2002-07-06 1:11 p.m.
26: not as mystically significant as 23, but still...

My latest year has started off how I wanted it...teaching me lessons about relaxing.

(I'm 26 now, by the way.)

As planned, I had drinks with Andrew, the gent who I haven't seen since the end of 11th grade, when he promptly vanished from my (and everyone at my high school's) life, back to Texas. As it turns out, he was asked not to come back by the principal...not for reasons that deserved expulsion, but for being a bad influence on students Mr. Turner had his eye on as future superstars. Andrew was always a drinker and a smoker in large-scale, if not a partier. (Apparently, at the age of 17, this was frowned upon in Ft. Lauderdale.)

He's quite the antithesis of me: relaxed and lackadaisical about most things, little in the way of ambition, no boyfriends for a long time...similarly distorted family history. All in all, it was refreshing to catch up, to see and sit and drink with him. He's not lazy, but given how life has panned out, he's enjoying what he's got (a mellow job, his sisters living here, a nice living space) and is in no rush to get anywhere.

(When I was living in Athens, I found this kind of thinking hard to reconcile, which is why I had to leave. I kept thinking people were beached, immobile...I don't know why simply enjoying and living your life has always been such a foreign idea for me, but it's sinking in a bit.)

Then I sauntered down and found Tabi at our usual hangout, a "womyn's" bar a few blocks from her house. She bought drinks, and we laughed about cartoons and our impending musical debut.

The evening was exactly what I needed: smiles, memories, warmth and hope.

(And D got me exactly what I was hoping/hinting for: music gear, a CD/MP3 player, so I can finally listen to music while bumming around town. Bless his heart, dammit.)