The simple things in life…

I’m a spender, I like going out shopping and buying things with the money my hard-working wife earns. I get warm fuzzy’s from finding things that I want (not need) and purchasing them, bringing them home, using them once, and forgetting about them. Deep inside I know it’s wasteful but I’m wired that way. Or at least I have been most of my life. I’ve made a pact with myself to accept the things I have as good enough and not replacing them until they are so broken they can’t be fixed or so obsolete that they must be replaced (we’ll see how long this pact lasts). Anyway, I have a deep ability to love but in most other things I am rather shallow and I try to live my life so that I don’t hurt others with my personality. Periodically, my deep ability to love overshadows all the shallowness in my life and I receive all the joy I need for a day or two from a simple act or from another person. Yesterday was such a day.

I went to Wal-Mart after work to pick up two things that I needed for the way you have to live when you live in an RV. As I was walking through the parking lot, my cell phone rings and I see it’s from the 713 area code. I don’t know anyone in the 713 area code in fact prior to this call, I couldn’t have told you where the 713 area code was from. I was pretty certain it was going to be some telemarketer and I was sort of sadistically looking forward to making sure this person was in no state of mind to make another sale the entire evening (shallow, I know). Anyway, I answered the phone and the voice on the other end said “Patrick Landry, you’ll never guess who this is!” Well, that’s no fun, if I’ll NEVER GUESS, why even try but the person seemed intent on giving me some time to come up with an answer so I just kind of mumbled that I didn’t even know where the number was from. Finally, in a fit of pity for me, he said, “It’s Keenan Johnson”. Can you believe it, Keenan Johnson was calling me! I was floored, it was just too great to believe…Really. Those of you who have read my blog before may be attempting to insert a hint of sarcasm into those lines and in 88.65% of the cases, you’d be correct but this time you’d be DEAD WRONG. Perhaps some history would help…

Keenan and I started school together in 1st grade. Where we went, the Catholic schools were 1-3 and 4-12 (Kinder was somewhere else). Anyway, like I said Keenan and I started together in 1st grade. For the first 6 weeks of 4th grade, I was placed in a local public school and Keenan went on to the 4-12 Catholic School. At the end of the 6 weeks, I’d been beaten up at least 3 times (something about a big mouth, I don’t know what they’re talking about) and my parents decided I needed to be moved for my safety. So, as we’re driving in to the Catholic school for my first day there, the first person I see running around the playground is Keenan. I could not contain my excitement. I almost jumped out of the car. I don’t know why I felt so close to him at school, we didn’t hang out together after school or on weekends but at school we were good friends and even then, I knew that good friends, really good friends, were a rare commodity. So we went to school together through 12th grade. We crossed the stage, promised to keep in touch…and never saw or spoke to each other again. In February of 2009, I moved here to San Antonio and in order to facilitate communication with many people who had never heard of a blog, much less the now famous and widely read Stupid Fat Hobbit blog, I reluctantly opened a facebook account. At first, I only had about 6 friends but as I started searching around, I noticed that several of my old High School classmates were on facebook as well. Then one day, probably around March, I saw that Keenan had a facebook page as well. Immediately, I sent a friend request and sat down to wait for the acceptance. Unfortunately, Keenan was not hyper-active on facebook like many of my friends are and it took a while for him to respond. We wrote on each others’ wall once or twice, I gave him my phone number and that was it. Then yesterday, almost 26 years since we’ve spoken to each other, he calls me up to talk. We spent about 35 minutes on the phone (probably 30 more than he expected) and tried to do a little catching up. I bought two things at Wal-Mart, neither of which were even remotely close to the two I went in there to buy and I left feeling more satisfied than I’ve ever felt leaving a Wal-Mart before. Thanks, Keenan. You made my day, probably my week. I can’t wait to talk to you again…

BTW, the 713 area code is in Houston…