Don't Look Back

Ever run into somebody you haven't seen in a while and then remember the first time you met him or her? Yesterday morning, I was out for a run when I passed a runner going in the opposite direction. I nodded my head to acknowledge him as I usually do to fellow runners when I realized I knew him from somewhere.

I continued running for a few minutes before I realized how I knew him: At a raucous post-softball party at the house I shared with two roommates 14 years ago, I poked my head into one of my roommates' rooms to find this guy and another doing lines of cocaine off a glass table. Now this may not be that bizarre of a tale coming from a party of youngish adults in the late '90s, but nevertheless, I didn't know these people and they were doing drugs in my house. I'm no prude and my roomies and I drank a LOT back then, but none of us did drugs, especially the powdery stuff. I didn't take immediate action, other than to go downstairs and say to my roommate, "Do you know there are dudes doing coke in your room right now?" Then I proceeded to continue with the partying and such.

I don't remember what my roommate did then, if he did anything, but I never saw those guys in my house again. If I recall correctly, we had gone to a now-defunct bar called Crackers for the traditional post-game libations and spent several hours there before coming back to our place and inviting a bunch of people with us. Those guys must have tagged along. I did run into both of them at different points in the years that followed, but we never made mention of the coke incident. Hey, everybody's done stuff at parties they don't necessarily want to be reminded about.

But it's probably been a decade since I saw the guy I passed yesterday. As I ran, I wondered if he remembered that little incident or if it was just a blip on the radar screen of his life. I certainly hadn't thought about it in many years. My partying days are way behind me; Deb and I probably party more in New Jersey with her brother Matt and his friends than we do up here. Now, when we do imbibe with friends, it tends to be a much more low-key gathering because we all have kids and have responsibilities beyond ourselves. And we've hosted our share of BBQs, but I can't remember the last time we held a party. Which is fine with me. Some things are better left in the past.