The Peculiars

Last night would have been like any other Friday night... there were movies and icecream and Bryant and other folks... the other folks is what made it different. Last night it was the other folks that made it peculiar. It started last week when my dear friend Elyse (who has magical fingers by the way... pianist extraordinare) told me that she had never seen the Goonies! I asked myself, I says"Elyse! How can someone be a product of the 80's and have never seen the Goonies?!?" So it became my goal to theme an evening around Elyse's Goonies consemation. I really dont think that is the word I'm looking for. This evening also became the ideal oppurtuniy for me to hang out with more people my age... and not so much my age but different people. People I dont usually ever spend time with but every time I see them I'm like... you make me smile. I want to spend time with you...

Alas it came around... this beautiful Friday evening. After a slow paced, cold day with Dane, and 4 episodes of Blues Clues I made it home... had a hot date with Billy Blanks.... took a shower.... ate some chiken soup from a can... and awaited the arrival of my amigos. The doorbell rang... and behold the pianist, the bassist, and the photographer greeted me with embraces and cookie dough... Elyse brought this mouse icecream even though we said vanilla. Elyse is famous for not bringing the right things to a social gathering. Last week I told her we were having teriyaki stir fry and she brought over bbq sauce. Which is fine. She had good intentions and it gave me a chance to test my teriyaki sauce making abilities. The ice cream turned out to be really good.... so it was ok that she failed her mission. :)

Right behind the bassist came the guitarist the drummer, the supermodel and the actor. I was excited and looking forward to such an interesting evening with these beautiful and interesting people. Now I'm thinking to myself... this story isnt that interesting. You hung out with a group of talented and good looking people who love God and love you. Where's the conflict? Where's the passion? Where's the climax?

Well, we made a giant cookie and put a box of non-vanilla icecream on top of it. Justin's idea...drummers... We preceded to get spoons and eat it out of the pan. It was the most overindulgent thing I've ever done with friends... but it was delicioso. We wathced the Goonies and laughed and ate more pazookie and laughed some more and enjoyed eachothers company. Still no conflict... unless you count the underage, text messaging love affair that was happening between one of the musicians and an unidentified red head from Arizona. But other than that... there was no conflict that involved me, or the evening...

It was one of those nights you see on Felicity or the O.C. Really good company... a group of people that may never be together just the 8 of us again. 3 of the most amazing women I've met and 4 of the raddest guys I know... it was refreshing. But still nothing "crash throught the window, break a table, fall down the stairs" terribly exciting...

After Bienvenue, Miles and E.Z. E peaced out... I had life-story time with Bry, the Asian kid and J-Dub... Kaeli started... her life as a Belizian supermodel was filled with adventure and conlict and an incredible journey.... lessons learned and tears cried... unstable and amazing is what I called it... and it turns out she wasnt a Belizian supermodel... that's just her alias. Next went the guitarist.... plenty of suburban tales. Typical half white half Asian... :) Not as much adventure although the segment about San Luis Obispo was rather interesting... the actor went next. From Africa to Oklahoma... it doesn't get better than that. I went next. I found my life story painfully uninteresting... I found most of our stories painfully normal... except for Kaeli's. the drummer chef extraordinare finished... by this time it was 3 in the morning and the only thing that could've kept us up woulda been speed or a more interesting story or speed. Justins history isnt uninteristing, but like 3/5's of us it was painfully normal...

I found one thing that made all of our stories worth listening to. Its like they say... you can't see your future unless you know your past or something like that. And every single one of us had these amazing futures planned out. Of course it was the redemption phase of our yong adulthoods that was inspiring and nice, but it was the plans... the plans to have a play on broadway, to be an amzing physical therapist, to open a restaurant to be a musician with a lot of money.... those were the intrigues.

I felt it necesasry to mention how painfully uninteresting my life really was to the group and how all of us will have much more interesting stories to tell after we've traveled more and turned 40.

I wonder if I will know these people when I turn 40... if I dont... I will make sure to try and know them... to call them and ask them if all theyre dreams came true. That's basically what my Friday night was... one big, nice dream... little conflict.... a lot of love... and the feeling of inclusion and acceptance. That's what we're all striving for. Thanks to the goonies and a painfully uninteresting life story to tell, that's exactly what I got.