Juliet got off of work around 5PM, and we all hung out at her place for a bit. We ordered a pizza, and she ended up making a fruit smoothie that we split. Nerd that I am, I ended up taking a lot of video and pictures of the whole process. Now, some days after the fact, I’m thinking that video isn’t all that compelling. Heh.
We chow on some pizza, and then head on over to Jason and Layla’s – friends from back when I was in graduate school at OSU.
Here are the directions we followed. However, it turns out that it’s more like 2 and 1/2 miles, instead of a 1/2 mile. After a lot of back and forth on Zollinger Road, we eventually got pointed the right way at a nearby Blockbuster.
I was joking with Juliet that this was precisely the sort of thing that programmers encounter, day to day. Overall, the directions were perfectly fine. It just so happened that there was an error on line 6 that shot everything to hell.
That’s right. I made a code analogy. Shut UP. 
Juliet and I got to see Jason and Layla’s new house, and hung out with Miranda and Roman. Tonight was the first time I’ve seen their new digs, and the very first time I met Roman (who was a blast to play with). Every time I held out my hand, he met up with his and tried to grab mine.
All of us sat in the kitchen a good while, and reminisced. We had coffee and apple pie, and discussed what we were doing and generally got caught up on our lives some. As always, the talk turned to writing and we fell back into the types of conversations we used to have, back when we were in school.
Everytime I see Jason again, I’m reminded of how my own writing regimen is lacking. There was a time I recall when, he’d wake himself at the crack of dawn, go jogging around his apartment complex a few times (all the while dodging various gangs of racoons hanging around the dumpsters), then settle down for an hour or two of writing… all before helping out with the baby and working a full day. One of the almost certain questions that arises, when fellow MFA’s meet up post-degree, is: Are you still writing? And from there, the talk turns to how difficult it is, to find time to write – balancing families or jobs or life in general.
Seeing Jason, I’m always reminded of how my lack of productivity is my own fault. I’m reminded of how it’s not so much setting aside a big block of time to work – it’s about setting aside a consistent amount of time, every day, to work.
I took this pic shortly before we said our goodbyes. Layla is smiling in the bottom corner, and that would be Miranda on the far left, totally hamming it up. I developed a bit of a crush on Miranda, and the two of us ended up playing peek-a-boo a great deal the whole night (the one advantage to having long hair is that it’s an automatic curtain you can use, to hide behind).
Fun stuff. It’s a shame we could only hang out briefly before heading to the show, but I’m glad I got to see everyone and catch up a bit.
