Change, You Can Believe In

 My home page on this device is MSN. It's chockful of rapidly changing McNews nuggets. Some are interesting, most are just clickbait. Thanks to the wonders of algorithms, they know I'm a Cubs fan and they assault me hourly with baseball trades that could happen if trades were left up to the writer's whims and not in reality General Managers. There's also a lot of celebrity mcnuggets on there every goddamn minute. Did you know that actress Kristy McNicole is no longer as young and pretty as the world used to like to think she was when she was a teen? It's a shocker, but she's 62 and you would not believe how she looks now!!

Yes, I would. I have mirrors in my home. I've noticed a few changes in myself these past several decades. Just a few. 

Young Kristy played young "Buddy Lawrence" on the show, "Family" a drama that was on ABC in the late 80's. If you're scoring at home, she was 6 years younger than me then- and now! That's how math works. Some numbers stay the same. BITD pursuing her romantically would have made me a republican, but at this later stage in life, the playing field levels out. I'm not going to ask her out- but I could...even though she shockingly got old, much to the amazed chagrin of the McNugget news writer. 

As fate would have it, an old friend sent me a photo last night, of me and two other guys I ran around with in high school. We are smiling and holding corsages, so it must have been some school dance related evening at somebody's house, but I don't recall me attending any dances back then as I was rather shy for a kid who was so good-looking. I might have been aloof and stuck up in some girl's eyes. Who really knows who they are in high school, let alone who others really are. 

I was and am curious as to how old pal George came to have that photo, as we did not hang out in high school. I ran around with him, Timmy and Joel in grade school until I made the mistake of trying to introduce my across the street friend, Drew, into our little gang. As I remember it, the three of them each came to me warning me that I had to make a choice: them or that "idiot" Drew. Well, life sometimes means doing the wrong thing for the right reason. I chose friendship with Drew, the only one in the bunch that wasn't putting conditions on our friendship. Story for another day, but yeah, I made the wrong call. I would have been wrong either way though. 

I asked George how he came into possession of that photo, but he didn't say. He leads the league in vague posting. He's a smart guy- some kind of engineer- but he posts like an angry, vulgar old man, one who ignores questions such as "Where'd you find that photo??!!" We're kind of legacy friends really, the kind you find on Facebook. He actually moved with his family BITD and graduated high school out east. We both though are having our 50th this fall and he's probably as uninterested in that as I. I've never attended a HS reunion. I had a pretty good time in high school, but the class was so big that I figured the reunions would be 95% people I barely knew. I've skipped the last couple smaller grade school one's because they were boring. Did an Irish goodbye at the last one, in fact because it was weird as well as boring. 

I'm still introverted, but life- particularly life tending bar and then life in the south working construction, gave me an edge that belies that introversion at times. At the last grade school reunion (for me) I joined the crowd of classmates fawning over Tommy, a damn-near albino dork we all used to make sport of in school. I think everybody pretty much grew up and was sorry about that and they welcomed Tommy. He did not welcome me. He says to me, "The last time I saw you, you were going to kick my ass!" 

"The fuck?" I laughed, "What the fuck are you talking about??!!"

He did not elaborate. Instead, he went back to enjoying the fawning. After the way he was treated in school, he deserved it. But I was to never know why he thought I ever wanted to kick his pasty ass then, nor why it came up years later at a reunion. Weird kids become weird adults, I reckon. 

High school. Grade school. It is what it was, nothing more, hopefully less. Well, at least to some of us. 

As I write this, I'm still wondering if I will post the pic. Probably. The two guys aside me won't ever see it and probably wouldn't care. I like old, good pics of me as anyone would like old, good pics of themselves. Honestly, it beats the current choices. That's me in the middle, BTW.