We had dinner with Tim and Lois last night, and we really haven't seen them since closing weekend at Cedar Point. It's hard to believe he's been working there now for more than three years.
We talked a lot about the "good old days," circa 2000, when we all (except Diana) worked at Penton. Absolutely no one in our circle of friends has the same fundamental life situation as we did back then. Friends have changed jobs or careers, moved several times, there are new children, divorces, marriages, hot tubs, etc. The changes are radical all around.
For a brief moment, taking all of that in made me really sad. But when I compare my own life to life then, I realize that I'm still a happy guy. I was happy that year too, just for different reasons. In fact, when I really look at that big circle of friends, we're all still quite happy, many of us more so.
It's even more crazy when I think about the time in the interim. I mean some of the more important people in my life, like various volleyball kids, came during that time since. Heck, Diana came into my life less than nine months ago. When you stop and look at it that way, I think it makes a strong case for the richness that life will bring you in the next year, equal or greater than that of the previous years. That's pretty exciting to think about.
And really, the Internet has made it so much easier to keep in touch with people. Blogs, Facebook, IM, etc., all make it pretty easy if you choose to use them. I may not know the intimate details of the lives of Tyler or Linda, for example, but when we meet in real life, we're not exactly strangers either. The context for relationships like that didn't even exist ten years ago.
So those changes will keep on rolling in, and that's OK. On nights like last night, we're able to just pick up where we left off.