"Friendships" (I get by with a little help from my friends)

Foreword:

Without it, time is wasted.

 

"I get by with a little help from my friends."   - The Beatles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

 

 

"Hello Old Friend, So Good To See You Once Again"

I drank, danced, and laughed more than I had in quite a while this past Saturday night.

I needed to.

Good times, bad times, you know I've had my share.

This last week has brought me through hell in back as some tumultuous things happened in my life. I'm not going to explain everything here because I still need to hang onto some sense of privacy, but I can say that I got by, "…with a little help from my friends," when I was feeling a bit down.

I think there was a reason that I reaffirmed many old friendships that helped me realize that family and friends are what is most important in life and that time is wasted without them. Putting it into context is something that I am still struggling with, but I wasn't expecting last week to see all of these old guys or a former girlfriend at some restaurant, bar, or bookstore by happenstance. Any frowns I may have had were quickly wiped away with laughter and feelings of love for these old friends whom I cut up with and was glad to see once again at this stage in my life.

These chance happenings also led me to be invited at the last minute to a fun filled wedding reception for one old buddy, Troy Vilayhong, who eloped a few weeks ago in Las Vegas with his lovely bride, Brenda. He was back in town and had a reception and moved the party afterwards to some dance club. This night out on the town just topped off my weekend and it was better than the actual ten-year high school reunion that was held back in 1999.

Troy decided to throw a party last Saturday night and it was a gathering of old high school buddies with a few of whom I hadn't seen in years. I was able to catch up with best friends that I had grown up with and rebelled right along side with through our teenaged years.

They say you can never go back, but for one evening, that saying was suspended as the boys were back in town where we had all left our wives and kids at home.

We selfish pricks.

Here it is years later where we haven't seen each other, we're all a bit older, we're a bit heavier and losing our hair, mostly all married with kids (we were each showing off photos of our rugrats with some sense of pride), yet when we gathered it was as if we all started up where we had left off years ago with our friendships.

It was genuine and we each understood the importance of those friendships in the present day.

We joked around and laughed while we reaffirmed the best years of our lives. We pledged then and there that as we departed that evening to get back to our lives for the next morning, which would greet us with hangovers, we would still be there for each other in spirit (the non-alcoholic kind) and would try to remain in contact more often in the years to come.

Sharing a light beer or four with these friends was priceless. Sure, some of our gang was missing in action, but we made do with who was there. The ones who couldn't make it were there in spirit too and we raised a glass to them. We laughed at each other and talked about going fishing or taking some Las Vegas trip together in the future as we watched all these 21 year old girls boogie down in tight fitting clothes that showed their belly buttons and brassieres on the dance floor of the local discothèque as we sat at a table.

They sure didn't dress like that when we were in school.

So here is this group of now thirty-one year old married men who were all breathing a sigh of relief that our wives weren't there to watch our eyes bulge out of our heads as those rings we were wearing on our fingers magically kept us from stepping out of line though we were enticed into some dancing on the floor.

There is nothing as funny as seeing your old pals dance out on the floor and joke around with some exaggerated dance step that was intended to make one another laugh and outdo the other in order to make your buddy shoot beer out his nose.

Now, whether that trip to Sin City will happen or not we will have to see. Viva Las Vegas, indeed as I wish that there were more than 24 hours in a day where even if there were 40 more, I wouldn't sleep a minute away.

So for my old friends, I just want to thank you for this last week, the talks, the fun, and the times past. I want to thank you for the memories of our friendship over the decades and the times yet to come.

I want to thank you for being yourselves and for allowing me to be just me. I'm in debt to you for everything you've done for me and I hope you'll lean on me should you ever need to.

I wouldn't be who I am without you. I want to share my gratitude and thank you for the drinks and laughs.

Hopefully those of you out there that might be reading my cathartic diatribe here may also consider whether or not its time to reach out to your own old forgotten friends?

May I raise my mug to you and your long lost pals.

Your buddy,

Scott