the party starts when we arrive, we're the class of '85
I'm walking into a South Austin gym, having picked one near Kyle where I'm thinking there will be no one I know. But it seems you can't live in Austin for 25 years and not see someone you know, which it keeps it feeling like the city I love.
I see a guy who looks away as I walk by, a half smile on his face as he talks to another guy. I realize it's Conrad, the quarterback from my high school who was my main distraction in geometry. I haven't seen him in at least 20 years. So I do what any other 39-year-old woman does when they see the quarterback from their high school at the gym. I hide in the locker room. After several moments of indecisiveness, I decide I'm acting stupid and should just go work out.
Conrad was charming and very good-looking in high school and still is. It was his best friend Zach though that killed me, Lanier High School's closest answer to a surfer boy. The summer before my senior year Zach, Conrad, and my friend Stacy and I worked at the Northcross Mall movie theater. It may be soon a Wal-Mart, but long before the Domain and the Arboreteum, this was where the action was as a teenager in Austin. That was the summer spent driving around the city in Stacy's Jeep Cherokee, blasting Purple Rain wherever we went. I know for certain it was the prayers of my parents and God's infinite mercy that kept me out of trouble that summer.
Conrad and I had great conversations in geometry class about life, and I wasn't surprised when he majored in philosophy at UT. I'm thinking about all this as I'm working out, plus trying to look in the mirror behind me to see if he's still in the gym, and asking God if this is a door I should walk through. Probably why I fall off the ellipetical and send my ipod spinning. Note to self: if you don't want to be noticed at the gym, do not fall off the ellipetical.
I gather my composure, and finish working out, only slightly bruised. Conrad is nowhere in sight. I call Steve later as the boys and I are having lunch.
"Guess who I saw at the gym today."
Silence.
"Just guess. You'll never guess."
"Arnold Schwarznegger," he says.
Yeah, he's funny like that. As I hang up, I'm wishing I had talked to Conrad. We were friends, even though in high school we pretty much hung out in different crowds; he with the football team, me with the journalism crowd as I was editor of the school paper, the Runeskrift. What all good Vikings read. He and his friends flirting with cheerleaders, me and my friends looking at L.L. Bean catalogs.
But we liked each other; I remember how he would joke around the day of a test, then pull out some notes as the teacher handed out the test, and with a photographic memory memorize the pythagoreum theorem or whatever they teach in geometry, aceing the test. Meanwhile I would make a D on said test, not having the same visual acumen.
And as I drive I-35 home this afternoon, I'm wondering if he knows Jesus like I know Jesus. It makes me sad I didn't talk to him because I sensed I missed an opportunity. So I pray that he does find Jesus. I'm sure he's married and I pray that if God wants it that I'll see him again and invite him and his family to the Stone. But no matter what I pray for him to find Jesus. I want him to be at the party in heaven where every tribe and every tongue will declare Jesus Christ as Lord.
our eyes are open
every chain now broken
in this world
we are different
let Your love become us
as we live to make You famous
in this world we are different
so call us out
let the world see
You are God,
as we sing
so call us out
let the world see
You are God
one and only
in this world
You are all we have now
lyrics from point of difference, all of the above, hillsong united
I see a guy who looks away as I walk by, a half smile on his face as he talks to another guy. I realize it's Conrad, the quarterback from my high school who was my main distraction in geometry. I haven't seen him in at least 20 years. So I do what any other 39-year-old woman does when they see the quarterback from their high school at the gym. I hide in the locker room. After several moments of indecisiveness, I decide I'm acting stupid and should just go work out.
Conrad was charming and very good-looking in high school and still is. It was his best friend Zach though that killed me, Lanier High School's closest answer to a surfer boy. The summer before my senior year Zach, Conrad, and my friend Stacy and I worked at the Northcross Mall movie theater. It may be soon a Wal-Mart, but long before the Domain and the Arboreteum, this was where the action was as a teenager in Austin. That was the summer spent driving around the city in Stacy's Jeep Cherokee, blasting Purple Rain wherever we went. I know for certain it was the prayers of my parents and God's infinite mercy that kept me out of trouble that summer.
Conrad and I had great conversations in geometry class about life, and I wasn't surprised when he majored in philosophy at UT. I'm thinking about all this as I'm working out, plus trying to look in the mirror behind me to see if he's still in the gym, and asking God if this is a door I should walk through. Probably why I fall off the ellipetical and send my ipod spinning. Note to self: if you don't want to be noticed at the gym, do not fall off the ellipetical.
I gather my composure, and finish working out, only slightly bruised. Conrad is nowhere in sight. I call Steve later as the boys and I are having lunch.
"Guess who I saw at the gym today."
Silence.
"Just guess. You'll never guess."
"Arnold Schwarznegger," he says.
Yeah, he's funny like that. As I hang up, I'm wishing I had talked to Conrad. We were friends, even though in high school we pretty much hung out in different crowds; he with the football team, me with the journalism crowd as I was editor of the school paper, the Runeskrift. What all good Vikings read. He and his friends flirting with cheerleaders, me and my friends looking at L.L. Bean catalogs.
But we liked each other; I remember how he would joke around the day of a test, then pull out some notes as the teacher handed out the test, and with a photographic memory memorize the pythagoreum theorem or whatever they teach in geometry, aceing the test. Meanwhile I would make a D on said test, not having the same visual acumen.
And as I drive I-35 home this afternoon, I'm wondering if he knows Jesus like I know Jesus. It makes me sad I didn't talk to him because I sensed I missed an opportunity. So I pray that he does find Jesus. I'm sure he's married and I pray that if God wants it that I'll see him again and invite him and his family to the Stone. But no matter what I pray for him to find Jesus. I want him to be at the party in heaven where every tribe and every tongue will declare Jesus Christ as Lord.
our eyes are open
every chain now broken
in this world
we are different
let Your love become us
as we live to make You famous
in this world we are different
so call us out
let the world see
You are God,
as we sing
so call us out
let the world see
You are God
one and only
in this world
You are all we have now
lyrics from point of difference, all of the above, hillsong united