's time to pack again. I'm pretty miserable at my house all the time now. I went to bed at 8:00 last night. I got home around 7:30 from book club. At times, I'm sickened just by the sight of my roommates and I cringe when I hear their voices through my bedroom door. I think I hate them. It's just everything. It's just all their inconsideration and disgusting habits and lazy fatness. It's the six empty Domino's pizza boxes stacked up beside the garbage can, the hyper active dog they never should have gotten pouncing the floor above my bedroom all hours of the night making my room shake, it's the fact that they have never cleaned the bathroom, it's just that they completely disgust me.

I still can't believe it's just four and a half months to go. Before the new year it felt like a year away. I'm going out to Washington state the first weekend in May and my goal is to have mine and Mike's new place secured by the time I leave.

The weekend was awesome. Mike and I had a lot of fun and I got to spend time with my mom and Mike's mom and some old friends. I totally smoked all weekend. But haven't since I got back.

We have all sorts of friends growing up. A large part of my childhood (ages 8 - 15) was spent with the same people. Besides the obvious Pathetic and Ugly, there was also a great bunch of guys I spent all my young tom boy days with. My big brother dated a girl around the corner and I'm not sure how or why but I became best friends with her younger brother and his friends, one of which shared the fence which divided their backyards.

Life was great. Congregating on the corner of Hermann and Oak, we all met on our bicycles. Who knew what the day would bring? Summer days were spent playing running bases in either Nick's or Mike's pools, summer evenings were spent playing two on two b-ball in Mike's lit driveway or playing Uno on the red picnic table. It was really fun and I always enjoyed being the only girl. We were young and care free and the drama of high school hadn't yet touched us and all we did was play all day and night.

Saturday night I went out with Paola. She came into our little union later in life. Pathetic and I had split for a little while and when she resurfaced, Paola came along with her. Paola and I had split eight years ago but reunited when she started working at the restaurant I worked in about three or four years ago. We see each other at least once a month.

We picked up Mark who joined our union at age 12. In what inevitabally became 'the crew' in our high shool years, Mark went back the furthest when it came to Mike, Sean and myself. Mike and Sean being original members of the Hermann/Oak front. Follow me? There were never hard feelings with Paola, Mark, Sean, etc. Paoala was older and had drifted away by the time Ugly and Pathetic ruined me and boys are dumb. So they never really knew what happened other than the fact I wasn't around anymore.

So Saturday night Paola and I picked up Mark and brought him over to Sean's. (Now lives with his girlfriend) We weren't going to go in but figured ah, what the hell. Sean and I were never real close and only go way back because he lived where we all did.

Sean was hosting an Omaha tournament so Mark, Paola and I got real comfortable in the kitchen and just laughed and laughed. I found myself surprised when I'd get a sneak peak into the living room where about eight meatheads were sitting playing cards; it was easy to forget where we were.

Then Mike walked in. Now I've seen Mike maybe half a dozen times in the past year and he always addresses me the same way. "Jessica (last name), what's up!" He also leaves me the same way every time. "See ya, Jessica (last name)." I get a kiss on the cheek at arrival and departure and we chat and everytime he asks me what I'm up to and everytime I tell him I'm living in Philly and everytime he sounds really surprised.

Mike's a character. You see, Mike has made quite a life for himself. He's a drug dealer. But he's not the guy you buy drugs from. No no no. Someone like Mark has to buy the drugs from Mike in very large amounts and then you can go ahead and buy the drugs from Mark.

Mike looks the same but much thinner, talks the same, laughs the same, still loves NOFX apparently. We used to listen to it on cassette. Saturday Mike was recruiting people to join him in his Atlantic City suite after the NOFX concert next month in A.C. His car is in someone else's name, his house in someone else's name. I got the impression from his mom and sister a couple years ago when I saw them that they're not too happy with Mike. He has managed to evade the IRS for several years now without ever holding down one job.

Must be fun. His girlfriend was there with him but apparently her job was just to sit there, look somewhat attractive, keep certain her thong was showing at all times, cause confusion for me internally at the sight of her white hair with two inch long black roots, and never speak.

Mike, Mark, Paola and I smoked a blunt and laughed like we were all fourteen again. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we stepped into Sean's. We made our own little party and although we're not who we were when we were fourteen, we were still who we were when we fourteen.....together.

When wondering if anybody ever remembers me, I know for certain that Mike remembers me as the girl he spent his prepubescent summers with and then asked out on a date 115 days in a row. I know Nick remembers me. Afterall, I was his first kiss. (Yeah, I was a heartbreaker.) Mark. I just love him and hope we always stay friends. I'm sure he remembers walking over the bridge in town in a foot of snow and slush just to bring me my Christmas gift. I remember it was the Smashing Pumpkin's, Infinate Sadness of something, or I think the word Melancholy was in there somewhere. You know, the double cd.

It's nice knowing you're a positive part/character in someone else's history/story.