Rivas Cultural Services hit up the Orchid Bowl last Saturday night for a beer with the famous Kevin Witherell. We met his paramedic girlfriend and her paramedic colleague at the bar, drank beer and ate appetizers. It was the first time I'd ever been to Zodo's. I haven't been bowling in ages, but in high school it was a semi-regular part of my program. I always preferred San Marcos Bowl though. They had these punch cards that would allow you to bowl 50 games for $10. No wonder they went out of business. Anthony Garibay, Dan Kilgore, Chris Ducale and I also used to love to play some ruthless games of air hockey there.
So while sitting there at the Zodo's bar for the first time, I got a tap on the shoulder. At the other end was Brian Hiefield, who has apparently parlayed his misspent youth as a SimCity addict and geography major into a city planning job with Goleta City of Goleta. With him was my buddy since third grade at Foothill School, Matt Graham, and his fiancee Katie Golus, the Matt Graham and Katie Golus that I understood, via Facebook, to be in Boston! But they're not in Boston, not even a little bit! They live on Paradise Road! These are people I've known at least since La Colina Junior High. Brian's been in Santa Barbara ever since, and Matt and Katie have been back in town a few months now, but I haven't any of them in almost 10 years. I ride my bike to work right past the Goleta City of Goleta offices two or three mornings a week, yet have still never seen Brian.
There are probably 20 people that fit in this category whose faces I've only seen on Facebook, and even then only in the last few months: folks who've been here ever since high school but apparently haven't been hanging out where I've been hanging out. We all agree it's surprising that we've never run into each other despite none of us having been in hiding. I wonder how many of them I would have enjoyed hearing from all these years, and how many of them I have nothing in common with?
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