5/20- Old Friends

I had talked with Gus to come pick me up for the evening while mowing. When I finished, and had showered, he was still 20 minutes away so Dad and I sat once again at the kitchen table. Dan was bounding around the house seeming a very healthy 14 year old who got a free day off from school. It was the same conversational struggle with Dad so I turned to Dan to questioning him about how he was feeling until Gus got there.

I can't remember how much I've said in here before about Gus but he is one of my greatest friends for the longest consistent period of time. We've had one really major stint of begrudgery, which really just gelled us closer in friendship, and other than that we've been reliable pillars of support for one another since I was 15, albeit mostly from afar. On this journey into The History of Mass I've been quite anxious to see him and get his take on things.

Around 3-ish Gus scooped me up with hellos to my Dad. I had actually met Gus through my sister's first date with him on my 15th birthday which lasted three years into a failed engagement, so my family knows him well too. It was back to happy old times again once we scooted off in his truck as if no time passed between us, as usual.

Gus is a DJ by night and had a gig going in Northampton. We putzed around his house for the rest of the afternoon giving him somewhat of a debriefing on what I'm up to along with the philosophizing that inherantly come with that, and he and I generally. By the time we were driving up to Northampton that night we had fallen back into listening to old favorites, screaming the lyrics to Bodycount all the way up I-91.

The rest of the night was Gus Djing and me hanging about for a bit sipping free beer. Dave came by around 11 as well for a decent visit to catch up on what happened with Evan and how he's doing these days in general. He seemed quite good considering all. Evan and he had been quite close and it turns out he'd killed himself back in March. It wasn't until later in the week that I found out why, but Dave seemed very at peace with it saying, "Evan decided long ago that he wasn't for this planet." Seemed reasonable.

As for Dave's life, he sounded like he was heading in a good direction to me. He sounded a little disheartened, with a good spirit about him, since he's fed up with his trivia man gig at bars, runs two bands, and is working on a graphic novel but holds no other jobs. To me that sounds like the perfect spot to blast forward with, especially since he's had a lot of statewide success with various bands.

This is always interesting to me. Dave kept telling me he was quite jealous of my adventures, and the spirit behind it. I see his music and adventures in putting together a graphic novel to be along the exact same lines of pursuing something that appears beyond grasp. It does come with a continuous feeling of self doubt and feeling like you're an idiot for even wasting the time to try, but the point of life is living it not maintaining it at dried out jobs unless that's getting you somewhere. Dave has always seemed to be one to follow his inspirations.

By 1am the bar was closing and Gus was wrapping up his equipment. We hauled it out with him then spent another hour spitting out old jokes to one another and comparing our opinions of all the movies and shows we've seen over the past decade and a half. I think we were just glowing in this brief reunion we were having of very old friends. For that night times were good.