Wired up on Diet Coke

I knew this would happen if I stayed out after dark and had "drinks" on the patio with some former students at a smoky bar on Barrett Parkway.

Initiated a couple of weeks ago through email, these three fine young people invited me to play Team Trivia with them cause they were "good" but were sure that my added knowledge would make them better. LOL

I told them that my brain had atrophied from lack of use and that I would probably know none of the answers -- I actually Hoover at trivia -- I mean, they don't call it trivia as a synonym for knowledge, you know?

*laughs at own pun*

Anyway, I arrived first at the Team Trivia location, opened the door, and the haze of cigarette smoke met me. I made it about three feet around to the front of the bar where a couple of geezers checked me out -- I felt like it was the 80s but not -- and then I did a 180 and immediately returned to the front where I called Amanda on her cell phone.

Me: Amanda? I'm already here. Where are you? Was this a joke? Are you setting me up? Getting back at me for those comments on your essays circa 2003?
Amanda: I'm coming across the parking lot now.
Me: I'm thinking that -- well, I'm thinking that we won't be able to breathe in this dive much less answer trivia questions about Pokemon or Joe Dimaggo's batting average in 1955.
Amanda: I'm coming. I'm coming.

We waited outside for Jeff and Alex who were meeting us there, and we decided we could handle playing Trivia if we could sit on the patio. The waitress assured us that we could, so we settled around a black wrought iron table and chairs and immediately began laughing and catching up on each other's lives.

I summed mine up for them: "I am worthless. Now tell me about you."

Alex and Amanda are both in graduate school -- Alex in some kind of engineering -- bio-something-- *yawns* -- something I didn't want to hear about rats and microscopes -- and Amanda in International Studies.

Jeff has a Masters and teaches high school history.

They made me so proud -- these 2003 graduates of Gillham Academy-- all grown up in so many ways -- and still so young in others.

We talked about politics and faith.
We commiserated.
We told stories, most of them funny -- Jeff's falling down a waterfall, Alex's being grilled by a girl from Iowa about the difference between a Haunted House and a Judgment House since he was "Southern Baptist," and Amanda's camp out from the night before.

We reminisced.

Alex: You acted like you really liked me when I was in high school. Was that true?
Me: No. I acted like I liked all my students.
Alex: Wait? Have I been insulted?
Me: Jeff, do you like all your students?
Jeff: Nope.
Alex: So, did you or did you not like me?
Amanda: [giggles]
Me: You were all right.

And what happened with Trivia? Well, the waitress didn't realize that we needed access to a television screen [which were only inside], so we never played.

If we had, I'm sure we would have dominated since the place was not packed with competition.

In fact, I heard the answer to one of the questions when I went to the restroom -- it was Bruce Springsteen and "Dancing in the Dark." I thought, I know of him and that song -- I could have at least answered that one. Of course, I don't know what the question was... I just recognized the answer.

*shrugs*

Meanwhile, we sat on the patio, Alex sipped his sweet tea, Jeff his Coke, and Amanda and I our Diets, and now I'm wired like an AM radio.

So I blogged.

I loved these kids when I taught them; I love them now -- they have only become better with age... no peaking in high school for them.

They have turned out "all right."

And that last line is such an inside joke that I shouldn't have blogged it, but I did.

Alex, Jeff, and Amanda -- this blog [is] for you.