Real Kato Blog: The Michigan Weekend: Part 5

... in which I describe my nostalgia-tripping Monday morning.

Monday, 9:30 a.m.

I'm meeting Amy for a couple hours of chatting. God, she still looks great. She looks just the same she did in high school, except that the baby-fat she used to carry in her cheeks has now turned into a brand new little person.

Actually, I wanted to reproduce the picture of her that I used to make my pencil-sketch back in high school, just to demonstrate the sameness. But I didn't get the chance.

We talk for a while, mostly chit-chat. What I realize during this is that Amy and I don't have the same level of shared experiences that I have with some of my other high school friends, a fact that I regret terribly. I felt so close to her during high school and the year following; why didn't we spend more time together? How come we don't have a stable of shared memories?

Regret is a terrible thing.

Still, we have a nice time reminiscing. She pulls out her own photo albums and we browse through them, and we find that we do remember a lot of stuff, like parties and old acquaintances and such. It feels good to reconnect with her. It's like finding an old box in your attic and unearthing your favorite concert t-shirt that you thought you'd lost. Now I wish I had a t-shirt from when we all went to see the Monkees at Pine Knob back in 1986. Darn.

Monday, 11:30 a.m.

Amy has to run off to do mommy things, so I go to meet John for lunch downtown. While I'm waiting for him, I wander around a bit, and pass by the public library where I used to spend so much time. It was right by the downtown bus terminal so I could go there by myself as a kid. The efficient Ann Arbor bus system is Thing I Love #8.

John and I meet at the Grizzly Peak, which wasn't there when I lived in Ann Arbor, as far as I remember. It's a cool little pub.

I think it's appropriate ending the weekend with John, because he instigated this whole thing to begin with. In high school, John and I never seemed to do much together, but now I feel like he's the guy I understand the most, the one whose sensibility most closely matches mine. John's in the midst of an exciting job transition; here's a picture of him seeming all businesslike and important:

We each have fish and chips, and beer, and that's that: the end of the Ann Arbor weekend. I am happy and sad all at once, because the weekend has been so fantastic but now it's over.

To think, when I first got to Ann Arbor, I was just happy because I got to poop in a private toilet.

Permalink 4 Comment

Posted by Ken in: life, travel

Comments

Comment #1 from pinky (Guest)
2005 May 10 - 3:39 pm : #

Wow. I saw the Monkees at Pine Knob in 1986 too. How funny.

Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2005 May 10 - 4:45 pm : #

Wow, what a coinkidinky, pinky!

Comment #3 from Speaker (Guest)
2005 May 11 - 1:00 am : #

Wow, I saw the Monkees in 1986 also......but it was in Birmingham Alabama....Weird Al Opened?

Comment #4 from olafandyjon (Guest)
2005 May 20 - 9:16 am : #

Um...I saw the Monkees at the Silverdome later on that tour.

Yes the Silverdome...theatre setting, mind you.

Comments are closed for this post.

Search This Site