In the past 2 weeks, I have seen more old Wilson folks than I did in the entirety of 2005. There was Beltane at New Year's, Neurotic and Operaboy found me on Myspace, and I found Smiley at the grocery store last Saturday. He is the friend with whom I did all the illegal stuff in college, including rapelling off of various dorms, hanging huge (freakin' heavy) smiley faces on the theatre, copious amounts of drugs, and base jumping from buildings. I also wrote his senior thesis on the relationship between the school and the local fire department, allowing him to attain a college degree. I think he likes me cause I'll try just about anything once.

Tonight, I went over to Smiley's house. He's doing better. He doesn't smoke anymore (as much), and his tree service is booming. He's put an offer down on a house, and his mom called while I was there to tell him she was sending a $5000 check to cover the closing costs. So I guess he's almost a grown up, albeit one who wanders around his house in a weird pajama coat he calls a "squirrel suit." He went a little crazy after graduation, and we lost touch, mostly because I was living with the ex who made him crazy. I think he's still a little crazy, but only in that "I don't want to be normal" kind of way.

I'm not sure why I like him so much. I think he awakens a "let's make something happen" energy in me that is definitely dormant most of the time. If I hang out with him, I know we'll at least talk about something weird, even if we don't actually do something weird. Plus, I know Aunt Linda would definitely not approve, so I feel like I'm crossing the tracks a little. Afterwards, I always feel like maybe I went a little too far, but the stories from when I'm with him are always the best ones. I really hope we can be friends now, because I miss that radical "let's go climb something, cause I have all the gear" stuff that used to happen, but also because he thinks about things in a completely different way than anyone else I know.

Maybe I'm too empathic. I catch Smiley's crazy, Red's rigidity, Operaboy's snobbery. Whatever company I'm in, I adopt their mannerisms, modes of speech, habits. I don't whether that's really empathy or something more sinister, like insipidity.