Brunch at Ben's

Ben was gracious enough to invite us over for biscuits and gravy at his place for brunch.  I was hoping for the opportunity to see Daniel and Danny, two of the only people I hadn't seen yet on this trip. 
I made the mistake of telling Ben the day before about how I had met my first boyfriend online (in the dark days of the Internet, before Facebook or Myspace) at fourteen.
"Fourteen?" he had repeated.
"I was very sophisticated," I had said, which was a total lie.  I doubt I qualify as that now.  But my comment made Ben decide to play some old jazz music, which I enjoyed. 
I complained to them about the mosquito bites I got the day before.  Every time I'm out even at little at night in the Summertime, I get eaten up.  I had seven of them, mostly on my ankles.  
Ben's food, like Jimmy's, was delicious.  Again, those two boys can cook for me any time they want.  (Ben for breakfast, Jimmy for dinner.  Hell, I bet I could get Paul to handle lunch.  Then I would be the happiest and most well-fed girl in all the world.)  I was a little wary of the gravy, since I usually despise it.  But it was good, and it went well with the biscuits that Paul and Jimmy got for us.  And there was lemonade, so I was happy. 
Sadly, I couldn't hang around long because of all the drama going on at home, so I had to leave.  I missed seeing Danny and Daniel.  What a pity, right?  I haven't spoken to either of them that much since graduation. 
I went back to Nate's place, packed up my stuff.  I left a thank you note for Nate.  My Dad came, we loaded the car.  I got the weirdest feeling that I was missing something, so I kept checking my stuff.  I checked for my ID, money, jewelry, dresses, everything there.
So we went home.  It was uneventful back, but I was so tired by the time we got home.  All I wanted to do was to lay down.  We were suppose to go to a party for Alicia, who is going to MSU this coming year herself.  But I didn't want to move anywhere, plus it was raining. 
As I was looking to lay down, I noticed my pillow was gone.  And then it occurred to me.  I hadn't packed my pillow.  I had forgotten something at MSU.
Maybe this was a sign that I was, indeed, incapable of leaving MSU, because every time I was there, I kept forgetting to bring something home.  And not, say, my heart or anything like that but real stuff, like hoodies and locks and now my pillow.  Maybe this is a sign that I'm always going to need a reason to go back.  I felt like a moron.  I texted Nate, and he said he would guard my stuff. 
Then I finally laid down and got myself some decent sleep.  Couch surfing at Nate's was fine for a few days, but I wouldn't want to do it long term.  Not good for my back. 

Coupling Us Of

Jennifer and I had a nice drive over here to East Lansing.  Jennifer complained to me about her job.  I don't mind because I know everyone needs a little space to complain about their job.  Sometimes, even if you love your job, you need some room to say what you don't like.  You need to feel listened to.  I love listening to Jennifer.
Finding Nate and Megan's place was not tough.  I was afraid it might be, but it was this really nice section of apartments.  Jennifer was kind enough to take my bags up one set of stairs and then a second set, since we went up the wrong one.
And then we found their apartment.  The door opened, and there Nate was.  He looked exactly the same.  I almost felt like the Grinch, like my heart was expanding three sizes in my chest.  I felt I was going to burst.  We hugged, we talked.  I said hi to the other two roommates, Valerian and Dorian.  We chatted a little.  (Megan was at work and would return soon.)
We sat around and talked.  I called and texted various people, telling them I was in town.  Now that I was forced to consider it, there were a ton of people here this summer who I wanted to see.
Justin called asking me for ice cream.  Sure, I thought.  I'd love ice cream.  Sadly, Justin's work schedule was a little screwed up, so I would have to wait for his call.  But I was already happy to see even some people.
I laid down for a little in Nate's bed while he worked on his homework (he's taking an online class.)  We had earlier teased people who weren't doing so well with what were pretty easy questions.
I had another bout of not sleeping last night (I think from so much of the excitement surrounding this trip) that I was really tired.  I felt terrible.  Even though I don't think I slept, just giving my body a little downtime was good.
Dorian offered me some cheesecake, which I had.  It occurred to me that maybe I would spend this entire trip eating junk food.  This is a vacation, so I'm okay with that.
Megan came home, and it was so good to hug and see her.  She changed into this really cute outfit and we sat around and talked and took care of some business.  It felt like no time had passed at all, like I just graduated from school yesterday, and the next day I was seeing my friends.
We decided to go out for dinner, since Nate and I got invited to a dinner party tomorrow and Nate is going to be working Saturday night.    
Megan, Nate, Dorian, Valerian and I piled into Dorian's car.  I texted Dan to tell him that he was welcome to join us.
Driving through the town was weird.  I have all these memories here, but I've already been able to put so many of them in the past.  Feels strange to deal with them now.
We went past my old church.  I had accidentally left one of my favorite blue hoodies there right before graduation.  We went in to try to find it.  No such luck.
The church was eerily quiet.  No one appeared to be around.  All I could think of is how people at home are afraid to leave a church like that because people come in and vandalize so often.
We walked over to the restaurant and ordered our food.  The guy at the counter did that thing were he couples people off.  He assumed that Nate and I were a couple, which was awkward.  Nate had already walked away when he mentioned that we were a couple.
I laughed.  "We're not," I said.
"I don't believe you," he said.
People in this town are both crazy and fascinating.

