Absolute Horror
Diane,
While at lunch with Rocket Boots and Tarantula today, I ran into someone from high school. Or, to be more specific, he walked past the table and said hi.
This person was, in high school, the example of the Dingy Gamer Stereotype, known by the wags on RPG.net as "the Cat-Piss Man". He was a haze of oily unkempt long hair, faded heavy metal t-shirt, and bad vibes. Whenever he would approach, we would flee or have a nervous, awkward conversation. Even during the years when Gen Con was still in Milwaukee during college, when he approached, we fled. As if he stood close enough to us, we would lose our minimal amount of cool and staying air guitaring "Master of Puppets" while talking about our Werewolf character. He was so well-known for these traits that I'm pretty sure that those readers that knew me 9in high school know exactly who I'm talking about without the clever use of a pseudonym.
Still, he was good for a few things. Gold Piece came over to our group of friends hanging out after school one day because he had fallen in with a game they were running and asked us if he could play with us. And he has been one of our good friends for 15 years or so. And, its sad to say, this guy was an easy punchline to how you or I might be a geek, but at least we're not bad as him.
Today he was much less intimidating. Most of his long hair had migrated to a ZZ-Top-style beard and he was wearing. We shared a few moments. I'll bet he works in an IT department somewhere.
When I say I didn’t go to my 10-year reunion because I stayed in tough with most of the people I wanted to, that's the truth. But there are still those corner cases that I wonder about.
It also got me to thinking about the Things I Learned in High School. I thought about grudges I still held. I thought about friends lost. I thought about that waiter in Paris..what was his name......Jean-Luc!!!
I thought about how some people I know still aren't talking to each other after ten+ years under the bridge. How I still refer to some of my Old Girlfriends by juvenile, spite-filled names.
And, of course, how I'm on this same path with EP. Rocket Boots said he called him and got a call back, which kind of stung. Rocket said "You get the silent teatment for being a good friend, but he calls me because he's guilty of what he said after the breakup." I'm not sure if that is correct or not. I don't think he thinks I was a good friend, which is too bad, because I don't know what I could have done differently.
PS. And I won’t mention how Rocket Boots still tried to flee the scene.
PPS. Whoops.