Reconnecting

In December, I wrote a post about my decade. I mentioned that the last year had been the year of the long-lost friend. There hasn't been as much of that this year, but I did continue the long-lost-friend connection this weekend in Wisconsin.

Here's the thing though: This was a friend from college who was never from Wisconsin but recently moved there. When I found out I would be heading back to the Motherland, I dropped him a line and we made plans.

Let me tell you a little about this friend, JC. We went to school together for two years. JC and I spent most of our time hanging with a larger group of people. I have a few memories related just to him, but most of them are tied to the TV party that was the weekly viewing of the Mtv Sunday night lineup at Paul and Drew's house. Don't get me wrong, this is not insignificant. Many of my freshman year memories are tied to our Sunday night TV Parties.

This is the thing about JC: He is the only person I've ever known who swears more and talks more than me. Seriously. And that's saying something because I talk and swear a lot. But every other word out of his mouth was always "fuck."

I am happy to report that these things haven't changed. Every other word out of his mouth is still "fuck," and I think he talks more than me. You get two people who talk a lot together in one room and no one else can or will get another word into the conversation. And, believe me, two people who talk a lot can talk for a very long time.

The people I knew in college, even just for a short amount of time, bring out both the best and worst in me. Why? Because the people I knew in college, both close friends and not so close friends, saw me at my almost best and my absolute worst. I was kind of a bitch in college. Okay, I was a bitch. Maybe it's because of that that I am usually pretty comfortable around them. It's a cliche to say that you will meet some of your closest and most memorable friends in college. This may not be true for everyone, but it is for me.

Anyway, much fun was had. Super big fun. There was lots of drinking, although I think JC drank at least twice as much as I did (if not more). I'm a total lightweight, which makes me an absolute embarrassment to the state of Wisconsin, but whatever. We dorked out by getting out our iPhones and comparing old pictures we'd posted on Facebook. Always entertaining. We told our stories--how we got to where we are over the last twenty years and how others we knew got to where they are. My friend LJ was with us and had to suffer through lots of old stories and inside jokes. I apologized profusely the rest of the weekend.

I would say I had to leave early in the night since I had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get to the Packers game, but by the time I left we'd been at the bar for something like six or seven hours. The night ended with a shot of Jaegermeister. It's as disgusting as I remember.

The last time I had Jaeger was my 21st birthday. Someone, I don't know who, bought it for me since I was pretty much standing on a chair announcing to everyone that it was my 21st birthday. That last shot, plus the Flaming Dr Pepper my roommate bought me, put me over the edge of drunkeness. (If my mom reads this, uh... sorry.) Because of that, I have always avoided Jaeger. Luckily, this time, it didn't affect me the same way. But I have a feeling if I hadn't had to leave, the shots would've continued.

Hell, if I hadn't had to leave, I think we would've shut down the place. Just like college.