School starts again soon, so the next few weeks my blocks of free time will vacillate between sparse and non existent; it’s the ebb and flows of a season driven workload. Still managing to sneak in some writing here and there, but I really need to do much more about making time for it because I’m getting into the usual trouble: creating drama and drinking too much. Sometimes both at the same time.

Caught up with good friends this past Friday, one who I lost touch with during the separation and divorce. He and his fiancee bought a fantastic home in a kitch town near the water. What really impressed me about the purchase is that it presents like the working home, not a starter place, even though this is their first house together and they are fairly young. Always nice when a couple gets their digs so right on round one. They really did their homework and stood their ground on what they wanted, accepting nothing less.

But back to needless drama and booze. After much gin and vodka, out of nowhere I said something like: “Dude, if you hurt her, I better not find out, because I will disappear you.”

The Bud: “You have my permission. I’ll deserve it.”

Sam: “You just earned the next round.”

Later, as the sidewalks turned some odd angles, the air went cold, and the hands of fall tugged at my bare arms, in a moment of clarity surrounded by the blur of the evening, I remembered what it felt like to put it all on the line for a girl who would do the same for me.

And it was a pretty memory, just to know that it ever happened.