Kindred Spirits

Try as I might, I couldn't hold off the inevitable. Another year in my life has passed. It made me a little Grumpy McGrumpster. The little things in life and my daily wanderings were ticking me off. Not very like me to get irritated by the little crap. "I really wish you would stop eating like that, all that chewing is bothering me" or "I can hear your nose whistling, please stop" or "Do you have to walk in front of me slowly?" Yeah, frickin grumpy :)
I have not been real sure what I wanted to do with my birthday. A group of friends gets together at a restaurant of the B-day persons choosing (which I always enjoy, good food great friends), but I was not sure I wanted to do that this year. I thought about asking for donations to a charity instead of dinner, but I thought it might be a little weird. I wanted to do something different, but I didn't know what the different was. I still don't know. I do know that I don't want the next one to be the same old same old and it's up to me to make sure that doesn't happen. It shouldn't because I have a whole year to plan for it. :)
There is the good chance the naked office thing could happen, but I am leaving that up to the lottery. I win that baby and it will be "Ultimate Mocha" all over the office. Next up: Why this post was entitled "Kindred Spirits"

Tonight I had the perfect "meet somebody at the store" experience. You know the one. You read about them in dating books, see them on Oprah and hear about them from some braggart who wants you to believe he is a stud. You are at the store and you make small talk and great things happen. I was just about to grab something off the shelf and instead I was beaten to it
Me: I see you grabbed the last one
Chris: Yeah, I'm a sucker for these
Me: Me too, what did you think of the others?
Chris: I couldn't get enough. There were so many to choose from
Me: I know and they keep getting better.....

After some more small talk we realized that we ran in some of the same circles, knew a lot of the same people and we even frequented the same establishments. When I attended the "Cloud", Chris was there too. We talked about the Carpet, the Press, The Lake George Beach Club and the Trader and Trapper all the places that people hung out. Chris knew the owner of Granite City, a place I used to go a lot.
Chris grew up in Minot and I had friends there too. Wow this is pretty cool. I don't usually talk to strangers, but this was really fun. It made my day. The only thing that could make this better would be if Chris was a Christine or a Christina.
Chris just happens to be a forty something year old guy who collects even more stuff than I do. He was not creepy, stinky or maladjusted. We talked about our collecting passions, how a lot of people don't understand it and how much fun we have continuing to be big kids. His girlfriend wants him to sell his stuff. We talked about how some of these things are old friends and that makes them hard to part with. We talked about our "first time". Mine happened when I was just 10 yrs old. His was around 12 yrs old.
I remember it well. It was a summer day. We had just gotten into trouble for messing with my friend's sister (even then I was after the ladies). We decided to go up to my friend's room. He pulled out Avengers 161, cover by my then soon to be favorite artist George Perez. I have been hooked ever since. By the way, I met George Perez a couple years ago and he signed a copy of Avengers 161 for me.
Chris and I stood in the aisle at target for about an hour and a half just yakking about books, collectibles and the "hunt". We shared our tips for hunting and finding things others dare not go after. It was pretty cool. It's nice to find that person that totally understands your passion. We shook hands and went out separate ways, but before doing so he let me have the item. My faith in the human race is restored. Thanks Chris maybe I'll see you at Fallcon