My good friend Aimie and I recently met up with an old high school acquaintance of ours named Nathan. Nathan treated both of us and countless others pretty badly when we were younger. He was an asshole, a big jerk who bullied the boys and harassed the girls. He used to come up and act as if he was going to punch you, he wouldn’t and then said, “Two for flinching” and punch you twice really hard.

There was one boy who for the entire half of 7th grade wore a black and blue mark on his right shoulder; he was a favorite target of Nathan. I managed to dodge Nathan by keeping a look out for him and cutting class or taking alternate routes to the bus at the end of the day. I still got my fair share of torment that stuck with me for a long time. Those years were awful for me and he was 65% of the problem.

As I write this I remember that Nathan had done this to Aimie in some twisted courtship. When her mom saw the punishment for flinching she called in the police thus introducing all of us to the chief of police for our city.

The police chief turned out to be a very good friend of my family. My parents would often make him dinner when he would come round looking for me or to tell mom and dad of my most recent criminal endeavors.

At any rate, Aimie had seen Nathan out and began to speak to him socially. At first I was mad that she would even look in his direction, but then remembered that was long ago and he might have changed, maybe, Aimie said he had and I trust her opinion.

All things aside, I’ve come pretty far from the little blue-haired pothead in high school. I wanted to meet him and show off a bit, but also secretly desired an apology. I had forgiven him, I really had, but it still does not excuse him from what he did. He apologized, very sincerely I might add, and we caught up on our years past. We talked about where we ended up, where we lived and what we were doing for a living. I spent a good 15 minutes talking to him about that one. So all in all it was nice to tie up that loose end. We finished our Amarone, gave him a hug, shook his hand and wished him well.

A toast to forgiveness and making amends in the New Year!

Every year a part of one side of my family gets together for the annual X-mas Eve dinner at my aunt’s house. It used to be much larger, but as cousins acquired their own families the numbers lessened. Such is life and we move on.

My mother prepares two dishes every year for the feast. The first, Cioppino is a fish stew similar to Manhattan style chowder minus the potatoes. Then we have the Eggplant Rollatini. This is quite a labor intensive dish:

Eggplant is thinly sliced, dipped in an egg wash then dredged in bread crumbs. In a single layer the filets are spread on a baking sheet and broiled until both sides are brown. This requires the utmost attention as nothing can be done while the eggplant is under the broiler; a second too long can result in disaster (and a subsequent broken knee cap). The usual punishment for messing with the food is both knee caps are smashed, but then how am I supposed to carry the Cioppino downstairs? With great care I broiled all the filets while eating breakfast; a very risky maneuver. Next the filets are rolled around a mixture of cheese and herbs, placed in a shallow pool of sauce in a 9×13 casserole pan and covered with foil until needed for the final warm up. Tradition is always more meaningful when it’s delicious!

Today I was having some trouble deciding what to write about. I could have written another drunk-a-log, or maybe a funny story that I had in the trenches of my memory; however, I was feeling a little humorless and tired. Thankfully my good pal Rita from Philly wrote in. Most of the regular readers will remember her from her lovely birthday greeting to me this year. Anyway she told me about how this year she was without a tree due to the refurbishing of her place. She sent along a photo of her tree from last year and asked if I could pick out her favorite present. I must say that was a first. Thanks for sharing Rita, you brightened my week! Enjoy 2007, my friend. And give a big “Hello” to Jim for me!