hangin' with an old/new friend...

A couple weekends ago I got to hang out with kind of an old friend who has recently become a better friend. So, he's kind of an old/new friend... I'll explain in a minute
Anyway, a couple Fridays ago, Ryan was coming from Dallas to the Charlotte airport. He hung around Charlotte for the day before driving to his next destination.

I actually wrote about him/his blog HERE too if you care to read it.
We have had very similar spiritual journeys but in different ways. We went to the same crazy college and found our ways out of that movement despite a lot of opposition. At the end of our college careers we were both labeled "liberals" by our peers. (he is older than me)
We were "friends" in college but definitely never really hung out a lot. Honestly, we are way better friends now through the awesome world of social media (blogging, twitter, facebook, etc...) Pretty crazy how that works out. We reconnected maybe 1-2 years ago? & now we keep up with each other often.

Anyway, it was definitely cool to hang out & talk live with this old/new friend. We hit up some Cabo Fish Taco in NoDa (one of me & Crystal's fav places to eat) - greatest fish tacos on the planet, even if you don't like fish tacos. & definitely a cool vibe. Later we shot some pool and swapped stories. I think I wasted him in pool. (I can't really remember. Neither of us were really on our game.) & then we hung out at the Starbucks uptown & just talked for a few hours.

It was good times. We have similar stories/journeys & both came from the same place.
*So, the coolest part is that there is no explanation of our past/background that has to go before conversations! It's a given. We both already know exactly what the other's experience was like. Therefore we could jump right to the good stuff. (Unless you went to the same college as us you really have no idea what I'm talking about & have no context for what I'm saying.)
We talked about some pretty intense life stuff. There was a cool honesty & authenticity for sure. He recommended a book that I actually picked up & read a week later by Henri Nouwen -> The Life of the Beloved. Not exactly what I was thinking it would be, but definitely a good read and a spiritually emotional one. (Maybe I'll post some takeaways at some point... along with like 50 other books if I ever get around to it.)

& now I would send you to Ryan's blog, but he has stopped blogging. he's "hibernating" as he calls it. but then of course he jumped back in with another blog post. So... not sure if he's back or hibernating again? Anyway, lots of good stuff on there if you want to scroll back through his past posts. You can see his blog HERE.

as nice as it is to live in a world now where no one knows where I went to college (and even if I tell them they've never heard of it...) - it's always pretty cool to hang out with similar-passioned guys who are from the same place as me... like Ryan (& these guys too).