TJS is getting married this weekend. Hayumbone and I are driving down to Birmingham on Thursday morning. That's going to feel really weird. I can't remember when last I was there. It must have been to visit TJS after his wreck. Not sure whether I will go see any old haunts (ISS, the Cusicks, the house on Crossvine). I think the being away so long makes it weirder.

I've often imagined what it would be like to roll up to the Cusicks' house, after so long, and walk in the kitchen door like I used to do 3 times a week, and find Pia chopping eggplant, or something more Finnish and unsettling, and sit at the table and drink beer with Richard.

I wonder if everything's okay with them. I feel guilty about my relationship with that family: guilty for disappearing, guilty for becoming a fundy all those years, guilty that Richard wasn't a groomsman in my wedding, and for losing out on the joy that family gave me.

Last I knew, Richard was recovering from a brutal divorce, and studying law again, somewhere in Louisiana -- Shreveport, IIRC. That was probably seven or eight years ago.

Every now and then I remember that I've been out of high school for nearly two decades now. The prospect of attending a 20th-year high school reunion looms.

Anyway, the happy day is for TJS, and I get to play Best Man. I'm brushing up on the duties!