Sunday, December 17, 2006

Old Friends

I've lived in my old neighbourhood for 2 weeks now.
In that time I've bumped into several old friends. In particular friends I went to elementary school with.
Take this morning for example. Mike and I went out for breakfast. we had been to his Christmas party the night before, and my sister took Matthew overnight. So it was just the two of us. Anyway, there we were chatting over coffee when this guy came over.
He had actually been staring at me for a couple minutes, and it wasn't because I was looking particularly appealing or anything.
He just walked up to our table and said "excuse me, is your name Laural?"
So, of course I said yes. And he asked if I knew who he was. No, I didn't.
"I'm Billy."
Yep. Billy from sixth grade. Billy who annoyed the crap out of me, and made bizarre jokes, and thought farting in class was funny. Never, in a million years, would I have thought he would recognize me. Or, for that matter, if he did, did I think he would come say hi.
But he did, which was cool. And of course I introduced him to Mike. And showed him pictures of Matt, and then asked what he had been up to.
We chatted about our lives, who we still talk to, etc. etc. And we both agreed it was weird to see where everyone is at.
It's weird that at our late twenties some people are married with kids (like me), others are already divorcing, others are engaged, and still others feel marriage is a long way off. Hmmmm....
But, it's still weird to see so many familiar faces. We lived in Toronto for years, and I'd rarely see people over and over. But, here it has been like old home week.
I'm beginning to dress up to go to the grocery store. At the condo it was rare that I saw people I knew at the store (except my neighbours), but here it's everywhere.
Do I like it? Yep. I do

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You know, whenever we go visit my parents I half-expect to see people I knew "back then" but I rarely do.

The strange thing is, I feel kind of disappointed if I don't see anyone, and really awkward if I do.