Visiting Friends

This has been a month of visiting old friends that I hadn't seen for a long time.

While I was in Indianapolis, I visited a high school classmate and her family. I lucked out; the hotel was only about 15 minutes from their house. Linda D and her family were a lot of fun to be with. I got there, and her two older boys immediately grabbed me and we started to play Monopoly. Not just any Monopoly, but Spongebob Squarepants Monopoly. I got to be Squidworth. I also got to help keep the youngest from walking across the gameboard. All three boys were delightful. It was a fun night of memories. Linda made the same style of pizza that her parents had made for us whenever we came and hung out at her house.

I was lucky to catch her last week. This week she's in China, so the timing was good.

This past weekend, Kath, Moira, and I went to visit our friends Aerock, Laura, and Owen. We used to go up and see them once a month when they lived three hours away in Minneapolis. Now, they live only an hour away and its been almost a year since we've seen them.

Actually, what got us really together was that Laura's brother Nick - my high school buddy. He actually had a week off of his city bus driving gig, and came down to visit and suggested that we come over. Owen, who is seven, was amazingly patient with our three year old Moira, and they had a blast playing with each other. I got to catch up with Aerock and Nick; we got to have 'Guy Talk,' which ranged in topics as far apart as Star Wars and comic books to Favre on the Vikings. I don't get to do that often enough. I used to get a lot of that during the summer, but I'm now so much older than most of my staff, and I am a 'boss,' so I don't get that time nearly as much.

I did get to see Aerock play some of his MMORPG - a fantasy game. I wish I could remember which one it is. It's not Guild Wars and not World of Warcraft. He was having fun with it, taking on Giant Monsters and doing events.

I found out that Nick is now playing City of Heroes, which is the superhero MMORPG I play. Hopefully, he'll start hooking up with Smehren and Raven with me on Monday nights. Another 'brother' for our 'Brother Nights.' What fun!