Tom somehow ended up with the day off today, the lucky bastard (especially after yesterday,) so I didn't have anyone to go to lunch with like I normally do. Since there wasn't really anyone at work to have lunch with and I didn't feel like going home and having hot pocket, I ended up going to lunch with Sterling.
Earlier in the afternoon, he called me at work to see what I was up to that evening. I told him I was probably going to be too exhausted to hang out or do anything, especially after the weekend I'd had up until that point. There was that, and the fact that I was pretty sure the store was closing at 10, not 9, that night and I was going to be dead. I asked him what he was doing this afternoon and if he minded heading out this way to meet up with me for lunch.
He ended up making the trip out here to meet me for lunch at Applebees. I hadn't seen Sterling since the night we saw the car accident downtown and I got to call 911 like a superhero woo hoo... Anyways, I hadn't seen him in forever, so it was nice being able to catch up with him. I filled him in on what has been going on with my family, about the whole mess with Steph and that. He filled me in on his current restless state, how he doesn't really like where he's at in life.
He's really good at what he does, working with computers, but he misses going to school and believes that he should do something more with his life than just work with computers. I completely understand why he feels so restless...I get that way all the time. Its a weird feeling because you know exactly what you don't want, but you never seem to figure out what it is you do want out of life. As is with most of my friends, I'm sure he'll be incredibly successful in anything he chooses to do...
It was sort of strange catching up with Sterling. Its been so long since I last saw him, it was almost as if I didn't really know him. I mean, I knew him and all...but hearing everything he had to say, its like I knew absolutely nothing about his life. Everything about the Sterling I met and knew, or at least thought I knew, rather well last year, is completely different in just about every aspect, right down to the car he drives.
Do you ever get that feeling? Where you look at someone who is supposed to be completely familiar to you, yet you have this strange feeling like you have no idea who is sitting across the table from you? I've been getting that a lot lately....with everyone, sadly. The last time I had lunch with Dan, I felt that way too. Looking at him, I couldn't conjure up a single memory of the two of us, it was more the name, and what it was supposed to mean to me, that triggered everything.
I'm almost positive I'd feel this way if I were to get together with Kelli or Marc or Meghann or any number of people I've let slip from my life. I don't know why things are getting like this for me...
On another note, I realized the other day that I have known Sterling for about a year now. Its funny how it seems like its been a lot longer than that, yet at the same time its gone by so quickly. A lot has, and hasn't, happened in the past year...