Bachelor Pad Revisted

It's been nine years since I've seen my old friend and roommate, Terry. Terry and I met in high school art class and became fast friends. I got him into some trouble, and he put up with it as long as I would keep putting him in my comic strips. We eventually got an apartment together. We dubbed it "The Bachelor Pad." It was here that we spent countless hours laughing at each other's comments, throwing food out the window at the white trash neighbors below, and quoting lines from "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid." I had created a comic strip called, what else? "Tales from the Bachelor Pad."

But as we grew older, I stopped drawing our adventures. I had become frustrated with my life and eventually quit drawing the comic strips. Soon after, our lease was up. We moved into our own apartments and would see each other only occasionally. I met Lisa and my priorities shifted as I pursued a degree in graphic design and spent my weekends with her in Columbia. Terry and I slowly drifted apart. Before I knew it, we had moved on in completely separate directions and lost touch altogether.

I decided that it had been way too long since we had last spoke. I recently became reacquainted with some old mutual friends and, through this, reconnected with Terry.

A lot happens in nine years time. Marriage, babies, lots and lots of growing up. When we sat down across from one another at Borders last Wednesday night, I felt as if I had just woken up from a long sleep. My friend had aged nine years and had gone through life experiences that I had no part of. This saddened me. And, from what I gathered, he felt the same way. It was odd when I realized all the technology and events that had occurred in the time of our hiatus. As I logged his number into my cell phone, I somehow felt as if things had come full circle. Afterall, when we last hung out, cell phones were something that only the Jetsons had used. The internet was on the horizon, but nowhere as relevant as its become. The events of September 11th had occurred and the country had undergone a great change as a result. It's odd to realize how much everything has changed in this time. In the time I've carried a cell phone, I've never looked down and seen Terry's name listed, just like I've never logged into my hotmail account and seen his name waiting in my inbox. He's never even met Lisa, which blows my mind to think about.

I'm happy to announce that Terry has found happiness. A successful career, a wife and brand new baby daughter. The Bachelor Pad may be gone, but not forgotten. And over the past nine years, I've upgraded my VHS copy of "Butch & Sundance" to a DVD. We can take comfort in knowing that our daughters have something they can watch together.

Hmmm. "The Bachelorette Pad?"