Will You Be My Friend

Lost deep inside the social morass for weeks, our intrepid hero finally emerges from the oppressive shade the crowd had created there.  He takes a deep breath and realizes that for the last two weeks he has been holding his breath as he scampered here, there, and everywhere searching for someone to connect with.  Oh sure, he had friends and has had friends for years, but there's nothing like a new friend, especially a new friend on Facebook.

Our world traveler takes a few moments to make sense of his recent trip.  He would alternate grins for grimaces as he replayed the previous few weeks in his mind.  But mostly, memory of that time forced a grimace at the many embarrassments and stupid questions he had asked and then regretted.

He smiled.  "You know what?  Fuckem,  I'd do it again, but maybe next time pace myself."

Our man reacquaints himself with the real world.  He puts away clean dishes, pours water in the dog bowl, and opens the refrigerator to see if anything inside strikes his fancy.  He knows he should be hungry, but he's not.  He's an old fart now and knows hunger is on a new schedule not tuned to the biorhythms of his past.

He pulls a Tupperware bowl out and pops the top. He lifts it to his nose.  Damn! That tidbit from a meal long ago ain't passing the sniff Test.  Our hero opens the garbage can and taps the ingredients of the bowl out, then tosses the bowl into the sink.

It occurs to him around the fifth spoiled leftover bowl, he has lost some time and more importantly, lost some of his connection to the here and now right in front of him when he finally opens his eyes.  This realization shakes him to his core.  Reality was what he had worked so hard over the years to avoid.

Now he was back and so far it wasn't so bad he guessed.  After spending a couple of weeks prowling other neighborhoods, he realized no one out there in the Internet ether has any better clue than he does.  We are, as it turns out, all just Bozos on this bus.

He came away from his brief interlude between Life and whatever else is out there feeling much better about himself even after so many detours over the years from his straight and narrow plan thought up while drinking shots of Tequila with a beautiful young lady on the dunes of Mission Bay 40 years ago.

(Hold your breath and read the previous sentence.  That  is what I call long winded.)

Keep it 'tween the ditches ........................................................