Lesson #13966
I don't think that I mentioned this before but I work for a private university here in Kansas City. My office is fairly out in the open and I see students going by all of the time. If I happen to be looking up when one of them passes I feel I should acknowledge them. One of the students I had seen around campus for some time began to stop and speak with me on a fairly regular basses. This is not odd, every semester I have about twenty students who stop to speak. Some from classes I have taken here, some who are either past workstudies for my department (all who come from the same crowd) or friends of said workstudies some are people I meet from when I use to smoke.. There are a few who stop by but who have no specific history or connection to me but who have for some reason have struck up a friendship with me. Eric is a student from the last category. At some point during our conversations we realized that we both like Victorian architecture. Eric took a photography class last semester and one of the projects he worked on was a series of photos of the Victorian homes here in the city. He showed me the photos he had taken and asked if I wanted to join him in looking at others in the north-east section of the city. This is the oldest part of the city and has some beautiful homes from the 1850's on. We set a date for the following Sunday. So last Sunday I spent my day driving around with Eric and walking through the city's old neighborhoods. I know that the city is 150 years old but like most mid-western towns we have torn down most of our oldest buildings and you seldom get a feel for the age of the city.
I had a great time. We had one of this winters rare days of snow and the buildings and grounds were beautiful with snow flocking the edges. Eric, whom I thought was quiet and shy when I first met him, ended up being a lot of fun. He was serious and knowledgeable about Victorian houses and the history of the city but fun loving between sites. I behaved as I haven't in a long time.
The fact that I will shortly be turning forty is often on my mind but even while thinking of that I seldom realize how much my friends and I have stopped playing around. We use to run around and act like fools all of the time. I am not sure when we stopped. With Eric I once again behaved like a teenager. The day ended up being an all around success. I thought that we would be out maybe a couple of hours but we ended up being out for about five and would have stayed out even longer if it hadn't started to get dark. I look forward to going out with him again.
Until next time--
