12:28 a.m. | 2003-12-02 Parties Missed and Parties Remembered. All In The Same Day. Heh. Boss and I took Colleague to lunch today to celebrate his birthday. Colleague chose the restaurant, we ordered lunch and settled in. Here�s some of that. (Boss:) So, how was your birthday? (C:) Great! My wife and kids threw me a surprise birthday party. (Boss:) Really? (CI:) Cool. (C:) Yeah, I�ve never had a surprise party before. Then, Colleague went all into detail about how his family pulled it off, how great it was, and how much fun he had. To wit. (C:) About 150 people showed up. It was great! BFB (Boss� Former Boss) was there, as was Guyfriend (former colleague and friend). Oh, and ThisGuy (former colleague) and ThatGuy (former colleague) and, of course, Lucky (current colleague). (CI:) Hey, wait a minute� (Boss:) I didn�t get invited. What�s up with that? (CI:) I didn�t get invited either. What is up with that? (C:) Well, my wife� you know, she took my cell phone and got all my friends� information from that. (Boss:) And, what? Aren�t we in your cell phone? (C:) Well, no actually. See, I have your numbers memorized; they�re not in my cell phone. (CI:) Whoa, wait a minute. She invites all your former bosses and fellow colleagues, but not us? Do you NEVER talk about us at all? I mean, she does know that you have a boss and colleague, like, right now right? For Pete�s sake, she�s met us. OurDivision only has three people in it, and you�re one of them. How come we weren�t invited? (C:) Well, you should�ve been, but, like I said, she used my cell phone as a guide. (Boss:) You better tell her that we�re a little irritated about this. (C:) I would, but you know, she already feels really bad about the people she overlooked. She also didn�t invite SecurityGuard and BuildingGuy. See, you guys aren�t alone. (CI:) What?! She didn�t invite SecurityGuard and BuildingGuy either?! Yet, BFB, GuyFriend and � for Pete�s sake � Lucky was invited? Do we not exist in your world? (Boss:) We�re not in your cell phone? (C:) It�s not like that. No, you aren�t in my cell phone, but only because I�ve memorized your guys� numbers. She didn�t know. That was after we gave him his birthday card, which I diligently carried all over the building to get signatures from all his �friends�, including SecurityGuard, BuildingGuy and other folks that I disrupted � in the elevator even � to so they could pen a Happy Birthday to Colleague. However, you know, it all works out in the end. Colleague was genuinely touched that all these people signed his card, but he left in on the table at the restaurant. Yeah, so he had to walk all the way back there in the rain � without an umbrella � in order to retrieve it. Well, it works out except that part where we missed the actual party. In other news, I received a message that a friend from high school, Hyde, was trying to reach me. That�s the first time that�s happened. Of course, I�m not easily reachable, so that might have something to do with it. (Exceptin� that part that where I have an internet journal. Heh.) Anyway, I hung out with him when I lived in EldestNephewTown (ENTown). I think of him every time I pass certain landmarks, like where his house used to be. ENTown demolished it many years ago. But, the memories� and the parties and the wackiness. Yeah. Still there. It lingers like the smoke from a BBQ. No matter which way the wind is blowing, the smoke goes in your face. But, it not a bad smoke, so to speak. He was surprised that I remembered him. I wasn�t. That�s odd in a way, because he pretty much blew threw ENTown in terms of time, but when you�re a teenager, a year or so seems like eternity. And, as Hyde said, we packed a whole bunch of memories into a really small amount of time. That we did. He lived in one of those houses where everyone gathers. It was quite a large crowd. And, a diverse crowd. It was great to make contact and catch up with each other. Here�s some of that. (H:) Then, I joined the military and wrote you those letters. (CI:) What? You joined the military? (H:) Yeah. (CI:) Wait, you sent me letters? (H:) Yeah. (CI:) Oh, I never got those. See, I�d remember that. It�s not like I had armies of people writing me letters and such. By the way, that military pun was unintended. (H:) It was a good one though. (CI:) Heh. Yeah, I didn�t get any letters. Of course, I�d moved by then. We reminisced for a long time. Actually, it was difficult to ring off because we could shoot the breeze for days. And, we have many, many years to catch up on. I also discovered that we have that �weird but cool vibe� thing in common. Just to wrap up some loose ends, twentyone asked why someone would wear a toolbelt to a funeral. That�s a good question. The answer is not so exciting though. See, Ex-Brother-In-Law was a construction worker, and some of his buddies came to the mortuary on their lunch break. See, that makes perfect sense, however, it�d be really intriguing if it didn�t. You know, like if someone just showed up in a toolbelt. Or the mortician wore one. Just saying. Okay, I said I�d lay off the death talk so I will. To get off that note, I�ll recap. Boss and I weren�t invited to Colleague�s birthday party and we were a little confused about that. Then a guy from high school contacted me. And, somehow, that made everything balance a little better. Oh, and I did laundry and paid bills. Exciting stuff is going on here. So sorry you missed it. Tune in tomorrow for even more exiting� uh, stuff. your thoughts? seed flower