Jammin'

I had the opportunity to play my guitar and sing with some friends tonight, which was great.

Everyone loves a party. But for me, the best part of the party is at the end, when almost everyone is gone, and it's just the last few die-hards hanging out, picking at the food, finishing off the keg (or switching to water), listening to music and just basking in the good feeling that comes at the end of a successful party.

This particular party was a family pool party. I had brought Middle along with me, and when people started to clear out, I got ready to leave with him as well.

But my positively lovely friend and hostess had just started singing (her very talented nephew had brought out his guitar) and I had joined her and we were having such a good time, she had asked me to stay.

Middle had wandered off, nunchukau in hand (his default activity). He was waiting patiently for me to take him home now that most of the other kids were gone. Savageman was home with a sick Little and needed me to run some errands. But he didn't mind if I went back.

After all, we only live 5 minutes away. I ran to the store, picked up the Teen at the movies, took him and Middle home, then grabbed my guitar and returned for the mellowing-out phase of the party.

Best. Time.

We sang, we laughed, we bonded. We cleaned up a bit then went back to playing and listening to more music. I was amazed by the amount of combined brain space the two of us had devoted to the song lyrics of multiple decades. We were hanging out with the neighbor who was born around the time we were graduating from high school, but I don't think either of us felt old at all.

Nights like this make me feel like I'm still in college - although I never had nights like this in college.

Nights like this at 41 are just as good.