Friday, December 1, 2006

TAKING A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE...

Yesterday was a strange day, but a good one in a sense for yours truly. It all began when on a whim, I decided to try and track down one of my former professors from Concordia College (my alma mater). I started by using my mental Rolodex and remembering where he went after leaving my school. It turns out that he went to another Concordia College, this time, in Seward, Nebraska (I went to the one in Bronxville, NY).

So here I am, scrolling down the faculty/staff listing of the Seward campus, looking for this particular professor. Needless to say, I didn't find who I was looking for. However, in a strange twist of fate, I came across another name that looked familiar. So I clicked onto his name and discovered that among his academic credits, he received his Masters Degree from Cleveland State, right around the same time I was in high school. So on a whim, I shot him an email to see if he was who I thought he was. And sure enough, I get an email from him this morning- turns out he was one of my high school teachers!

I hadn't seen this person since 1984 and of course I was flooded with memories of my time in high school and how I made this guy's life miserable (along with most of my teachers at the time); I also remembered how I used to think about how he dealt with students in various situations when I came across the same situations during my stint in academia. So of course, we got to talking about the "good old days" and how I've gone from being the pain in the butt to finally being a responsible adult. I thanked him for his patience and life lessons learned and so on and on.

Turns out he's still in touch with another one of my former h.s. teachers and within minutes, I received an email from him. We swapped stories and he shared some interesting information about my late brother that made me smile (his son and my brother were classmates); turns out my brother's passing was a bigger deal than I'd been led to believe- apparently he'd made quite an impact on a lot of people while he was alive and they had even talked about his life/death on the local news. That made me smile. He also sent me a picture of him and his family and seeing his face made me realize how quickly 20 years had passed. Time sure does fly.

It was great catching up with the both of them; strange how fate works its magic.

Later in the evening, I got to hang out with MS. REDSKINS GIRL. She stopped by to have a cocktail after a stressful day at work. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours. I got to learn a lot about her, she got to learn a bit about me (probably more than most people know). Turns out we have a lot in common. Once you get past the "rah-rah Redskins" surface, she's a pretty interesting chick. MR. LOW-KEY stopped by and hooked us up with another nice meal. (today must have been my lucky day). During the course of the night, I ran into yet another person from my past- a good friend of the program I used to oversee when I was in academia. He was friends with many of my students, and while he technically wasn't one of my students, he may as well have been, he spent so much time in my office. We talked about what he'd been up to and he brought me up to speed on who's who and where they are now. It was really nice to see him.

While all of this was going on, the bar filled up quickly when word spread that we were carrying the BALTIMORE/CINCINNATI game. Turns out getting the NFL NETWORK was a smart move after all- kudos to the DON on making the call.

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day.


NUFF SAID