12 Year Reunion

The last time I saw Katy was 12 years ago. Now we have kept in sporadic contact via email and phone calls, but it was nothing like it was when we were growing up together.

I was an only child, and Katy came from a family of 3 brothers and 2 sisters, of which she is the youngest. Each sibling married and had a least 2 children. Needless to say, even the smallest of family get together’s at her house were a minimum of 30 people. I was always jealous of that. I remember thinking how totally awesome it was to have such a close tight knit family.

When growing up, Katy and I spent a lot of time together. See my father and her parents went to grammar school and high school together. When the adult would go out, I would go over to their house for the night. Weekends, family vacations, birthdays etc, it was as if I was a part of their family. I even grew up calling her parents Aunt and Uncle.

I smoked my first cig with her, (one of her Dad's Pall Malls) lol. I remember being fascinated with her (I am 3 years younger than Katy) and wanting to emulate everything she did. She would wear heels and makeup, then I wanted to wear heels and makeup.

Over the years, especially after my father died in '88, I took things to the extreme. I tried growing up too fast, did stuff that no person should ever do, let alone a child, and started to drift away. I got married at 22, divorced at 25, moved to NJ at 26 and started a whole new life.

When I heard from Katy that she was coming to Vegas, I was sooo excited I could hardly stand it. When so many things have left my life, and changed over the years, Katy has always been a staple. She’s kind of like the rock I can always lean on and the friend who is always straight with me no matter what, good bad or indifferent. Mixed with the excitement was some fear. What if I changed and it would be one of those awkward reunions? Oh man, I so didn’t want it to me like that, not with Katy.

So Tuesday night, Katy called me up to see what I was doing. Now every Tuesday night is what we have nicknamed “Tata Tuesdays” and we go to Little Darlings, which is a local strip club here in Vegas. Katy without missing a beat said to me, "I always knew if I was going to do something new and outrageous and take a chance getting in trouble, it was always with you" lol

We had a blast! We went to Tata Tuesdays and I joked that even at our old age it was nice to being able to still do "firsts" together lol. We went to our store at Carnaval Court and took pics on the bike, and we also went to dinner and talked and reminisced. I was so happy to see her and Mike get along so well. It was kinda like him meeting part of the family, and them getting along was important to me.

I had no idea how much I missed her and how desperately I needed to connect with something or someone from my past. I realized something really important by seeing Katy...its ok to reinvent yourself, its ok to make new starts, but never forget where you come from or the things and people who have sculpted you into who you are today. Without these key pieces from your past, you would not be who you are today.

The goodbye was bitter sweet, I didnt want to see her go and have to admit I got teary eyed, but we have plans to stop and see Katy in August on our road trip back to Vegas from NJ.