I left work early to drive into the city to pick up Barry, and the two of us continued to the northern suburbs.

A friend of ours, a co-worker from one of our former employers was having a party.

I've known John for a couple of decades. OK, since I started at the company in 1978. Almost the whole time I knew him, he always talked about retiring in 2004. He would be the right age... whatever the pressures du jour on the job would push to hard... he would just mumble "2004... 2004..." and we all knew what he meant.

It was a few years late, but, for John, 2004 had finally come.

Barry and I went back to the building that we worked at... what seems like... a decade(?) ago...

And yet, walking into the building... it felt the same... it felt like a REAL comfortable, familiar jacket, as if wraps around you. The company was hosting a Retirement Party in the Executive Dining Room on the 3rd floor.

We went up the same familiar elevator, walked across the atrium to the dining room...

A small group of people outside the room were gathered around a drink table... maybe one or two looked like someone I used to know...

We went inside the main room and just stopped. John was mingling with people across the room. Most of the people were around the periphery - John was toward the center of the room.

So, when Barry and I turned the corner, John was busy, but everybody in the room could see us turn the corner...

I DISTINCTLY remember hearing an "Oh my god!" from a woman across the room. John may have heard that and started looking around and saw Barry and me and let out a large "ALL RIGHT!!!" and came over to us... of course everyone in the room wanted to know what was going on and we could feel the eyes on us and the whispering going on...

After John bear-hugged us, we talked for a while.

I started looking around the room...

I had been gone 8 years, Barry has been gone a little less...

I was utterly amazed at the number of people still with the company.. UNHEARD OF in this day and age. There were people from "My Class" (people that started the same year as me in 1978) that were still with the company! Barry and I mingled for over an hour, talking to people that we never thought we'd talk to again... let alone see again... in the same building where we worked...

When the party was winding down.... and it was time to leave.... I knew then how much John was pleased to see us...

On the way out... I snuck down to the second floor.. to look at the old department... look at my old office... the same pieces of art still on the walls...

It was so surreal... but I'm glad we were there for our friend...