I got a major surprise yesterday in the form of a phone call from South Carolina.

I spent 4 years of the late 1980’s in West Germany back when it really was still called West Germany. For a large chunk of that time my best friend was a goofy guy named Dan. If I wasn’t on duty I was out club hopping or eating or just basic chilling out with Dan.

We were inseparable… until I had less than a month left. Rough time. First my now ex-wife betrayed me in the worst imaginable way possible (Free Life Tip- NEVER get married at 19). Then my best bud picked a girl over me when I begged him not to marry her because I knew for certain from knowing her personally for 2+ years that she was crazier than a rat in a tin outhouse.

I ended up getting back on the plane home without speaking to him again.

Until this Sunday. It turns out paying for an “unlisted” number is worth precisely 0. In this case, that’s a good thing as it apparently made me easy to find. My last name is rather distinct, unlike his. So, before when I searched for him I got 100’s of hits. I’m more unique it seems.

We spoke for almost 2 hours. Between the two of us we’ve missed 3 wives, 4 kids, 4 degrees, 3 deployments and a thousand other moments that make up “life” for two guys on the backside of 50.  I’m at that point in my life and my career where an “impromptu trip” has to be scheduled 3 months out, but I’m guessing that me an Danny will be hoisting a pint or two in the very near future.

We’ll talk sports, politics, family life, those people that one of us won’t remember and those times when we both utterly failed to hit it off with every Fraulein in a disco and ended up sitting on the bridge drinking beer and eating grilled chicken wrapped in a newspaper, just enjoying being young and hopelessly stupid about practically everything.

Plus… I’ll finally get to give my old friend an “I TOLD YOU SO” 30+ years in the making. I told him that girl was crazy…