Big East Tournament going on right now, and Georgetown — I went there — is in the semifinals tonight. Last night on ESPN (I worked there!), some commentator was saying “This is their first Friday or later appearance since 2005,” which is blatantly wrong, as they played on Friday night as recently as 2013 (perhaps even more recently), and they definitely played in the Saturday night finals in 2007, because I was there.
Here’s the basic contextual background to this story, for some pre-context: the 2007 Big East Finals were on March 10, 2007. I was 26, living in Connecticut, working for ESPN. I would leave the Connecticut job that September and work for ESPN in New York City. I think dating-wise, which seems kinda relevant at 26, I had been with a woman in Teach for America, but that ended in September 2005. So I had been single almost two years. Connecticut was odd sledding because I worked nights and weekends. I’m not going to come out and tell you I never went on dates or got laid, because I did (pats self on back), but it wasn’t a very frequent thing.
So I work the morning of March 10, 2007 in Connecticut, then I drive down to NYC around 3pm — it’s about a two-hour drive — and I randomly park on the far-ass west side, like 11th Avenue somewhere. I go over to Stout, which is a bar near Penn Station/MSG, and I meet some Georgetown kids. I’m 26 and life is hot. While a global recession is about eight months away, I haven’t been crushed by corporate reality just yet. (That would come soon-ish.) Plus, this whole Stout vibe is a lot of kids from Georgetown and Pitt (we were playing them), all about 24-30, and there’s much merriment and drinking.
We go to the game, we win, and afterwards we try to get back into Stout again, but it’s a mob scene, so we go to this shitty Irish-type bar across the street. I want to say 31st between 7th and 8th on the south-facing side of the street, but I completely forget the name of this bar 13-14 years later. It was a crew of maybe 12-13 of us — a core 5-6, and some stragglers and add-ons.
Now, I had to work the next morning (Sunday) at 6am in Connecticut, which remember is two hours away. I can leave at 3:55am from this NYC bar and probably make my shift, but that’s not necessarily wise. It’s about 11pm now. I decide to hang out for 2 hours, leave at 1, get to CT around 3, maybe sleep for 2 hours, work.
I’m 26 and think I have the world by the dick, so that plan blows up and I end up staying at the bar till 2:30, leaving, getting to CT at 4:40, and going straight to work. A kid named Kyle Turpin was asleep on the floor of the digital edit center, and I stepped over him as I arrived at work. I remember thinking: “Is this your 20s?”
So, back to the bar in NYC for a second. When I get over there, I started shooting the shit with my friend’s friend from high school. I had met her maybe 3-4 times, maybe 5-10, before that night. If you’re still reading this post and have some context for other posts I’ve written, you may have guessed I am discussing my future wife. No, no, dear reader — not my current wife. She would have been in high school in March 2007. I’m referring to my first, less-than-inspired effort at marriage. This Irish bar was probably the first time I had talked to my future wife for more than 20 minutes. We were basically sitting at the bar bullshitting about whatever as, periodically, people came up behind me and hugged me about Georgetown winning. Then they’d buy me a drink, and I’d drink it for a while, then give it to someone else so I could be sober enough to drive back to Connecticut.
Eventually as I’m in this conversation with my future ex-wife (weird to type), I reveal that I have to leave soon because of work the next morning, so she’s still interested in talking, but this guy Dan (?) comes up on the other side and starts hitting on her. At this point I’ve got maybe 30 until I need to leave — I really needed to leave 1 hour before — so I’m kinda checking out, and Dan is upping the game on the other side. I leave the bar area and go talk to my other friends.
Eventually I leave, get back to work, step over Kyle, etc. I found out later that she went home with Dan, and I believe they had sex, even.
Today is March 12, 2021. I guess that’s almost 14 years to the day after the story I just typed. In those 14 years, here’s what happened to those two people talking about life at that bar:
- Started dating (not until 2009)
- Got married
- Moved three times
- Ended up in Texas
- Got divorced
- I’m now with someone who, yes, would have been a HS senior that night
- Dunno who she’s with
- Unclear what happened to Dan in all this
14 years is a long time, no doubt. It’s almost a decade and a half. It’s birth to 8th grade. But it’s also not that long, and it’s interesting to think back on those two fools in that Irish dive bar, with a path laid out in front of them that wouldn’t end at all how it was “supposed” to (or maybe exactly how it was supposed to).
Life is weird and winding. See also: Butterfly Effect or Unled Lives.
Happy Friday. Go Georgetown.
