Sur Une Nappe De Restaurant

After some careful consideration, I've decided to ignore the fact that the world is basically going to hell (i.e. shootings in the GTA almost every day, New Orleans is sinking, the price of gas) and write about....going out to dinner! Two dinners, in fact! Sound like a good plan? Awesome.

Monday night. My highschool friend Julie (who lives in Vancouver) was in Toronto for a week or so. Since she was in town, she decided to organize a reunion dinner for our circle of friends circa 1998. If you're a friend of mine and/or faithful reader of this blog, you'll know that highschool wasn't my favourite. So I knew this reunion dinner had the potential to be awkward/awful. I mean, I hadn't seen some of these women in six years.

Anyway, so nine of us met up at this generic Italian restaurant. Hugs and pleasantries were exchanged. Some looked different. Others looked exactly the same. One just got married. Another was engaged. We were all finishing school and starting careers. We were adults.

But it wasn't long before we resorted to our favourite pastime as teenagers; talking about who we hated and why we hated them.

Gossip. Backstabbery. Doublethink.

I don't know why I was friends with some of these women. It was more circumstance than anything else. Truthfully, I had nothing in common with them. And the only thing we have in common now is a shared history.

I put on a happy face, but I couldn't wait to get out of there. I know I wasn't the only one.

I left with a pounding headache...and an overwhelming desire to shower.

In battery acid.

Tuesday night. Still had the headache I'd acquired the previous night. I had dinner with Ben, Jean, Valerie (who was also visiting from Vancouver) and her lovely sister Julia. The evening was relaxed. Conversation was effortless, hilarious. Hugs and smiles were frequent and genuine. It was wonderful. It was the opposite of Monday. And my headache?

Gone.

They shine brightly, these chosen friends. They make me happy.

The past can fucking stay there.

(Now playing: "She Ain't No Use To Me", The Ugly Ducklings)