Wednesday, July 04, 2007
fireworks over Olneyville/tomorrow never knows
Now in Providence: Rain, 65 F.
Loud explosions outside right now, one after the other. It's raining gently; people are talking and yelling all around the streets. "Close your damn door!" I'm glad my roommate is out of town tonight. Some nights it's just right to come home to an empty house. This is one of those nights. The most beautiful shots of green and gold exploded in the damp night sky over Olneyville just now as I made my way down Westminster Street. I had the radio on and the windows up, so the fireworks were just bursts of light, no noise, through a rain-soaked windshield. It was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a long time.
I was coming back from the uber quiet East Side and a goodbye gathering for my good friends Tom and Jess, who are leaving this weekend to move to Seattle. Tom is from there, so it's a homecoming for him, but Jess is a Massachusetts kid. Still for both of them it is a lot of goodbyes this week. Tom just graduated from RISD; Jess did the same about a year ago. Everyone at the party was a RSID student or graduate (save for about one or two others who were in school somewhere else and dating one of the party-goers). I was the oldest there, as if it really matters which I suppose it doesn't. Through my friendship with Tom and Jess I have integrated myself sort-of and occasionally awkwardly into a circle of RISD students who are all really good friends and have been throughout their entire college experience. Because of this I do occasionally feel out of place when I'm with the group. But it's usually pretty fun, and a life experience not to be forgotten. I'm sure with Tom and Jess (and several of the others in the group who also happen to be recently married couples) leaving those days are over now anyways. Obla di, obla da.
Life is funny. Part of the interesting thing about the times spent with the RISD crowd is just being there and watching them as a group. Personally, I could not give you the names of five people who graduated with me. Well, bad example I was out of the country for my college graduation. Missed that one. But even still, I'd have to struggle to remember the names of folks who were with me at UNT. Back in the day (2000-2002) I attended Texas Tech University and even helped form a fraternity out there, so I could name you most of those guys. Matt Ashley. There's one. Furb. That was another. Hagen, Trey, Chaffee...I should stop name dropping. Still, today I couldn't contact them, or tell you what they're doing now. In my life it seems that most of my friends come and go; the few from the past that I do keep in touch with I never actually see in person anymore. Except the occasional holiday back home, but even those experiences get shorter and shorter as the years pass. Now I see this tight group of people who lived through so much together, and they're all now going their own ways but will no doubt...well actually who knows. Who ever knows? And that's life. This life, anyways.
Some days, especially when I'm around college students as I frequently tend to be through church and whatnot, I start to think back on all that I have lived through just in these past seven years, and what it has meant and where it has got me today. And to be honest with you...I don't even know if I know anymore. It's just enough trying to live in the present these days. I think about the immediate and occasionally about the future, but less and less about the past. Then days like today come up, and I can't decide if I like that or not.
Independence Day.
(addition): I was just re-reading this post, and thinking about it. I think for most of all of us, after a certain point, life tends to be a series of catching up with one another. I wonder if that's just an American thing? Probably not, but I'm sure we've mastered it. Or butchered it, depending on how you look at it. I think I'm good at that though. It's how most of my life is living away from most everyone I know or have known. It's periodic phone calls or e-mails and "How Have You Been's" and all that, and it usually makes for good conversation. And even in everyday life that's all our conversations tend to be. "How was your week?" "Have a good day?"
Oh. That just kinda made me sad. Or at least contemplative. ¶ 7/04/2007 10:44:00 PM
Loud explosions outside right now, one after the other. It's raining gently; people are talking and yelling all around the streets. "Close your damn door!" I'm glad my roommate is out of town tonight. Some nights it's just right to come home to an empty house. This is one of those nights. The most beautiful shots of green and gold exploded in the damp night sky over Olneyville just now as I made my way down Westminster Street. I had the radio on and the windows up, so the fireworks were just bursts of light, no noise, through a rain-soaked windshield. It was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a long time.
I was coming back from the uber quiet East Side and a goodbye gathering for my good friends Tom and Jess, who are leaving this weekend to move to Seattle. Tom is from there, so it's a homecoming for him, but Jess is a Massachusetts kid. Still for both of them it is a lot of goodbyes this week. Tom just graduated from RISD; Jess did the same about a year ago. Everyone at the party was a RSID student or graduate (save for about one or two others who were in school somewhere else and dating one of the party-goers). I was the oldest there, as if it really matters which I suppose it doesn't. Through my friendship with Tom and Jess I have integrated myself sort-of and occasionally awkwardly into a circle of RISD students who are all really good friends and have been throughout their entire college experience. Because of this I do occasionally feel out of place when I'm with the group. But it's usually pretty fun, and a life experience not to be forgotten. I'm sure with Tom and Jess (and several of the others in the group who also happen to be recently married couples) leaving those days are over now anyways. Obla di, obla da.
Life is funny. Part of the interesting thing about the times spent with the RISD crowd is just being there and watching them as a group. Personally, I could not give you the names of five people who graduated with me. Well, bad example I was out of the country for my college graduation. Missed that one. But even still, I'd have to struggle to remember the names of folks who were with me at UNT. Back in the day (2000-2002) I attended Texas Tech University and even helped form a fraternity out there, so I could name you most of those guys. Matt Ashley. There's one. Furb. That was another. Hagen, Trey, Chaffee...I should stop name dropping. Still, today I couldn't contact them, or tell you what they're doing now. In my life it seems that most of my friends come and go; the few from the past that I do keep in touch with I never actually see in person anymore. Except the occasional holiday back home, but even those experiences get shorter and shorter as the years pass. Now I see this tight group of people who lived through so much together, and they're all now going their own ways but will no doubt...well actually who knows. Who ever knows? And that's life. This life, anyways.
Some days, especially when I'm around college students as I frequently tend to be through church and whatnot, I start to think back on all that I have lived through just in these past seven years, and what it has meant and where it has got me today. And to be honest with you...I don't even know if I know anymore. It's just enough trying to live in the present these days. I think about the immediate and occasionally about the future, but less and less about the past. Then days like today come up, and I can't decide if I like that or not.
Independence Day.
(addition): I was just re-reading this post, and thinking about it. I think for most of all of us, after a certain point, life tends to be a series of catching up with one another. I wonder if that's just an American thing? Probably not, but I'm sure we've mastered it. Or butchered it, depending on how you look at it. I think I'm good at that though. It's how most of my life is living away from most everyone I know or have known. It's periodic phone calls or e-mails and "How Have You Been's" and all that, and it usually makes for good conversation. And even in everyday life that's all our conversations tend to be. "How was your week?" "Have a good day?"
Oh. That just kinda made me sad. Or at least contemplative. ¶ 7/04/2007 10:44:00 PM
