I was walking up into the school although it didn't quite look right but it was my school. He was walking the other way in that leather coat and his girlfriend clinging to his arm. I waved to Ted and even tried to say hi but he didn't acknowledge me. He just kept walking the other way. Why was Carrie with him, I thought they broke up?
I awoke from my dream, my illusion of life, flooded with memories from my college years. Ted & I met junior year in our operations classes. We became friends, at least that is what it seemed like at time. Today I would probably call it business partners. Ted was short, I was tall. Ted liked to BS and gamble, I wanted to mess with computers and be left alone. He was the kind of guy that I would normally despise but somehow we got connected through team assignments. I was good at Excel and doing the stats, Ted loved to write and BS. I did the research & spreadsheets then Ted wrote the papers & kissed the teacher's ass. It was a good business relationship.
Mark was different. We just had some of the same classes together. Mark would have been more of a true friend had we known each other better. The semester we meet we had the same two classes back to back in the same room with the same teacher. We would sit there in between the two and chat. Or most of the time not talk at all. That was the problem we were too alike, just wanted to be left alone even though every time we chatted we hit it off. We really didn't know much about each other at all yet there was some kind of connection. For group work we would pick each other probably out of convenience.
The last time I saw Mark was at my graduation party/wedding shower. He made the trip with his wife. They played badminton with my now wife & I. Then we all sat around and chatted before they left. I asked Mark to be in my wedding but he declined. Having landed his first job after college he felt like he couldn't get the time off to come out for it. I was mad at the time if not hurt. Although when it came time for my wedding I could only muster the courage to ask for 1 day off from my new job.
Ted made it to our wedding and was an usher. I picked up his tux for him and we played cards before the wedding. He brought a Jewish girl for a date that had to be back home by sundown for Yom Kippur. So he was gone before the reception. I gave the room I had reserved for him to my brother. I am sure he felt out of place after all he wasn't like me, us.
My memories of the two have really faded over the last 4 years. I have a picture of Ted being in my wedding party. I think we got rid of the deep fryer Mark gave us as a present. I am sure my wife remembers some of these moments but maybe not. She wasn't there for most of them. Now Ted & Mark are just people I used to know. I think.
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2 comments:
Nice little discussion about how people and things pop in and out of our lives and our minds.
I did think this was going to be a rant about computer programs.
I think maybe you could played around with wordings a little connecting the idea of computer programs and stuff like that with how people fit into the programs of each of our lives.
But sometimes stuff like that can be too cute also.
Good job!
I've been playing around with that lyric for awhile and at first it was just a discussion on people coming and going in our lives like an illusion but then I had that dream the other night and I was trying to add another layer to it about friendship can be an illusion sometimes and even that maybe the people in general were an illusion. In the end I think i was trying to do too much with it. Still happy with the results though, it is probably my best yet.
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