An Evening in the (East Atlanta) Village

I had dinner with friends last night, including an old college friend, Jason, and his wife Allison. I'm not sure how Jason and I met, but he was a fixture during my college years, we have shared numerous drunken evenings and one trip to the hospital together, and more importantly, he will always have a place in my heart as one of the people who helped me get over my first and only truly broken heart. We have occasionally corresponded over the years, but hadn't seen each other again since I graduated. It is always strange to see someone after that long, and you anticipate it with a mixture of happiness and, for me, nervousness. What if this person has changed drastically? What if I have become boring? What if I am fat from having two children? And it never fails that all of this "what if" is for naught, because the person is always almost exactly the same, and yet so wonderfully different, but in a good way. And I always realize that I could talk to them for hours, catching up, and even after we go our separate ways, i think of a million things to ask them.

Anyway, I had a nice dinner and a few beers with my sister, Lisa, our friend Vanessa (another UGA friend, who also knew Jason,) Jason and Allison, and their friend Amanda at local hangout The Earl. Amanda was quite a talker, in a winning, contagious way, although her biceps brought me down a few notches. I had been feeling pretty good about my consistent workouts, weight loss, and strength training, but if you want to blow all that to smithereens, I highly suggest that you have dinner with an IronMan triathlete, his long-distance swimmer wife, and their triathlete friend.

Anyway, it was a great evening. Jason, Allison, and Amanda left pretty early (Jason is starting his new job today). Lisa, Vanessa, and I moved on to The Flatiron for drinks, solving the problems of the world on the patio, and picking up weird, 50-something lesbian Cher fans who want to take pictures of my kids at the zoo. Always an interesting evening in the village.

It felt like the beginning of a new summer era - I am looking forward to spending more time with Vanessa and her daughter during her summer off from teaching, and I am also looking forward to getting to know Allison better. (She is also off for the summer from her teaching job, and lives not five minutes away.)

Did I mention that it felt like a new era? Well, it did. And then i woke up today to a toddler with diarrhea. Looks like we'll be cooped up a little while longer.