Old School - But New

As I drove up I-95, I sort of went through a bunch of scenarios in my mind. How would I behave? What would we talk about? Would she ask the question? How would I answer? Would she remember me? Etc…

All these things ran through my head on my way up I-95…Unlike my previous trips up North this one was not filled with expectations of doing this or making that or having to be this and that to fulfill someone else’s moments of loneliness. There was no expectation of a time and a call or of things to happen!! See my previous ventures up that corridor over the past two years eventually turned into some burdensome shit. I wasn’t sure I should even be making this trip to be honest. Yet, it seemed innocent enough…two people from the same H.S. (her slightly older then me) who couldn’t remember each other for the damn.

The fact is that Sunshine and I never spoke a word to each other during our time in H.S. together…yes we knew some of the same people but our paths never crossed….So when she popped up on my screen on FB as a classmate who I might know, I just assumed that there was a computer error!! See in a school with a student population (at the time) of 875 students, there were only 50 blacks in the whole school. I thought I had known each of them and so when I sent her a message a few weeks back asking if she attended my Alma Mata and she said yes I was shocked as hell!!

You see she was cute…very cute…and I couldn’t believe that I had let one escape me…lol…since Black Hawk was sort of popular in H.S. I just knew that she must have known me…NOPE!! She didn’t, and to be honest that was good. We text each other here and there over the last few weeks (nothing serious or deep). So when I got a call from my cousin asking me to come up and hang out with some folks that I had grew up with I figured I would send her a e-mail saying “Hey I’m coming to NJ”.

Well when she responded back with a good maybe we can have dinner or something. I was shocked as could be. We proceeded to text back and forth about a plan of action…nothing concrete (like things were mandated to be over the past two years and if I wasn’t timely or did not call to inform of changes…OH GOD…all HELL broke lose…smile).

Sunshine was like Black Hawk…let’s just go with the flow create a preliminary plan and lets them be flexible enough that we could easily change them…to show you how this worked out here was our preliminary plan:

1. Get to NJ around 3:00 p.m.
2. Get my haircut
3. Sunshine leaves work at 5:30
4. Sunshine takes her daughter and girlfriend to skating rink 7:00 p.m.
5. Sunshine and Black Hawk hook up for dinner at 7:30 (Italian)
6. Sunshine picks up daughter at 10:00 and takes her home.
7. Black Hawk and Sunshine go out dancing and drinking 10:30 – 2:00 a.m.
8. Saturday…Sunshine and Black Hawk and girlfriend go over to NYC to hang out in Village and grab something to eat.

Well needless to say things went down like this:

1. Black Hawk gets haircut in MD to get it out of the way.
2. Black Hawk arrives in NJ at 6:30 (major traffic delays on I-95, so Black Hawk called Sunshine to let know….No problem she says and talks me through most of the ride)
3. Sunshine calls to tell me that daughter is not going skating, but then calls back to say she is and that she will taking them at 8:00 (cool no problem, gives Black Hawk time to shower and change)
4. Black Hawk meets up with Black Knight in NJ...Black Knight suggest a Portuguese spot in Newark, NJ…nice setting for a first outing…Black Hawk tells Black Knight that Sunshine likes Italian. However, just in case Black Hawk calls Sunshine to inquirer if Portuguese is ok…”I LOVE Portuguese”….Great!!
5. Black Hawk meets Sunshine in Newark at 9:15…
6. Eat at restaurant and then we leave after daughter calls to say she’s ready and the place is closing (10:40 p.m.)
7. Pick up daughter and take her home (11:15 – 12:00).
8. Black Hawk and Sunshine go out dancing (12:00 – 2:00)
9. Black Hawk and Sunshine leave club and talk some more (2:00 – 5:13 a.m.)

Oh Saturday, not happening Black Hawk is tired and Sunshine is ok with that…no arguments or strange faces…what a relief!!!!

Let me back up though….

The Portuguese spot that was recommended turned out to be lovely (SAGRES RESTAURANT & TAVERN)…see I was told it rained all day in NJ so when Black Knight told me that the restaurant had a outdoors area that was dimly lit I wasn’t to impressed because I figured no way can we eat outside…As it turned out the NJ skies cleared up and the night proved to be perfect for dining outside. Since I knew that Sunshine still had to pick up her daughter I just ordered half a jug of Sangria to be shared between the two of us and a beer for me...I like beer!! Sunshine recognized what I had done and was immediately impressed by my thoughtfulness!!

We first complimented each other on how each other looked…She was tastefully dressed in jeans and a slightly tight-fitting shirt. For a woman touching 40ish she looked more 30ish (early)…she was happy that she could wear heels and not be taller then me as she loved wearing heels but confessed that lately the guys she has been seeing were on the short side of the chart (smile). She wore makeup but not overly excessive with it.

