set out from philly this a.m. stopped in at my old job to say hi to everyone, and jaime and i went and grabbed a nice sushi lunch. it was really nice to see everyone that i used to work with, but it's also sorta tough; they had a really bad year last year and had to lay some people off. but, it sounds like they have some good things cooking and i'm really hopeful/optimistic for them. made my way up to my dad's place after that, and we had a nice mellow evening. my stepmom made a completely kickass mushroom appetizer thingy. i think i've come to the conclusions that mushrooms are not nearly as bad of a thing as i thought they were previously. i'm gonna have to try and make that, with the slf's help, of course. (look! new slf pictures! aren't we cute?!)

when we were done eating my dad busted out his pictures from his recent trip to barcelona. i don't have copies here, but the pics of the gaudi architecture was incredible.

Helene so shocked she needed
to immediately start drinking.

after dinner and pictures i went out to look up an old high-school friend that i hadn't seen in 10 years. she didn't go to our 10-year reunion, and although people knew she had gone to florida to join the navy, we all pretty much lost touch with her after that. i remember getting a random email from her about 6 years ago or so, and it went like this:

To: matt
From: helene
Subject: porn

hey matt, it's helene!  do you know where i can find some good porn online?

i think by the time i got around to replying the address i replied to had bounced, and she sorta slipped out of sight. so, i heard from a friend that they had seen her bartending over the summer at a place right back in our hometown, so i made a few calls, made sure she still worked there, and dropped by for a visit. she didn't recognize me at first, and she seemed shocked as shit to see me.... not suprising, i guess. turns out she's had an interesting life in the last 10 years... married for 3 months, in a bad accident requiring all sorts of rehab, and then back in n.j. to finish her masters and become an english professor. her fiance came in while i was there, too. he was very deep into eastern philosophy; had been a yogi for a few years in india/nepal/thailand/etc., and now was back in the states. anyway, the plan is to head back to n.j. with ryan at some point in the near future, and try and do a better job of catching up with what everyone's been up to the last 10 years.

after my trip down memory lane with helene, i went and hung out with jen, another high school friend, for awhile... along with her roomate and boyfriend. we drank some wine, and in general had a good time.