Sometimes, just sometimes, things work out okay.

Hmph.

I almost started this out as a one way chat with the rest of the world:

"Remember that high-school boyfriend who contacted me..."

I'm probably influenced by the sites I read regularly (Dooce, Jonas Luster, Jason Kottke and a few others), which are sites clearly directed to the masses. This site, my friend, is for me, though, so I need to stop that crap.

So, about that high school sweetie...

I've been instant messaging with Paul (said, high school boyfriend) a lot lately. Well, I'm not sure if it's "a lot" over the longish term: we message a lot in fits and spurts.

I love that phrase "fits and spurts." What a great word. Spurts.

Turns out, a lot can happen in a decade and a half since high school.

Admittedly, I've lurked in sites like classmates.com, where I look up what some people are doing. But I've nevered entered my information into the sites. On one hand, the information they ask for always seems too personal; on the other hand, writing a summary of one's life after high school is kinda hard.

And, if you have a third hand, where I am in life isn't where I expected to be. Telling the world that is terribly diificult. Admitting that to myself was hard enough.

The whole thing made worse when I read the head cheerleader from my senior year is a floor manager at some Las Vegas casino. Is that really where she thought she'd be? Is she happy there?

So, easy decision: no life summary for me. Especially when compared to my friends from high school. (Why must the comparison always happen?)

Scott is a Naval pilot instructor. He's doing exactly what he wanted to do. He even said as much in high school. Married, two kids. Although Paul gave me the details, I managed the generalities from classmates.com.

Jenn is another friend I was able to find on classmates.com. She's currently a professor at the collegiate level, having been so for some time.

And, turns out, I'm not the last to get married, nor the only one childless. Though, it seems to be only the women in our group who don't have kids. The men are all married with at least two each!

Brad works with Jeff at Jeff's company in Boston. I forget what Tammy is doing, or Cindy.

And Paul. My link back to the group. He reached out. Found the hints of me that have leaked out into the Intarweb. Or, as he says, it's a lot easier to find a person with an interesting name like Hodsden than most (much more) common names like the rest of the group.

Paul is at seminary. He's studying in the Lutheran faith. His timing in contacting me was quite fortuitous, as is his course of studies: the older I get, the more puzzled I get with people who completely believe in this organized religion thing. I kept some of our early conversations.

Back in high school, we talked a lot about various philosophical things, much in the way only teenagers can ponder the universe, the celestial music and what it all means (42, of course).

Our conversations today are much the same. If I'm not in the "What the heck is up with this Christianity thing? You can't really believe in a bodily ascension can you? Don't you realize religion developed as a way for the powerful to control the masses?" sort of mood, our conversations are of a "Hey. Hey. What's up? Not much. Me, too." sort of drivel.

So, he's married with two kids. Two cute kids, that is.

I have not seen any recent picture of him or his wife, so he's bald until he tells me otherwise.

[Hi, Paul!]