The Date We Never Had

I went over to Micheal's house.  He was packing some stuff to go back to MSU, so I was helping him.  As he was looking for something, I happened to notice a Ponyo toy sitting out on a piano.  Last week, Michael had mentioned that he had an extra one and that I could have it.  I've actually never seen Ponyo, though I want to, since I'm a big fan of The Little Mermaid and Hayao Miuzaki.  I went over and squeezed its stuffed tummy.
And then I saw a bunch of framed pictures laying on the piano next to it.  I picked up the top one.  I was Michael's Dad, which slightly less crazy hair, and Michael's Mom, who I've never met.  She had crazy wild hair too, which made me wonder how Michael could be born with completely straight hair.  They were both smiling with a baby sitting in between them, Michael, I assumed.
The picture after that was similar, but instead of one baby in between, there were two.  Michael never mentioned siblings.  Had I just somehow missed that detail about him?  Maybe something had happened to the other sibling and Michael didn't like talking about it?  Maybe it was from a previous marriage, of, based on what the baby looked like, probably his mother?  I wanted to ask but I don't think there's any good way of beginning this topic.
I noticed then that there were no pictures on the actual wall of his house, anywhere.  It looked like a tornado had sweep through, which had distracted me to the lack of actual pictures on the wall.  I wondered if someone had tried to paint the walls recently or if they had moved.  It didn't make a lot of sense.
After that, we got into Micheal's car and headed over to a friend's graduation party.  The guy had just graduated from engineering at MSU and had found a job in Grand Rapids.  Kid was set for life.  Would probably be making five figures right out of college.  (What was I thinking pursuing English as a degree?)  I just graduated myself, but I figured no one actually had graduation parties to celebrate graduating from college.  With my Grandma being all sick lately and me not having anything exciting to say about where I was going, it's probably just as well, but now I have missed the opportunity to have one of these parties twice. 
I was a little nervous to go there, just because people would see me and be like, "Oh, you must be Micheal's girlfriend," when the truth was I was friends with his girlfriend Lisa.  But I didn't feel like it was my place to be picky. 
And, indeed, I totally called it, because everyone shook my hand and treated me as Micheal's girlfriend.  They asked where we had met.  Michael said through Lisa, and that got a few eyebrows.
It's actually a lie, the meeting through Lisa thing.  We met about six months before Michael and Lisa met.  I was sitting on a park bench reading Phillipa Gregory's The Constant Princess and Michael walked by, saw me, sat down, and then tried to pick me up.  No kidding.  We obviously did not end up dating, but it occurred to me then that if we had, this is probably what it would be like.  Again, I was wondering if I was going to regret this hanging out with Michael thing.
It was a normal, though sparely attended, graduation party.  The host's mother was very gracious to us (she knew Michael) and I helped myself to a Root Beer and chips and some Chinese noodles.  They had this interesting wooden servers that were like huge fork ends.  I joked that they were Wolverine servers.  A woman standing there asked what I was talking about, and I explained that they looked like the claws of Wolverine the X-Man.