Friends

Today, I had the opportunity to hang out with some friends of mine I hadn't seen since well over half a year. While one part of me rejoiced at the fact that I saw familiar faces in which I had shared so many moments with, another part of me asked: what the hell happened? I'm trying not to be judgmental here (however unlikely that seems), but I'm puzzled by some of the choices they've made, and some of the situations they've seem to put themselves into. Two of them have warrants out for their arrests. Another, who I never took to be a pothead and just a slightly recreational drug user (a few beers from time to time, his own hookah he's got set-up, etc.) is dating a dealer, and he blazes just about every other day with her. One of my best friends is getting married within the year, and yet he's just about the biggest womanizer I've ever known (me and my other friend have a running bet on how long he's gonna last before he has an affair; we're not exactly the best of friends to think so lowly of him, but hey, we're pragmatists, not saints).

But I still love them. They're hilarious, down-to-earth, good people. Flawed, yes, but who doesn't have them? I have them myself; I'm full of contradictions (read: hypocrite), prone to anger, etc. I may come off as judgmental here, but these are the types of people that make life interesting; when I'm sitting behind a counter telling some old geezers how to prolong their lives with the pills I'm giving them, it'll be nice to know that I can get away from the monotomy of life as a pharmacist, and just do something exciting, dangerous, stupid, but ultimately...fulfilling, in some strange way. Hell, they already convinced me to go to Santa Cruz next week (I'm having bouts of deja vu here, because I realize that I'm going to go, with or without my parents' consent) to visit my friend Mike.

I've come to realize that I would be a very, very different person had I not met some of these people in my life; a lesser one, without my friends.