What is perfection? Many people will answer that question with a different answer every time the question is asked. Is perfection witnessing the birth of your first child? Is perfection looking up into the night sky and seeing the stars on a clear night as they glow and shine? Is it art from years and centuries past? Is it the beauty science, and wonder of mathematics? Or is it the thoughts of past events in a person’s life that brings a smile on ones face when they think about them?
Like I mentioned before every answer that is given will be different no one answer is the correct answer. Actually in an odd type of way the answer that is given from a person would be considered by them to be the correct answer.
For myself I would have to say (at lease at this moment) it was reflecting on certain past moments in my life. Over the weekend I had gotten a phone call from a good friend that I have not spoken to in a while. As well we have not seen each other in a few years. The reason for that is because they live in the state of North Carolina and of course myself I live in the state of New York.
We just have been busy with our current lives to make the time to plan a trip so that we can see each other. Beyond that we do try to call each other or text once in a while so that we can stay in touch and catch up with what is going on with us. To my very pleasant surprise my good friend from North Carolina did call me over the weekend. He does not work a normal nine to five. So to be honest I really don’t know the best time to call and reach out to say “hello.” So I often play it safe and just send a text message to him once in a while.
He called me to say first of all to say “thanks” for all the text messages and pictures that I have been sending him. And this was a moment that when he called he actually had some free time on his hands to reach out and get in touch with me. For sometimes when we talk our conversations don’t even last longer than five minutes, but this time around we spoke for almost over a half-hour.
We spent a good part of the time on this call catching up on what was new with us. And from there after we had caught up with what was going on with each other. We started to talk about the adventures or “miss-adventures” of our past times when we traveled to see each other. We talked about the events that we found so funny when I traveled down to his state and when he traveled to New York.
It was a very good time that we had on the phone as we were both in a happy state of bliss recalling all the fun things that we had done while we was together. And actually we had realized that at one point in the conversation that the last time that we did see each other was six years ago. Once we discovered that fact we did kick around the idea of traveling again to see each other. So there might be a good chance that I will travel to see him since I am not working at the moment. It is one of the few benefits of being unemployed, for you do have a lot of free time to play around with.
The memories of six years ago were fun to review once again for it was a different time for us back then. I had a great job that I enjoyed with great hours and pay that I actually enjoyed going to. And my friend had a different job back then that allowed him to use his time with great flexibility to use as he wished. Of course things have changed since back in the days. I have lost the job that I had back then for they had shut down. And my friend lost his job due to budget cuts. But he is working at a different place now and the current economy had not affected his employment. While I have bounced around doing temp work, and then finding a full-time job, only to lose it once the economy went bad.
What a difference a few years can make. At one point he asked me if I had plans for the weekend. And I told him that I was going to get ready after this call to see a friend that I have not seen in a short while. The friend that I was going to see was coming in from New Jersey which is much closer than the state of North Carolina of course. I then told him that we were going to go to the following bars Pieces
http://piecesbar.com/
and the Monster Bar.
http://www.manhattan-monster.com/
Once my friend from North Carolina found this out he gave such a scream of joy and excitement for he was at these two bars when he visited New York. I had taken him there both times when he was up here and we had such a blast. (Besides…You can’t go wrong with four-dollar drinks at Pieces and dancing at the Monster Bar.) My friend told me “Oh… I so wish I was there so that I can go with you. Please have a drink for me when you are there.” I told him I would and of course I did do so once I did get down there.
After the call was done I had a sense of bliss from remembering all the fun things that we did, and I felt that my friend in North Carolina had the same feelings too. I had finally finished getting ready and traveled into Manhattan to meet with my friend that was coming into the city from New Jersey. Once we had met up we also started talking about the last time we was in the bars and caught up on all the good times that we had back then.
After a few hours of “bar hopping” it was time to for us to leave. Actually my friend had to leave for he had to make sure that he caught the last bus at the Port Authority bus terminal
http://www.panynj.gov/bus-terminals/port-authority-bus-terminal.html
leaving to go back to New Jersey.
After my friend left I had stayed at the bar for about another hour and a half before getting on the New York City subway
http://www.mta.info/
to go home. Thank goodness that the subway in New York runs twenty-four hours, seven days a week. For I did not want to spend the extra money to take a cab home to Brooklyn, New York.
While going home I started thinking of all the past memories that I had shared with both of my friends on the phone and in person. And it made me start to wonder once again that I feel that I need to take another trip down south. For the past memories were great. So why not make a new memory to keep and share? My life may not be “perfect” at this moment. But what’s not to stop me from taking a moment in my life and making it a little better? The only thing that is stopping me is myself. So I may just plan a trip down there to see a very good friend and to bring a little joy and happiness into my life and there’s as well. For good memories from the past are just one of the reasons that we keep moving forward.
Luis Castro
