Rewinding the clock with old friends
My favorite thing about coming back to North Carolina, aside from family and higher on the list than sweet tea, is getting to meet up with longtime friends. I’ve known Naman, Mike, and Nader since early in high school, and even though Naman did his undergrad at Chapel Hill, the three of us have stayed close. It helps, of course, than Naman and Nader live three houses apart in the same neighborhood as me.
This time around I didn’t enter the wake-up-at-12pm trap; mornings and the day would be spent with the family, doing errands around the house, shopping outside, enjoying Mom’s mouthwatering food, etc. One time we even made frozen margaritas, especially requested by Mom. Who would have seen this coming just a year ago. In the evenings though, after dinner, we’d get together with friends.
One person’s late night hunger led the four of us to the Waffle House near NC State (take that, In-N-Out burger). We’ve never been the clubbing or let’s-go-to-a-bar-and-get-hammered group. Instead, what we like is just talking about big ideas, silly things, and directing deprecating verbal jabs around the table. Yeah, that probably pegs us as nerds (the waitress said at one point that we sounded ‘smart’), but that’s how we roll.
Sometimes Sachi and Sapana would tag along, and Pavak (Naman’s brother) would be there too. The more the merrier!
This time around health policy, infectious diseases, and economic bailouts. Of course, funny cat videos on YouTube nearly always took precedence.Typically we’d go on for hours, the group groggily disbanding at three in the morning back to our respective homes.