do you know?

Just the other day a friend from college sent me an e mail. In one of those it's a small world scenarios her husband was talking to an artist he reps. She asked him if he knew her entertainment lawyer since he went to the same college as his wife. While this line of questioning rarely leads to anything in this case the lawyer was definitely some one I knew. He lived one floor below me freshman year, dated my best friend off and on for 4 years and was one of my roommates senior year in the worlds best and most insane house. In other words someone I saw almost every day for 4 straight years and then not once in the last 20.

Now college seems as real to me, and in some ways more real than things that happened last week or last year. I always assumed this was some weirdness on my part and that for most people the minor day to day of college has faded into ancient history. When my friend asked him if he wanted her to say hi, not only did he but he made a joke about how next time he gets the corner room. For some reason that one comment felt really great. Perhaps I'm not as strange as I thought?

holiday

So the holidays are rapidly coming on. I realize this is a religious holiday but g-d seems to be the last thing we ever focus on at this time. Right now we're consumed with the following:
1. what time do we have to close the office to be home in time for dinner.
2. how many people is my daughter bringing home for dinner?
3. how much soup and brisket do we really need?
4. how do we answer #3 without knowing the answer to #2?

As we get closer the major focus will switch to how early we have to arrive at services to get a seat? This will be the consuming topic of dinner. At least we don't have to worry about ugly political fights. There hasn't been a republican at holiday dinner since Roosevelt.

collections

Worlds lamest collection agency. Earlier today a collection agency ( or so they said) left "an urgent" message on the home machine. While I usually ignore anyone and everyone who calls I was curious. To the best of my knowledge we don't actually owe anyone any money. This is not because we're so wonderfully rich but because we ripped up all of our credit cards a year ago and now pay for everything with cash or debit. So no debt. When I called back all I got was an answering machine. I left my name and number. About an hour later a computer called me back! I pushed #1 to talk to a person and was disconnected. I suspect these are the same geniuses behind the housing crisis and the financial mess on Wall Street. Lots of bluster but not too much thought to minor details or major ones...