Reunion Weekend

I ended up having a rather fun weekend. A bunch of friends from NYC came up to stay with Paul & Luminita and so I ended up having dinner plans for both Saturday and Sunday nights. It really was a blast. Paul, Eugene, Holly, Tommy and I (along with a bunch of others: Darryl, Julian, Carolina & Janos, Michelle, “Medicated Dave”, Paul L, Kenny and various other players who sometimes made appearances) were all part of our original crowd of friends. Luminita joined us a number of years later and Eugene’s wife (they’ve been married about a year) joined after I had moved to New Hampshire. Way back in those good old days (and I’m talking, starting in the early to mid-90s here) we would travel around Manhattan in a pack, hopping from one bar to another and staying out all night. It was so, so great back in those days, we were all single, yet there was never any “boy vs. girl” drama, we were all just really great friends who enjoyed each others’ company. Of course the dynamic had long changed by the time I left NYC, since many of the various members had since paired off, but “back in the day” it was really a great time. Luckily, we’ve all been able to remain really good friends over the years, even though everyone’s lives have changed and changed pretty dramatically, for the most part.

So it was a party weekend again with Paul & Luminita, Tommy & Holly (who were single members of our group for years, but finally hooked up one year at an infamous Christmas pub crawl we all attended), Eugene & Grayce (who I had never met before this weekend). Of course I was the one singleton in the crowd, as usual, but for once I didn’t even mind that. We just had a blast telling all the old stories and finding new ways to mock each other (one of those “you kinda had to be there” things). I was also, really, really glad that I liked Grayce so much. I had been very worried about that. Eugene has been such a good friend of mine for many years, I was really hoping that I was going to like his wife. He deserves the best and, let’s face it, it’s a horrible feeling to have a friend marry someone you can’t stand (or even just merely don’t connect with). There is no quicker way to drifting away from someone than when that happens. But I loved Grayce, she totally fits in with our twisted, caustic humor and I felt that I connected with her right away. I'm so happy about that and I’m so happy that Eugene found the perfect person for him.

Anyway, so it was a great reunion. I hadn’t seen most of these guys in a very long time. For Eugene it had been about three years, and for Holly & Tommy it had been even longer than that as they had been living in Vegas for a few years when I moved up to NH. It had probably been five or six years since I had last seen them. Everyone loved where we live in New Hampshire. It turns out that Holly & Tommy have a fairly short trip to get here – they live in North Eastern Long Island and can take a ferry to Connecticut which makes the trip only two and a half hours for them, so we know they’ll be likely to be back regularly. Eugene & Grayce live in Manhattan, but are so sick of it at this stage that they were thrilled with the opportunity to get out of there for a visit. I even think that under the right circumstances they would even consider moving up here. Bwahahaha! Thus my evil plan is revealed … I will eventually get all of my old friends to move up here – HA!