I would later find out that she did professional modeling during the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s. It impressed me that she didn’t harp on it, but merely mentioned it as she told her story. I learned that it was because she wanted a family that she decided to end her career, but before retiring from modeling she had made quite a good living off of it.

We talked about H.S. and who this was and that was and what this person and that person were doing now etc….I must say that it was quite refreshing to be the person who finally could listen to someone speak of their life stories without having to pull stuff out of them as I have had to do over the past 2 years.

I found myself listening to her which is quite different from what I’m use to. At one point I wondered if I not talking was because I was empty of conversation about me, mine and my past… (see Native American had me believing that my stories were told over and over again and that she grew tired of them…) so was it fear of Sunshine growing tired of them that prevented me from delving into my stories…I surmised that was not it, but it was more a feeling that her stories were so riveting and interesting to listen to! I was happy that it was not me who had to carry the conversation all night.

We talked about a wide range of topics over dinner and there never seemed to be a dull moment…One conversation that truly had me giggling was when we discussed raising children…see Native American was not one I could discuss these things with since she had left her children for someone else to raise (mind boggling…how she justified it…but hey that’s her issue).

The evening was moving along great and then the phone call came right smack in the middle of our dinner (half eaten)…Her daughter needed her to come now…before she even asked I had already left the table to tell the waitress that we needed the check. Sunshine scored a big 3-pointer when I got back and I discovered that she had snuck my beer (that I could not finish and just opened it since we were drinking the Sangria) out so I could drink it later…I ended up pouring it out as I didn’t want to drink and drive, but I thanked her nonetheless for thinking of me.

I followed her to pick up her daughter then back to her house…I knew she was having a good time because if she wanted to vacate the scene she had many chances…yet she dropped off her daughter changed shoes and came right back out for Pt. 2 of our night out.

We went to a spot in NJ where I was meeting up with my cousin who I had not seen in a second and some other friends that I had grown up with in NJ. My cousin was recently engaged so I wanted to meet her fiancé (who happened to be an old friend of mine also) and at the same time I wanted to hang out with my peeps from back in the day!! Quite amazingly I thought that in the 2 years that Native American and I had dealt with one another we never did this. I mean I never came up to NY/NJ and hung out with my people besides Black Knight (who grew to not like Native American). Yet here I was with Sunshine…talking and laughing…My boy Black Knight met us at the spot and like a good wingman does I would later find out (through Sunshine) that he asked her many questions. She would later tell me that your boy definitely has your back. I thought to myself…”I already knew that…but thanks…lol”.

We closed the spot out and Sunshine and I sat outside talking on the bench as people filtered out of the place…My boy Black Knight and his man The Judge sat to the side and was shooting the breeze about some event the next day. I would have loved to go, but really didn’t bring the proper attire to attend. After a while all three of us headed to our cars, Black Knight walked with us and being the wingman that he is proceeded to throw all types of questions at Sunshine. Unlike many times before I decided to just listen and let her engage in this wordplay with Black Knight and see how she stood up. In doing so it told me a great many things about her.

I knew what Black Knight was doing and I was ok with it…having just dealt with some craziness for the past 2 years he wanted to see where Sunshine’s mind was and what her views were on things. I use to be able to recognize crazy, but I must say I’m not in any position to argue someone else’s skills in this area right now…LMAO…

After Black Knight pulled out Sunshine and I proceeded to talk for another 2 ½ hours outside our cars and the question finally came (as I knew it would come).

For the first time in forever as I sat there and explained my situation and what is going on in my life with my wife, kids, home, job etc…I felt at peace when I was done…there were no lies or mistruths etc…I told Sunshine that all I’m really interested in right now is being a good friend…no expectations of this or that…she was ok with that and as she said “Who knows this could be a FF thing (Friends Forever)…with benefits”…I laughed and told her I heard the “with benefits” part!!

Although we had planned on going to NYC the next day…I decided I wanted to spend sometime with my Mom and I did that…Mom and I sat in her kitchen and ate a plate full of Porgies (a fish native to the north east) and talked. After which I headed down to South Jersey to spend more time with my cousins and had a GREAT Time!!!





Sunshine called me and never complained about my change in plans…She and her girl still went to NYC and I'm sure they had a beautiful time...

On Sunday, we talked some more then I headed back to MD…the only bad part to this is that Black Hawks phone went dead so I couldn’t talk to Sunshine and anyone else on my way back home on Sunday…so Black Knight and MD Finest will need to wait to get an update of sorts…Not really much to say other then I made a friend that was Old School, but New this weekend…and we shall see where it goes from there:)

P.S. – when I got home and charged my phone…who was the 1st person to call???? Yeah Sunshine…it felt good…but it felt good (wink…wink)!!