This week is turning out to be a non-computer work week, which is maybe what I need. For Tuesday I went to visit some of my oldest friends in Lexington, Massachussetts, not that far from where I currently live in New Hampshire. I'd met them when I was still an undergraduate in college after getting to know them through Applelink Personal Edition (later America Online) when we were both forum consultants for the Apple II Graphics Forum (AGR). I had flashbacks to those early years, remembering driving down that road way before car GPS was available, meeting them when they were in their late 30s with young kids who are now all grown up and having kids themselves. The house was largely as I remembered it, filled with art and old toys.
I stayed for a few hours, happily picking up where we had left off in our conversations before about creativity, finding purpose, learning about each others hobbies and the latest goings-on with people we used to work and play with. It was an affirming visit, but not in the sense of feeling I was on the right path or received any answers to my current challenge of getting back into the freelance productive mindset. I'd say what I came away with was the feeling of being seen and remembered by people who knew me at the very beginning of my adult life, who I've worked with here and there throughout the years beyond casual acquaintanceship but not so deeply we were colleagues in a day-to-day grind. It felt like coming home to a familiar place, something I have not felt anywhere else. After all, none of the houses I grew up in are in the family anymore, and my entire adult life has been spent thousands of miles away from my parents, aunts, and uncles. When we get together, the feeling is always familiar and warm, but the place is not familiar and therefore carries none of the memories.
On the way home, I had to endure the evening rush hour from Boston and was stuck in traffic for another 30 minutes, but I made up for it by detouring through another Chinese restaurant to add to my egg roll survey. It wasn't bad!
A good day.