Those roads.

Maybe I'm the only one that finds places so sentimental. It's not even just places though, it's more like the accumulation of things that add up to trigger your past memories. One thing I've already talked about it driving 316 from Athens to Atlanta. Today though, driving through traffic on 85, getting off at the Tyrone exit and merging on to 74 with the sun setting and my brother sitting next to me in the good ole jetta-that added up to trigger a lot of memories. It was kind of like being in my old stomping grounds or something. Countless times I've driven from Pendleton (my old neighborhood) down 74 either to Atlanta or to a friends house or to an ex-girlfriends house. It's so rare that I get to do that these days that everytime I do I think about the past. Last night I went out for a few beers with two friends from high school that I still feel pretty close to. We talked about the people from high school that we at times so close to and now don't even really know. We might have heard something about what they were up to a couple of months ago or rumors that they were married, but we really don't have any idea what they are doing. My freshmen year roommate, a guy I was best friends with at graduation, a guy I had been in fights with (on each other's side), a guy that I talked about girls with for the first time, got in trouble with the first time, a guy who my parents set a place at the table for-I don't even know where he is. I don't know where he lives, what he's doing-none of the three of us had any idea and at one point in our lives all of us had been very close to him. We played on his baseball team, had AP classes with him, got drunk with him for the first time-no idea what he's up to. He's just one of a ton of people of whom we had no idea where they were, what they were doing. It's strange to think of how incredibly close you can be with people and how certain turns of events or differences of opinion can make you drift so quickly. It's almost as strange to think of who you're still close to and what that says about those people. How many people from high school are you really close to? Who have you talked to recently, how many people's locales do you know? Not many for me. Not really sure why. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. I hate the fact that it seems like I just move on when things turn sour or when I outgrow something or when some lifestyle no longer interests me. Still though, those are decisions I made and I have no regrets. But honestly driving down that old road in the cold, Christmas lights in the neighborhood, beers with old friends-it's like Garden State without the funeral. And it's funny too-you go back to those places from the past, see those people you remember the good and the bad times-but you never stay. You're still headed back to your new home, your new friends, your new life wherever that may be. Nothing is ever lucrative (or at least hasn't been yet) to make me stay. That life is over, in your past, and you can't relive it, you can't reclaim it you can just remember it and live the life you've got. I'm having a great time at home, but I really can't wait to be back at the Second City and back with the people who are in my life now.